The Indianapolis journal., 1904-04-27
Sbeech of CONGRESSMAN James e. Watson Pnn1anen1

would have remained unpaid, bonds
would have been but as so much rubbish,
our credit abroad would have been ruined,
our self-respect would have been sacrificed,
the great lessons of national honor We
have since given the world would have re
manned untaught and that lofty moral tone
which to-day characteriZes international
thought, feeling and action would have
beer an impossible dream. For with ma
tions as with men, aye more than with
men, when honor is lost all is lost.
:. Had d that party had a free hand nd
the nineties, it would have destroyed
| utterly the last vestige of our protective
F, tariff system. 1t would have given our
[ manufactures over to the keen and merci-
I less competition of similar institutions in
/ Europe. where the labor engaged has al
| ways been underpaid and underfed and
undercothed.
This policy would have taken our wool,
our cotton our ores and all our raw mater
] ial to Europe TO be there converted into the
/ finished product, and would then have
| exchanged our corn, our wheat, our hogs,
our cattle for that finished product. For
eign capitalists would thus have laid their
| exactinS hand upon the products of our
farms, our forests, our mines, and levied
| tribute upon every branch of our industry
! to sustain their factories, their mechanics
! their artisans. They would thus have pre-
vented that rich diversity of industry which
| IS so essential to a complete civilization
! History proves that no people can ever at
! tain the supreme heights of national sue
cess that do not fully develop manufac-
! turing. The national hand must be traine6,
| as we'll as the national head and the na~
| tional heart, in order TO measure up to the
fuIl standard of national symmetry,
| New wants must be created, new desires
! aroused: the thing that was deemed I'M
| possible yesterday becomes a luxury to-
day and tomorrow will be a necessity.
Inventive genius must be stimulated that
| Will produce new devices to satisfy in
| creased wants. Skilled labor must be en-
| ployed to operate all these inventions, fac
tories must be builded in which they can
| bring forth the products of their handi-
| work, railroads must be constructed TO
| transport them, merchants must be found
to handle them. and thus and on through
a perfect maze of desire, creation, pro-
duction. employment, consumption, calling
out all that is highest and best in man,
enisting his every faculty and training
his every power, and weaving thus the
splendid fabric of mighty nationality. 1
assert that this flower of civilization, this
luxuriance of prosperity, has always been
| impossible in this Nation under free trade.
Impossible in the past, impossible in the
present, impossible In the future. L assert
that no nation can be truly independent
that does not to the fullest degree foster
and protect its manufacturing industry. To
be really independent, a nation must
be self-sustaining, though all the
world should close its gates, and no ma
ton can be self-sustaining that does not
produce everything that its climate, ITS soil
and its natural resources will enable IT to
produce. That Is the key that unlocks the
mystery OF the tariff-a nation to be inde-
pendent must be self-sustaining; to be self
sustaining it must do its own work, and
this would have been impossible under the
operation of any tariff law proposed by the
Democratic party for sixty years-yeS, in
all our history.
Menace Of Democracy.
II that organization had been able to en-
force its demands in 1896 this country would
have gone 20 silver basis. The s455, 900 600
of gold then in circulation would have been
driven out: silver, being the only metal
| -O,r1d bus hoxr <H> <1f
redemption; our silver dollars would have
changed in value with the daily fluctuations
of that product in the market, and thus
stability in the money standard. so essen
tial to sound finance. would have been ut
terly impossible; all our paper currency
would have been redeemable in deprecated
silver, and thus, instead of enlarging the
} money medium, 1t would have been cur
tailed one-half, rendering business opera
| tions hazardous and genuine prosperity en-
tirely impracticable. Exchange with every
civilized nation of the earth, themselves ON
gold basis-our customers and the mar
ket for our products-woud have been rem
, dered slow. cumbersome, unwieidy and
as well as TO the buyer, and our whole COM
merce, domestic and foreign; our entire
| financial. Industrial and commercial system
would have been impoverished, depleted
, and well-nigh destroyed
Had the same Democracy been powerful
4 enough 10 enforce Its platform demands in
1900 it would have sounded the first note
of retreat ever heard beneath our flag. 1t
would have disbanded our army. 1t would
: have scattered our navy. 1t would not have
, taken Porto Rico. II would not have re-
ceived the Hawaiian islands. 1t would not
have annexed Guam. 1t would have pulled
down our flag at Manila and unmindful of
! l the unparalleled triumph of Dewey in that
! ! bay, would have ANONYMOUSLY withdrawn
: from the Philippines forever. 1t would
! have abandoned those islands to tribal In
: surrection. to predatory and wasteful war
: fare, to atrocities as unspeakable those
: of Weyler in Cuba. to the medieval tor
ture of half-barbaric Spain, until some ma
l ton, more courageous than our own, had
, assumed sovereignty over them in the inter
est of humanity and for the advancement
of it's commercial concerns
; Thus would We, for the first time in ouI
history, have unnerved the sturdy Anglo
Saxon arm that has always stricken the
4 TO those in chains. We would have rur
| counter to our racial instinct. We would
! have turned our back on the all-victorious
Z history of our race. We would have
blasted the hopes of those unfortunate
! people, dimmed the luster of the deeds OF
: Lawton and all our heroic dead. and tenn.
. porarily obscured the high ideals of oul
. own Nation. founded upon the divine idea
I of the equality of man. We would, with
! our own suicidal hands, have closed the
1 | gates against our own merchants, our owr
farmers, our own manufacturers. our owl
$ laborers. and would have shut them out o
e the only market where in the future we car
o surplus. And the whole question of oul
r prosperity, our industrial supremacy, oul
e commercial primacy is wrapt up in those
e words, markets for surplus"
: Such, in brief, is the past record of tn,
a Democratic party Its advocates claim tina
: il can be relied on; what has IL ever done
S to warrant such reliance? They say ii cal
be trusted what victories has it eve
{, achieved 20 merit such trust? They say /
: can manage the complex affairs of th
C government; what is there in its record Il
n justify that assertion? For what grea
I affirmative act of legislation in forty years
o Is it responsible? Not one. The policies o
II the Republican party have prevailed in thi
n country since Lincoln was inaugurated
n save only from March, 1893 TO March, 1897
: What capacity for legislation, for govern
l. ment did the Democratic party display dur
l. ing those years that would justify the peo
}. pie in returning ii to power? DESTRUCTIVE
l. ever, constructive never; opposing all af
h firmatve legislation and proposing moth
Is ing, the past record of that party force
IS us TO the Inevitable conclusion that it lack
IS utterly the capacity TO manage the affair
e of this great government; that it is with
, out the power to originate, the capacity I
4, formulate, the genius to initiate or tn
e ability to execute beneficent and progres
d sive legislation. Every executive and legis
e lative act that has added to our prosperit
If at home and our prestige abroad: that ha
given us industrial supremacy and finan
cial primacy; that has added to tn
wealth. the thrift, the glory OF the Amer
=, lean peoe, everyone is traceaDe directly [
the wisdom the patriotism, the genius O
Is the Republican party.