Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 April 1902 — STIRRING KEYNOTE [ARTICLE]

STIRRING KEYNOTE

Senator Beveridge Addresses the Republicans of the Hoosier State.

A VIVID STORY OF PROGRESS

Words Well Fit to Inspire the First Convention of the First Campaign of the Twentieth Century—America’s Glorious Onward March. Indianapolis, April 23. —In addressing the Republican state convention, aseembled here for a two-days’ session today, Hon. Albert J. Beveridge, permanent chairman, said in part: Fellow Republicans: This is the first convention of the first campaign of the 20th century. Let our declarations be worthy of the hour. The American people are abreast of the times; the Republican party must keep abreast of the American people. Party victories, as such, are nothing; the progress of the American people is everything. Harmony with the onward movement of the nation makes a. party invicible. Opposition to the progress of the republic means deserved defeat. And so it is that Issues are not invented by men. Issues are ordained by events.

Consider how this truth has worked In the century that has passed. The original states were reluctant to yield their sovereignty to the nation. But the people needed the nation. And in epite of opposition whose fierceness we cannot realize today, the constitution was adopted and the nation was ordained. Then the people required Internal improvements by the national government. And although Madison declared that the constitution denied this power to the republic’s government; although that issue entered into Strenuous political campaigns, the federal government assumed the power which the nation’s needs demanded. Jefferson said that the nation’s government could not constitutionally acquire the territory of Louisiana; Quincy of Massachusetts asserted in congress that its purchase actually “dissolved the Union.” But the common thought of the American people said: *‘The mouth of the Mississippi, aye, and this whole continent, must be ours.” And in spite of the anti-im-perialism of that day, in spite of his •own denial of power, Jefferson bought It; and that territory is now the heart ■of the republic. The power to tax imports, except for revenue, was denied. But the determination of the American people to supply themselves with all that America herself could furnish demanded a tariff that would protect American industries until they were beyond foreign competition. And in spite of the continuous resistance of disbelievers in American resourcefulness, protection was established. And our tariff will be successfully changed only by the party that made it. So we see that from the foundation of the government the natural movement of natural forces has dictated platforms and won campaigns; and politicians, statesmen, parties have triumphed or gone down as they have Interpreted or opposed those eternal powers. What then is the movement of those natural forces today? In our internal commerce and industry it is toward co-operation and combination. This is only another way of saying that civilization is progressing Originally It was each man for himself. Then came business partnerships. Then a time came when a partnership was no longer strong enough to transact the larger business demanded by Increasing civilization, and Joint stock companies became a necessity of the commercial world. Labor obeyed the natural law of combination and workingmen's organization became, and are today when wisely directed, a might force for good; workingmen are abler, nobler, more selfrespecting.

Statistics Concerning Trusts. Just as the law of co-operation developed In the labor world, so It has developed in the world of capital out cf natural conditions and the necessities of the people. For example: The farmer ships his grain to distant points hundreds, thousands of miles •way. He needs cheap rates and quick dispatch. Short and separate lines of -railroad were inconvenient, highpriced, unsafe and slow. The business man required his mail by the swiftest means; delay of a day, an hour, may mean disaster. Thus transportation men found that their profit lay In meeting the necessities of the producing and the business world. Here in Indiana segregated roads were consolidated into the "Big Four” lines. The old “J. M. & 1,.” “Vincennes” and •Vandalia” were absorbed by the Pennsylvania. What followed? Improved service, Increased employment of labor, higher wages, regular pay, reduced rates on freight, lower fares for travel, directness, speed and safely* Or take railway employment -throughout the whole republic: In 1890 less than 750,000 men were employed by American railways, receiving a little over $400,000,000 In salaries ■and wages every year. In 1900 nearly 1,200,000 men were employed by railroads, and were paid nearly $580,000,COO every year. This Increase was not -caused by new railways, because to«lay there are nearly 800,000 more men by railways than were employed in 1897, and are paid nearly 1120,000,000 more every year than they Were paid in 1897; and since then not

