The Portland daily press., 1896-09-05

aside all of thosesthat are worthless, ac
cepting all of those that are good and at
the same time holding on to all that are
gooo' In2se men who are always carried
away by the sound of their own voices.
th ring OF their own eloquenoe, are al
ways the 1lrst to accept every new propo.
sioion regardless of the experience of Che
pas1 OF sne lessons which might be de-
rived from continual failure.
why, in the United States patent office
IN washington sthers areon exhibition
n0noreos OF thousands Of Inventions every
one OF which has cost some man long
years OF continuous study and thought,
ana large quantities of money. but out
OF 5hese hundreds Of thousands Of inyen-
tlons onay thousands have proved of any
use. and only few of these have success-
fully stood the test of time, and until an
invention has stood that, no man can
trust it.
= Nothing Eoan truthfully be said to be
worth anything unless 1t has stood the
test under the light Of experience. The
human mind ia not capacious enough to
eake IN al OF the trials of invention.
some OF them succeed and others come to
nanRht. And now we take all political
matters and submit them to the human
minds Of this country for consideration.
we are now given new proposition to
discuss, and the more discuss it the
more trivial it seems to me. I have
talked this silver question throughout
the state of Maine and have read all of
the silver arguments Of our local patriots,
wandering gentlemen from Massachusetts
llaughter), and young men from Colo
rado who have escaped from the missrias
OF that state (laughter) and T have been
unable to find in any of their arguments
anything that the human mind can rest
upon.
But no before I proceed to discuss tho
silver question with you want to talk
about some of the fundamental prinoi-
pies attacked by the Chicago platform.
We can take ii for granted that what ex-
lists now exists for some good and simple
reason. 1t does not follow that what
exists now may not be changed eventu-
ally. The feutfal system have long ago
left.behind us, but while it existed it
was necessary to protect human lives.
But 1t outlived its usefulness. 1t clogged
the progress and advancement of the
human family and 1t was overthrOwn
and the human family was better for
1t. So say II we have anything that is
clogging the wheels of progress down
with H. (Great a,pplause.) Let US not
to the past. (Cheers)
Let us send them where they should
go and push onward, progress and al
ways progress. (Applaue.)
II needs careful examination in order
to understand every new proposition that
is presented and Judgment in any case
should not be hasty.
Mr.. Reed went on to consider the
great progress that would he made If
tho human, family were all to work to-
Qether with one aim and object. The
result would a most be beyond the power
of prophesy.
You notice. he went on, that there have
been gentlemen about here asking you
to go forward and do something the
result of whiohsthay could see for them
selves. They complain of the wealth of
this country piling up and aooumulating.
Now, must confess, that have good
honest envy of man that Is richer
than am. (Laughter.) Having one
horse myself | envy the man that has
two and am not sure of the final
disposition of the man with the horses.
] can look down from the battlements of
the future and see the wealth of the
country piling up and aooumulatin
Now there are two classes OF wealtA--the
consumable wealth which makes possible
the enjoyment Of the human family and
| the wealth of production of other wealth.
That the amount of oonsumable wealth
in this country was great before 1898 no
better test can be given than the hard
times we have been through and the
little abatement in the luxuries which
the people demand. We often hear that
the times since 1898 have been the hardest
this country has ever known. We often
hear men proclaim that we are no worse
off than we ever were before. 1t is not SO
and it is not so because the increase ,in
the consumable wealth allows US to stand
the inroads which have been made upon
it by these gentlemen who desire you to
put them into power again. When hear
men say times couldn't be worse than
they are, 1T makes me think of the days
of 1887. At Old Orchard I said something
of this kind and this morning I received
a letter from an old gentleman who
sent to me these bills
Mr.. Heed here took from his pocket two
"sh1n plastsrs,' such as our fathers once
used and held them up so that the crowd
could see them.
This bill said Mr.. Reed holding up
one in his hand was worth 1917 cents in
1887 and the other states that 1t is worth
Z cents and will be redeemed at the store
of blank for that amount of goods. I
wonder what the condition of things
were when these bills were used as cur
renoy. SEQ before me many very hand
some bonnets graoing the heads of ladies
IN the audience and see that nearly all
of the gentlemen are wearing respectable
headgear. don't believe the ladies wore
such headgear in 1887, when these bills
were in Use, and don't believe-the men
wore as good hats or clothes as they do
now. I tell you my friends that times
could be worse and less prosperous than
they are now. (Applause.)
Now this other kind Of wealth is used
to produce wealth and this kind of
wealth has suffered more since 1898 than
every other kind. The value of every
manufacturing plant, every mill. every
machine shop, has greatly decreased in
value in the last four years. Why? Be-
cause the val ue of the mills and manu-
featuring plants depend on the demand
of the market, the market depends upon
the distribution OF wages. which in turn
depends OH the amount of goods our mills
and manufactures produce.