Crawfordsville Weekly Journal, Crawfordsville, Montgomery County, 15 October 1892 — Page 8

guishing feature of modern progress,

she was the foremost nation in the

world. But at that point she found

herself cramped by the narrowness of

her territory, her supplies and her

market. All she needed in order to

stimulate her'productive forces to their

best was more room. And in securing

this bv the adoption of a free-trade

policy she took the course which, in my

opinion, offered the greatest possible

inducement to her people, as a whole,

to exert their energies to the utmost,

each in his own craft or occupation, to

subdue the earth. As applied to En­

gland, therefore, the principles which I

have laid down lead logically to free

trade as the better policy.

Tim UNITED STATES

In striking contrast is the situation

of the people of the United States today. We have resources within our­

selves which England h^d not, and we

have no such advantages as she had in

a free-for-all race of commercial com­

petition. So diverse are these condi­

tions of time and circumstance that the

very advantages, which England se­

cured by free trade can be secured bet­

ter now and here by protection.

Occupied and used to the best advan­

tage the United States is abetter world

within itself for the working out of

human destiny than the big world at its

average, or any other part of it at its

best. The things which directly pro­

mote the advance of society in wealth

are education, invention, subdivision,

specialization and organization of

labor interchange of products and

liberal rewards to exertion. All these

we can have, and have now within

and among ourselves in higher degree

than any other nation. We are apt

pupils in all studies, arts and crafts.

We surpass the world in invention.

We have ample supplies of all the

original materials on which human labor

is expended—coal, stone, metallic ores,

fibers and timber. We are in sight of

a hundred millions in population. We

can subdivide industry among our­

selves to any degree of minuteness,

and we can mass armies of workers

•:,wherever armies are needed for the most

victorious results. We grow every val­

uable product of the soil known outside

the tropics. The extent of our country

and the variety of our climate enable

us to secure by domestic exchanges

most of the advantages which other

nations seek in foreign commerce. We

have within our own borders the best

market in the world for every production of industry. We live under civil

Institutions which secure to every man

the enjoyment of the fruits of his labor

and open the doors of advancement to the humblest citizen.

These are the conditions which tend

..to stimulate human exertion to its

^highest activity and make its efforts

.most effective. They havo had that

..effect in our experience. We work

harder, produce more, consume more

.and move on faster than any other

people. And why may we not continue

in the path of that progress indefinitely,

and among ourselves and within our

own borders cultivate every art and

every industry with such increasing

skill and success that we shall lead the

van forever in that march of conquest

over the forces of nature which is the high destiny of the race?

MARKETS.

The commonest answer to such a

suggestion is, that for this ideal devel­

opment of industry we must have a

y"\vider market for our products than our

own land affords, and that to secure

this we must have free commercial in­

tercourse with the world. No doubt

our home market, great as it is, is not

sufficient to absorb all that we can pro­

duce of all things. But neither is the

market of the whole world able to ab­

sorb all that the whole world can pro­

duce. Labor-saving invention has out-

:run consumption in its possibilities. At

the same time the market follows,

growing by what it feeds on. Invention

cheapens production ".cheapened produc­

tion increases consumption increased

consumption stimulates more invention,

and so on, round and round, to an end

("which no one can foresee. Who knows

that chairs will not he made for five

Vcents apiece, and bedsteads for twentv-

five cents, before this generation shall

pass awav Why may not the boys

sof to-day live to enjoy twice the house

sroom, furniture, clothing, books, travel

and good things generally which their

fathers know Some increase in their

share of the general income on one

side, and some decrease in the cost of

production on the other is all that is

necessary to bring it about.

The truth here touched is of exceed­

ing importance. How to find a market

for all that human hands are now readv

to produce is, in one sense, the great

economic problem of the age. It is not

to be solved by any simple process of

finding more buyers. All seas have

been sailed in that search. It is to be

solved by enabling present buyers to

buy more. Good living by the masses

is the foundation of a good market and

better living by the masses is the one

condition of its growth. To this con­

dition all the world and every part of it

must submit.

And in no part of the world is this

condition so fully met as in the United

States. Every civilized nation is an

industrial partnership among whose

members circumstance and custom es­

tablish definite rights and relations.

In the American partnership the body

of the partners receive larger profits

than are divided by any other firm.

