Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-07-19

and that in twenty years the wealth of New
jersey was increased by the sum Of $3.50, 900,
geo, while the wealth Of Iowa was increased
by the sum OF 500. .000. 200. They see that the
| nine leading agricultural States Of the West
nave grown so rapidly in prosperity that the
aggregate addition to their wealth since 1891
Is almost as great as the wealth Of the entire
[ country IN that year. They see that the South,
/ Whlch Is almost exclusively agricultural. has
shared In the general prosperity. and that
! having recovered from the loss and deVasta- .
/ tion OF war, has gained so rapidly that its TO-
! tai wealth is at least the double Of that which
/ II possessed IN 1860, exclusive Of slaves
IN these extraordinary developments the
/ farmers see the helpful impulse Of a home
\ market, and they see that the financial and
/ revenue system, enacted since the Republican
/ party came into power, has established and
\ constantly expanded the home market. They
| see that even in the case Of wheat, which Is
1 our chief cereal export, they have sold, in the
average OF the years since the close of the
4 war. three bushels at home to one they have
/ sold abroad, and that in the case Of corn. the
/ only other cereal which we export to any ex-
tent, one hundred bushels have been used at
nome TO three and half bushels exported.
4 In some years the disparity has been SO great
/ thAt for every peck of corn exported one hun
1 dred bushels have been consumed in the home
l market The farmers see that in the increas-
! ing competition from the grain fields Of Russia
/ and from the distant plains Of India. the
! growth OF the home market becomes daily Of
greater concern to them, and that its impair
ment would depreciate the value of every
4
OUR INTERNAL COMMERCE..
| Such facts as these touching the growth and
/ consumption Of cereals at home give us some
| slight conception of the vastness OF the inter-
nal commerce of the United States. They
/ suggest also that, in addition to the advan-
| tages which the American people enjoy from
/ protection against foreign competition. they
enjoy the advantages of absolute free trade
over larger area and with greater popula-
ton than any other nation. The internal
commerce of our thirty-eight States and
nine Territories is carried on without let or
| hindrance, without tax, detention or govern
II spreads freely over an area of
| 3,5OO,O00 square mIles-almOst equal IN
extent to the whole continent Of Europe. It's
profits are enjoyed TO-DAY by fifUy-siX millions
OF American freemen, and from this enjoy
ment no monopoly. is created. According to
Alexander Hamilton, when he discussed the
same subject in 1890, 'the internal competition
which takes place does away with every thing
ike monopoly, and by degrees reduces the
prices of articles to the minimum of a reason
able profit on the capital employed" 1t is
impossible to point to single monopoly in the
United States that has been created or fos-
tered by the industrial system which is upheld
by the Republican party,
Compared with our foreign commerce
these domestic exchanges are incOnceivably
great in mountaineering merely as one
instrumentality as large mileage of railway
as exists to-day in all the other nations of the
world combined. These internal exchanges
are estimated by the Statistical Bureau of
the Treasury Department to be annually
twenty times as great in amount as our
foreign commerce. 1t is into this vast field
Of home tTade-at once the creation and the
heritage of the American peOple-that for
elgn nations are striving by every device to
enter. 1t is into this field that the opponents
of our present revenue system would freely
admit the countries of EurOpe-countries into
whose internal trade we could not recpro-
cally enter; countries to which we should be
surrendeTing every advantage Of trade; from
which we should be gaining nothing in re-
turn.
EFFECT UPON THE MECHANIC AND THE
LABoRER.
A policy of this kind would be disastrous to
the mechanics and working men of the United
States. Wages are unjustly reduced when an
industrious man is not able by his earnings to
live in comfort, educate his children, and lay
by sufficient amount for the necessities of
age. The reduction of wages inevitably con-
sequent upon throwing our homo market open
to the world, would deprive them of the
power to do this. 1t would prove a great
calamity to our country. 1t would produce a
conflict between the poor and the rich and in
the sorrowful degradation of labor would
plant the seeds of public danger.
