The Portland daily press., 1894-05-03
Elk. SPEAKER REED AT PITTSERG
The Country Under Republican and
Democratic Rule.

Good Wages the Key to National Pros
perity. -
The last time had the good fortune
to address this club, this country was in
state of peace and prosperity; work was
plenty. capital was rejoicing in it's pro-
ductive strength, and labor was enjoying
the right to sell its service at prices
which brought happiness and comfort
to all our homes. The 80 years which
had preceded had witnessed the gradual
and steady rise of compensation for SER
vice of both brain and muscle until
every days work was worth in results
twice what it had been worth since the
last domination of this Union by South
ern statesmen and their principles. So
firmly rooted seemed our prosperity that
our citizens thought it beyond the reach
of heat and cold and all changes of sun
and weather and most men felt that it
was beyond the touch of even human
folly. 1t seemed to be beyond laws and
beyond politics, something inherent in
the constitution of things, something
to be calculated upon with unerring
certainty, like the rise and set of suns,
and the regular motion of the planets
and the eternal stars.
Not even the bitterness of party in
vective, or the fear engendered by party
prejudice, ventured to predict as the
concomitant of Democratic success any
I,ut Of ON
slight shock of temporary uncertainty
which would perhaps soon be over, and
certainly would be endurable for a brief
season. Had anyone of the eloquent men
who two years ago proclaimed the Re-
publican truth to listening multitudes,
painted in the
COLORS OF SORROW
and sadness SO visible today to every
eye, the future of the Republic just as
we see it at this moment, his par
tisan auditor would have had no slight
sense of shame at what ne might well
have thought was the causeless exag-
geration of mere party fervor. Not one
Grafton was ever delivered which told in
prophecy one 1.-THE of the story which is
history today. 1t is not the dlsorganIzed
crowds which seem to be aiming, but in
an aimless way, toward the capital of
the nation. 1t is not the mills running
on half and quarter time and no time at
all, nor capital piled up unused at the
centres of trade, hor even labor unem-
ployed for nearly year past, which
completes the sad desperation of the
picture. To me the sight most odious
OF all, is the utter inability of the people
to reach their own instruments and to
compel the fulfllment of their own will.
Here in land where government by
found it's truest and latest expression,
the people seem to be powerless to con-
troll their own legislature, and correct
by sober reflection the mistake of the
most thoughtless day in American his
tory-the day when the present Con-
gress and the present Executive were
chosen to preside over the unhappy des-
TIMES of the citizens of the United
States.
Whatever large majorities would do,
whatever the exercise of the right of
voting could do, has been done in large
and OVERLOOKING measure. Pennsylvania
with nearly 200, 900 majority has ex-
pressed her imperial will. little Rhode
Island, swarming with workingmen, has
defeated by more than 5000 majority
its most popular Democrat, while New
L OEhs OAIO anu UaS 81 cav ASOl uA w CeU
have embraced every opportunity and
tried every chance to proclaim their un-
f1inching opposition to all the actions
OF the Congress chosen but untitled to
register the popular Will. Yet unmoved
by all this full. open and UNMARRIED ex-
preston of the Northern States, of the
Middle States, of the Great West. the
great Northwest, and the States of the
Pacific, these creatures of the people in
sullen defiance of their creators, keep on
their
WORK OF RUIN
without stop or stay.
Why is this and what are the causes?
Were we left to the tender mercies of
the Northern Democracy, I venture to
say that no such condition could exist
for even single hour. It is because
we are under the domination, I will not
say of the South, but of Southern men,
elected to Office without those safeguards
which surround the election of the
Northern Democrats. For the sake of
the South itself, hope to see the next
election bring us to an end OF this un-