The American workingman's share of

the common income is a better home,

better clothes, better food, and more of

all the comforts of life than are enjoved

by the workingman of any other coun­

try. And, what is vastly more impor­

tant, no other workingman is so deter­

mined to better his condition, or so

able to carry out that determination.

The general unrest, the labor unions,

the farmers' organizations, the conflicts

that occur here and there, are taken by

some to portend dire disasters to societv.

On the contrary, they are the throes of

a new birth into abetter order of things.

The working members of the great

American partnership, in field and shop

and car, are fighting for a larger share

of the profits of the firm business. Not

that they are so badly off now. They

are, in fact, better off to-day than they ever were before. But that does not

suffice. They want to be as well off as

they can be, and they believe that in a fair division of the profits of all labor

among all laborers, they are entitled to

more than they are getting.

We can imagine a condition of things

in which every industrious householder

would have in his home a separate room

neatly furnished for each member of

his family, a piano in the parlor, a

hundred volumes in the book-case, and

other things to match. What a market

would be afforded by a hundred millions

of people living in that style. And

wild as such a dream seems, why ma}-

it not be realized The natural forces

and materials necessary for its accom­

plishment are present in abundance. To

transform them to our use is but a

question of skill and labor. And that,

in turn, is but a question of invention,

organization and fair division. In or­

der to bring about such a change the

things which are consumed must be­

come relatively cheaper, and the wages

of producers relativeh* higher. But both

those things are possible they are both

in progress now, and no one can say where they must stop.

This struggle of the masses for a

better living is going on and will con­

tinue to go on in the United States under

more favorable auspices than anywhere

else. It is supported by the superior

intelligence, courage and resource

which the habits of freemen have bred in

them. It is supported by an all-power­

ful public opinion that in a free country

every citizen should have within his

reach the comforts of a home and means

to bring up a family fit to succeed him

in the responsibilities of citizenship.

And more than all, it is supported by

the workingman's ballot. With these

forces behind nothing can prevent its continuous advance.

As to markets, therefore, we are in

this situation. We have abetter home

market now than any other nation, and

one bound to grow faster than that of

any other nation and one, furthermore,

which is better in both ot these respects

than the markets of the world at large

compared with the production of the

world at large. I shall speak at length of

foreign markets in another connection. I

am confining'myself now to the essential

conditions of our situation within our­

selves and I say that our own market is

the best market the world has, or has

ever seen, because it rests upon the div­

ersified warns of a great and rapidly in­

creasing population distributed over a

wide country who consume more things

of mo|"e kinds than any other people,

and whose desires, and whose deter-

•**"s

CT

JF^ '&

mination and ability to gratify those de­

sires are growing faster than the desires

and abilities of any other people.^.

BALANCE OF INDUSTRIES.,

With these unrivaled opportunities

only one thing is wanting to make our

economic situation one of ideal perfec­

tion, and that is, a normal balance of

industries. If enough of us will engage

in agriculture to supplj- all the others

with food and the materials for other

uses which are produced from the soil,

and enough of us in mining to supply

all the others with coal and metals, and

enough of us in manufacturing to supply

all the others with goods, and enough

of us in transportation to maintain

commerce for all of us, and enough of

us in merchandizing to distribute our

supplies among us, and so on, round the

great circle of employments which com­

plete the intricate system of modern

business, we have it in our power to be

the most independentlj- prosperous na­

tion the world ever had, or has, or can

have.

r.

AGRICULTURE.

All this we are very nearly doing

now. In only one respect do we fall far

short of it: too large a proportion of us

are engaged in agriculture. That branch

of industry produces a surplus for which

we have to hunt a market abroad in

competition with the farmers of all

lands. But that defect in our organiza­

tion will soon disappear. We have no

second Mississippi valley or Pacific

slope. Our fertile and easily cultivated lands are substantially occupied. Hence­

forth the rate of increase in agricultural

production is bound to fall off, while

our food consuming population will

continue to grow. Within a few years

the farmers of the United States will

have all they can do to feed the people of their own country.

ECONOMY OF THIS ADJUSTMENT. SUt

As a result of this adjustment we are

practicing a highly profitable economy in the supply of our wants. Most of

our food is produced near where it is

eaten. Our great factories cluster about

their sources of supply of fuel or mater­

ial. Even the cotton mills so long an­

chored in New England are drifting

toward the white fields of the South.

