Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-04-12

SASSoL1t1H IIGpDuTu Q6llVGr0Q the IOl-
lowing address:
Mr.. Chairman and Gentlemen of the
Convention: This is certainly very
gratifying occasion to me, one of a
series OF eleven, where | have had to
acknowledge, with great gratitude, my
obligations to the people of the eighth
congressional district. 1t certainly is
matter of qualification to any man
to have received this character of ex-
preston of confidence from district
like this, g district composed of intelli-
gent, cultivated men; where there is a
school house to be found along every
highway, every two miles of ones jour
ney; a district of more than two hun
dred thousand people, very largely till
ers or the richest and most prolific soil
under the sun. A traveller may start
from the western limit of the eighth
district, on the border of the Missouri
river, and travel eastward one hundred
and eighty-siX miles, within the limits
of the district, through.a continuous
lane, every acre upon either side yield
ing its fruits to the industry of it's
owner. These are the homes of this
people, and to be able to have their
confidence during all of the political
vicissitudes that arise during twenty
four years of time, is certainly an hon
or for which any man may well be
truly thankful.
But, gentlemen, looking today from
another aspect, there is not so much
cause for wonderment because the peo-
pie of this district have at all times
during this period mean the con-
trolling element within the district
had the same political objects in view.
That which will form today an ac-
ceptable platform for this convention,
would have been equally acceptable to
anyone of it's ten predecessors. Our
principles have not undergone change
or modification. We adhere now to the
standards as we did twenty-four years
ago. We recognize now what is basic
in our political organization and upon
what has been built the great super
structure of our prosperity. We recog-
nize that the republican party, during
all of this time has been welded to the
idea of protecting the labor of the
country. (Applause.) Our greatly in
creased wealth has come to us from
this cause, to-wit the protection of the
labor of the country. The protection
of the labor of the country means the
preservation of the markets for our
own products, the one inseparable from
the other, and conformity bringing to us
a measure of success and prosperity
that none others on earth know. When
we remember how we have grown in
all of the elements that make the state
or nation great, We can simply base it
all on the adherence to this principle,
and the Accomplishment of all these
wonders follow that strict adherence.
We say now as in. days past, we pro-
post to adhere to. this doctrine Of pro-
lection Of course. We. have met the
opposition of our opponents. We have
been told that if we closed our mar
kets for the purposes Of protection
the markets of the world would be
closed against us. 1t is the old song
gentlemen. l remember. it in the old
days, when as a youth and a young
man, was a reader Of the New York
Tribune over which Horace Greeley
presided, as the great illumination Of
this sgreat question. We were told
then, we have been told ever since,
that if we pursued this policy of re-
preston of exclusion, of isolation, OF
selfishness, that the markets Of the
other nations would cease to be buy
ers from us; and yet we have gone on
under our system, selling more and
more of the wealth of other nations
rs the purchase price of that which we
have sold. Sometimes we have been
told by men in our own party that adj
hesion to this great principle means
stagnation; ah, means death. We
have been referred to derisively as
stand patters", and we have been told
that it is only the dead that stand
pat" 1t has occurred to me that gen.
tlemen who have thus verbally dis
ported themselves are as faulty in
their theology as they are in their
politics. daughter and applause.)
do not understand that the dead are
immovable = that humiliation comes
to the dead - but rather that it is
the change that ushers in the more
glorious perspectiye;. that ushers in
more glorious possibilities; that be-
gins the new life, the greater grandeur
the greater. beauty, the greater useful
ness; death is the hope. and the con-
ISOLATION of Him who believes in the
doctrine of the lowly Nazarine. When
we say We "stand pat" we say that we
"hold site the protective principles.
We do not mean to say that we
cannot and will not strive to make it
more effective and more a blessing to
our people by wise notifications, such
as experience and prudence teaches to
be best. We recognize the fact that
the republican party has always been
one of progress with regard to meas
ures, holding fast always to principle.
Since l have been your representa-
tive three times the republican party
has made complete revision of the tar
iff, each time making it better. When
advocates of the protective system be-
gan the propaganda of their theories
it had been untried, and the measures
by which the principle has been made
effective have undergone evolution and
growth, until we have secured the
present enactment, the best of it's kind,
but recognized by, all of us as possess
sing no elements Of infallibility; and
we respond to the purpose to change it
whenever necessity requires, or when
ever betterment is possible. The man
who, in order to square his theology
with his politics and searching for
SMILES in the books which we regard