The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1884-07-30
H E-RIVER

ed in the home market. The farmers
see hat in the increasing competition
from the grain fields of Russia and the
grain fields of India, the growth OF the
home market becomes daily OF greater
importance to them, and that its impair
ment would ~depreciate the value of
every acre of tillable land in the Union.
The consideration of such facts as
these, touching the growth and con-
sumption OF cereals at home, gives Us
some slight conception OF the vastness OF
the Internal commerce of the United
States. They suggest also that in adj
dition to the advantages which the AM
erican people enjoy from protection
against foreign competition, they enjoy
tile advantages OF absolute free trade
I'VE a larger area and with a greater
population than any other nation. The
internal OF our thirty-eight
states and nine territories is carried on
without let Or NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. tax,
detention or governmental interference
OF amy kind whatever. 1t spreads freely
over three and a half million square
miles, almost equal in extent 10 the
whole continent of Europe; its profits
are enjoyed to-day by fitty-six millions
OF American freemen, and from this en-
joyment nc monopoly is created accord
ing to Alexander Hamilton, when he
discussed the same subject in 1870. The
internal competition which takes place
does away with everything like lnon-
opoly, and 10y degrees reduces the prices
OF articles to the minimum of n reason
able profit. 1t is impossible to point to
a single monopoly created or fostered by
the industrial system which is upheld
by the republican party. Compared
with our foreign commerce these DOM
este exchanges are inc~onceivably great
in amount, requiring merely as one in
strumentality as large a mileage OF rail-
way as exists to-day in all the other ma
tons Of the world combined. These
internal exchanges are estimated by the
statistical bureau Of the treasury de-
partment to be annually twenty times
as great in amour as our foreign COM
merce. 1t is into this vast field of home
trade, at once The creation and the herlt-
age or the American people, that foreign
nations are striving by every device to
enter. Ii is into this held That the OPP
ponents OF u present revenue system
would freely admit the countries of Eu-
rope countries into whose internal
trade we could not reciprocally enter;
countries to which we should be surren-
dering every advantage OF trade and Of
whom we should gain nothing in re-
turn, which would be disastrous TO the
mechanics aud workingmen OF the I'M
Sites. Wages are undoubtedly
reduced when an industrious man Is
not able 10y means of his earnings to
live in comfort, educate his children,
and lay by sufficient for the necessities
OF age. The reduction OF wages, ineyi-
tably consequent upon throwing our
home market open to the world, would
deprive them OF the power to DO this;
it would prove a great calamity to our
country IL would produce a conflict be-
tween the poor IL the rich, and in the
degradation OF labor would
plant seeds of public danger. The re-
publican party has steadily aimed TO
maintain "a just relation between labor
and capital, guarding with care the
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 indispensable to the
creation and the profitable use of capt.
tai, 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
harmonlZes the two on the basis
of absolute justice. The republican
party has protected the free labor of
America SO that it's compensation is
than is realized in any other coun-
try. Lit has guarded u people against
unfair competition of contract labor
from China, and, may be called upon to
prohibit the growth of a similar evil
Europe. 1t is obviously unfair to
permit capitalists to demand or make
Tor labor in foreign countries
to the hurt and disparagement of the
Of American citizens. Such a
policy (like that which would leave the
lime and other conditions OF home labor
exclusively in the control Of the en-
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
The people. Suffrage is made universal
as a just weapon OF self-defense to every
1t is not to the interest of the
that any economic system
should be adopted which involves the
reduction OF wages to the hard standard
prevailing elsewhere. The republican
party aims to elevate and dignity labor,
lot to degrade it. AS a substitute for
he industrial system which under re-
publican administration has developed
such extraordinary prosperity, our OPP
oonents offer a policy which is but a
series of experiments upon our system
If revenue-a policy whose end must
harm our manufacturers and the greater
oart of our labor. Experiment in the
Industrial and financial systems is the
,ountry's greatest dread, as stability is
it's greatest boon. Even the uncertainty
resulting from the recent tariff legisla-
ion in congress has hurtfully affected
he business of the entire country. Who
IAN measure the harm to u shops and