enough new railways have been built to employ in operation 75,000 men. i Steel Trust as an Illustration. Or take a manufacturing corporation as an illustration—the Steel Trust. It employs over 20,000 more laboring meu now than the total number employed by all the establishments which were consolidated into this single company. The Steel Trust today employs more than 150,000 laborers and pays them more than $105,000,000 every year in wages, not including officers and salaries. The average wage to each laborer is 20 per cent larger than before consolidation, and aggregate wages are over 40 per cent greater than before. Another illustration: { Less than a generation ago farmers bought their wagons from numberless , blacksmith shops and paid $l2O for ! each wagon. The farmer’s business ■ increased, roads multiplied, more wagj ons are required. Natural conditions I made wagon-making a specialized and ’ consolidated industry. And today the enormous establishment of the Studebakers is one of the glories of our ! state and nation. It has not destroyed i the little blacksmith shops, which are now more numerous than ever; and yet it has given to the millions of users i of wagons perfect wagons at $60 — half the old-time price. When most of the men of this" convention were farmer boys, plows were made at the village blacksmith shop. In comparison with the finished instrument of agriculture which the Oliver Chilled Plow works turn out today, our boyhood plows were crude, heavy and expensive. Did these organizations cause all this progress? No, the American people, with powers unfettered, caused it; and industrial and commercial organization is only one of the people’s methods of progress. And now the opposition proposes the destruction of those agencies of the people’s developing energies. That program of destruction the opposition proposes to | make one of its issues in this cam- i palgn. It is the policy of disaster. I I True statesmanship says: ‘‘Hands off ! of the activities of the American peoJ pie, and they will achieve as never nai tion yet achieved.” Let the American people alone! —that is the keynote of this campaign and all campaigns. 1

Effect of Trusts on the People’s Prosperity. , Has this movement oppressed the people? It has not oppressed the workingmen, because more laborers i are now employed at higher wages than ever before in history; and in savings banks alone American working- [ men have on deposit today over $2,500,000,000 —more than enough ready cash to buy out any ten of the greatj est corporations of the world. Is it said that this movement throws labor, 1 out of employment? When the railroad came the stage-driver and horse-,; dealer thought they were thrown out , of employment; but Instead new and better employment was provided. 1 ’ When the self-binder came harvesters thought their occupation gone; but in-, stead new and better occupation came. 1 Oppress the people? Why should any organization of Industry or commerce oppress the people? Their prosperity depends upon the people’s prosperity.! Oppression? Retaliation? Ven) geance? Enslavement? let those' bitter words be hushed! Let justice reign! Let tolerance be sovereign! Let human thought and activ-’ ity be free! Let a common i hood of service make of the American people not only the most powerful butj the happiest of nations! Haul down the black flag of class hatred and let the Stars and Stripes of freedom andfraternity alone wave over this people' made strong and glorious by mutual confidence and affection. Industrial peace throughout the republic! Industrial war, our forces all united, against foreign rivals in the markets of the world. “United we stand, divided we i fall” —this is the council of patriotism I and prosperity. I

Causes of Trusts. i These simple illustrations explain the nature and effect of the movement of the day toward industrial co-opera-tion and combination. What causes! this movement? Nothing but humanl thought and energy unrestrained;! nothing but the advancing intelligence of the people; the trust of man in| man; nothing, in a word, but the pro-, gress of the race. Before the time of electrcity and steam every little community, walled in from the rest of the world by want of means of communication, had to supply its limited needs by its own limited means; today every city is in quick and constant communication with every other city, and every American home is in touch with all American homes —woven, all of them, by wire and rail, by electricity and steam into the splendid fabric of our national unity. Massachusetts supplies Louisiana; California supplies New York. Every section of the republic is drawn upon to furnish the. needs of every American home; and] into that home the service and resources of all the world converge. Could the stage-coach and horsewagon do the Nation’s carrying today? Could the individual effect of all men acting separately do the Nation’s business, employ the Nation's labor, suply the Nation’s resources! today? System, organization, combin-l atlon alone can do this twentieth cen-| tury’s work. And, therefore, the very! basis of the organizations of labori and capital is merely the unfettered] human brain working out for human use the possibilities of the great forces' of nature. And he who would destroy, those organizations must first abolish] their causes—destroy the telegraph] the telephone, the wireless message ; l tear up the shining tracks of steel, over which the commerce of the world’ Is flying. And so the simplest mind