The Republican party has steadily aimed to
maintain just relations between labor and
capital-guarding with care the rights of
each. A conflict between the two has always
led in the past and will always lead in the
future, to the injury of both. Labor is indis-
pensable to the creation and profitable use of
capital, and capital increases the efficiency
and value Of labor. Whoever arrays the one
against the other, IA an enemy OF both. That
policy is wisest and best which harmOnizes
the two on the basis of absolute Justice. The
Republican party has protected The free labor
of America, 50 that its compensation is larger
than is realized in any other country. 1t has
guarded our people against the unfair compe-
titiOn Of contract labor from China and
may be called upon to prohibit the growth
of a similar evil from Europe. IG is OBJ
yiously unfair TO permit capitalists to make
contracts for cheap labor in foreign countries
Ia .Nr.Fa Ill
American citizens. Such policy like hat
which would leave the time and other cOndi-
tIons of home labor exclusively in the control
of the employer) is injurious to all parties
not the least so to the unhappy persons who
are made the subjects of the contract. The
institutions of the United States rest upon the
intelligence and virtue OF all the people. Suf-
frage is made universal as a just weapon of
self protection to every citizen. 1t is not the
interest Of the republic that any economic
system should be adopted which involves the
reduction of wages to the hard standard pre-
vailing elsewhere. The Republican party
aims to elevate and dignity labor-nOt to de-
grade it.
As a substitute for the industrial system
which under Republican administrations has
developed such extraordinary prosperity, our
opponents offer policy which is but series
of experiments upon our system of revenue
a policy whose end must be harm to our man.
ufaetures and greater harm to our labor.
Experiment in the industrial and financial
system is the country's greatest dread, as sta
n.
tamty resulting from the recent tariff agita-
tion IN Congress has hurtfully affected the
business of the entire country. Who can
measure the harm to our shops and our homes,
to our farms and our commerce, if the uncer-
tainty of perpetual tariff agitation is to be
Inflicted upon the country? We are in the
midst of an abundant harvest; we are on the
eve If arevival of general prosperity, Nothing
stands IN our way but the dread of a change
in the industrial system which has wrought
such wonders in the last twenty years, and
which, with the power of increased capital.
Will work still greater marvels of prosperity
In the twenty years to come.
OUR FOREIGN POLICY.
Our foreign relations favor our domestic de-
velopment. We are at peace with the world
at peace upon sound basis with no un-
settled questions of sufficient magnitude to
embarrass or distract Us Happily removed
by our geographical position from participa-
tion or interest in those questions of dynasty
or boundary which so frequently disturb the
peace of Europe, we are left to cultivate
friendly relations with all, and are free from
possible entapglements in the quarrels of any.
The United States has no cause and no desire
to engage in conflict with any power on earth,
and we may rest in assured confidence that
no power desires to attack the United States.
With the nations of the Western hemis-
phere we shonld cultivate closer relations,
and for our common prosperity and advance
ment we should invite them all to join with
us in an agreement that, for the future, all
international troubles i'm North or Sou h
tration and not by arms. This project was
part of the fixed policy of President Garfields
administration and 1t should in my judgment
be renewed. Its accomplishment on this con-
tinent would favorably affect the nations
beyound the sea, and thus powerfully contri-
butte at no distant day to the universal accep-
tance OF the philanthropic and Christian
principle of arbitration. The effect even of
suggesting it for the Spanish American States
has been most happy and has increased the
confidence of those people in our friendly dis
position. 1t fell to my lot as Secretary of
State in June, 1881, to quiet apprehension in
the Republic of Mexico, by giving the as
suranee IN an official dispatch that "there is
not the fantest desire in the United States for
territorial extension south of the Rio Grande
The boundaries of the two Republics have
been established in conformity with the best
jurlsdIctional interests of both. The line of
demarcation is not merely conventional. 1t
is more. 1t separates a Spanish American
people from a Saxon American people. 1t
divides one great nation from another with
distinct and natural finalitys"
We seek the conquests Of peace. We desire
to extend our commerce, and in an especial
degree with our friends and neighbOrs on this
continent. We have not improved our rela-
tions with Spanlsh-America as wisely and IS
persstently as we might have done. For
more than a generation the sympathy Of those
countries has been allowed to drift aWav from