Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1906-01-19

"a
times extended at that time over the face
Of the entire civilized globe and certainly
no man who has any reputation for wis
dom or Neracity to lose will jeopardize
It by asserting that any tariff law passed
by us can create hard times all over the
world.
The only difficulty about the tariff bill
Of 1857 was that, hard times coming on I'M
eXpectedly, it did not raise revenue
enough to pay the expenses of the gov
The Balance of Trade.
Colonel Hepburn interrupted to as
sert two propositions-D that the bal
ance of trade in our favor is the best
indication of prosperity and that the
balance of trade has been generally
against us under Democratic tariffs
and in our favor under Republican
tariffs; ~ he contended that the Mex
lean war, Crimean war and the dis
coveries of gold in California and Aus
tralia We're the main factors in the
prosperity from 1916 to 1851 Answer
ing both his contentious at once. said:
Now, to answer the gentleman from
Iowa [Mr. Hepburn, whose question is
may not be a test of prosperity. Holland
is one of the most prosperous countries
under the sun, and the balance of trade
is generally against her. Germany pros
pers like a tree planted by the rivers of
water; nevertheless there is large bal
ance of trade against her l will put Mr..
Blaine's statement as to prosperity of
these years as a fact that cannot be con-
tradicted. There are two universally ac-
rpnfah n yrnS orft
of population and increase of wealth; not
in the aggregate, but by percentages-and
the statistics show that, judged by per-
centages of increase of wealth and popu-
lation, any one of the eleven years of the
Walker tariff bill was more prosperous
than any one of the nine years of the
Dingley tariff bill. In no one of the eleven
years of the Walker tariff did we increase
In population as much in the aggregate
as we have in any one of the nine years
of the Dingley bill, simply because 30OOO,-
600 of people do not propagate as many
children as S0,000,000 of people. In no one
of the eleven years of the Walker bill did
we pile up as much increase of wealth in
the aggregate as in any one of the nine
years Of the Dingley bill, because 10000, 900
of people cannot make as much wealth es
S3,0O0,O00 of people, and we now have all
Of these labor saving devices which so
much multiply the wealth producing ca
pacity OF people. But judged by per-
oentage in increase Of wealth, we increas-
ed as much in any one year of the Walker
bill as in any one year Of the Dingley bill.
Tariffs and Prosperity.
But what I started to say was that,
granted the Mexican war and the Crimean
war and the discovery of gold helped
along the prosperity-and l do not desire
to deny it-how does that apply to the
present situation? Now, the gentleman
from Iowa [Mr. Hepburn is no ordinary
congressman He is veteran statesman.
He is one of the three or four great Re-
publican debaters in this house. He claims
that there has been greater prosperity
under the Dingley bill than there ever
was before. Every Republican claims
that and that the Dingley bill produced 1t.
But. if the Mexican war and the Crimean
war helped to increase the prosperity in
1846 and for the eleven succeeding years.
how does 1t happen that the Spanish war
and the Philippine war and the Boer war
and the Russo-Japanese war and the
greatly increased production of gold in
recent years should not be credited with a
part of the great prosperity that has come
to the American people under the Dingley
tariff bill? Why, as a sample, when the
Spanish war began the very best mules in
Missouri were selling for $75 to 500
dp1CSS. iASSO Wills OOhbuIu6u luS WOElQ
supply of mules The consequence is that
a good pair of mules in Missouri now sells
for $500 to $500, and yet that according to
the Republican logic, is credited up to the
blessings of the Dingley bill, which didn't
have bit more to do with it than had the
Ten Commandments. Every man from the
south who raises sugar and cotton knows
that mules have gone UP from the days
when the Spanish war began, and if we
orc E,,Y.ny
talking about the price of mules would go
soaring out of sight
Another thing about it: Suppose the
gold production did help to bolster up
prosperity from 1916 to 1847-and a man
would be an idiot to deny it-what has
helped to bolster up this prosperity but
the new discoveries of gold that have
brought $S0O,OOO,00O of gold into this coun-
try? That is how much more you have
now than in 1885, Also a discovery Of
new and cheap process of extracting gold
out of the ore, which brought in another
third of it, in round numbers. When that
process was discovered it did not pay to
work gold that did not run SO or SIS
ton; now you can work 1t with profit
where it produces less than a dollar
ton Where does the other third come
from? will tell you. In 1897 and 1898 and
1883 and 1900 we had the finest crops that
ever grew out of the ground, and they
had crop famine in Europe and Aus
tralia. and those hungry people had to
pay our farmers practically what they
wanted for their products, SO that it sent
a stream of gold like the river Pactolus
flowing into this country, into the arteries
Of commerce, quickening and fructifying
the whole American commerce And it is
poor rule that does not work both ways.
No Duty on Necessities.
quoted from President Roosevelts
Life of Colonel Thomas II. Benton" in
which he paid high tribute to Benton
for his great fight to place salt on the
free list. General Grosvenor Clipped in
to argue in favor Of protected salt. To
his perfectly pertinent remarks, which
wish had space to quote in full, 7
replied as follows:
When God created this world, in benefi-
.c;ence he made salt naarlv as plentiful as
the air we breathe and the water we
drink; man has wickedly levied q tariff tax
on IL. Even the pagan Romans knew better
than that. A standing order to the Ro-
man army was that they should never
levy tribute Of salt on conquered people.
wish had time to make speech on
Thomas II. Benton and the work he did
IN putting salt on the free list. For years
In the Roman senate Cato, no matter
what was the subject of his speech,
wound up with Carthage delenda est"
WCarthage must be destroyed') And,
no difference what the subject of debate
In the American senate, Colonel Benton
lugged in the subject of protected salt
He was one Of the greatest Democrats
that ever lived, and the speeches which he
delivered in the United States senate upon
this subject will amply repay perusal
even at this late day, for the learning