St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-10-05
A FESTIVAL FOR PROTECTION.

A FESTIVAL FOR PROTECTION.
Why not? Recently Minneapolis ex-
pressed the joy and gratitude which
fills all hearts because Providence has
given to the labors of the husbandman
unparalleled returns. Omniscient wis
dom has prepared all the conditions
needed for prosperity; it had filled the
earth with moisture before putting it
into its winters rest: it sent the warmth
of early spring to prepare the seeded;
it tempered the weather to the most
favorable conditions of growth; it
shielded with cool days and nights the
grain from the too ardent sun at the
critical period of its development; it
filled the heads to the tips with plump
berries; it withheld destructive storms;
it, when the grain had matured, sent
the fervid heat of the sun to swell and
ripen the belated corn, that the
cribs might not look with envy
on the granaries, and that the
huSbandman might not mourn partial
loss of his endeayors. Not content with
giving its largess to the fields, it loaded
the trees with their fruits each after its
kind. until the boughs bent and the
trunks groaned, and the gardens brought
forth in wonderful profusion their share
of nutriment. And the hearts of men
were filled with gladness, and they
lifted up their voices in songs of Joy.
The farmer, because he saw mortgages
and debt melting away in the golden
tide as snowflakes melt in the river;
the merchant, because he saw his stocks
grow small and his purse wax fat; the
artisan, because he saw increased OPP
pOrtunities for his activities; and all,
because they saw the gruesome specter
of poverty fading from sight in the
bright sunlight of a universal prosper
ity.
1t is year now since that imitatorsof
omniscient wisdom which assumes to
overlook and safeguard the affairs of
men-that potent, if vague. entity which
men call the government-Said: 1--WE,
too, will re-create prosperity; we, too
will relieve this discomfort; we will
put profit in place of loss; plenty in
place of scarcity; industry where en-
forced idleness has reigned in misery:
toll shall be worthily remunerated, and
capital shorn Of its unjust gains. We
will protect our people against their
manifest folly. We Will direct their in
dustry into various channels, and make
them profitable; we will discourage
their Improbable undertakings. We
will give to you, earners of wages, in
crease of wage; to you. manufacturers,
increase of profits; to you, mighty army
Of Of nf oil
you need; to you, tillers of the soil, am
pie remuneration"
And SO the wise men elected, not born,
to wisdom which would counterfeit
omniScience, made q law which, they
said, would "scatter blessings DER a
smiling land" And together Omnis-
cience and the little god Protection went
forth, the one in the fields and the other
In the marts, to eXemplify their power
for human veal, and their years labor
is at an end. We have all seen and &C
knowledged with gratitude the power
and goodness of the former. Now let
us all join to give honor in fitting meas
ure to the largess of the latter. You
worklngmen Of America, whose dignity
has been promoted, whose wages have
been raised by ''this most benefcent of
measures cease for day your toll, and
give 1t to recognition Of your
benefactiOns and Generators; doff
the garments of toll and don
those of finer weave which the
god Protection has cheapened to your
increased wage, and join the great pro-
cession which will 90 to render homage
to the mundane god. Fill your vans,
you manufacturers, with those products
which the god has given it to you to
make. and draw to your philanthropic
purposes the well-earned plauditS of the
multitude by marking plainly how
much less you are enabled to sell your
wares by reason of the edicts of the god
you worship and eXalt. Bring your
wheat and flax and cotton, your butter
and eggs, you farmers, and swell the
throng Of grateful men who will go up
to lay oblations on the pedestal on which
sits enthroned the great god Protection,
and let your peans ring in praise of the
wOndrous yield and greater price which
his graciousness has granted you; but
let there be no single note in it of
reproach that all these gifts have been
so long delayed. And somewhere in the
progress let there be fitting place for
and representation of the vanished trusts
and combines which fled in dismay be-
fore the righteous edict of the god. By
all the obligations which gratitude i'm
poses, let us have on Oct. festival for
the great god Protection.