Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-02-02

in England who wrote prior Il,
1850, and of most of these who have writ
ten since.
"When you add to this that the argu-
ments against it have seemed 30 clear and
simple that every sehoolboy can compre
bend them and every patriot with suitable
lungs could fill the atm ,sphere with the
catchwcrde, the wonder increases that in
every country it should still flourish and
maintain its vigor. Ten years ago i. was
equally true at one and the same time that
every boy who graduated from college
graduated free trader, and that everyone
of them who afterward became producer
or distributor of our goods became also
protectionist.
''The arguments of the political econo-
mist, clear as crystal, do not seem to have
convinced the world, nor, what i, mu b
worse, do they seem to have made any sub
stantial progress. On the contrary these
economist. have taken up the task of tear
ing each other to pieces, 90 that today there
Is hardly q namable important proposition
on which they agree, and the more the
facts of the universe are developed the
more confusion seems to reign among
them.
"Meanwl lie the world has proceeded in
its own way without much regard for their
theories and their wisdom. 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, be-
cause they have forgotten that the whole
race ia wiser than any man.
You and /, Mr.. Speaker, cannot hope to
10 much better than these famous men,
except 90 far as we view with tolerance
what great masses of our fellow.tnen are
ioipg and assume that they are probably
light, instead of assuming that they are
probably wrong in matters which so deeply
conce rms them.
"Whether the universal sentiment in
favor of protection as applied to every
country is sound or not, do not stop to
di cuss. Whether it is best for the United
States of America alone concerns me now,
and the first thing l have to say is that
by any serious menace of free trade, up to
the very year now last past. this country
was the greatest and most fourishing nation
on the face of this earth.
Moreover, with the shadow of this unjus-
tifiable bill resting cold upon it, with mills
closed, with hundreds of thousands of men
unemployed, industry at standstill and
prospects before it more gloomy than ever
marked its history, except once, this coun-
try is still the greatest and richest that the
sun shines on or ever did shine on.
During that period of growth which
lifted us from a position so low that we ac-
tually had human slavery within our borders
to our present condition of freedom and
prosperity, we struggled through dreadful
war which desolated one-half of the country
and 90 strained the resources of the Other
half, both in money and in men, that its
impress today is visible every year on our
tremendous pension roll, although almost
obliterated from our public debt. After
the war ceased our prosperity was clouded
with a six years struggle with disordered
currency and the reconstruction of labor
and industry in the South. No nation in
the worlds history ever passed through in
so short time two ordeals so trying and so
severe.
"In spite of both these misfortunes, not
only have we studded the country east of
the Mississippi, all over with mills and
workshops, factories and furnaces, covered
it with railroads, exploited the oil fields of
Penneylvania, Indiana and Ohio, and turned
into light, heat and production the fierce,
energy of a thousand mines of
coal, but beyond the Mississippi we have
built four great transcontinental 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
This "a IN firuoa
capable today for further development
little item, sample of q 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 40, 900 horsepower for every day
10 the year. Three hundred and fifty
thousand just such horsepower runs to
W aste 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 to consume
their products themselves.
According to the usual story that is
told, England has been engaged in q long
and vain struggle with the demon of pro-
lection and had been year after year sink
ing further into the depths, until at mo-
ment when she was at her deepest distress
and saddest plight, her manufacturing
system broken down, protection having
destroyed home trade by reducing as Mr..
Atkinson says, 'the entire population TO
beggery, destitu.ion and want Mr.. Golden
and bis friends providentially appeared
and after q hard struggle established
principle for all time and for all the world,
and straightway England enjoyed the sum
Of human happiness. Hence all good na-
lions should do as England has done and
al would be we'll.
"This fairy tale has not the slightest re-
semblance to history. England, after three
centuries of stationary life, during which
the wages of its laborers remained without
change, at the beginning Of this century
began to feel the pulses of new life.
Wsges then commenced to rise, and in 1s4O
we're so per cent. higher in money than in
1900, and, measured by purchasing power,
we're 80 per cent higher than ever before.
Coming as this did right after three cen
turies of stagnation, it showed the great
power of two things. protection and the es-
tablishment of the factory system. For
England was enormously protected, not
only by duties, such as We have, but by the
laws which forbade the expectation Of
whereby she obtained or sou2ht
10 obtain, a monopoly of steam-dlven