Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1895-03-23

one and all for an untainted, unSelhSh
administration of their high preroga-
tives. By those few sentences the
standard was set for the deliberations
which never once fell away from it.
1t is not unlikely that the work of the
few earnest men who met Wednesday
may accomplish as far reaching re-
suits for the advancement of the con-
ditions of millions of humanity as
have emanated from any movement
since the Declaration of independence
or the drafting of the Constitution.
For this organization of manufacture
ers into national body, with plenary
power vested in sympathetic central
control, springs from as patriotic mo-
tives as ever inspired any people.
1t means that they will solidly op-
pose by every weapon in their power the
surrender of the home markets, their
own markets, our own markets, to
foreigners, under any pretext or guise
whatsoever 1t means that they will
compete with other nations for the
profitable business of exporting, and
that they will instruct their represen-
tatives in Congress to build water
ways from the interior to the coasts
and to re-establish upon every sea the
former prestige of the American mer-
chant marine. They will see that
America and not some commercial
competitor builds the Nicaragua Ca
nal, and that equitable reciprocities
shall be quickly established.
They will endeavor to see that proper
tariff regulations are enacted, yielding
sufficient revenue to pay the expenses
of the government, and that the high
credit of American railway and indus
trial securities shall again obtain
abroad to the end that foreigners will
gladly seek them as safe Investments
for the three hundred millions in
gold being now annually taken from
this country in payment of the profits
of concerns in America operated by
foreign capital, of interest on bonds
and other securities, and of the profit
in transportation of our imports and
exports Weighty subjects these, but
quite within the intelligent grasp Of
of the men who make up the Execu-
tive Council of the Manufacturers
National Organization.
President Dolan opened the pro-
ceedings by ringing address of well
come, which in part was as follows:
The single community which en-
courages the building of factories pro-
fits in small way exactly as the
whole country profits in large way,
from the encouragement and enlarge
ment of its manufacturing industries.
In both cases, the advantage comes
from industrial Investigation, from
the larger employment of labor. from
the retention at home of wages, and
from the movement toward self-de-
pendence. The American who intro
duces a new industry for his own
profit is, in a high sense, a public
benefactor. Much of the gain accrues
not to him, but to the general body
of the people. The feeling against
manufacturers, carefully fostered and
inhamed by the domestic and foreign
enemies of American industry, is as
senseless and unjust as would be a
sentiment of hostility to farmers.
Both classes are producers of wealth
One class supplements and helps, and
is the almost necessary concomitant
of the other Without one class or
the other, the nation would be poorer,
and to greater or less extent help
lessly dependent for necessaries Of
of life upon foreigners.
LAS the most tremendous industrial
progress the world has ever witnessed
was made by American manufacturers
in the thirty years after 1860, I'M
der uninterrupted application of an ad-
equate and reasonable protective the
DRY, so it has been made plain enough
by the recent melancholy experience
that further swift progression will be
possible only by continued adherence
to the policy which has produced
such grand results in the past. The
unreasonable harm that has been
done by the attempt to reverse that
policy will have been not wholly dis
advantageous if Americans will learn
from it that genuine protection to home
industry is essential to its success
under the conditions existing in this
country. There seems to have been
sad necessity that this instruction
should be given through the discipline
of suffering. The active business
men of to-day do not remember the
misery and ruin inflicted upon the
nation by too great removal OF protec-
ton in the times btfre the war.
Thus, having known for thirty years
little else than prosperity, which came
with reasonable protection, some OF
them have inclined to believe that it
was perhaps rather the gift of nature
than the product of judicious legisla-
ton This generation has now ac-
quired acquaintance with the truth
through harsh experience. and so it
is possible that this may be the only
occasion which has presented itself for
years when manufacturers, as class,
could be induced to rally and unite
7 for their own safety with all assurance
that, in such movement they would
have the approval and support of the
mass of their fellow citizens.
First of all, and Of more value than
all else, is the principle that the home