The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-09-12


 tably the competition between new farm lands and old farm lands, tend here and there to obscure what is hap ipening; but it is as certain as the op- Ierations of any economic law, that in the country as a whole, farm values Iwi1 continue to increase as the partner Iship between manufacturer and farmer lgrows more intimate through further advance of industrial science. The American manufacturer never could Ihave placed this nation at the head of tthe manufacturing nations of the world if he had not had behind him, se- leuring him every variety of raw ma terial, the exhaustless resources of the American farm, developed by the skill land the enterprise of intelligent and ed ucated American farmers. On the other hand. the debt of the farmers to the manufacturers is equally heavy, land the future Of American agriculture is bound up in the future of American manufactures. The two industries have become, under the economic policy of our government, so closely fnterwoven, so mutually interdependent, that neither can hope to mantain itself at the high-Water mark of progress with out the other. Whatever makes to the advantage of one is equally to the ad- vantage of the other.
 1 So 1t is as between the capitalist and ] the wage worker. Here and there may be an equal sharing as between the two in the benefits that have come by pro I tection; 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 it would
 be heaviest, and it 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.
 Conditions change and the laws must
 be modified from time to time to fit new exigencies.h But the genuine underly- ing principle of protection, as it has been embodied in all but one of the American tariff laws for the last forty years, has worked out results so bene- dcent, so evenly and widely spread, so advantageous alike to farmers and lcapitalists and workingmen, to com merce and trade of every kind, that the
 American people, if they show their usual practical business sense, will in- sist that when these laws are modified l they shall be modified with the utmost care and conserYatism, and by the I friends and not the enemies of the pro-
 tective system. They cannot afford to trust the modification to those who ltreat protection and robbery as lsynonymous terms.
 The Merchant Marine.
 In closing what I have to say about the system of promoting American in l dustry let me add word oe cordial
 way including within it's 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 well nigh texclusive!y in the hands of foreigners. j Iase Army.
 It is difficult to know if our opponents are really sincere in their demand for the reduction O. the army. If insin- lcere, there is no need for comment, and if sincere, what shall we say in speak ing to rational persons of an appeal Ito reduce an army of sixty thousand men which is taking care of the inter ests of over eighty million people? The army is now relatively smaller than 1t
 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 | population; smaller than 1t was in the peaceful days of Jefferson, when there were fifty-one hundred soldiers to five million three hundred thousand popula- ton. There is now one soldier to every fourteen hundred people in this country l--less than one-tenth of one per cent, I We cannot be asked seriously to argue las to the amount of possible tyranny i contained in these figures. The army
 as it is now is as small as it can possi- ply be and serve it's purpose as an ef-
 fective nucleus for the organization, Iequipment, and supply of volunteer army in time of need. It Is now used
 as never before, for aiding in time of lneed. It Is now used, as never before,
 for aiding In the upbuildlng of the or t ganized militia of the country. The war ! department Is engaged in a systematic
 effort to strengthen and develop the national guard in the several states; as | witness, among many other Instances
 the great field manoeuvers at Manassas
 which have just closed. If our op-
 ponents should come into power they
 could not reduce our army below its
 present size without greatly impairing
 its efficiency and abandoning part oi
 the national duty. In short. in this matter, if our opponents should come Einto power they would either have tc
 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 elst they would have to embark on a policy (which would be ludicrous at the mo. lment, and fraught with grave danger
 to the national honor in the future.
 8I Our opponents contend that the gov.
 ernment is now administered extrav. agantly, and that whereas there was
 "a surplus of s8O.00O,O00 in 19OO' there is "a deficit of more than $40O0o;O00n 1T the year that has Just closed.
 This deficit is imaginary, and is ob' tained by including in the 'aordinarS
 current expenses. the sum of fifty mil l, lions, which was paid for the right O way of the Panama canal out of "tht ], accumulated surplus in the treasury sotIrrnY1t