River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1884-07-24

Il
| see that New Jersey and Iowa were Just
1 equal in population in 1860. and that in
| twenty years the wealth of New jersey was
| Increased by the sum of $3.50, 900, 900, while
1 the wealth of Iowa was increased by the sum
! of 81 800, 600, 600 They see that the nine
leading agricultural states of the West have
/ grown so rapidly in prosperity that the ag-
\ eregate addition to their wealth since 1S60is
| almost rs great as the wealth of the entire
| country in that year They see that the
/ South, which is almost exclusively auri-
I cultural, has shared in the general prosperity
and that having recovered from the loss and
/ devastation of war, has gained so rapidly
that its total wealth is at least the double OF
that which il possessed in 1860, exclusive of
/ slaves.
/ In these extraordinary developments the
/ farmers see the helpful impulse af home
! market, and they see that the financial and
/ revenue system, enacted since the Repub-
/ lican party came into power, has established
/ and constantly expanded the home market
/ They see that even in the case of wheat
\ which is our chief cereal export, they have
/ sold, in the average of the years since the
close of the war, three bushels at home to
/ one they have sold abroad and that I'm the
+ case of corn the only other cereal which we
export TO any extent one hundred bushels
have been used at home to three and a half
/ bushels exported. In some years the dis
parity has been so great that for every peck
4 of corn exported one hundred bushels nave
/ been consumed in the home market The
farmers see that in the increasing competition
4 from the grain fields of Russia and from the
/ distant plains of India, the growth of the
home market becomes daily of greater con-
4 Germ to them and that its impairment would
I depreciate the value of every acre of tillable
I land in the Union
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
internal commerce of the United States.
They suggest also that, in addition to the adj
vantages which the American people enjoy
from protection against foreign competition,
they enjoy the advantages of absolute free
trade over larger area and with greater
population than any other nation The inter
nal commerce of our thirty eight states and
nine territories is carried on without let or
hindrance, without tax, detention or govern
mental interference of any kind whatever.
| It spreads freely over an area of three and a
half million square miles-almoSt equal in
/ extent to the whole continent of Europe.
( Its profits are enjoyed to-day by 56, 600 900
of American freemen, and from this enjoy
ment no monopoly is created According to.
Alexander Hamilton. when he discussed the
same subject in 1890, 1.-THE internal compe-
tition which takes place does away with
everything like monopoly, and by degrees,
reduces the prices of articles to the mini
mum of a reasonable profit on the capital
employed It is impossible %Z~ point to a
single monopoly in the United States that
has been created or fOstered by the indus
trial system which is upheld by the Repub-
lican party.
Compared with our foreign commerce
these domestic exchanges are inconceivably
great in notwithstanding merely as one
instrumentality as large mileage of rail
way as exists to-day in all other nations of
the world combined These internal ex-
changes are estimated by the statistical
bureau of the treasury department to be an
nualv twenty times as great in amount as
oY1r II info this ST
field of home trade-at once the creation
and the heritage of the American people
that foreign 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 reciprocally enter; countries to
which we should be surrendering every adj
vantage of trade; from which we should be
gaining nothing in return.
EFFECT UPON THE MECHANIC AND THE LABoRER.
A policy of this kind would be disastrous
to the mechanics and workingmen of the
United States Wages are unlustly reduced
when an industrious man is not able by his
earnings TO live in comfort educate his chill
dren and lay by sufficient amount for the
necessities of age. The reduction of wages
inevitably consequent upon throwing our
home market open to the world, would de
prve them of the power to do this. 1t would
prove a great calamity TO our country. 1t
would produce conflict between the poor
ana UIle flCQ, anu III Tile bOTTONIul ue8fdud-
ton of labor would plant the seeds of public
danger
The Republican party has steadily aimed to
maintain lust relations between Labor and
Capital-guarding with care the rights of
each conflict between the two has always
led in the past and will always lead in the
future, to the injury of both. Labor is
indispensable to the creation and profitable
use of capital, and capital increases the
efficiency and value of labor Whoever
arrays the one against the other is
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 so that it's compensation is
larger than is realized in any other country.
1t has guarded our people against the unfair
competition of contract labor from China,
and may be called upon to prohibit the
growth of Il similar evil from Europe. 1t is
obviously unfair to permit capitalists to
make contracts for cheap labor in foreign
countries to the hurt and disparagement of
the labor of American citizens Such a
policy dixie that which would leave the time
and other conditions OF home labor eSclu-
sively in the control of the employer, is in
furious 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 Suffrage is made
universal as a Just weapon of self-protec-
ton to every citizen. 1t is not the interest
of the republic that any economic system
should be adopted which involves the reduc-
ton of wages to the hard standard prevail
ing elsewhere The Republican party aims
to elevate and dignity labor-not to degrade
it,
As a substitute for the industrial system
which under Republican administration has
developed such extraordinary prosperity,
our opponents offer policy which is but
series of experiments upon 0ur system of
revenue-a policy whose end must be harm
to our manufactures and greater harm TO our
labor Experiments in the industrial and
financial system is the country's greatest
dread, as stability is its greatest boon. Even
the uncertainty resulting from the recent
tariff agitation 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 uncertainty of perpetual tariff agita-
ton is to be inflicted upon the country We
are in the midst of an abundant harvest; we
are on the eve of a revival of general pros
perty. Nothing stands in our way but the
dread of 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
+ development We are at peace with the
world-at peace upon sound basis with no
I unsettled questions of sufficient magnitude
! to embarrass or distract us Happily re-
moved from our geographical position from
/ participation or interest in those questions
/ of dynasty or boundary which so frequently
I disturb the peace of Europe, we are left to
I cultivate friendly relations with all and are
( free from possible entanglements in the
/ quarrels of any. The United States has no
/ cause and no desire to engage in conflict with
any power on earth, and VIC may rest in as
/ sured confidence that no power desires to
attack the United States
With the nations of the Western hemi-
f sphere we should cultivate closer relations,
+ and for our common p perity and adj
I yancement we should invite them all to Join
( with us in an agreement that, for the future,
/ all international troubles in North or South
/ America shall be adjusted by impartial arbl-
/ tration and not by arms This project was part
( of the fixed policy OF President Ciartield's adj
ministration. and it should in my Judgment
/ be renewed. Its accomplishment ON this con
? tinent would faVoraby affect the nations be-
! yond the sea. and thus powerfully contribute
at no distant day to the universal acceptance
of the phianthropic 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 disposition.
1t fell To my lot as secretary of state, in J une
/ 1881, To quiet apprehension in the Republic
t of Mexico, by giving the assurance in an
official dispatch that ~thcre is NOT the faint
est desire in the United States for territorial
! extension south of the Rio Cirande. The
boundaries of the two republics have been
established in conformity with the best lurlS7