Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1904-08-05


ber when compared with the extent
of the public service. Never has the
administration of the government
been en a cleaner and higher level;
never has the public work OF the ma
tion been done more honestly and
efficiently.
Assuredly 1t is unwise to change
the policies which have worked so
we'll and which are now working so
well. Prosperity has come at home.
The national honor and interest have
been upheld abroad. We have placed
the finances of the nation upon
sound gold basis. We have done this
with the aid of many who were form
erly our opponents, but who would
neither openly support nor silently
acquiesce in the heresy of unsound
finance; and we have done it against
the convinced and violent opposition
of the mass of our present opponents
who still refuse to recant the un-
sound opinions which for the moment
they think it ineXpedient to assert.
We know what we mean when we
speak of an honest and stable cur
rency. We mean the same thing from
year to year. We do not have to
| avoid a definite and conclusive COM
initial on the most important issue
which has recently been before the
people, and which may at any time
in the near future be before them
| again. Upon the principles which
underlie this issue the convictions of
half of our number do not clash with
those of the other half. So long as
the republican party is In power the
gold standard is settled, not as a mat
ter of temporary political eXpediency,
not because of shifting conditions in
the production of gold in certain min
ing centers, but in accordance with
what we regard as the fundamental
principles of national morality and
wisdom.
Under the financial legislation
which we have. enacted there is now
ample circulation for every business
need; and every dollar of this circu-
lation is worth a dollar in gold. We
have reduced the interest-bearing
debt and in still larger measure the
interest on that debt. All of the
war taxes imposed during the
Spanish war have been removed
with a view to relieve the peo-
pie and to prevent the accumula-
tion of an unnecessary surplus. The
result is that hardly ever before have
the expenditures and income of the
government SO closely corresponded
In the fiscal year that has just closed
the excess of income over the ordi-
nary expenditures was nine millions
of dollars. This does not take ac-
count of the fifty millions expended
out of the accumulated surplus for
the purchase of the Isthmian Canal
1t is an extraordinary proof of the
sound financial condition of the ma.
tion that instead of following the
usual course in such matters and
throwing the burden upon posterity
by an issue of bonds, we were able tC
make the payment outright and YET
after 1t to have in the treasury sur.
plus of one hundred and sixty -une
millions. Moreover, we were able tt
pay this fifty million of dollars out o.
hand without causing the slightes
disturbance to business conditions.
We have enacted q tariff law under
, which during the past few years the
country has attained a height of ma
terial well-being never before reach
ed. Wages are higher than ever be
fore. That whenever the need arises
, there should be a readjustment of thu
tariff schedules is undoubted; bu
, such changes can with safety be mad,
only by those whose devotion to tn,
, principle of a protective tariff is be
) yond question; for otherwise tn,
/, changes would amount not to read
2 justment but to repeal. The read
, justment when made must maintain
2 and not destroy the protective prin
ciple. To the farmer, the merchant
3 the manufacturer this is vital; bu
!, perhaps no other man is so much in
terested as the wage-worker in tn
e maintenance of our present economi
/ system, both as regards the finance
4 and the tariff. The standard of liv
g ing of our wage workers is highe
f than that of any other country, and
0 can not so remain unless we have
h protective tariff which shall alway
d keep as a minimum a rate of duty sui
: ficient to cover the difference betwee
: the labor cost here and abroad. Thos
k who, like our opponents, "denounc
: protection as a robbery" thereby ea
! plicitly commit themselves to tn
tluI IL lu6y WtEG W It
n wise the tariff no heed would be pal
+ to the necessity of meeting this dii
/. ference between the standards of liN
t ing for wage-workers here and
d other countries; and therefore on thi
s point their antagonism to our pos
II tion is fundamental. Here again w
S ask that their promises and ours b
: judged by what has been done in tn
i immediate past. We ask that sobe
e and sensible men compare the worl
Il ings of the present tariff law, and tn
# conditions which obtain under 1t, wit
J. the workings of the preceding tari
; law of 1898 and the conditions whic
! that tariff of 1893 helped to brin
IT about.
l. We believe in reciprocity with To-
o eign nations on the terms outline
d in President McKinley's last speecI
d which urged the extension of our TO
a eign markets by reciprocal agre,
|