Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 April 1888 — Ingersoll on the Tariff. [ARTICLE]

Ingersoll on the Tariff.

There is another thing which I believe: I believe in the protection of American labor. The hand that holds: Alladdin’s lamp must be the hand of toil. This nation rests upon the shoulders of its workers, and I want the laboring man to have enough work; I want him to have enough to eat; I want him to have something for the ordinary misfortunes of life; I want lTipi tojhave the pleasure of seeing his wife well dressedyj••■want him to see a few blue ribbons fluttering about his children; I want him to see the flags of health flying in their beautiful cheeks; I want him to feel that thia.ia.liis country and the shield of protection is above his labor. And I will tell you why lam for protection too. If we were all farmers we would be stupid; if we were all shoemakers we would be stupid ; if we followed ope business, no matter what it was we would be stupid. Protection of American labor diversifies American industry, and to have it diversified touches and develops every part of the human brain. Protection protects integrity; it protects intelligence, and protec-' tion raises sense, and by protection we have greater men and better looking women aha healthier children. Free trade means that our labor is this world. And allow me to tell you that for an empty stomach “Hurrah for Cleveland!” is poor consolation. I do not think much of a government where the people do not have enough to eat. lam a materialist to that extent; I want something to eat. I have been in countries

where the laboring man had meat once a year, twice sometimes — Christmas and Easter. And I have • seen women carrying upon their heads a burden that no man in the audience could carry, and at the same time knitting busily with both hands, aud these women living without meat And when I thought of the American laborer I said to myself, after all my country is the best in the world, and when I came back to the sea and saw the old flag flying in the air, it seemed to me as though the air,,, from pure joy, had burst into blossoms. Labor lias move to eat and more to wear in the states than in any other country of this earth. I want America to produce anything that Americans need. I want it so that if the whole world should declare war against us, and if we were surrounded by walls of cannons, bayonets and swords; we would supply our human wants in and of ourselves. I want to live to see the American women dressed in American silks. The American man in everything from hat to boots, produced in America by the cunning hand of the American tailor. I want to see workingmen have a house painted white, with grass in the front yard, carpets on its floors and pictures on the walls. I want to see him a man feeling that lie is a king by the divine right of living in -the republic. And every man here is just a little bit of a king, you know. Every man here is a part of a sovereign power. Every man wears a little purple; every mail has a little crown and a little scepter, and every man that sells his vote or i s ruled by prejudice is unfit to be au American citizen. I believe in. American labor and 1 will tell you why. ' The other day a man told me that we produce in the United ; States one million tons of rails i worth $50,000,000; the value of | the ore in the ground was abqut 25 ! cents a ton. American labor twenty-five cents’ worth of iron in the ground and adds to it $59.75. AVe build a ship ’in the United j States worth $500,000 and the value iof the ore in the-earth, of the trees | in the forest, of all that enters into I that ship bringing $500,000 in

gold, is only 820,000; 8480,000 by Americans coined into gold Arner- : ican brains made-a legal tender i the world around. I propose to ; stand by tne nation. I want the | sky to be filled with the smoke of ! American industry, and upon that the bow of perpetual promise. That is what I am for. Where did this doctrine of a revenj&Aanff. “come'Troin? From tile south? The south would like to stab the prosperity of the north. They would rather trade with the people who were willing to help them in the war than those who conquered the rebellion. They knew what gave us our strength in waiu They know that all the brocks, creeks and rivers of New England were putting down the rebellion. They knew that exery wheel that turned and every spindle that revolved was a soldier in the army of fr|gi man progress. It won’t do. I don’t wish to belong to the party which succeeds only when my country r falls. I don’t wish To belong to the party 1 whose banner went up with the baniierof rebellion. I belong to that party

which is not poor when the golden billows are running over the seas of wheat. I belong to that party which is prosperous when there .are oceans of corn and the cattle are upon the thousand hills. I belong to that party which is prosperous when the furnaces are aflame, wdien you dig coal, iron and silver; when everybody has Enough to eat; when everybody is happy; when the children ( are all going to school, and when joy covers my nation as with a 0 garment. The party which is prosperous then, that is my party. And that is the party of protection, the grand 'old. Republican party.