Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-05-24


save one, Russia. It had survived the
assaults of all the professors Of the 'tdis-
NAL science" called political economy.
1t had stood up against all the half
knowledge of learned men who never had
sense enough to transmute their learning
into wisdom. On the face Of the earth
to day there were but two sets of people
who believe in free trade, whether pure
and simple or disguised IS rev
enue reform and those two are
the masked majority of the commit
| tee on ways and means, and their
| followers and the united kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, with Ireland
suppressed, Russia, the granary of Eu-
rope, had abandoned free trade, with the
striking result that whereas, in 1876, be-
| fore the duties were raised, she bought
| 100000 hundred weight of British met
ais and paid therefor $30,000,000, she got
the same quantity in 1884 and paid only
| $17 100000 for 1t.
Here in the United States were 6O,0O0,-
600 people with all the varied characters
their numbers indicate. The problem
before congress was what system would
get from ali these creatures, so different
from each other
THE MAXIMUM OF WORK AND WEALTH AND
WISDOM.
There was only one way TO get the best
work out of men and that was to give
each the work he can do best. To enable
the American people themselves to sup
ply all their wants you must give and as
sure to the American people the Ameri
can market. Here is another unshotted
gun called 'the markets of the world.
he I-ate re ha
and cool these words are! They stretch
from the frozen regions of the northern
pole across the blazing tropics to the
| ice bound shores of the Antarctic con-
tinent, Ali this we can have if we will
but give up the little hands breadth
called the United States Of America.
| What are the markets of the world? To
hear these rhetoricians declaim you would
| imagine the markets Of the world vast
vacuum waiting till now for American
goods to break through, rush in and fill
the yearning void. Will your goods go
to Austria, TO Italy, Germany, Russia, or
France? Around all these benighted
countries are the Chinese walls of tariff
taxes. All these nations will contest
with you the other countries which they
already overflow.
eve have now spent the twenty days
on the discussion OF the Mills bill. Have
you noticed what has been the most
utterly insignificant thing in the discus
sion. The most utterly insignificant
| thing in the discussion has been the
Mills bill. How do you account for it?
I will tell you. If the principles you
have enunciated are true, it is an IN
worthy compromise with Satan. If the
principles we have stated are true, it is
an unworthy ambuscade and you know
it. You mean this merely for one step.
YOU MEAN TO CUT DEEPER NEXT TIME.
You mean the destruction of the sys-
tenn which now exists.
sit is not alone the piled-np billions
under which the greatest national debt
and war expenditure combined the
world ever saw has melted like an ice
berg under tropic sun. Is is not alone
the rejuvenated south turning its face
to it's great furure. Nay, it is not even
all OF these combined. It IS the fact
bound by the most cultured Englishman
of our day that all this wealth and pros
Perity has been so shaped that it seeks
the comfort-not of the rich, not of the
lounging owner of fixed income, not Of
the pampered minion of governmental
power, but of the plain people whom
| Abraham Lincoln loved and who are Of
right the chief glory of this republic.
| Continuing MIR. Reed said: "But if the
revenue reform orator on the monopoly
| is terrible there is a theme on which he
can take up the notes of the dying swan.
| How we do love TO hear him on the i'm
pOverished farmer. Then he is not sublime
but he is pathetically great. heard him
first ten years ago. To me, innocent,
untraveIed, it seemed as If the western
| farmer was the most wOe-begone, down
| trOddeD, luckless, unsuccessful, dispirited
| devil on the face of the earth. The
| eastern vampire had mortgage on his
| farm and thrown his fences and scattered
his subsistence to the winds. In the full
ness of time, travelled west myself You
may well imagine my astonishment, who
had never seen ten acres together in corn,
to behold fields of that great staple
/ stretching wav out to the horizons edge;
| to see tracts of land which seemed to have
no boundaries, but the visible sky-land
so rich that if we had an acre
of it in Maine we could have sold
/ it by the bushel, = while on
every side were great brick houses, such
as only the squire lived in in our villages.
After some days of this l became sulky.
[ said, gentlemen, of course we have
robbed you. Your congressman would
not lie about trifes like that; but what
disgusts me is that we did not do it more
thoroughly" In conclusion Mr.. Reed
spoke eloquently of the growth and pros
perity of the country under the wise pro-
| tective laws.
Mr.. Reed finished his speech at 1856
and was greeted with rounds of applause
| and was made the recipient OF party con
gratulations from the party colleagues.