Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-11-03

u iiAtl tIuISloIIud tlOU. DuIlUk the
past three and one-half years the balance
of trade has been ST. 00. 900. 900 in our
favor. twice as much as in the whole
history of the republic, from Washington
to Mckinley. Our revenues are in ex-
cess of our expenditures and we are al
ready. paying off part of the late war
debt. The treasury Is overlooking with
gold. the current daily report showing
that we ave at this moment the largest
gold reserve OF any nation In the world.
Our national debt is being refund at
= per cent per annum, the lowest interest
rate paid by any country ON the globe.
Our savings banks have increased their
deposits over one billion dollars; $751;
600, 900 have been added to our circulat-
ing medium. raising our per capita from
$sl.5O to $26. 20. the highest ever reached
In our history, and our financial insti-
buttons, instead of borrowing, are now
negotiating great national loans to Great
Britain. Germany, Sweden. Russia and
other countries. And this is not all. The
financial center of the world has at last
been transferred from Lombard street in
the city of London, in the Empire of
Great Britain, to Wall street. in the city
or New York. in the republic of the
United States.
But this is not all. The past three years
have served to remind many OF us of
things we had permitted ourselves tenn
porarily to forget. And among them
that the democratic party is the same in
coherent mass of irreconcilable elements
1t has always been. and that, like the
leopard, it cannot change it's spots. That
it is the same old party of calamity and
despair. dissatisfied with everything, al
ways predicting disaster, always prophe-
cying evil, always forecasting the down.
fall of the republic while the republican
party goes right along in it's magnificent
career, fulfilling it's splendid destiny, I'M
disturbed by their threats.
And the experience of the past three
years has demonstrated some things of
which we may well feel proud. One of
them is, that love of country, devotion
to it's institutions and loyalty to it's flag,
are. if possible. more deeply imbedded in
the hearts of the masses of the people
than ever before. And another is. that
American ships of war, and American
guns and American soldiers and sailor
and marines have few equals and no SUI
periors OF the face of this earth.
And among all that splendid band Of
heroes and patriots who, from every sec
ton of our broad land, responded to the
call of duty when the country's honor
and flag needed defenders, none have
written their names higher on the scroll
of the nations illustrious sons, none did
or dared more for Old Glory than the
first regiment of Montana volunteer in
fantry.
Blu the changes I have enumerated are
not all. Four years ago the democratic
party said that silver was the one great
| vital question before the American peo-
pie, and that it must remain so until
settled and settled right. And we silver
republicans believed them. This year
they have %relegated silver to the foot of
their platform and the great majority OF
their party, outside of the silver produce
ing states, are trying their best to COM
pletely ignore it; 16 to 1 would have been
lost in the Kansas City convention but
for votes of Hawaii and Oklahoma
neither of which has q single vote in the
electoral college or on the floor of con-
gress. Montana might reasonably have
expected to have been recorded in favor
of silver in the democratic convention,
hut just at the critical moment when the
fate of Is to 1 hung trembling in the bal
ance, the Montana delegate in the COM
mittee, our old friend Governor Hauser
one time an rdent silver advocate, was
unavoidably stricken with paralysis of
the jaw and didn't recover until it was
too late to vote. So that so far as the ma
tiOnal democratic convention is con-
cerned, 1t is not known whether Mon
tana democrats are for or against 16 to /.
My friends I do not wish to be UNDER
stood as claiming that all the prosperity
which has attended the country during
the past four years, is directly due to the
republican party. Blu we may rest as
sured that it is not all the result of
chance. Providence, it is said, helps
those who help themselves and the re-
publican party has demonstrated a won-
derful faculty of helping itself, and it
has done this by helping the country.
But we may rest certain in the knowledge
that the beneficent conditions which sur
round the country at this time are the
outcome in a very large measure of the
enlightened craftsmanship, of the wise
laws and patriotic policies Of VIM. Nc
Kinley and a republican administration.
STRIKES.
In a meeting the other night someone
asked me, What about strikes 2" Strikes
are not necessarily an indication of hard
times. On the contrary, they are quite
likely to indicate good times. Business is
better than it has been in years and yet
5000, 900 men have been out on strikes
ia lIlo ouIlJI duO Europe LnlS year.
Men do not strike on empty pocketbooks
and empty stomachs, and a nan must
have work before he can go on a strike.
Again, there is a vast difference in strik-
ing for shorter hours inc higher pay, as
is the case in these times, and striking
against longer hours and shorter pay as
was the case four or five years ago.
And there are people who refuse to be-
lieve that the country is generally pros
} porous because they say they haven't
seen any of it. Well, my friends, there
are some people who can't be happy un-
der any circumstances. 1t isn't in their
nature. They can't help it. And there
are others who ant be prosperous.
There are people, it is said who can fall
in a river and not get wet, and there
are those who, if it were raining twenty
dollar gold pieces, could hold out their