Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1894-02-10

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THOMAS h. REED.
man from West Virginia, who ought &c
have been steadied by bis sense Of respon.
sibility to the whole country, have one and
all. with but rare exceptions placed THEN
authors uueonpromisingly, except FIR tenn
porary purposes, on the side Of unrestricted
free trade.
The Last Word Unsaid.
Il is evident that there Is no ground foi
that hope entertained by so many moder-
ate men that this bill. bad Is il j., could be
a resting place where our manufacturing
aud productive industries. such "a may
survive, can re-establish themselves and
have a sure foundation for the future, free
from party pickering and party strife.
Hence, also, there can be no foundation foi
that cry so insidiOusly raised that this bill
should be passed at once because unoer.
tainty IS worse than any bill can possibly
be- Were this bill 20 pass both branches
today uncertainty would reign just the
same
This result was inevitable. Although
this bill protested to open to the manufac.
turcrs Il 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 be de-
Tended on any other ground than the prin-
ciples of free trade Hence in this discus.
sion the precise terms of this proposed act
count for nothing, and we are left to the
discussion of the principles which ynderlie
the whole question. That question may
not 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 if anything
seems to have been discussed until human
nature can bear it no more it is the tariff.
Nevertheless the fact 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 or I'M
derstood.
Two Trying Ordeals.
During that period of growth which lifted
us from 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 i'm
press today is visible every year on our tire
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 the
worlds history ever passed through in SC
short a time two ordeals so trying and so Sc
we're.
In spite Of both these misfortunes not
only have we studded the country east OF
the Mississippi all over with milk and work
shops, factories and furnaces, covered it
with railroads, exploited the oil fields OF
Pennsylvania, Indiana and Ohio, aud turn
ed into light, heat and production the fierce
/ imprisoned energy of thousand mines OF
coal, but beyond the Mississippi we have
built four great transcontnental lines across
the Rocky mountains and have driven the
great American desert off the maps and of
the face of the earth.
Nor have we in any way exhausted the
future. The country is 10 times more capa.
bic today of further development than il
was in 1860. Let me state one little item,
sample of thousand. Only last year at
Rumford, in my p%n 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. Whenever our citizens are
rich enough to employ these great resources
my hope is that they will be rich enough &c
consume their products themselves.
The-Country's Great Progress.
So utterly undisputed and so distinctly
visible TO every human being in this audi
euce have been our growth and progress that
this hasty outline is all that is needed Il
remind you of one great fact-that whatev
er the future industrial system Of this coun
try may be, the past system is splendid
monument to that series OF successful
statesmen who found the country bankrupt
and distracted aud LETT it first on the list of
nations.
But we must not leave this matter to our
own praises Let others speak, aud above
all the citizens of that land which is our
great rival, at whose feet American states
manship in this house now sits.
have seen an article in The Fortnightly
Review wherein, Mr. J Stevens Jeans, a
British free trade writer, in December, 1892,
declares that America has for many years
enjoyed an amazing degree of prosperity, 50
much so indeed that, to use the eloquent
words of Edmund Burke: 'Generalities
which in all other cases are apt to heighten
and raise the subject have here tendency ia
sink it. Fiction lags after truth, invention
is unfnlitful and imagination cold and
barren"
When read these words, ! recalled scene
in this house and said how differently men
look at the same thingsl
Here is o cool blooded Englishman who
in talking of the mot unreasonable hopes
Il use his very words-which his country
men entertain that the greatest market in
the world and probably in the worlds his
tory is once again to be found lying at thu
feet of British industry and commerce, =
declares that America has for many years
enjoyed an amazing degree of prosperity
SO much so indeed that he has to use The
words of Burke TO say that he cannot ever
describe it. And yet in this very hall Q
member Of the committee of ways and
means, himself eountryman of Edmund
Burke, and whose wonderful eloquenes
moved this assembly as never saw it NOV
ed before, allowed himself, amid daughter
and applause On the Democratic side,n t.
compare this amazing prosperity to pro
longed debauch, 2 from which the country
could rescue itself only by the free use d
the committees diiution Of the origina
beverage 1t seems somehow almost des
ecration to put the facts over against III
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