Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1892-11-24
PROGRESS HINDERED.
NATURES HIGHWAYS BLOCKED AND
COMMERCE RETARDED.


aony with Natures Laws and IAstitu-
tisns-A Contemplate Policy.
Now there is one moro point to which
wish especially TO call the attention OF
this house. and which In never discussed |
in connection with this question, and |
which, in my Judgment, ought to arrest
the attention Of every thinking man. i
want to inquire how near the policy of |
. high protective tariff. as championed
BY the Republican party and as crystal
lizod in the Mckinley bill, is in harmony
with the natural laws and institutions
which surround and should govern us. !
happen to be one Of those peculiar in
iividuals who believe in the everlasting
efficacy of the laws Of nature. ! believe
the nearer we approach to and obey
those laws, whether in our capacity as
individuals or in our collective capacity
as nation, the nearer we will be right.
Why do say this? Simply because !
know that nature has made fewer mis-
takes than men. Nature has committed
fewer blunders than political parties,
and when it comes to contest between
q we'll ascertained law Of nature and
resolution in q political platform l un-
hesitatingly indorse the one and con-
denim the other.
New let us pursue this line of argu-
ment one or two steps further. Look at
this world In which we are living, with
its vast oceans and continents, not sepa-
rated by impossible barriers, but each
united with all the others.
Without intending to be the least ir-
reverent, want to say that when this
earth was created the Creator thereof
did not have the Republican platform
to guide him or he would have leade it
altogether different. He should 80 have
arranged it with the guidance of the
platform) that every country, whether
large or small, could be perfectly irde-
pendent, self sustaining, and thus would
wo all have become rich. Bat We find
the world modelled upon different plan.
A dependency one upon the other and
an intsrdspsndsncy existing among all
is the plaA that WAS adopted. We find,
for instance, that countries like great
OF part Of Russia, q large part of Can
ada, Minnssota, Wisconsin and the Da-
kotas have received a soil and climate
admirably suited for the raising OF
wheat, and large surplus of this valu-
able cereal is the result Of those natural
conditions.
When we 20 south of this wheat belt
into Kansas, Iowa, illinois and Missouri
we find the soil and climate exactly suited
to the raising of those grasses and grains
which enable us to make cheap meat. A
surplus of meat products is here the re-
suit Of natural conditions. But while
We have meat in abundance and to the
north of us they have wheat in super
abundance, neither locality is able to
raise O pound Of cotton except under
highly artificial conditions, which from
an economic standpoint would be out of
the question. To the south of us, how
ever, the people are enablsd-primarily
because Of soil and climate-to raise a
large part of the worlds supply OF
cotton.
Still farther south the people, because
of natural conditions, arc saabled tc
raise rice. sugar cane, ard all the semi
tropical fruits. Thsn wGan we leave the
confines of our own country and look
across thousands of miles Of an exparse
Of ocean into the Flowery Kingdom, we
find that the people Of China, because Of
natural conditions, are enabled to enrich
: the worlds commerce with their tea and
silks and other remarkable productions
When you 60 to Brazil the same hold
true of coffee, while still other parts o1
the earth yield up to the worlds com
merce their spices, their fruits, theil
| oils, their woods and their drugs, which
4 can grow and mature only under thu
/ fierce rays of a tropical sun. Now whel
S You have thus looked around about yor
8 and have taken hasty and very in
8 complete inventory Of all these natura
A blessings, and when you may discern il
;. the physical confguration Of the glob
: how the oceans and the rivers are SO ar
: ranged as to permit an easy exchang
: of all these various products ant
| COIlIuOulLLUS,
h between different and distant coun
o tries-taen when, last Of all, yo,
l. take into consideration mems az
g pstites, their wants and their necessi
@ ties, wherever they may be located
o whether north or south, or in interme
It diats regions-when you have done al
n that, then let me tell you that for tn
o philosophical mind, for the mind that
Is free from party prejudice, for the min
that is determined to seek after th
r truth and willing to embrace it whe
, discovered-for such mind there is bu
n one conclusion to reach, and that is ths
1t when God Almighty created this cart
n he created it in such way and fasl
5. ioned it in such shape, and he mad
1t mems conditions such as not only
l. permit but actually to compel men an
y nations to trade with one another.
,e believe that civilized man the worl
y over has now reached that point in tf
development of superior civiliEatio
when the commercial policy of ever
country should be adjusted in harmon
1t with and not in antagonism to the ma
ural lava law which if obeyed wi
of make of every ocean an open publ
ag highway and of every river an uno
"a. structed thoroughfare, and eventual
o link together in common bond all IL
~ nations Of the earth and in an ind
Va structible brotherhood all the races
men. But the commercial policy ia
=. tened upon our country by the Repu
.n os hcan party makes fierce war upon a
he these noble ideas and lofty principle
he it seeks to tear down all these natur
me conditions and institutions, and to j
wn more all these natural laws, and to S
er- up in their place creed and code pi
ion iahlv narrow and contemntiblv selfish