Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1881-11-17

ton and Voorhees, have no doubt seen
wherein they were wrong, and, having
seen it, arc candidly correcting their
errors.
True patroits we, and be it understood,
We left our party for country's good"
Senator Conkling, in his able speech
at Utica last fall, on the Tariff, in re-
ferring to the first act of Congress
ever passed, abiding to the broad pat
riotism that moved the statesmen of
those days, describing the unanimity
with which they acted, quoted the
distich:
Then all were for the country,
And none were for the state;
Then the rich man loved the poor man,
And the poor man owed the great
Parties forget their lines, they re-
allied that in union there was strength;
that when the deepest of all interests
to the country, that which could alone
develop it's resources, build it up
through its own industries, to state
of independence of other countries;
that to bring about as rapidly as pos
sible that most desirable position it
was necessary to forget party SQUAD
bles, to harmonic party differences
and to act in concert for the promo
ton Of so great an interest. Hence,
republicans and democrats unitedly
worked in harmony and brought about
the passage of the first act of Congress
''to encourage American manufactures,
etc."
Now what right have we to question
the motives of such men as Senators
Pendleton and Voorhees, in their re-
cent action? Are men to be abused
for change of belief? Are they to
be denounced for having the candor
and The manliness to admit that they
were mistaken in the past--to acknow-
ledge that ''they are wiser to-day than
they were yesterday?" To denounce
such men, to accuse them of mercen-
airy motives because they say to their
former opponents, you were right and
we were wrong-is to be guilty of
sycophantic cowardice Have not
those gentlemen right to review their
former opinions, to test their wisdom
or their folly, to determine the right
or the wrong Of their former beliefs z
There can only be an affirmative ans
wer to the questions. A fool, it is
said, never changes his mind or his
opinions; wise men often change. Do
we wish to deny to our political oppo-
nents the right of confirming the cor
rectness of our views by furnishing to
the world publicly, the evidence of
their own mistaken ones, and that vol
UNFAIRLY :? Yet that is about the
course that is being pursued by great
many republican journals CD in their
attacks. particularly on Senator Voor-
hees, especially for his speech at the
Atlanta Exposition If what was
said by Senator Voorhees, at that
opening was true, and no real republi-
can or advocate of protection to Amer
lean industries and American labor
can deny it, for it was only the doc
trine that protectionists have been
enunciating ever since the government
was founded, why attack it Refute
it they cannot, then why attack it :?
Are there republicans who are afraid
that such men as Pendleton and Voor-
hees may reclaim the workingmen to
their party? Are they afraid that
Sucn SeHtleIh6u VIII SeeSI lAGlI IHuiU-
er? Do they realize that the course
of several so-called republican journals
is alternating the working classes from
the republican ranks? These are
thoughts worthy of the consideration
Of your readers, and | embody them
solely for that purpose, as I am a re-
publican in ana out and believe in the
doctrine of protection to American
labor 'Jirst, last, and all the time"
The last number of the Stevens
Point Journal gives brief history
of the sudden death of a young man