New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1894-10-17
TOM REEDS PROTECTION.
The Maine Statesman Riddles Dem ocracy
with Common Sense.

The following is an extract from Tom
Reeds great New York speech delivered
Saturday:
Education is the necessity of the hu-
man race, not book education, but edu-
cation in the working of human affairs.
My best consolation in these times is
that some lessons are being learned, not
out of books, but in more solid fashion
out of experience. Nor is the lesson to
be learned only by those who voted
wrong. Some of us who voted. right
have much to understand as to the foun-
dation of things. Perhaps the know
ledge comes to us fast enough for prac.
tical life. When years ago we defended
protection on the ground of infant in
dustries we stood on good ground for
the establishment of manufacturers, but
to-day protection that is not protection
of the many for the one, but merely a
method of securing to everybody in Am
erica the markets of the country,w was the
best way of distributing among the peo-
pie the God-given gifts to enterprise, OF
which our country is so full.
1t is perfectly true that prosperity of
any kind leads to large fortunes for those
who have the genius to organize great
enterprises, but this is the case every
where. Sir Joseph Whitworth, the great
steel manufacturer in England, did not
die pauper and Lord Armstrong and
the Rothschilds hardly seem in the way
Of impoverishment.My consolation when
I see great riches, for [ own up to the
same envy that aff1icts my brethren, of
those who are better off than myself, is
that all those riches are of no profit to
the owners unless they build railroads
or mills, or dig illuminations for the
poorest of us out of the bowels of the
earth. The more prosperity there is, the
more there is to distribute, and there is
the chance that the worker, whether with
brain or muscle, had to wrest from his
employer his share, I am not the author
of this idea. It comes from Pennsyl-
vania workingman who declared before
the committee of ways and means, that
if congress would only pass laws which
would enable enable enterprise to make
profits, the workingmen would see that
they got their share. And this very day
IN the strike which is or was going on in
Massachusetts, the very basis Of the ar
gument on both sides is the price of the
goods and the consequent profits. The
orators on the other side have always de-
clared that strikes would cease when they
had power, but they have not passed
away yet, on the contrary more loom up
in the future than we have ever had in
the past. Strikes are always unpleasant
but not always bad things. Their sue
cess is not in their victories, but in their
possible existence. Men who see their
way clear to profits will not refuse re-.
compense to those they employ when the
great disorganization of a strike is pos
:sible under sense Of injustice on the
part of organized labor, The only way
thus far discovered to distribute con-
sumable and enjoyable wealth is first to
give the chance to create it, and then let
each side struggle for its share. I do
not say that this is all there ever will be.
I hope not. No one will more gladly
welcome than any method for fair and
peaceful distribution. But there is one
thing certain, until you have profits they
cannot be distributed.
Why do I desire fair distribution of
profits? 1t is because profess to be the
:special friend of those who labor. Any
body who does that from political plat
form had better be watched. I have no
such motive. My motive is the good
selfish one that such distribution leads
to general prosperity of which hope to
get my share.
What is the motive power that lets ON
the water and feeds in the coal and sets
the machinery in motion? 1t IS the mar
ket, the capacity of buying, the power
of ,,,,rohooo Whence comes that? From
the rich and the poor; from the rich, a
little, from the poor much. If you were
to Give me alone for myself million
dollars, I should not spend $4,000 OF
inconsumable wealth., though [ might
put it into plant, into works or rail,
roads, but if were to give you mil
lion dollars, distributed among you all
every cent of it will be spent, not II
looms, in machinery, but in the produc,
Of looms and machinery. This is Wha