can see that attempts at such destruction, though unsuccessful, would be disastrous; yet that is what the Opposition proposes. They suggest do better methods. They propose no remedy for admlted evils. They denounce the whole twentieth century system of organization. If they are logical and honest, they propose that the “Big Four” Railroad system shall go back to the condition of a quarter of a century ago; the great establishments that furnish markets for the farmer’s livestock shall cease their operations; that labor organizations shall be disbanded, and that each workingman shall act independently of his fellow laborers along the old principle of competition. Dare they deny that this is their purpose? If so, their cause is rejected by themselves. Dare they admit that this is their purpose? If so, their cause is condemned by its own folly. The Republican party always stands for liberty of thought and action — stands for the forces that build, stands against the forces that destroy. We stood for protection that labor might be free; for honest money that the people should not be defrauded. We stood against repudiation that the republic’s honor might be saved; against secession that the nation might be preserved. And just so we stand today against the destruction of organized labor and capital that this 20th century civilization may continue, and that the American people may march on to yet nobler achievements and win richer blessings still.

Remedy for Evils of Trusts. But while we are in harmony with the times, we ar© not blind to the evils which cling to the great trunk which itself is sound. But we Insist that the tree shall not be felled because of the evils. When combinations of capital attempt to arbitrarily raise prices from motives of mere greed or un- I justly reduce wages merely to increase ' dividends, they must be prevented, punished. But apply a remedy—do not administer a medicine of death. I Twelve years ago a law concerning trusts was drawn by a Republican statesman, John Sherman, adopted by a Republican congress and signed by a Republican president; and now a Republican president puts that law into operation. The only other law regulating combinations of capital is the interstate commerce law, which is in dally operation; and 'that law, too, is Republican. i Is it not a serious thing to lock up by Inflexible statutes the ceaselessly changing and Improving methods which grow out of the thought of those thousands of minds and the activities ,of those millions of hands? Such economic legislation requires investigation, prudence, thought. What madness, then, to seek not even to supervise but actually to abolish all of this progress and to prevent all future nrogress, by the American people woiking unhindered along the lines of nat ural development! And yet this Is the folly of the opposition. This is the demagogue’s inflaming cry with which 'they will go to the people in this camIpalgn. And this is why they go to Idefeat. , For the conservative among ;the American people are more numerous than the destroyers; and in this truth resides the republic’s safety. President Roosevelt has recommended and congress is Constructing a department of commerce which will finally supervise every trust that does business throughout the nation. It will gather reliable statistics, lay before •congress the facts, Inform the people of real conditions; take out of discussion all imagination, falsehood, conjecture. Is not this the reasonable way of proceeding with this mighty problem? Is it not the method a business man or farmer would apply to his ,own affairs? Is it not better to search out with reason’s light the weak places and the dark than to apply the torch of destruction to the whole fabric of our industry? Conservative progress or annihilating re-action —this is the alternative before the American people.

The opposition’s policies would paralyze the business of the nation; Republican policies would aid the business of the nation. Under Republican administration the productive forces of the republic—aided where necessary, let alone when possible—have increased the output of factory, farm and 'mine until our own people can no longer consume them. Therefore the great problem of the hour is to find markets where the American people can sell their surplus. All over the world, therefore, we seek new markets —seek to increase existing markets. One market for part of our surplus Is at our doors; and to seize that market the Republican party will es'tabllsh reciprocity with our wards in .Cuba. If it is said that our reciprocity with Cuba is not broad enough, we answer that there must be a beginning, and from its results we can extend the policy it successful —modify it where defective; abandon it if advisable. The problem of reciprocity with the world is as delicate as the problem of supervising the commercial and industrial developments within the republic itself. All business is adjusted to our system of protection. But protection exists for business, not business for protection. And, as it ceases to aid and begins to fetter the nation’s industry, our tariff must be modified; but the change must be made with knowledge, caution, judgment. The Republican party proposes to re-ar-range our protective tariff only where changes will continue or increase American prosperity, and not otherwise. But the opposition would annihilate protection with one single, sudden, violent act. And business does not thrive on violence.

