The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-12

dustry in 1900 was near the middle or Ohio. and 1t is moving westward at the rate of about thirty miles in every decade: and this movement is invaria- bly acompanied by . marked increase in fbe value of farm. lands. Local causes, notably the competitor between new farm lands and old farm lands, tend here and there to obscure what IS happening; but it is as certain as the operation of any economic law. that in the country as a whole, farm values win continue to increase as the partner ship between manufacturer and farmer grows more intimate through further advance of industrial science.
 SThe American manufacturer never could have placed this nation at tho head of the manufacturing nations of the world if he had not had behind him. securing him every variety of raw ma terfal, the exhaustless resources of the American farm. developed by the skin and the enterprise of intelligent and educated American farmers.
 The Two Intefwoven.
 On the other hand, the debt of the farmers to the manufacturers is equally heavy, and the future of American agri- culture Is bound up In the future of American manufactures. The two in- dustries have become. under the econo- mic policy of our Government, so close ly interwoven, so mutually inter-de. pendent, that neither can hope to main. tain itself at the high-water mark of progress without the other. Whatever makes to the advantage of one Is equal. fly to the advantage of the other
 So 1t is between the capitalist and the wage-worker. Here and there may be an unequal sharing as between the two in the benefits that have come by protection; but benefits have come to both; and a reversal in policy would mean damage to both: and while the damage would be heavy to all, 1t would be heaviest, and 1t would fall soonest, upon those who are paid in the form of wages each week or each month for that weeks or that months work.
 Change Sometimes Necessary.
 Conditions change and the laws must be modified from time to time to fit new exfgencies. But the genuine un- derlying principle of protection, as it has been embodied in all but one of the American tarin laws for the last forty years. has worked out results SO benef- cent. and evenly and widely spread, S. advantageous alike to farmers and cap. itslists and workingmen, to commerce and trade of every kind, that the Amer ican people. if they show their usual practical business sense, will insist that when these laws are modified they shall be modified with the utmost care and conservatism. and by the friends and not the enemies of the protective sys- tenn. They cannot afford to trust the modification to those who treat protec- ton and robbery as synonymous terms
 In closing what I have to say about the system of promoting American in I.,A IAA al.r agreement with the policy of in some way including within its benefits, by appropriate legislation, the American merchant marine. It is not creditable to us as a nation that our great export and Import trade should be we'll nigh exclusively in the hands of foreigners.
 Another Doubt as to Sincerity.
 It Is difficult to know If our oppo- nents are really sincere in their demand for the reduction of the army. If in- sincere there Is no need for comment, and if sincere. what shall we say in speaking t0 rational persons of an appeal to reduce an army of sixty thousand men which eighty million people? The army Is now relatively smaller than it was in the days of Washington, when on the peace establishment there were thirty six hundred soldiers. while there were a little less than four millions of pop ulation: smaller than 1t was in the peaceful days of Jefferson. when there were fifty-one hundred soldiers to five million three hundred thousand popu- lation.
 There Is now one soldier to every fourteen hundred people in this coun. try--less than one-,enth of one per
 UA hn aalR Ad al to argue as to the amount of possible tyranny contained in these figures. The army as 1t Is now is as small as 1t can possibly be and serve It's pur- pose as an effective nucleus for the equipment and supply of a volunteer army in time of need. It is now used. as never before, for aid- ing in the upbuilding of the organized militia of the country.
 National Guard Development.
 The War Department is engaged in a systematic effort to strengthen and develop the National Guard in the many other instances. the great field at Manassas, which have just closed.
 If our opponents should come into power they could not reduce our army below its present size without greatly impairing its efficiency and abandon ing part of the national duty. In short, in this matter. if our opponents should come into power they would either have to treat this particular promise of the year 1904 as they now treat the promises they made in 1896 and 1900, that is, as possessing no binding force; or else they would have to embark on a policy which would be ludicrous at the moment, and fraught with grave danger to the national hon. or in the future.
 Our opponents contend that the gov ernment is now administered extrava- gantly. and that whereas there was "a surplus of $S0.o00.00O in 1900" there Is "a deficit of more than S40.000, 900" in the year that has just closed.
 Deficit Is Imaginary.
 This deficit Is imaginary, and is ob- tained by including in the ordinary current expenses the sum of fifty mil lions, which was paid for the right of way of the Panama canal out of the surplus in the treasury. the current or ordinary ex- penditures for the two years. there was . surplus of nearly eighty millions for the year 1900. and of only a little more than eight millions for the year that has just closed. But this diminutiop of the annual surplus was brought about designedly by the abolition of the war taxes in tho interval between the two dates. The acts of March 2, 1901, and April IF, 1909. cut down the revenue taxes to an amount ostImated at Ona hundred and fivo r,ti