The times., 1894-02-16
The Last Word Unsaid.

porary purposes, on the side OF unrestricted
free trade.
The Last Word Unsaid.
1t is evident that there is no ground for
that hope entertained by so many moder-
ate men that this bill, bad as it is, could be
"A resting place where our manufacturing
and productive industries such as may
survive, can re-establish themselves and
have sure foundation for the future, free
from party pickering and party strife.
Hence, Also there can be no foundation for
that cry so insidiously raised that this bill
should be passed at once because uncer-
tainty is worse than any bill can possibly
be. Were this bill to pass both branches
today uncertainty would reign just the
same.
This result was inevitable. Although
this bill professed to open to the manufac-
turers a new era of prosperity and professed
TO be made in the interest of some of them,
the moment it came to be defended on this
floor the great bulk of It could not he de-
Tended on any other ground than the prin-
eiples of free trade. Hence in this discus
sion the precise terms OF this proposed act
0ount for nothing, and we are left to the
discussion of the principles which underlie
the whole question. That question may
aot be decided here and now upon these
principles, but the ultimate decision by the
people can have no other foundation.
After this statement it would be entirely
natural that feeling of WEAKNESS should
come over this audience, for IL anything
seems to have been discussed until human
nature can bear it no moro it is the tariff.
Nevertheless the feet that the subject is
still before the people shows that the last
word has not yet been said and that the
subject has not yet been exhausted OF un-
derstood.
Two Trying Ordesls.
During that period of growth which lifted
ms from q position so low that we actually
had human slavery within our borders to
our present condition of freedom and pros
perity we struggled through dreadful
war which desolated one-half of the country
and so strained the resources Of the other
half, both in money and in men, that it's inn
press today is visible every year on our tre-
mendous pension roll, although almost OBJ
liberated from our public debt After the
war ceased our prosperity was clouded with
six years struggle with disordered cur
rency and the reconstruction of labor and
industry In the south. No nation in tho
worlds history ever passed through in 20
short time two ordeals SO trying and sose-
we're.
In spite of both these misfortunes not
only have we studded the country east of
the Mississippi all over with mills and work
shops, factories and furnaces, covered It
with railroads, exploited the oil fields of
Pennsylvania, Indiana and Ohio, and turn
ed into light, heat and production the fierce,
impassioned energy of Thousand mines Of
coal, but beyond the Mississippi we have
built four great ttranscontinentall lines across
the Rocky mountains and have driven the
great American desert off the maps and off
the face of the earth.
Nor have we in any way exhausted the
future. The country is 10 times more capa-
BILE today of further development than it
was in 1860. Let me state one little item,
sample of thousand. Only last year at
Rumford. in my own state, was brought
under harness waterfalls which will give
to the productive energies of this country
10000 horsepower for every day in the year.
Three hundred and fifty thousand just such
horsepower run TO waste every day in New
England alone. Whene .er our citizens are
rich enough TO employ these great resources,
my hope is that they will be rich enough to
consume their products themselves
The Country's Great Progress.
So utterly undisputed and 80 distinctly
visible to every human being in this audi
ence have been our growth and progress that
this hasty outline Is all that Is needed to
remind you of one great fact--that whatey
or the future Industrial system OF this coun-
try may be. the past system Is splendid
monument to that series Of successful
s1etssmen who found the country bankrupt