Sturgis advertiser. (Sturgis, Dakota [S.D.]) 1887-1???, 1888-08-22
Blaine Strikes the keynote.

In his warm and eloquent response tc
the committee who went down the harbol
to welcome him home, Mr.. Blaine struck
the keynote of this campaign when he
said the question was that of wages for
the laborer; and the result was sure, as
the laboring masses held the issue in
their own hands. We give couple OF
paragraphs from that speech:
The campaign upon which you are
about to enter should be prcfaced, if that
were possible, by every voter in the
United States seeing what I have seen
and hearing what I have heard during
the last year. The progress of the cam
paign in the United States is viewed
from the European standpoint with an
interest as profound as it is in the United
States. 1t is the opportunity Of Eng
land. 1t is the long -looked-for occasion
upon which the cheaper labor and the
cheaper fabrics of the Old World expect
to invade the New World and lower the
wages Of American workingmen to the
European standard. T is not q contest
of capital against capital. Tt not con-
test of partisan against partisan. It is
much higher than either Of these. II
transcends all party motive.
/ Whether the great mass of American
citizens who earn their bread by the
sweat of their brow shall be seriously
reduced in their emolument from day to
day that is the whole pith and moment
of this question. Anything that diverts
the question from that single point is a
weakening of the campaign. 1 say here
as hope to say with much moro elabor-
alton; l say here that the wages of the
American laborer can not be reduced ex-
cept with the consent and the votes of
the American laborer himself. The ap-
peal is to him. 1t comes to his door
and asks him whether, with the great
power of the franchise and the great ma
jority he possesses in his own hands, he
is willing for himself and Ills associates,
his children and his childrens' children,
to take the final step at the bidding Of an
American congress and the American
President who are governed by the ele-
ment which sought to destroy the nation.
And then again in Boston in his
speech Monday evening he enforces the
same idea.
"Already our opponents have taken
the alarm, and the young mems demo-
cratic club of Massachusetts have set to
themselves the task to prove that you
can introduce free trade into the United
States without reducing the wages of the
American laborer. President Cleveland
is alarmed; the supporters of the Mills
bill are alarmed; the democratic party
is alarmed, because they know the
mighty power OF that host which earns
its bread by the sweat OF the brow. and
it will resent the attempt to be placed on
the low basis of the European plane.
We will let the democratic party know
that this is no fight for the manufacturer.
They can take care of themselves. But
this is fight for the streng arm and
sturdy heart of the American laborer.
If we have free trade the factories may
not be closed, but if kept open they will
be run at half the present wages. That
is the issue which should be pressed
ho.he on the democratic party. They
should be arraigned as I arraign them,
as conspirators against the welfare OF
every laboring man.. Let that be the is
sue and watchword of the republicans,
and defeat is impossible