Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-05-10
SPEECH OF Hon, R0BT, e, COUSINS
Delivered Before the Republican State Con
Ner7tior7, N1oir1es, Today

Des Moines, May 1o.-(By Associated
Press. )-Hon. Robert G. Cousins, tenn
porary chairman of the Iowa republi-
can convention, addressed the meeting
as follows:
"While acknowledging the .distin-
guished compliment which comes to
me with the privilege of presiding tenn
porarily over the deliberations of this
republican convention, let me venture
to congratulate the people of all parties
upon the happy condition of business
and domestic affairs which so univer-
sally prevails. To the man who must
earn his bread the practical side of aft
fairs is always important and to the
man who has already earned all that
he needs, or whose ancestors earned it
for him, the same side of affairs is
more or less interesting, from the in
there is absolutely no immunity of es-
Iiitions. The same calamity which
strands the ship of commerce and of
( business leaves labor listless on. the
carries investment to it's widest and
fullest extent also lifts labor to it's
highest level.
s.Afost people like to see and enjoy
prosperity. There are only Il few who
love wretchedness. The practical illus
tration of it is not yet far enough away
to attract the multitude. The nine
tenth century has been more prolific
in exemplifcation of economic princi-
pies and conditions, especially in Anne
RIGA where sudden changes are always
possible and where the public mind is
quick to understand. There never has
been time or place in the history of
our world when theory had to answer
SO quickly and so thoroly to prac-
tice as during the past half century
in the United States.
The Two administrations.
Perhaps the most startling illustra-
ton of this truth is furnished in the
history of the last two administers
tons. The fall of the year 1892 found
/ the American people in an uneNampled
state of universal thrift and well be-
ing. They felt absolutely free to ex-
periment-to try anything. They
laughed at every suggestion of con-
servatism and forgot every lesson of
disaster. They We're on the peak, of
prosperity, and the atmosphere was
Stimulating. Like Darius Green, they
resolved to fly. To make long story
short, they lit in the ragged lap of one
Wilson, of West Virginia, somewhat
patched up by sagacious political tail
or from Maryland by the illustrious
name of German. That is enough to
say A description of national descent
and of human misery is never interest
ing. We like better the story of prog
ress.
The fiscal figures, however, of that
terrible experiment are cut in the stone
of time. They are at the bottom of
the Industrial thermometer and the
business world points to them just as
our oldest settlers point to the coolest
day they ever knew.
That epoch or administration of
public affairs, except for one single ray
of light, constitutes the darkest chap
ter in our industrial history, and that
one light will glinmer on forever thru
the ages. 1t was ignited by the con
fiict of the reckless and revolutionary
element of the democratic party with
4 the moral character and stubborn in
telligecne OF its own chieftain,- Grover
Cleveland. 1t was the lightning flash
& produced by the meeting of the posi-
tive and negative elements. On the one
side was q single positive mind, on the
other, all the negative element of a
negative party which had elected this
1 positive character ON platform of ne
CATION.
Strange to say, the positive survived
and all that remains for the world to
observe, except the misery recorded in
that brief history, is that single light
which yet Eliminates the record of
that one exponent OF respectable de-
mocracy.
Arrival of Prosperity.
Following that unhapnv and miser-
able administration, illumined with
that one star, came the administration
of President Mckinley, and never in
our history did any president or any
! party come to power under such adj
verse and gloomy circumstances. Half
the labor of the land was idle. The
value of the live stock on the American
farms, according to the official reports
of the department of agriculture, had
deprecated $s20,OOO,O00. The value OF
industrial properties had diminished
more than 40 per cent. The nation had
been compelled to borrow and to issue
bonds therefrom, during the four years
ending March A, 1897, $500, 1925, 400, and
in time of profound peace $65,57s, $50
year S., 100000 month-$1s2 900 a
day-$7, 500 an hour. And on March
1897, when President Mckinley took
the oath OF office, the cash balance in
the treasury including the gold reserve
was $50,o00,00O less than mad been bor-
rowed. In other words, if moth
ing had been borrowed, the
Mckinley administration would
have taken the treasury without
cent in it and $5O,O00,oOO additional
debt.
During the three years of the pres
ent administration we have borrowed
Is $19S,791 ,440, and have collected up to
April l., 1900, $3.50, ,53s under the
4 war revenue act. We have expended
. $372,000,000 on account of the Spanish
and Philippine war; paid $5,179,796 on
the national debt and had on April 1,
an available cash balance in the treas