Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1884-09-20
Two Republican Measures.

When the democracy was in pow
er the laboring men were practically
excluded from twelve great states of
the union. The intelligent, hard
working mechanic of the northern
states was unknown in the south,
and could not have existed there in
competition with unpaid slave labor.
1t is impossible to find any legisla.
ton enacted by the party, when in
control, designed to foster industry
and benefit labor. 1t was reserved
for the republican party, with its
progressive and humane ideas, to
make record in which from its
earliest existence down to the pre-
sent day a careful and friendly
regard for the welfare and elevation
of labor was at all times manifest.
In its party platforms, its general
policy at all times, and it's practical
acts of legislation, it has never failed
to demonstrate its genuine interest
in the laboring element of the coun-
try.
On the first day of the year 1868
two of the grandest measures in the
interest oflabor with which the pages
of history are marked went into
effect, exclusively the work Of the
republican party, viz, the liberation
OF the slaves and the passage OF the
homestead law.
The destruction of slavery opened
up a virgin field to the army of free
labor. To-day in Georgia, Tennes-
see, the Carolinas, Virginia, and
Alabama workingmen by the thous-
ands are making a living in iron
mines, coal mines, cotton factories,
foundries, rolling mills, blast furna-
ces, and other forms of industries,
where twenty-five years ago the
workingman was barred out and I'M
welcome. Such manufacturing cities
as Roanoke, Va, and Birmingham,
Ala, are as directly the result of
republican legislation as they would
have been had the party passed laws
and provided means for their build
ing. 1t is no slight thing for any
party to be able to truthfully say
that it opened up to labor the mag
nificent field afforded by the great
natural resources of the southern
states. A field so vast that, great
as has been its development within
ten years, past, it is yet almost un-
touched and is destined to afford
sustenance to millions of working
men in the future.
The homestead law put it in the
power of the humblest toiler to enter
any part of the public domain and
take unchallenged possession Of an
estate which through his industry
would soon enable him to put him.
self and his family beyond the shad-
ow Of want. The boundless west is
dotted with prosperous homesteads
acquired through this grand poor
mans law, the owners of which but
for its munifcent provisions would
today be laboring in the crowded
marts of industry without the pros
pect of more than hard-earned liv-
ing. And the gracious bounty of
the homestead law is still held out to
every poor man in the land.
These two great enactments of the
republican party, passed in its earl
lest days of power, serve as key
note to its after course in it's relations
to labor. Other enactments have fol-
owed from year to year tending in
the came general direction, the net
results of which are that to-day the
condition oflaboring men and women
in the United States, compared with
those living under the most favored
conditions in other countries. affords
striking proof of the efficacy of re-
publican care for the well-being of
the toilers. Nowhere on earth is
labor so well compensated as here,
and nowhere else on earth does the
laboring man live under conditions
where he is so respected aud so i'm
portant factor in his community as
in this land where great party
guards his interests with jealous
watehfulness.