Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1900-10-04
from a slip printed in Crawford Davis

from a slip printed in Crawford Davis
printing Office in Bloomfield, and sup
plemented by marginal notes.
If you can get any satisfaction or
comfort out of this" continued the
judge, you are welcome to it. Pros
perity has hit you. You may not
know where, but you are struck never
theless and republicans are bound to
ram it down your throat, if you won't
realize it any other way.
Say, there is another kind of pros
perity; increase in wages. Do any of
you fellows know anything about it?
Do not forget the anthracite miner
working for 80 cents per day, when
they ask about it.
Il have thought there are people
who put the dollar mark above God
and humanity. | thought it ill-timed
for the republican party to influence
man thru his pocketbook when the ma
ton was engaged in war in the Philip
pines and China and when the sympa-
thy of the nation was with that strug-
Cling band in South Africa.
"They say nothing of wars and of
famine. They simply say we have had
good times. During the civil war did
we think of dollars and cents? Were
our fathers and brothers coolly calcu-
lating upon the cost? No, we never
thought of expense. yet our boys are
fighting and dying in the Philippines
for expansion of our trade relations
Money, | was taught, was the root of
all evil, and it's the root that is actual
ing this war, and after it is all said
and done, how much do we get back?
Ii you take load of hogs to Chicago
and sell them, but bring no money
back home, is the community any rich
er? If l live in Ottumwa and own
two or three farms in this section, and
have the produce brought up there and
dispose of it, is this community any
richer?"
Here the judge juggled with some
figures regarding exports and imports
by means of which he endeavored to
show that the republican platform lied
in it's statements regarding the value
of exports over imports. He said he
could not explain it and would be very
glad to have some one else do it. No
one seemed to volunteer and the
speaker came back to the Philippine
talk about exports, and said:
There is nothing said by them (the
republican partly of exports of our
boys. Exports which never come
back. Is there any value to be plac-
ed on them? Do they take the value
OF the exports on one side and on the
other side put the value Of the boys
sent to foreign lands, and claim bal
ance in favor of prosperity?
Another thing: Can any man get
up before me and tell me that this is
prosperity with strikes all around us?
Why four years ago and prior to that
the republican press was telling that
strikes were the effects of the Cleve-
land administration. You hear moth
ing of this today. ST. Louis had one
of the greatest strikes ever known.
Business was paralyzed; men and
women were shot down. Good times?
Have they forgotten the Chicago
strike when thousands and tens of
thousands of men struck?
"The cartoon of the full dinner pail
fell into insignificance beside the pic
ture of the little girl carrying the din
ner pail to her father, instead of be-
ing at school, that father earning 80
cents each day. | was born in West
ern Pennsylvania. l knew these min
ers at that time. They had libraries,
debating societies, owned homes and
were the best people. What do
see now? Men working for 80 cents
per day, $5.4O per week. The little
boy toiling with his father to help
support the family instead of being at
school and later the little girl helps
and finally the whole family tolls in
and about the mines to exc out mis-
cradle existence. You know how
every coal operator in that part of the
country doubles his money.
"Then there is the revenue tax. Not
satisfied with putting hump on the
back of every man in the shape of a
soldier, the republican party inaugu-
rates revenue tax. Every deed,
| note and mortgage that is given must
| be stamped. Where does it go? Who
pays for it? Not the express company,
the banker nor the money loaner It
| is you who pays for it. This makes
better times / suppose.
again: Do the republicans think
you people in the country have no
/ sense at all? First there is war.
| Everything goes up, except the sol
diers pay, and I am coming to that
| shortly. With a war in Africa, in the
| Philippines and in China, and tell me
that the tariff raised the price of beef.
| Do they think you are fools9
&c. B. &, @. shares went from Y up
out of sight, to 142. think and are
staying up. Did the Dingley tariff do
| it? How about iron on which profit
| is made at So and so nor ton which
went up to S23? There is prosperity
| there all right. How about steel, and
| wire?"
| Here Mark Box said he could buy
wire for $3.50 and did not think that
was so bad. Steck laughed and said !:
| THAT reminds me of an alleged con-
tract between the manufacturer and
the wholesale men. When the price
| on wire was about to be lowered the
manufacturer, it is said, notified the
| inhhpp Ono Wholesale r,o,, Told -, 4,