Our minor manufactures are scattered

throughout the land, filling it witli lit­

tle cities, each a center of business,

educational, social and literary activity,

a market for the products of the coun­

try round about, and a constant stimulus

to its life and progress. By miracles

of invention we have reduced nearly all

labor to the manipulation of machinery.

Even the leg-and-hand labor of the

farm, which for generations was sup­

posed to be beyond the reach of relief

by machinery has been lightened and

diminished. A farmer can now ride

his plow, his harrow, his seed drill, his

cultivator, his mower, his rake, and his

reaper. Husking corn and picking cot­

ton are the only great operations of the

farm done by hand, and for both of

these experimental machines are on

trial, and it is only a question of a few

years until they will be in successful

operation.

Wonderful as these results appear,

they are only the beginning of the end.

Invention lies at the bottom of all of them, and was never more active than

now. The whole number of patents

issued by the Government prior to 1S60

was only 26,6m now they are issued at

the rate of more than 20,000 a year.

Of course, many of these are for trivial

and unimportant inventions, but many

others represent as splendid triumphs

of genius as any that have gone before.

Every machine we use—our steam en­

gines, cars, looms, printing-presses,

farm implements—everything, big and

little, is in a state of unending improve­

ment. A loom is one of the oldest of

machines, and has been brought to such

perfection that one would think its fur­

ther improvement impossible and vet

an invention came to my knowledge

recently which promises to reduce the

little hand labor now required in weav­

ing by twenty per cent, or more.

THE FRUITS.

We are gathering the fruits of all this

in the homes and lives of the people.

Every want of the body and of the

mind is better supplied among the popu­

lation at large of the United States

than anywhere else. No other people

eat such abundant, varied and excellent

food, dress as well, or have as ample

and comfortable homes. In schools,

colleges, books, papers, and all the

means of education and intellectual

growth and enjoyment no other nation

is so well supplied. The American boy

has a wider choice of occupations than

any other .boy born in the world, and

while the American girl is confined to

a narrower field than her brother, her

opportunities, as compared with those

of other girls in the world, are even

more remarkable than his. Nor is this

the result of social customs merely, or

political freedom it is a consequence

of our universal subjugation of the

forces of nature. We have more ma­

chines that a woman can handle than

any other nation. We have made

steam her servant, and taught the tamed

lightning to take orders from a girl.

AMERICAN CONDITIONS.

These are the conditions of life, busi­

ness and society in the United States

in the year of our Lord 1S92. They'

embrace every element and circum­

stance favorable to the largest development of man's dominion over the

world he lives in, and they justify the

remark already made that the United

States is a better world within itself

for the working out of the highest

human destiny than the big world at its

average, or any other part of it at its

best. They exhibit sixty-three millions

of people occupying the fairest heritage

of the earth, and subduing it, and'all

the materials and forces in, on and over

it with a rapidity, completeness and

splendor unapproached in the history

of the race. They exhibit the most

perfect industrial organization ever

seen, embracing within itself, with only

insignificant exceptions, every useful

art known among men. They exhibit

a nation so independent in its resources

that it could go on in its pathway of

growth and prosperity though every

other nation should perish, and every

other land go down in the sea. They

exhibit a people so inventive, so cour­

ageous, so progressive that all that

which they have accomplished in the

past is only the promise of a still more

splendid future. THE CONTRAST.

How different our situation from that

of England when she exchanged the

protective for the free-trading policy.

She was cramped in territory we are

not. She could not feed her people

from her own soil we can. She

could not furnish herself with the

materials of industry we can. She

had no sufficient home market for the

products of her labor we have. Re­

turning to the fundamental proposition

of this argument, that the commercial

policy best for any nation is that which

will, then and there, secure to its peo­

ple the best opportunity and the strong­

est inducements to pursue with effect

those studies, arts and occupations

which lead to the subjugation of the"

forces of nature to the service of man,

does it not lead us with irresistible

logic to the conclusion that if it was

wise in England to adopt free trade it

is wiser in us to adhere to protection.

The room for enterprise which she

sought abroad we have at home the

food which she sought abroad we have

at home the materials for industry

which she sought abroad we have at.

home the markets which she sought

abroad we have at home.

