FREETRADE v. PROTECTION.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1905, 2 April 1880, Page 3

FREETRADE v. PROTECTION.

At a recent meeting of the Sydney Trades and Labor Council the following letter was read from Mr Henry Sroadhurst, Secretary to the Trades Union Conference of London, dated 20th January last:—“ I congratulate the Australian trades on the success of their first congress. It appears to me that your wants are very similar to our own, and I heartily wish you success in the work. I regretted to road the speeches of some of the delegates. I think Mr Dooley spoke on unreliable evidence when he said that some countries who had adopted free trade were about to abandon it. I hope he is not led away by the cry for reciprocity, of which he may read in the London papers. There is not a man connected with the movement that has a political reputation or position worth defending or losing. My opinion is that no class suffers so much from a policy of protection as the working class in the winter, and where it prevails. I was about to discuss the subject, but cannot do so in a letter of this kind; but to put it shortly I will say this, that any man who has thoroughly examined the subject all round, and given himself time to get rid of prejudice on the question, is either a knave or something else, if he then attempts to maintain the policy of protection.**