In the book, SHAMS; OR UNCLE BEN'S EXPERIENCE WITH HYPOCRITES by Benjamin Morgan (1899), the following political debate was fictionalized:
For free trade --
"it is contrary to divine law and judgment to put an embargo on everything we want to buy of (sic) our neighbors, whether they live on the farm that joins us, or over in England, France, Turkey, Russia or China, or any other part of the world; we have no right to say others shouldn't sell their goods at any price they was a mind to, or giv'em to us if they wanted to. ... We ought to get everything we want at the very lowest price that competing markets can offer, without being restricted by enormous tariffs that are gotten up in the interest of greedy capitalist and soulless millionaires, etc"
Against free trade --
"shiftless, lazy and profligate people were the ones that make the most noise about elections, and complained the most about monopolies and rich men. --- nearly all the rich men of our country were born poor, and worked their way up in the world, that industry and frugality were principal elements of their success. --- that there was no country on the globe where honest labor received such high recognition, where the wage earner received so much for his labor, and where the way was open to a fortune for him, as in this country."
A century later, and free-traders are still wooing the voters with the offer "belly up to the bar for a free lunch".
Perhaps it would be helpful to revisit P. T. Barnum's Rules to business success. ---
ABOUT Joe Wortham