Expansion Gives Market for Surplus. Another market for our surplus requires no reciprocity except decent international treatment; and yet It Is the greatest unexploited market on the globe—the market of China and the Orient. To that market we are carried by the development of another principle as natural as that of industrial combination —the principle of expansion. It Is a principle universal, and manifests Itself In the life of every Individual, the progress of every business flrm, and sweeps onward through the whole range of human activity to the policies of nations. The boy can scarcely care for himself; the man cares for himself and others too. We have expended tens of millions of American gold to plant the beginnings of civilization in the Philppines. We have poured out American blood to establish modern system, modern methods, modern progress there. They command the commerce of the East. Why should we, then, in the very hour when commercial expansion is swiftly becoming our mortal need, abandon this possession; throw away the mul tiplled millions of dollars they have invested; denounce our soldiers as pirates; give up the mastery of the Pacific and the control of the Orient? It is a policy of decreptltude, a proposition of disgrace. If Filipinos should be found capable of self-government, the Republican party will give it to them. We are teaching them by practice; we are training them by education. If we can make them self-gov-erning, none will hail that consummation with such delight as we who are Instructing them. But we will not turn them back to barbarism. We will not abandon them to rival powers. We will not haul down the flag. We will do our work like Americans and men until all the East shall bless the name of the great republic and all mankind cheer American beneficence. Philippine Expenses. Do they tell us of expense? Every dollar of expense of Philppine civil administration is paid out of the revenues of the archipelago. And the opposition admits the necessity of our military expense because it proposes to keep our army there till stable government is established, and we do not propose to keep it longer. Our army has steadily been reduced and we are now creating a native constabulary to take its place. Spain had only 1.500 Spanish soldiers there when war broke out —Americans can finally do with fewer still. Unless American interests in the Orient require a large force stationed In the Philippines, we will not in five years have 2,000 American soldiers there. If our Oriental interests demand otherwise, it is as cheap to keep our soldiers stationed there as here. And they must be stationed somewhere because they are regular troops; and no one proposes to abolish our regular army. Expense of an enterprise is not measured by the first outlay. What would be said of a man who bought a farm, stocked it, built barns, erected houses, and then abandoned it because thus far all had been outlay without income? ways in Luzon join every plantation now separated by wilderness; when wilderness Itself shall be plantation; when railroads carry the archipelago’s timber, agricultural products and mineral wealth to its ocean ports; when every Filipino Is educated to modern methods and thus his consuming capacity is lifted from the littleness o* barbarism to the fullness of civilized demands; when the trade of the Orient’s hundreds of millions consumers is won to American factories and farms, what mind cannot see the re- ■ suiting profit? Shall we take no . thought of the morrow? That is the counsel of insolvency. To preserve ' present prosperity, American states- ' men must care for the future.

Philppine expenses! Who feels their burden? Is it you, farmer, who are more prosperous than you have been for a quarter of a century? Your farms alone are worth $1,220,000,000 more today than before the war with Spain. Is it you, manufacturer, whose plants are running with double shifts? You have increased your productive investments over $500,000,000 since the war with Spain began. Is it you, workingman, who in factories alone are earning $500,000,000 more wages every year than before our period of expansion? In spite of the hundreds of millions of war expenses, in spite of other millions expended in laying the foundation of future wealth in our dependencies. Republican administration has paid it all, and in addition and at the same time actually, reduced the nation’s debt $10,000,000, and so refunded the remainder that today the American people pay $7,000,000 less Interest annually than we paid before the war with Spain began; and, in addition, still and at the same time, accumulated the heaviest surplus in our treasury of any nation in the world. of the-contrast! Eight years ago peace, Democracy, disaster and a deficit! Today, in spite of war, Republicanism, prosperity and a surplus! More still! During the period from March Ist, 1897, the Inauguration of William McKinley, until March 1, 1902, a period of just five years, the American people sold to the rest of the world $6,630,934,462, and bought $3,922,923,566. In these five years the balance of trade in favor of the United States reached $2,708,010,906. In these five years of Republican rule, In spite of war, the favorable balance of trade was more than in the entire history of the republic before. More? Yes, 600 per cent more. From the foundation of the government to the beginning of the present Republican regime, March 1, 1897, the balance of trade in favor of the United States was only $383,028,497; and, consider it again, since McKinley was inaugurated the

