In spite of the storm, a large audience assembled in Sever 11 last night to hear the strongest argument for free trade that has been made here for some time. The lecturer, Rev. John G. Brooks of Brockton, said that the argument that a high tariff raises wages is entirely untenable, and that private self-interest, not anxiety about the condition of the laborer, was the real motive of the protectionist. The general average of wages is entirely unaffected by protection, since the rate of wages depends only on the amount produced by the laborer. It is said that when wages are 35 cents a day in Germany and $1.50 here, without a tariff we should be undersold by pauper labor. But time wages are of no importance. The question is, which labor is cheapest for the manufacturer? Statistics show that the highest wages are the cheapest, and that low wages are the most expensive. A shoe which costs the employer 38 cents here costs the German manufacturer 80 cents, owing to the difference in the skill of the laborer. A maker of gunny-bags here found that he could compete with the maker in India who only paid 12 cents a day for wages. He said further that if he could get his raw materials free, he could send his goods to India and drive the manufacturer there out of business by underselling him. Mr. Brooks once gave the facts of the tax on Chilian copper to some working men, and let them work out the results. They soon came to him and said that the tax had diminished our exports to Chili by four-fifths, and that a number of laborers, who had formerly made the exported articles, were thrown out of employment. Owing to the excellence of our soil and machinery, 80 percent, of our products are out of the reach of foreign competition, and with free raw materials probably 90 per cent. would be in the same situation. When England became a free trade country, the same argument that is now brought forward was advanced, namely, that the country would be flooded with the products of the cheaper labor of the continent, and that her manufactures would be destroyed. In spite of this, England is now the greatest manufacturing country in the world, and wages have risen instead of being lowered by competition with pauper labor. The working men are just beginning to find out who pays the import taxes; they know that their house rent is increased to enrich the lumber merchants of Maine, and that the limitation of the market by protection strengthens the "trusts" which have closed factories and thrown the workmen out of employment. One of the greatest dangers of our times is the growing tendency of the laborers to look to the State for aid, as they see no reason why laws should not be made to favor them as the tariff does the manufacturer, and this must be checked if we wish to preserve our country from socialism.