The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1898-09-20
CURTIS SPEAKS.
Campaign In First District Be-
gins at Horton.
Where the Famous, Fighting
FOur-Days' Convention
NAMED A CANDIDATE.
Calamity CrOakers Are Those
Who See No Prosperity.
According to the Characterize
ton by the Congressman.
NAMED A CANDIDATE.

stSSS IN the First DISTRICT CnarI1e Cur
tbs said last night:
once more and under very unfavor-
able circumstances it has been demon
strated that the Republican party was
right when it said that the American
system or protection was what Ameri-
can labor needed to give it employment,
what American farmers needed to give
them market, what American mer-
chants needed to give them customers,
what American factories needed to set
their wheels in motion what the gold
reserve needed to keep it overlooking,
ana what the government needed to
make its receipts exceed its expenses.
w Republicans cOnIended that with
a daily deficit and no show of revenue.
under the policy of the party in pow
-eT', ever exceeding expenses, there was
sure 70 pc run on the gold reserve,
but that as soon as the policy was
adopted which would sooner or later
insure an ample income, that it would
cease The experience of the govern
ment IN the last II months has proven
that statement to be true. Since March,
1897, we have had no trouble with the
gold reserve; it has steadily grown, and
the amount of gold in the treasury was
so great in the months of May and
June last that the clerks at Washing
ton were paid in gold, and yesterday
the gold reserve reached 1926, 000, 000 the
highest point in its history. When you
remember that the country has passed
through a war, that the appropriations
nave been mounting higher and higher
every Qdys are you not surprised that
Ihere mas not been run on the gold
reserve? But one thing has prevented
it the faith of the people in the ability
Of the Republican party to run this
government in war or peace. And what
more could the people ask? AS soon as
it was known that there would be a
war and before the firing of a gun at
Matanzas; before the splendid victory
at Manila, which will cause DeWey'S
name to go down in history as one of
the greatest naval commanders of the
world, the Republicans had outlined
their policy, and the people knew i'll
would be carried out.
''The people have always said they
wanted an administration which was
able to do business. This administra-
ton took possession March 4, 1897. Con-
eresS met March Is, 1897 and in Is days
the Dingley bill passed the house. The
Dingley bill has had very unsatis-
factory trial, but as short and unfavOr-
able as the trial has been, it has in
creased the demand for labor and caus-
ed an advance in wages. As a revenue
producer it came up to the expectations
of its advocates, and but for the large
expenses of the war our receipts would
exceed our expenses today.
If it had done no more than check
the run on the gold reserve, to avert the
downward progress of abOr and bust
ness, which were so apparent under the
Wilson bill, its advocates would have
been fully rewarded for their labor, but
it has done much more.
And yet the crOak of the calamity
bowler is heard in the land; he says
there is no prosperity, but he gives no
figures. You may look where you please
and you will see signs of advancement.
Our exports nearly double our imports.
1t has been the greatest year of this
kind we have ever had, and yet the
voice of the free trader is family heard
saying you must buy if you expect to
sell.
1.-The largest per cent of exports over
imports prior to this year was 40 in
a RI
per cent. That is not all; the exports
have been fairly well divided, the farm
er receiving a little the best of it. This
grand showing is the result of wise
laws written upon the statutes by the
Republicans, and in view of these facts
is it not about time for the calamity
bowler to ring off? The total of our
exports for the year ending June 3d.
1897 was 81 O5O. 900, 900, while for the
year ending June 30, 1898, our exports
amounted to 81, 100000, which far
surpasses anything ever achieved dur
ing any commercial year in the nations
history. Such an outflow of American
merchandise is without precedent, and
it testifies to the prosperity of the cOun-
try in an unmistakable way.
What was the situation up to the
time the war broke out? All the trade
reports show that the volume of bust
ness, was larger than ever before, the
production of iron, coal, shoes, and
woolens was never so large as this sea-
son.
1.-THE free traders were talking their
free trade doctrines while the neWsbOyS
were in the streets selling their papers
which gave an account of Admiral
Dewey's naval victory at Manila
Years ago, before this country had
risen to it's present high position, free
traders sang the same songs while the
protectionists advocated that great
American system which would make US
a manufacturing as well as an agricul-
tural nation. They said that protection
would reduce the price of manufactured
articles, and it has; the nation listened
to the argument of the protectionists;
the iron and other industries were built
up: the manufa ctured articles were sold
cheaper, and we became the greatest
manufacturing nation in the world. And
when the time came for building IRON
and steel ships for war they were built
by American shipbuilders, from iron
and steel produced in American mines;
and while fusionists were talking free
trade and critic1S1ng our great war
president, William Mckinley. American
sailors were winning naval victories IN
American ironclads. To deny that pros
perity followed the Mckinley law, that
panic and disaster followed it's down
fall or that prosperity has followed the
Dfngley law as a direct and logical re-
suit, is to falsify plain and undisputa-
bic facts.
There has been one very encourag-
ing feature in the last years trade
while our exports exceeded those of any
other year in the history of our cOun-
try, our imports were reduced to sum
smaller than any year since 1886. In
the year 1897, 67.63 per cent of our ex-
ports were agricultural products and
5.S9 per cent were manufactured There
was a great increase in our expectation
of manufactured articles in 1897; the in
crease in iron and steel was from $685.
0O0 600 in 1895 to $50, 000, 900 in 1897, and
to $70,O000 900 in 1898, and the reports
show that new enterprises are being
started in various parts of the cOun-
try; our mills and furnaces will soon
dot all parts Of the union.
saThere is one fact in regard to Our