The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1894-06-15
REPUBLICAN DOCTRINE.
REEDS ELo0UENCE.
Choice Extracts from His Speech on the
Tariff, February 1, 1884,.

ton, and the whole world seemed about
to follow. Today the entire situation
seems to be reversed. The whole civil
lied world except Great Britain has be-
come rotectionist, and the very veal
last passed has witnessed the desertion
Of English principles by the last Eng
llsh colony which held out. This has
been done in defiance of the opinions
OF every political economist in Eng
land n wrote prior to 1850, n of
most of those who have written since.
When you add to this that the argu-
ments against it have seemed so clear
and simple that every school boy can
comprehend them and every patriot
with suitable lungs could fill the at
mosphere with the catchwords laugh
teri the wonder increases that in every
country it should still flourish and
maintain its vigor. Ten years ago it
was equally true at one and the same
time that every boy who graduated
from college graduated a free trader,
and hat everyone of them who after
wards became a producer or a distribu-
tor of our goods became also a protec-
zionist.
The arguments of the political econ
omlst, clear as crystal, do not seem to
AVE convinced the world, nor, what is
much worse, do they seem to have
made any substantial progress: On the
contrary, these economists have taken
up h task of tearing each other to
pieces, so hat today there is hardly a
nameable important proposition on
which they agree, and the more the
facts of the universe are developed the
more confusion seems to reign among
them. Meanwhile the world has pro-
ceeded in its own way without much
regard for their theories and their wis
DOM. | do not mean that studious men
have not discovered great truths and
had glimpses of still greater, but in the
main they have only passed from one
~inaccuracy to another, because they
have forgotten hat the whole race is
wiser than any man. Applause.
Whether the universal sentiment in
favor of protection as applied to every
country is sound or not, | do not stop
to discuss. Whether it is best for
the United States of America alone
concerns me now, and the first thing |
have to say, is that after thirty years
of protection, undisturbed by any seri-
of free trade, up to the very
year now last passed, this country was
the greatest and most hourishing
nation on the face of the earth. Loud
applause on the republican side.
Moreover, with the shadow of this I'M
justifiable bill resting cold upon it,
with mills closed, with hundreds of
thousands of men unemployed, industry
at a s%tandstill, Inc prospects before it
o gloomy than ever marked it's his
tory-eXcept one-this country is still
the greatest and the richest hat the
sun shines on, or ever did shine on.
[Renewed applause.
The question of wages is all-import-
ant as bearing upon the question of
consumption. All production depends on
consumption. Who are the consumers?
In the old days, when the products of
manufactures were luxuries, the lord
and his retainers, the lady and her
maids were the consumers, d class apart
by themselves, but today the consumers
are the producers. Long ago the la
borer consumed only what would keep
him alive. Today he and his wife and
their children are so immeasurabiy the
most valuable customers that if the
shop had to give up the wealthy or
those whom it is the custom to call poor
there would not be a moments hesita-
ton or momen's doubt.
Unfortunately the gentlemen on the
other side have pelsistently retained
the old idea that the producers are one
class and h are another,
and hence we hear on all hands such
stupidities of speech as those which
sum up the workers in each branch and
compare them with the whole people.
One hundred and fifty thousand work
ers in woolens-you ask what are they
compared with 70, O00, 900 consumers;
200, 600 workers in steel, what are they
compared with 70, 900, 900 consumers;
200, 900 workers in cotton, what are
they compared with 70, 900, 900 con-
sumers, and so on all through the long
list, forgetting that all these people
added together make the whole 10, O0O,-
900 themselves.
1t so happens that America is filed
with workers. There are die people,
but they are fewer here than elsewhere
except now, when we are living under
the shadow of the Wilson bill. If
those workers are all getting good
wages they are themselves the market,
and if the wages are increasing the
market is also increasing. The fact
that in this country all the workers
have been getting better wages than
elsewhere is the very reason why our
market is the best in the world and
why all the nations of the world are
trying to break into it. We do not ap-
preciate the nature of our market our
selves.
l have given you already the glow
ing testimony of Englishmen who have
seen us with their own eyes. ''Amaz-
ing prosperity" Greatest market in
the world. paradise of the working
man." These are strong words; but let
us see if cold mathematics do not put
to shame the fervor of adjectives.
We are nominally 20, 900, 600 people.
That is what we are in mere numbers.
But as a market for manufactures and
choice foods we are potentially u.s.
600, 900 as compared with the next best
nation on the globe. Nor is this diff
cult to prove. Whenever an English
man earns one dollar an American
earns a dollar add sixty cents. l speak
within bounds. Both can get the food
that keeps body and soul together and
the shelter which the body must have
for 60 cents. Take 60 cents from a dol