Henry George: That Those Who Advocate Any Extension of Freedom Choose to Go No Further than Suits Their Own Special Purpose is No Reason Why Freedom Itself Should Be Distrusted.

When we consider that [labor] is the producer of all wealth, is it not evident that the impoverishment and dependence of [labor] are abnormal conditions resulting from restrictions and usurpations, and that instead of accepting protection, what [labor] should demand is freedom? That those who advocate any extension of freedom choose to go no further than suits their own special purpose is no reason why freedom itself should be distrusted. For years it was held that the assertion of our Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with unalienable rights, applied only to white men. But this in nowise vitiated the principle. Nor does it vitiate the principle that it is still held to apply only to political rights.   And so, that freedom of trade has been advocated by those who have no sympathy with [labor] should not prejudice us against it. Can the road to the industrial emancipation of the masses be any other than that of freedom?

Henry George, Protection or Free Trade.

Note: Henry George idiosyncratically substituted “endeavored” wherever “labor” would normally appear, going so far as to use “eendeavoredate” in place of “elaborate,” for example. I have reversed this for clarity.