balance of trade in favor of the American republic has reached the unthinkable sum of >2,708,010,906. Will the American people reject a party which administered the business of the nation with such results even under conditions of peace? Well! This is the Republican record under conditions of war. Indiana Republican Achievements. Always and everywhere the Republican party in power means prosperity, 'of the people, redaction of debt, commonsense handling of revenues. In the nation good ttanes are always Republican times. In the state, Republican administration always means reduction of debt, wise legislation. In four years of Democratic rule they have reduced our state debt $1,310,000, of which $723,000 was received from the federal government in payment of the direct war-tax. Since the Republican party came into power we have reduced the state debt more than $3,643,000 without the aid of the federal government. Republican financial administration has saved the people of Indiana more than SIIO,OOO in Interest every year. This is Indiana’s Repub llcan financial record in spite of more' than $1,500,000 paid for enlargements and improvements of reformatory institutions and the soldiers’ home, in spite of $1,060,000 paid to our state institutions every year for maintenance. No more scandals through purchases for state institutions from favorites, competitive bids alone determining contracts; state inspection of factories; state labor commission; Indiana workingmen cared for and guarded as never before; county and state officials deprived of exorbitant fees and placed on salaries exactly as a business firm would do; and hundreds of thousands of dollars turned back into the people’s treasuries —this is Republican work. It is the same practical ability in our state administration that the country hails in our national administration, and that the world applauds in our administration of dependencies. We govern our state well in spite of the opposition. We govern the nation well in spite of the opposition. We govern dependencies well in spite of the opposition. For the Republican party knows how to govern.

We are told that administration of dependencies is necessarily corrupt. Show me a business in the United States more accurately, honestly conducted than the American administration of Philippine finances. Do they cite the frauds in Cuba? Neely in prison, every conspirator punished—when, think you, with that example, another fraud will occur in our dependencies? What of our own states? Kentucky’s embezzling treasurer, Dakota’s coffers robbed, Nebraska’s money stolen—are state governments therefore necessarily corrupt? Five selected men administrating government in the Philippines; the most expert system of accounting *yet devised in public affairs searching every expenditure, this system presided over by Abe Lawshe, of whom Indiana is so proud; review of every detail by the specialists of war and treasury departments in Washington; and finally every item subjected to the scrutiny of keen men in congress looking for the smallest defect —American honesty and system in Philippine administration compels the world’s applause. Their distance does not mean corruption in administration, difficulty in government. They are not distant. It is less than four weeks by slow transport to Manila; by swiftest ocean vessels, less than three ’weeks. When we took the territory where Omaha now stands that point was nearly two months distant from the seat of government. When we took California, San Francisco was four months distant. Is it answered that they were on the same soil? Deserts are harder to cross than oceans. The seas no longer separate us from the world—they connect us. We have a greater coast line than the five greatest maritime nations of the world combined. Our situation compels us to be the first sea power of the world within the not distant future. No spot on the globe is now remote. Commercial orders are given every day from New York and London to Manila and reach there before the day Is done; and now a direct cable will soon be laid from San Francisco to the Philippines. Their situation is no argument against but for American administration there. It forces us out on th ■» world’s high seas; and thither we must go or be crushed with the great weight of our own enormous productivity. Do they tell us of the brutality of American soldiers? War has no record of mercy, tenderness and care that compares with the American treatment of prisoners in the Philippines’. Generals Otis, Hughey and McArthur have testified to the kindness of American officers and mdfi to Filipino prisoners. They are cared for even as our own. I have seen wards of our own hospitals turned over to Filipino sick and wounded. American physicians attend them, American nurses minister to them. We are told of reconcentratlon camps. And what are they? Great tracts of fertile land, not surrounded by fences and stockades, where the people may live and work in perfect liberty protected from ous desperadoes’ demands. The Republican party stands by the American soldier in the Philippines today as it stood by the soldier of the Union 40 I years ago, stands by him now, and will stand by him until the last gray and honored head bows to the conqueror of us all. To thosb who now denounce American soldiers the American people will give the same answer they gave to the defamers of the boys in , blue in the old days: "We stand by the boys beneath the flag.”

