The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-08-18
No Hope.

"Sir, there is hope for the republic as long as it continues to move forward in the tried ways of the old world, divorcing itself for outgrown American landmarks. What we are moving and divorcing there Is no doubt. Standing now in the dawn of the twentieth century, having forbid den the reading of the Declaration of h. dependence in a part of the countrys g domain; with courts ready to decide that the constitution is not a written letter to be read and obeyed, but a dancing pano- rama, changing itself to suit changing conditions; having put our foot down, wisely and firmly, upon freedom of speech and freedom of assembly and free dom of the press in Colorado and those 'appurtenant appendages,' where freedom of speech, press and assembly might be awkward for us having joined the holy alliance of and-grabbing nationalities; having discovered that Gods command against robbery and theft does not apply to men in the aggregate, acting as na- tionalities, when robbing communities of their independence or 'benevolently as- similatlng' their resources-amid all these reversals of historical blunders of our past 1 boldly aver that we need not de- spair of the republic.
 'rrue, there are those who say with blind fatuity that the Dingley tariff law did not exist always that every one of it's schedules is not unchangeable to be worshipped, that the republican party itself was not born until a comparatively recent date, and that yet the country on the whole has always prospered. They say that its prosperity was owing to new and cheap lands, inviting the brawn and muscle of the white men of the world to their cultivation, skimming from the sur face of the human ocean It's wave-crests af erya nd 1bau enU V it was owing to a magnificent arc of free trade, first between the colonies and then between the states-an area that has grown, by demoeratic-American expan- sion of homes, institutions and industry, and not by republicans British crown colony-eonquest until 1t early became larger than any area of untramelled free trade which exists, or has ever existed. on the earth. They say that it was due also to our freedom from the tax bur dens of militarism and the consequent ability to devote our resources thus saved to the education of the people and to their betterment in home and indus trial life. They point to the fact that, even during the period of our existence as colonies, that constant movement con- tinues, was going on; that this movement was accelerated after we became a sepa- rate sovereignty on the earth, and that II was Stlll more accelefaleu altel the rs ooted question of the possibility of a dissolution of the union had been finally settled They say that this very move ment to America of worlSingmen, under both high tariffs and low tariffs after we became a federal republic, and under no tariffs at all as In colonial days, was proof of the fact that higher wages have been paid, at every stage of our history, to white men working in similar pursuits in the old country. They say that the currents of labor flow, unlike the cur rents in our rivers, towards the highest level--towards the place where the rate of wages and the standard of living are highest They say--these foolish people nearly all democrats-that taxes are necessary evils and never in themselves a blessing to be sought for; that there Is some element of common sense in the old aphorism of having as little govern mental interference with the affairs of men as Is possible, consoDantly with the protection of life and liberty and prop erty. All of which Illustrates to what heights of palpable absurdity so-called intelligence can climb!
 Error of Our Grandfathers.
 Another error of our grandfathers in connection with our foreign affairs has come over me lately with weighing down emphasis. George NVashington-who,