Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-04-12
HEPBURN'S VIEWS ARE SOUND.
Speech Delivered at the Eighth Dis.
triCt Republican Convention.

| eLi.s Tor twenty-five years. 1t is true
tnat during all of the time, several
shorl intervals of two or three years at
tlme-two or three years experience
at three different periods-we had en-
| acted INTO law the theory of the de-
mocracy upon this subject of foreign
| commerce. 1t was practically a free
| trade period for seVenty-two wears of
.lme, the first of the nations life. We
nave the statistics by which we can
ATTEST the efficiency of this method in
comparison co.. with the methods of today.
We find during these periods we were
debtors to other nations in large sums.
Also that during only fifteen years of
.he entire seVenty-two years were the
balances in foreign commerce on our
SIDE OF the ledger. During those fifteen
years we sold abroad more than we
pought by one hundred and fifty-seven
million dollars, but during the other fif-
tnan we sold to the amount of two bill
non, two hundred and seventy million
| collars One does not perhaps at first
blush appreciate just what that means.
When we think of it we remember that
IN order to pay these balances we had
TO send abroad of our money and of
our portable wealth one billion two
our treasure. Our wealth was going
out of the country. We created it but
we could keep it for the reason that
we We're purchasers from abroad.
How is it now? During the period
since the enactment of the Mckinley
bill we have sold abroad more than we
nave bought, leaving a balance in our
favor of three billion eight hundred
| million dollars. Gentlemen, that means
| that the wealth of other nations is
coming here to us; they are sending
their gold to us; they are sending back
our bonds, our stocks, our portable
wealth. 1t means they are sending
| their portable wealth here to make
good these balances. That accounts in
part for the wonderful growth in our
| circulation. AT the end of the demo-
cratic period four hundred and seven
million dollars was all the money we
had in this country. Today more than
twentynine hundred million dollars
cover the money we haNo in this coun-
| try. At the end of that period we were
making each, year manufactures In
value one billion seven hundred and
fifty million dollars. In 1892 we Gre
| ated from the manufactures of the
United States thirteen billion dollars
worth We had in 1860, at the end of
| the first period, two hundred million in
gold in the United States. Today we
| have more than twelve hundred mil
lions, nearly one-third of all the gold
known to exist. This is brief por-
trayal of what is possible under the
| two systems. l may give another illus
| tration: In 1850 we had a census that
reported, among other things the en-
tire wealth of the United States. All
Of the surplus of all of the toilers dur
| ing eight generations of men and near
ly two hundred and fifty years of strug-
! gle was sixteen billions of dollars; that
was all. We had been pursuing the
G i la {.
cessities of life abroad and consuming
| them. Then we changed our policy
| and we began to make for ourselves
and keep here at home that which, we
| made. We have in the United States
today not less than eighty-six billions
of wealth. We have added seventy
billions of wealth since the. Inaugural
| ton of the protective system. Cap
plause.) These are the legitimate fruits
have proven our theory. We have tried
it under democratic rule and with their
application of their principle; we have
tried it under republican rule, under
our application Of the principle of
protection, with the results to which
/ called your attention. Would we not
be foolish in the extreme if we failed
to heed st. Pauls admonition, after
having proven this thing, to hold
fast to that that was good.
am inclined to think that it is the
opinion of the republican party, in this
part of the state at least, that we will
hold fast" and that probably we will
be careful hereafter to see to it
| that those we honor and that those we
placed in position of leadership and
trust have proven this matter and are
prepared "to hold fast to that that is
| good"
This idea of ours, have simply
spoken of in the aspect of it's material
advantage. But we have applied this
| principle Of protecting labor in other
ways that have redounded equally to
our credit There are some old gentle
| men here, excuse me, elderly gentle
men, I mean-there are several elderly
gentlemen here who were of the re-
publican party at the time of it's birth,
Perhaps some of you were democrats,
some of you Were known as Know
| Nothings, some of you were known as
Wings. some Of you We're Abolitionists
some of you, in 1886, were known, as
Barn Burners. Why did you leave your
political organizations and unite your
| fortunes with an entirely new, untried
| and undeveloped organization? Why
was it that you did this? There seems
to have been some motive, because ii
is hard to sever political attachments
pollllSeil boiiNis', VI Poiis'Se.i mp
that are forced upon us by heredity
or bv environment. The man who is
born in democratic family, reared in
a democratic home, who has lived in a
democratic community. with his asso-
ciates democrats, receives impress
sons during the time that the mind is
most easily nodded that are hard
for him to obiterate. So it is with a
man that was reared as a whig, or by
| the man that is now reared as re-
publican. What was it, ! say, that
constrained you, in 1854, 1855 and 1855
to leave the old environment; to leave
| the old organization and unite with
the republican party? 1t was simply
because there was an organization in
/, the United States proclaiming the right
! of one man to own another man; OF
| capital to own labor. They We're in
tent on extending the sway of that or
ganization; of carrying it into new
states, and giving adhesion to dogma
of the supreme court that the insti-
| tuition of slavery could be carried into
other states and that there was nc
power under the federal constitution
| on the part of state or community to
expel it, save by violence. 1t was this
| thought in the mind of every man that
| in a country like this, all, in any coun-
| try, capital ought not to own labor, and
in this country that capital should not
| own labor That is what created the