Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 July 1896 — THE PATRIOTISM OF BUSINESS. [ARTICLE]

THE PATRIOTISM OF BUSINESS.

It has become the fashion of late to ddery business as unpatriotic. We hear much of the “sordid considerations of capital,” “employment,” “industrial energies” and “prosperous labor.” The United States, differing from the mediaeval conditions whiclj,govern older countries, differing from the militarism whieh is the curse of European nations, differing from thrones Which rest upon the sword, is pre-eminently and patriotically a commercial and a business nation. Thus commerce and business I are synonymous with patrlotisqi; When the farmer is afield sowing ami j reaping the crops which find a market that remunerates him for his toil, when the labooer and the artisan find work Seeking them and not themselves despairing of work, when the wage of the toiler promises comfort for his family and hope for his children, when the rail is burdened with tlie product of the soil and of the factory, when the spindles are humming and the furnaces are In blast, when the mine is putting out its largest product and the national and individual wealth are constantly Increasing, when the homes owned unmortgaged by the people are more numerous day by day and month by month, when the schools are most crowded, the fairs most frequent and happy conditions most universal in the nation, then are the promises fulfilled which make those United States of America the home of tlieoppfeSsed and the land of the free. —Hon. Chauncey M. Depew. McKinley on the Value of Labor, No worthy American wants to reduce the price bf labor in the United States. It ought not to be reduced; for the sake of the feborerjand his family and’the good of society it ought to be maintained. To increase it would be in better harmony with the public sense. Our labor must not be debased nor our laborers degraded to the level of slaves, nor any pauper or servile system in any form, nor under any guise whatsoever, at home or abroad. Our civilization will not permit it. Our humanity forbids it. Our traditions are opposed to It. The stability of our institutions rests upon the contentment and intelligence of all our people, and these can only be possessed by maintaining the dignity of labor and securing to it its just rewards. That protection opens new avenues for employment, broadens and diversifies the field of labor, and presents variety of vocation, is manifest fromgiur own experience.—Hon. Win. McKinley.

An Honor to the Nation. This is the year of the people. They have risen in their might. From ocean to ocean, frbm lake to gulf, they are united as never before. We know their wishes and are here to register their will. They must not be cheated of their choice. They know the man best qualified and equipped to fightUhelr battles and to win their victories. His name Is tn every heart, on every tongue. His nomination Is certain, Ills election sure. His candidacy will sweep the couiftry as a prairie is swept by fire. This is the year of the people. In their name, by their authority. 1 second the nomination of their great champion. William McKinley. Not as a favorite son of any State, but as the favorite son of the United States. Not as a concession to Ohio, but as an added honor to the nation.—Senator Thurston. Pennaylvania for Protection. Wo welcome the Issue, American protection, American credit and«an American policy. Let the people in the campaign which this convention inaugurates determine whether they are willing to live throagh another free trade panic. Let the wage-earner' and the wage-payor contemplate the bitter experiences which brought hunger ti> the home of one and financial ruin, to the other. Let the American farmer compare farm product pieces with free trade promises. Let him who has saved a surplus and him who works for a livelihood determine, each for himself, if he crave* to be paid in American dol-

lars disgraced and depreciated to half their alleged value.—Gov. Hastings. Soiithern Demand for Protection. When the South defended upon-the labor of its slaves, and employed little or no free labor, It was fts earnest an advocate of free ‘trade as is England to-day. Now,, that it must resort |o free labor, it is placed upon the same footing as Northern producers; It Is compelled to pay a like rate of wages for a day’s wdrk, and therefore demands protection against the foreign producer, whose product is made op grown by a cheaper labor. And we find all through the South a dcroaudiCor protection to American Industry against a foreign competition, bent upon their destruction and determined to possess the American market—Hon. Wm McKinley. Neither Work Nor Wane. Four short years have come and gone. Look at the country now. The treasury Is empty. Our credit IS Impaired. Our revenues are deficient. We meet the public needs not with income, but by borrowing at high rates and pledging the future for the wants of the present. Business is paralyzed. Confidence is gone. Enterprise has folded its eagle wings and mopes and blinks In the market place. Our mills are idle and our railroads crippled. Capital hides itself and labor Idly walks the streets. There is neither a good day’s wage nor a good day’s work.—Senator Lodge. McKinley Takes Command. ~ Hear the people's joyons shout, McKinley takes command; To lead Protection’s army on. Drive Free Trade from our land. Arise! host, arise! No effort now abate . To raise Protection’s.banner h >?!». From Maine to Golden Gate., Now join the patriotic host, _ In America’s great land, And never more fear Free Trade's blight. McKinley tanes command. How to Buy Best. The consumer in all cases buys cheapest where he pays easiest, no matter what the nominal price of the .article may be.—Gaiusha A. Grow. Downfall of Democracy. Bryan is only Tillman in better English. Well, who In the East knows Bryan, and who In the West knows Bewail? To Cleveland the saddest thing in life Is the letter he might have written declining the third term, and didn’t... , . General Backus was right. It will be a double-ender—Bill McKinley and McKinley bill—with vim and vigor at each end. The Chicago platform is mainly a plagiarism, as can readily be seen by comparing ft with the Populist platform of 1892. ‘The boy orator of the Platte” is likely to do more slopping over than lias ever before been done by a candidate for President. If Mr. Hanna had been privileged ,to Order the proceedings at Chicago In the interest of McKinley, he could hardly have Improved upon what has been done. ,

The terms of twenty-nine Senators will expire next March, and after that we may look for a Republican Senate that will do business instead of obstructing IK- . - , No party has ever yet succeeded In this country on a platform favoring repudiation and spoliation, and there is no reason to suppose that such a thing Is possible this year. The free silver! tea have expended most of their energy In the work of making a platform and a ticket, and their enthusiasm will dwindle rapidly as the campaign progresses.*A phrase has nominated a for the Presidency, but a phrase cannot elect a candidate who stands for the idea that 100 cents worth of labor should be paid for with a 50-cent dollar.