Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-10-02

ana senate.
Now, il were told that would
die within a month"; would put my
house in order. In other words, |
would discount that thirty days. That
is what the American people com
menced doing the day after Benjamin
Harrison was defeated. Manufactur-
ers reduced their forces and manufac-
tured on orders. Instead of the re-
gular daily employment the laboring
man had only part OF his time oc-
cupied. The farmer, too, Went SLOW
ly He bought less and by the time
Grover Cleveland took the oath OF Of
fee, March A, 1898, the country was
in pretty bad shape. Under the leader
ship Of William Wilson of West Vir-
ginia and William ]. Bryan. who was
then in the house, the Wilson bill was
on the statute books.
Those Weary, Weary Months.
ooh, those weary weary months we
passed. You older people recollect
them, but God forbid that you younger
people ever will know them except as
YOU are told just as I am telling you
now.
"After the bill was passed, that peer
less leader William Jennings Bryan
saw that we were going from bad to
! worse and that he must make an ex-
cuse. So he issued a pronunciamento
and said. After all it Is not a Dues
| ton of free trade of protection or
| tariff for revenue. The trouble is that
we have not enough money. The cost
of living keeps going higher and the
| wage of labor keeps falling lower HIS
medicine was to make more money.
His prescription was free coinage OF
silver at the ratio Of 16 to l, and to let
| the silver dollars be full legal tender.
1.-THE republican party nominated
William Mckinley on a protective tar
| if platform and Mckinley made his
campaign that year on q single sen
tence: Open the mills, not the minis.
He won and again the people discount
ed. livery factory that had been clos
ed began to clean up, those that had
been working small forces employed
more men. The idle secured empty
ment. You could risk making some
thing for sale the coming year because
the republican party was back in
power.
Calls Special Session.
|
Mckinley called congress together
and we went down to Washington. 1t
took us until August to adjust the
tariff but we adjusted it and we went
back home. Low and behold what has
happened since. The money question
4 was settled and the bulk of money
has been increasing ever since until
today it is about $35 per capita. The
business of the country has increased.
The best thermometer is the postofflce
department. In Clevelands last year
the expense Of the post office was
about s80,000,OOO and the increase
about $7S,00O,00O. This year the rev.
enues amount to about $3.50, 100000 and
the cost is between $1SS,000,000 and
$3.50 900, 000--two times and q half as
great as when William Mckinley took
the oath of office. This shows the pro.
gress of the country and these very
4 figures, if you stop and think about it,
make the best republican speech that
could possibly be made.
4 Is Party Of Hope.
"In the meantime at an expenditure
of 3O,OOO,000 we have founded the
rural free delivery service, SO that the
homes of substantially all the farmers
are in touch with the outside world
every day. The republican party is
the party of hope, faith. enterprise and
correct policies. 1t believes in the de-
, velopment Of the country and in the
, hustle of the American people, there
fore we reach out.
II might talk all night on this sub
i, ject Since Mckinley was elected
lands have doubled in value. You find
{ this true if you want to buy and yor
1 find people to buy if you want to sell
/, Machinery has been improved and
; while labor costs more, it produces
} more. All are busy at increased
! wages. The other two-thirds are goot
: customers of the farmer and he is {
: good customer of theirs.
8 did you ever study the foreign
trade? Up to 1860 we bought more
than we sold and we had to send ou
r accounts. 1t took us into the close o
!, Harrison's administration to ge
caught UP so that we had sold as mucl
J, as we had bought. During Cleveland
/ administration the country ran in deb
I and fell behind, and he had to borrow
J. $3.50, 100000 to pay the expenses o
9 the government. Tariff for revenue
: only brought less and less. Sine
/ then conditions have changed Ever,
! one is employed that wants to be an
y if man is idle now it is because h
E chooses to be idle.
Abuses Creep In.
8 Now as we built these railroad
= and factories and developed the cour
try abuses crept in here and Their
q very naturally. We gave aid to get tn
g railroads into Illinois and Iowa. Why
$, To get competition. Land then wa
n worth only $1.25 and $3.50 an acre
81 where it now sells for $125 and $15t
- We were too busy to notice how th
- lines we're operated. They were ope
= ated pretty well. and I may say her
=, that the charges on the America
" railroads are substantially only ha
!, Of what is charged in the old worl,
- The tariff was almost two cents pc
= ton per mile in the '70's. Now it