The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1903-09-30

In 1870 we exported agricultural pro-
ducts worth 1851 1888, 4S3; in 1900 we
exported agricultural products worth
$685., 858, l23-an increase of 1872 per
cent
In 1870 we imported steel and iron
worth $32655. 454; in 1900, notwith-
standing the unparalleled increase in
the consumption of steel and iron, we
imported them to the value of but
$20,47S,727.
In 1870 our exports of manufactured
steel and iron amounted to Sill, OO2, 902,
while in 1900 they amounted to $121,-
913, 54S-an increase of zoos per cent.
In 1870 our exports of all manufac-
lures amounted to $6S,279,764, while in
1900 they amounted tot $433 1854, 756-
an increase of $50 per cent.
Our total exports in 1870 amounted
to 1892, ,768; and in 1900 to 81 ,294,-
4S3,0S2-an increase of 256 per cent
The amount of money in circulation
in the United States in 1870 was $685.
212,794, While in 1900 it was $2,113,
294,9S3.
Fascinating as these statistics are, l
can quote no more. From every field
of industry they can be paralleled, and
they are open to the investigation of
every man or woman who cares to
pursue the inquiry. Is there yet man
in this presence who believes that pro-
lection destroys and that free trade
builds up? If there be, I de-
spair of lighting up the chamber of
his prejudice He is fortunate, how
ever. for IT he cannot be convinced, he
shall still be protected, and the repub-
lean party will see to it that he is
saved from the peril of his unbelief.
You will carefully observe that what
/ have said relates to the merits of
the controversy between the policy of
protection and the policy of free trade,
and there is still before me the duty
OF examining the application of the
policy of protection to conditions as
they from time to time exist, and it
will be my pleasure to consider that
part of our platform which points out
in the clearest and most emphatic
phrase how this policy is to be ap-
piled to the business of our country.
Before l do SO, however. it is,
think, courteous and appropriate for
me to give some attention to the
opening speech delivered by the dem
ocratic candidate for governor at Den
ison, on the 18th instant. have read
it with care and delight. With care,
because ! wanted to know how good
man could defend poor cause; with
delight, because soon discovered how
feebly even genius attacks the citadel
OF truth His speech has two main
divisions. In the first, he takes the
tariff, the corporations, the trusts, and
the rich, and in the caldron of his ell
oquence he boils them together until
1T is impossible to distinguish the one
from the other; and with glowing in
dlgnatlon he pOurS out his wrath upon
the composite for whatever he finds
bad in any of them. Human justice
has not adopted vicarious punishment
and therefore he must allow me to sep
arate his victim into its component
parts and deal with each according to
Its deserts. In the second division, he
quotes some things l have said. az.
many things that have not said u
prove that I believe in competition.
that some of the duties now levied
upon imports are too high, and he be-
lnoans with all the solicitude OF a gocJ
citizen, my Inconsistency in helping to
formulate the platform upon which |
am now a candidate.
My first thought upon reading Mr..
Sullivan's speech was one of admira-
ton for the courage he displayed
say nothing of the discretion, in ven
turing to charge the republican party
in this state or myself with sidestep-
ping. receding, or inconsistency. In
the heat of his enthusiasm he over
looked the fact, so obvious to all
others, that he is at the present time
living in house built of the finest
gossamer glass that ever came from
the hand of an artist 1t has not been
many years since Mr.. Sullivan was
waking the echoes all over the plains
OF Iowa. In his frantic demand for the
free and unlimited coinage of silver at
the ratio of 16 to l without the aid or
consent OF any other nation. looked
carefully over his keynote to discover
now flrmly he is now, welded to this
financial doctrine, and | found faint
whisper in a paragraph relating to as
set currency, running something like
this:
Personally and independently, of
party, am an old fashioned demo-
"crat, believing in the use of gold and
silver, as the money of our country,
and so believing, l cannot bring my
mind to the thought. that the bank
has the power, or is more secure
than the government ITSELF"
What diminuendo after the crash
OF his eloquence in 1896 and in 1905.
Nor can l forget, as l look upon the
horrid picture which he paints of the
dismal effects of the tariff, and when
| hear the clank of the chains which
he fastens upon the farmer and the
artisan as the bonds of serfdom to an
Ubiquitous system Of import duties,
that a very few years ago l saw this
same picture, painted by the same
brush and heard these same chains
ratified by the same stalwart arm; but
then all this misery had been brought
about, and this miserable slavery es-
tablished, by the crime of 1873 and the
failure to coin silver at the sacred ra-
ito. and the tariff was not even men
toned. am even more impressed
with the courage of this speaker when
l look into the democratic platform
and the history of its adoption, and
find not a single word from which any
man can determine whether the dem
ocratic party of Iowa is for free silver
or against free silver 1t might be