Las Vegas daily optic. [volume] (Las Vegas, N.M.) 1880-1908, 1904-07-07

Il @&A L%| #E FL
say, as the other side will say it for
us, instead of the s47, 000, 900 which
supplied our modest needs in 1850 We
now collect and spend some 00,000..
600 annually. | can only add what
Speaker Reed replied to a democratic
statesman who complained of a billion
dollar congress: well, this is a
billion.dolar country"
or course our opponents, who have
got far enough from the men and
the events of the great war period TO
admit they were not without merit,
will say-for they must say some
thing-that We have fallen away from
the high level. Now, | am grieved
to confess that | am old enough to
have seen something OF the beginning
as well as of the present. Of republi.
can administrations, and l venture to
say that no eight years of government
in our history have been Ipurer from
blame or have conferred greater ben.
efits upon the country than the eight
Eyears of Mckinley and Roosevelt
which claim your approval today. /
need not hesitate TO refer to ii, al
though ! have been associated with
both administrations; SO little OF their
merit is mine that | may speak of
them without false modesty. Our na-
tional finances have never in our his
tory been SO wisely and successfully
administered; our credit never stood
Jour two percents command a prem
ium in all markets-no other country
on earth can say as much. We paid
abroad the other day fifty millions
of gold in a single transaction with
out producing a ripple in exchange.
The vast expenditure made necessary
by our enormous increase in every
element of national growth is collect
ed with the utmost ease and expend-
ed with perfect honesty. Our pro-
tective system, loyalty and intelligent
ly carried out and improved in the
last seven years, not only fills our
treasury with the mean of national
expenditure, but has carried our inA
Idustries and our commerce to a
height of prosperity which is the
wonder and envy Of our neighbors,
who are trying to emulate our pro
gress. In the relations between labor
and capital, always a subject of deep
concern in democratic governments,
We have improved both in the letter
and the spirit. How could it be otner-
wise when labor knows that Mckinley
| and Roosevelt have watched oyer its
interests as a brother might, and cap
ital knows that its rights will be
sacredly guarded so long as 1t Is true
to its duties? As to our place in the
world, it has simply followed and nat
urally complemented the steady im-
provement in our domestic condition.
A country growing Sc fast must have
elbow room-must have its share of
the sunshine. In the last seven years,
with aggression, without undue self
assertion, we have taken the place
that belonged to us. Adhering with
religious care to the precepts OF
Washington and the traditions of a
century. and avoiding all %entangling
alliances, protesting friendship to all
nations and Partially to none, Nc
kinley and Roosevelt have gone stead
lily forward protecting and extending
American interests everywhere and
gaining, by deserving II, the good will
of all the world. Their advice has
been constantly sought and sparingly
given. BY constant iteIttion their
policy has been made plain. We do
not covet the territory nor the cons
troll of any other people. We hold our-
selves absolutely apart from any COM
binations or groups of powers. We
favor no national interests but our
own. In controversies among our
neighbors we take no part, not even
rendering good offices unless - Tire
request of both parties concerned,
on the side Of peace and Cancellation.
on the STRIDE Of peace and Cancellation.
We have made 1t Is true, great acquis.
itions, but never OF set purpose nor
from greed OF land. In the case OF
Hawaii, the will Of the people Of those
islands conceded with the important
interests we have to guard In the Pa,
cific. In the Samoan treaty we freed
ourslves from a useless and dangerous
ENHANCEMENT. and in place OF an un
desirable conjomininm we gained poe
session Of the best harbor In the
South Seas, retaining. at the same
time, all our commercial rights In the
/ a~rchinplapo Tho din1omacv of Me.