Republican Pension Record. I The Republican party, proud of its past, is proudest of all of its loyalty to the soldier who was loyal to the • flag. Listen to the record of Republican care for the soldiers of the republic’s greatest war. Fourteen important pension measures have been enacted by congress; every one was Republican. On these, 417 Democrats voted 4 1,068 Republicans who voted on these bills, not a single man cast a vote against them. No Republican presitent ever vetoed any bill to relieve a Union soldier. A Democratic administration dropped 8,694 soldiers from the pension rolls, and reduced the pensions of 23,702 more. Most of these were restored by succeeding Republican administration. Under the Republican pension law of 1890 alone, the government has paid Union soldiers and their widows more than $500,000,000. In 1900 a Republican congress parsed the “Grand Army Bill,” under which 40,000 widows of Union soldiers will receive that assistance from the government, which Abraham Lincoln declared it was the government’s highest duty to give. Under Republican measures those who saved the government are receiving nearly $140,000,000 every year. In a Democratic administration pensions were reduced, the nation’s debt increased, the nation’s in- • dustry paralyzed; under Republican*' administration, increased pensions, diminished debt, business restored! Let no man be alarmed at the nation’s bounty to the American soldier. From this day on pension payments must decline; a short ten years will wellnigh end it all. Be patient—the old pensioner will not tarry long at the nation’s fireside. But while that old hero does remain, the Republican party means that he shall have all the comforts a grateful nation can bestow. McKinley: Roosevelt. The Republican party understands the American soldier. Since Lincoln every Republican president elected by the people has worn the uniform. And what presidents they have been!— mounting in greatness until in William McKinley the Republican party gave the nation and the world a name that ranks with Washington and Lincoln— McKinley, the master mariner, who started the republic on its world career from which disbelievers in our destiny would turn us back. He was great as Events, steady as Time, se- r rene as the heavens on still and cloudless nights. He was a man of faith and prayer. He counselled with the Eternal Mind. He obeyed the voice of God as thak voice spoke to him. He was the last president of the 19th century—last of the first series which Washington began. Washington, Lincoln, McKinley—the Father has not ' n such a company of leaders to • oiher people in so short a space, r presidents in the past have been "•eat only by being equal to the times, ihere is no other method of greatness possible to our presidents in the future. And now the 20th century opens with the first of a second series of leaders of a people who have grown to be the chief of all the nations of the world; and he is the spirit of the times incarnate. He is vital as the American people are vital. He is just as the American people are just. He is courageous as the American people are courageous. He is conservative as American character, steady as American purpose. His belief in our destiny is measured by our duty and our power, both broad as the oceans; so is the faith of the American people. Think of the man who in all the republic today, is most conspicuously American and I will voice your thought when I name Theodore Roosevelt, president of the United States. Felow Republicans, it is the 20th century in which we live —the greatest period since time began. We cannot cling to the methods of the past.. The ; Republic has marched ever forward only because our fathers put behind * them plans and policies which civilization had outgrown, and adopted new ones as their new day demanded them. We, their children, must do the same. Their war-cry was “Onward!" Our war-cry must be “Opward,” too. The Repblican party is the organized spirit of American progress. We dare not stoop to demagogues’ devices; that is the rule of the opposition to the Government. We dare not trick up fictitious issues to catch temporary applause. We dare not be insincere to capture this or that coterie of voters. We dare not counsel with fear or compromise with re-action. Our success—our very life—is in harmony/ with the progress of the American , people toward their natural supremacy. The power of 80,000,000 of pqople, which in a century will be 200,000,000 with brains unfettered and activities unchained, is beyond the comprehension of finite mind. Yesterday the telegraph and telephone were’ miracles; to-day they are common-place—-what will tomorrow be? What will be the condition of the American people and the world when the men of this convention have lived their lives? You cannot over-capitalize the energy of the American people. You.connot overestimate their might. You cannot measure their majesty among mankind. The most brilliant prophecy of their future will read like a tlm?' expression of feeble faith when th; future shall arrive. We trust in the American people! We believe in the American people! We serve the American people! Free action for American activities! A free hand for American policies! Clear the 1 horizons of doubts that American conscience may work righteousness and light in the world’s work of this new-born century. ’ •