The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1886-09-01
BLAINE AGAIN TO THE FRONT.

While there has been for several days
past some very effective skirmish firing
by the Maine Republicans, what is regard
ed as the formal opening of the campaign
in that state took place Tuesday evening
of last week. at Sebago Lake, where Mr..
Blaine made the first of the series of
speeches he expects to deliver in the brief
but vigorous canvass which will be made
between this and Names election day
the 18th of September. While the little
town has only about 800 inhabitants, yet
there were over 5000 people present to
hear the speech. Maine elects this year
governor, four members OF Congress,
and Legislature which will choose
United States senator. The issues between
the two parties therefore are not local, but
in large degree national, and, as graph
ically and forcibly presented in this open
ing speech of Mr., Blaine, they are as rev.
Giant in Pennsylvania, Illinois and CAL
ifornia as in New England. His speech
will be read with the livliest interest not
only because his well-deserved fame as a
public speaker begets high expectations,
which are never disappointed, but because
more than any other man he is the chief
and spokesman of the Republican party,
and presents with something akin to au-
thority its convictions and matured iudg-
ment.
In his speech which we are sorry we
cannot present in full, but which our peo-
pie will doubtless have a chance to read
before November, Mr.. Blaine addresses
himself boldly to the labor question, the
discomfort among the men who earn their
bread by skilled and unskilled labor, and
the uneasiness and uncertainty which at
tend it. lie submits two considerations
for the reflection of workingmen. One is,
how can the. wages of labor in the United
States be kept above the rate of wages in
England, Germany and France on the
same articles of manufacture without the
Intervention of protective duties? The
other is, can the workingmen of the North
afford to ignore the condition of colored
laborer in the South? Mr.. Blaine makes
the pertinent inquiry of organized labor
in the North; "Do you suppose you can
permanently maintain in the Northern
states one scale of prices when just beyond
an imaginary line ON the South of us a far
different scale of prices is paid for labor ?"
The political bearing of these queries
needs no Interpretation. If the Democrat
&c party shall succeed as they have been
annually attempting for twelve years, in
destroying the tariff, American labor will
be thrown into direct competition with
the underpaid labor of Europe. If through
the ascendency of the Democratic party in
The nation the colored laborer is continued
in political subjection, unable to fix the
price OF his labor, labor in the North. or
ganized and unorganized, will feel disas-
trously the effects of the cheaper competi-
tion in the South.
On tho fishery question: Mr.. Blaine
speaks with full knowledge and strong
conviction. He shows how the halting di-
plomacy of Mr.. Bayard and his disregard
for the declared will of Congress have re-
suited in the series of petty and annoying
prosecutions and Outrages to which Amer
lean fishing vessels and fishing crews arc
now subjected by the deliberate act of the
Canadian Government. By its patient en-.
duTance OF Canadian outrage on the ono
hand, and its unnecessary and undignified
display of insolence and braVado towards
Mexico on the other. TIE State Department
has given cause for national humiliation
and chagrin. AS secretary of state, Mr.
Blaine labored 10 make war between the