The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1906-05-03

general, and who vote according to
the instinct of the hour instead of ac7
cording to the principles of a life
time, control our elections. l have
no fears for my country so long as the
American people think out their plans,
formulate their policies and consist
emily adhere to them. My fear is of
an incoherent, independent, undis-
ciplined aggregation of well-inten-
toned men following a purposeless
though ambitious leader who promises
much impossible of fulfillment, and
whose chief argument is an indefinite
protest against we'll recognized and
inherent evils which existed from the
infancy of the race and which will
continue while men remain mortal and
so long as human nature continues to
control the human family.
Permit me to refer briefly to one of
the affirmative principles of the Re-
publican party; a principle that was
as correct and as capable of definite
statement in the days of Thomas
Jefferson as in the days of Theodore
Roosevelt: principle that has never
been put in operation in this country
without bringing prosperity to all our
people, and that has never been
abandoned without universal ruin. On
the historic correctness of these prop
ositions let the Republican party
stand or fall.
The Republican party believes in
Protection to American labor. Orig
inally it was thought that our indust-
ries needed Protection until they
should become established, and that
thereafter they could successfully face
worldwide competition. 1t was not
then anticipated that adherence to the
policy of Protection would create a
standard of wages fully so per cent
higher than that of any other country,
and more than 100 per cent. higher
than the average standard of the
world. Had conditions continued as
early Protectionists supposed they
would, and had all the world opened
its markets to all people on equal
terms, the expressed thought of the
fathers would have been verified in
our experiences. Protection, however,
has been beneficial in unexpected
ways. 1t has created scale OF
wages and established a standard of
| living to which the outside world is
a stranger, and renders necessary the
continuation of Protection or the
abandonment of these high standards.
Let me state the principle more
clearly. Every Industrious citizen is
a producer. He may produce day.
work which he sells in the labor mark.
ct. He may be consumer of Labor
and producer of farm or of factory
products. He may produce exchanges
of merchandise or exchanges of cred
it's, or he may produce transportation
Any one who by his efforts adds tt
the sum total of our production, OF
in any way increases the aggregate
OF our commerce, is producer. Thel
we are all, whether Industrious O.
not, consumers. We consume fooo
and clothes and cover. Therefore WE
have dual interests. We would like
to buy that which we consume a:
cheaply as possible, and sell what we
produce as high as possible. The man
who produces days work is inter.
ested in high priced labor, while hi
who buys labor and produces farm o.
factory products seeks to buy thi:
labor as cheap as possible and to sell
his products as high as possible.
In recognition of these dual inter
ests, the two great political parties
for many years have appealed TO the
American people from opposite stand
points. Our opponents appeal to the
consumer and insist that all that is
essential to make us prosperous anc
happy is cheap articles of consump-
ton. They say it matters not who
PTOuuCSS CudG WulCA VIC COllou1llS
provided it is cheap. They advocate
opening wide the doors of trade, SC
that we may buy of him who can pro-
duce the thing needed at the least
possible expenditure for labor, fol
they insist that all we want is cheap
goods. The Republican party on the
contrary, appeals to the producer. II
says to the man who has nothing tc
sell but labor, cit is important tc
you that wages be high" 1t says tc
the farmer and to the manufacturer,
; cit is important to you that you,
products find ready market and that
they command good prices - The
Republican party declares it to be rel
atively unimportant what price we
pay for labor or for the products of
labor, provided the wages paid go tc
our own people and the price of the