, 1899-10-19

Secretary Hays Letter to Chairman Dick
of the Ohio Republican Committee.

of the Ohio Republican Committee.
unfortunate position. They have lost,
.or all practical purposes, their politi-
cal stock in trade of recent years. Their
money hobby has collapsed under
them. Their orators still shout 16 to 1
from time 10 time from the force OF
habit. but they are like wisdom cry
ing in the streets, in one respect at
least, because no man regardeth
them" With our vaults full of gold,
with a efficiency of money to meet
the demands of a volume of business
unprecedentedly vast and profitable,
with labor generally employed at fair
wages, with our overspread-
ing the world, with every dollar the
government issues as good as any
other dollar, with our finance as firm
as a rock and our credit the best ever
known, 1t is no time for financial
mountebanks to cry their nostrums in
the market place, with any chance of
being heard.
1t IL equally hopeless to try to resus-
citate the corpse of free trade. The
Dingley tariff. the legitimate successor
of the Mckinley bill-that name of
good augury-has justified itself by Its
works. 1t is not only true that our do
nestle trade has reached a proportion
new before attained. but the Ameri-
can policy of protection-the policy of
all our most illustrious statesmen, of
Washington and Hamilton, Lincoln,
Grant and McKinley-has been tri-
umphantly indicated by the proof that
it is as efficacious in extending our for
eign as in fostering and
stimulating our home Industries.
Our exports OF domestic manufac-
lures reached in this fiscal yea the I'M
exampled total of $500, 000. 900. an
amount more han 5000. 000. 900 in ex-
cess of our exports ten years g
These figures sing the knell of those
specious arguments which have been
the reliance of our opponents for, so
many years, and which are only fruit
full in times OF leaDness nj disaster.
What is left, then, in the way OF a
platform? The reign of trusts. which
the Republicans themselves manage,
having all the requisite experience
both Of legislation and business: and
finally, the war. which, 1t seems, was
too efficiently carried on, and has been
too beneficial to the nation to suit the
Democratic leaders. We " been
able to give in our time some novel
ideas to the rest OF the world. and
none more novel than this, that a
great party should complain that the
results Of a war were too advantage
ous.
Our trade is taking that vast devel-
opment for which we have been pre-
pairing through many years OF wise
American policy, of sturdy American
industry, Of thoughtful invention and
experiment by trained American in
telligence. We have zone far toward
solving the problem which has SO long
vexed the economists of the world-of
raising wages n at the same time
lowering the cost of production-some-
thing which no other people have ever
accomplished in an equal degree. We
pay the highest wages which are paid
in the world: we sell our goods t. such
advantage that we are beginning to
furnish them to every quarter of the
globe.
We are building locomotives for rail-
ways in Europe. Asia. n Africa; our
bridges can be built in America. ferried
across the Atlantic, transported up the
Nile and flung across a river in the
Soudan in less time h a any European
nation. with a start of four thousand
miles, can do the work. We sell iron
ware in Birmingham, carpets in Kid
d~erminster, we pipe the sewers OF
Scotch cities, our bicycles distance all
competitors on the continent; Ohio
sends watch cases to Geneva.
All this is to the advantage OF all
parties; there is no sentiment in 1t:
they buy our wares because we make
them better and at lower cost than
other people. We are enabled to do
this through wise laws and the Ameri-
gan genius for economy. Our working
people prosper because we are all work.
ing people; our idle class is too meager
to count. All the energies of the ma
ton are devoted to this mighty task
to insure to labor its adequate reward
and so to cheaper production as to
bring the product within the reach
of the greatest number for least
money.