POLICY OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

In the face of the unparalleled pro­

gress of the United States under a

policy of protection for thirty years

past, during which period we have

forged ahead in invention, wealth, art,

science, and every element of prosper­

ity at a rate to break all former records,

the Democratic party has deliberately

and firmly resolved to take the back

track. It has announced to the world

as the chief article of its creed that

protection, in every form and guise, is

unconstitutional. It solemnly pledges

itself, if placed in power, to repeal the

McKinley tariff—not to modify, amend

or reduce it, but to repeal it, and leave

American industry naked and shiver­

ing in the northeast wind of British

free trade. In the exultant language

of the New York Post, it has cast out the old protection devil at once and

forever. On this platform Grover

Cleveland is again offered as a candi­

date. We have reason to know him

well. He is a man of purposes, and I

do him the honor to believe-that if he

is put on the engine with instructions

to do it, he will reverse the lever if it

throws the train off the track.

Now, upon a party which proposes

such a right-about-face in the com-

mercial policy of a great country al-

reiidy so happy and prosperous, there

rests a tremendous burden of proof to

demonstrate by the clearest evidence

that the proposed change will be for

the better. The old Indian's epitaph has

a lesson for such a time—" I was well

I thought to be better I took medi­

cine, and here I am." And this re­

sponsibility is at this time a particularly

grave one for the intelligent Democrats

of those States where the battle will be

close. The Republican party is propos­

ing no'new thing. It stands by a pol­

icy which we have tested for thirty

years. That way we know is safe.

Granting that there may possibly lie a

better one, we still know that there is a

safe one. The Democratic party is

proposing a fundamental and far-reach­

ing change. It is no low tariff, such as

we have had at several periods in our

history (and always to our great loss),

but the total extirpation of the princi­

ple of protection from our laws. It is

to take all the hazards of a system

which we have never tried for an hour,

and which is diametrically opposed to

that under which we have attained our

greatest prosperity and glory. And in

the decision of this momentous issue

the final, actual responsibility touches

nowhere else so closely as 011 those

Democrats in the contested States

whose intelligence, business interests and means of information make them

competent judges of the question,

FRF E-TRADE ARGUMENTS.

What, then, are the arguments upon

which the Democratic party presents its

case to the people? They may be summed

up as follows first, a naked denial of

the power of the Government to pass

protective laws second, that protection

benefits the few at the expense of the

many third, cheap goods fourth, for­

eign markets fifth, the existence of

various evils in society, which, it is as­

sumed, would be remedied by free trade.

The first is expressed in the Chicago

platform in these words: "The Fed­

eral Government has no constitutional

power to impose and collect tariff duties

except for the purposes of revenue only."

In answer to which I say, (i) There is

no provision in the Constitution which

denies that power to Congress (2) jurisdiction over the subject of foreign

commerce is expressly given to Con­

gress by the Constitution, and denied to

the States (3) if Congress has not the

power to protect American industry,

that power does not exist anywhere (4)

the existence of that power in Congress

has been recognized by every depart­

ment of the Government from the be­

ginning of its existence—by the first

Congress, by all the early, great Presi­

dents—Washington, Madison, Jefferson,

Jackson, and by the Supreme Court

over and over. A man holds his right

to buy and sell just as he holds all other rights—subject to such restraint and

regulation by law as the highest good

of society ma}- require. Reason, prece­

dent and usage, the world round for

centuries establish this principle on as

firm grounds as exist in the law. I

imagine that if Marshall Field should

establish a mammoth store a mile out­

side the city limits, and fill the streets

of Fort Wayne with his runners and

wagons scot free of rent and taxes, the

Democratic merchants of the citv would

not hesitate long to appiv to the com­

mon council for protection, and that no

one would deny the right of thut bodv

to extend it.

THE ROHI1ER ltARONS.

The Chicago platform says

"We denounce the Republican policy of protection as a fraud on the labor of the great majority of the American people for the benefit of the few."

Mr. Cleveland, in his speech of ac­

ceptance said

"Turning our eyes to the plain people of the land, we see them burdened as consumers with a tariff system that unjustly and relentlessly demands from them in the purchases of the necessaries and comforts of life an amount scarcely met by the wages of hard and steadV toil, while the exactions thus wrung from them build up and increase the fortunes of those for whose benefit this injustice is perpetuated. We insist that no plan of tariff legislation shall be tolerated which has for its object and purpose a forced contribution from the earnings of the masses of our citizens to swell directly the accumulations of a favored few nor will we permit prudent solicitude for American labor or any other specious pretext of benevolent care for others to blind the eves of the people to the selfish schemes of those who seek, through the aid of unequal tariff laws, to gain unearned advantages at the expense of their fellows."