The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-07-06

4
lifelong ambition. Lincoln became at
once the foremost Republican of the
west and little later the greatest
political figure of the century.
| History affords no parallel to the
vast and increasing prosperity which
/ this country has enjoyed under Re-
publican rule. 1 hasten to say we do
not claim to have invented seedtime
and harvest, and industry and thrift.
| We are a great people and success is
our right; God is good to those VINO
behave themselves But we may just
| ly claim that the Republican party
has been in power during these years
| OF marvellous growth, and we can at
| least bring proof that we have not pre-
vented 1t-and this is no slight honor
for a party to claim. / will not at
this moment speak of tbs important
acquisitions of territory we have made,
which render us in many ways the
predominant power in the PACING. But
out of the territory we already pos
tered the union. The census of 1860
gave US 23,0O0,000 of population-the
last one, 100000. The number of
our farms-the total of our cultiva ted
acreage-has increased fourfold. Our
corn crop is five times what it was:
our wheat crop, six times. The CAPT
tai invested in manufacturing has
grown from five hundred millions to
ten billions; where it employed less
than a million artisans, it now en-
ployS more than five millions; and
while the number of workingmen has
increased five times their wages have
increased tenfold. The value of manu-
featured property is thirteen times
what it was when the Republicans
of Michigan met under the oaks. The
real and personal wealth of the coun-
try has grown in this amazing half
century from seven thousand millions
to- ninety-four thousand millions. Our
railroads have grown from mileage
of $4,000 to one of 100000. Our
imports and exports have gone up by
leaps and bounds to the same mon
strous proportions And finally, let
US hasten to say, as the other side
will say 1t for us, instead of the $47,-
100000 which supplied our modest
needs in 1860 we now collect and
spend some $7O0,0OO.00O annually. 1
can only add what Speaker Reed re-
piled to Democratic statesman who
complained of a billion-dollar con-
gress; Well, this is a billion-dol-
lar country
Of 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
that high level Now, 1 am grieved
to confess that 1 am old enough to
have seen something of the beginning,
as we'll as of the present, of Repub-
lican administrations, and venture to
say that no eight years of government
in our history have been purer from
blame or have conferred greater bene-
fits upon the country than the eight
years of Mckinley and Roosevelt
which claim our approval TODAY
need not hesitate to refer to it, al
though l have been associated with
both administrations; so little of their
merit is mine that l may speak of
them without false modeSty. Our ma
uonal finances have never in our his
tory been so wisely and successfully
administered; our credit never stood
on basis SO broad and so strong.
Our twO-per cents command a premi-
UNI in ali markets-no other country
on earth can say much. We paid
abroad the other day fifty millions of
gold in single tranSa ction without
producing a ripple in exchange. The
our enormous increase in every ele-
ment of national growth is collected
with the utmost ease and expended
with perfect honesty. Our protective
system Loyalty and intelligently car
ried out and improved in the last sew
en- years, not only fills our treasury
with the means of national expen-
diture, but has carried our industries
prosperity which is the wonder and
envy of our neighborS, who are try
ing to emulate our progress. In the
relat lions between labor and capital.
always a subject of deep concern in
democratic governments, we have i'm
proved both in the letter and the spirit.
How could it be otherwise when labor
knows that Mckinley and Roosevelt
have watched over its interests as a
brother might, and capital knows that
it's rights will be Sacredly guarded so
long as it is true to its duties? AS
to our place in the world, it has
simply followed and naturally compile
mented the steady improvement in our
domestic condition.
Our opponents sometimes say we
have no right to claim the credit of
the great deeds of the last half CEN
tury-thal we could not have accom-
plished them without the aid of the
Democrats. Nothing truer was ever
said; and it is one of the chief glories
of our annals, and it forms the surest
foundation of our hopes for the fu-
ture. The principles upon which our
party is built are sound, they have
so irresistible an attraction to patriotic
and fair-minded men. that whenever
a time of crisis comes, when the ma
tional welfare is clearly at stake, when
voters must decide whether they shall
follow their prejudices or their con-
sciences, we draw from other parties
their best men by thousands. Bright
among the brightest of those who
founded our party shine the names of
Democrats; and when the war came
on, the picked men of that party rail-
lied to the colorS. Douglas, shortly
before he died. declared his unfalter-
ing support of Lincoln. The sun would
go down before 1 could name the
democrats VINO 1Oushl IKE heroes LOT
the country. Grant, Sherman. Sheri- |
dan, Dix, SfckIes, Logan-in short, an
host, Democrats all, |
rushed into the field and thereafter
fought and worked with the Republic |
cans while life lasted. And that vast
majority of Lincoln's in 1854 would |
have been impossible had not myria DIS |
of Democrats, casting their lifelong |
to the winds, listened to |
the inward monitor which said. |
CHOOSE YOU this day whom We will |
serve.'' As it was then, SO it has
been in after years. When the at |
tempt was made to repudiate, in whole |
or in part, the national debt; or to |
abolish the system of protection to |
American industries founded by |
Wa shinetnn and Hamilton. and an [