250 PROTECTION1 OR FREE TRADE.
Here is an item which I take from the papers as I write. I do not take it because equally striking items are rare, but because I find a comment on it which I would also like to quote:
' STARVED TO DEATH IN OHIO.
4''DAYTON, 0., August 26.—One of the most horrible deaths that ever occurred in a civilized community was that of Frank Waltz-man, which happened in this city yesterday morning. He has seven children and a wife, and was once a prominent citizen of Xenia, 0. He tried his hand at any kind of business where he could find opportunity, and finally was compelled to shovel gravel to get a crust for his children. He worked at this all last week, and on Saturday night was brought home in a wagon, unable to walk. This morning he was dead. An investigation of the affair established the fact that the man had starved to death. The family had been without food for nearly two weeks. His wife tells a horrible story of his death, saying that while he lay dying his children surrounded his couch and sobbed piteously for bread."
And here is the typical comment which the New York Tribune, shocked for a moment out of its attempt to convince working-men that the tariff has improved their condition, makes upon this item :
"STAKVED TO DEATH.
" The Tribune, Tuesday, laid before its readers a very sad story of death by literal starvation, at Dayton, O. The details of this case . must have struck many thoughtful persons as more resembling the catastrophes we are accustomed to regard as appertaining to European life than those indigenous here. The story is old enough in general outline. First, a merchant, prospering ; then decline of business, bankruptcy, and by degrees destitution, until pride and shame together brought on the culminating disaster. A few years ago it would have been said that such a fact was impossible in America, and certainly there was a time when no one with power and will to work need have starved in any part of this country. During that period, too, the strong elasticity and recuperative power oC Americans were the world's wonder. No man thought much of failure in business. The demand for enterprise of all