Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-03-29

all along the Appalachian chain, starts up
redeemed, regenerated, disenthralled; and
the industrial new south. blessed by
the legislation of the north, knows life
and glory and prosperity that it never
attained in the proud days when the plan
tiers were the owners Of the slaves. Tap
plause.
Wherever We may turn VS. will see
THE SAME GRAND LESSEN,
exemplihed in that doctrine OF protec-
tion-the protection that republican
executives md republican congresses
have wisely modified to suit the wishes
of the people. When protection was in
the hands of a republican administration
and of republican congress it was in
the hands of its friends, but the situa-
tion becomes entirely different when it
passed into the hands of democratic
president and democratic congress.
My friends, not the south alone has felt
the impulse of protective legislation.
Let US look back few years and notice
how few factories there were west of the
Aneghanies. Let Us remember that
Pittsburg was the center of what was
then termed western prosperity. But
now wherever you go in all our cities
and towns the smoke from the factory
chimney arises and darkens the sky, but
not with the cloud and the gloom of dis
aster. Wherever you turn you find in
FAINT Industries springing into life. You
find also that our railroad system, which
was paralyzed in the days of free trade,
gained mighty impulse and stretched
across the continent until the locomo-
tive, bearing freight and tidings
from east to west, steamed above the
waves of the Pacific ocean. Our own
great home market has been enlarged
the increase of population has taken care
of that. No wave of famine has swept
over the land; the wild sreculations that
led to the collapse of 1873 have been
minimized Or dwarfed by the general
prosperity of the nation, established by
the system which the democratic party
tonight is pledged to destroy.
REPUBLICANS OF WISCONSIN,,
you did your full part in the civil war
that threatened the existence of the ma
ton. Your forefathers did their full
part in the other wars that threatened to
annihilate American liberty and indie
pendence; but now you are assaulted by a
more subtle foe. You stand before a
foe against whom valOr is of no avail,
for here there is no physical casus belli.
You do not stand in the mailed ranks
that swe pit in line of steel and glory up
the rugged heights of Missionary ridge.
You stand before foe entrenched in
sophistry; you stand before foe that
depends on loaded dice; you stand before
a foe that is unable to manfully carry
the walls Of your economic Troy, and
EN- pIoys a wooden horse fed on free trade
chestnuts to enter it. Applause and
laughter. Ladies and gentlemen, be-
ware of the wooden horse; the wooden
horse is the alleged republican editor,
whoever be may be, that endorses Cleve-
lands policy. Loud cheers and laugh
ter.
I have spoken of England somewat
severely and 1 need not tell you that
am not in love with her, but I will give
her one piece of credit that is due to her.
Rapacious, cruel as she is, she never yet
deserted British subject who found
himself in the grasp of foreign power.
She made war in Abyssinia to release her
missionaries; she made war in Coomassie
for much the same object. She has spent
her blood and treasure to maintain the
dignity of her flag, pirate flag though it
is. But We have
DEPARTMENT OF STATE
that always considers the foreigner right
and the American wrong. Under no Cir
| cumstances, according to the govern
ment that exists to-day, can an American
| do right in foreign country. If hel is
run into jail in Mexico, if he is arrested
| by the sultan of Morocco, if he is pressed
| into the German ranks BY Bismarck, if he
| is crowded into the French army by Car
not or Beulanger, if he is arrested in
| England for looking like an Irish-Ameri-
can cheers and laughter, it is all the
| same thing. [ have great respect for the
| Society of Friends, but don't think that
| the presidential chair, or the Office of the
secretaryship of state is the proper place
| for professional Quakers. While [ am
not in favor of wild policy that would
involve this country unnecessarily in war,
yet we want policy that will, on proper
occasions, show the developed biceps of
sixty millions of people. Loud cheers.
The accumulation of a surplus in the
treasury is, according to Mr.. Cleveland,
THE GREAT CRIME
the republican party has committed.
| Surprising they were two hundred mill
ions short, instead of being that amount
ahead, suppose that they had gone to
swell the population of Canada, suppos-
| ing the republicans had done any Of
these things there would be more groand
for their forgiveness in the eyes of the
| democratic leaders than having these two
| hundred million dollars in the treasury to
attest the prosperity of the public and
! the potency of the policy of protection.
Now what is surplus? Suppose you owe
| man thousand dollars and have it in
/ your pocket, can you call that surplus
| Suppose you have leaky house, and the
roof is tunbling down around your wife
and children, and thousand dollars will
repair it, but instead of repairing it you
keep the thousand dollars in your pocket
and let the house tumble down and kill
the family, is that a surplus? We have,
it is alleged, two hundred millions in the
| treasury, or somewhere near that figure.
But we haven't a fertilization on any
coast of ours that would stop any kind of
| a decent cannon ball. We haven't sim
gle ship of war that can stand up before
a single Englishman, or Frenchman, or
Russian, or Italian, or CHILEAN. We have
cruisers out on the ocean, but they are
built, gentlemen, not to fight but to run
away laughter most peculiar method
of naval construction; excellent, indeed,
when backed by other kinds Of vessels,
but, together with the grey hounds,
would like to see few first class bulldogs
placed at our front doors. The ocean
commerce of all great countries depends
greatly on the measures taken for its
propagation and defense.
| WHAT HAVE THE DEMOCRATS DONE
to improve commerce? SheveIed more
red clay into the Mississippi to be swept
down to the gulf; dug into more impos-