Norwich bulletin., 1916-10-26

going to the polls and indicating your confidence in our peerless leader, that the Stars and Stripes may float, sym bolic of the greatest nation on Gods footstooL (A1lpause)
 Mayor Brown then introduced as the second and last speaker of the even ing, Senator William Paul Dillingham;, now serving his third term and an ex- governor of the state of Vermont. Senator Dillingham; Introduced. Senator Dillingham; like the previous speaker, was accorded a hearty wei come by those in the hall. In his opening words he referred briefly to the Mexican situation, endorsing the statements made by Congressman | Walsh. In reference to the existence l of a state of war between Mexico and | the United States Senator Dillingham; l said that it would necessarily be so | or those bandits who killed our soldiers ! would be counted nothing more or less l than murderers.
 In part Senator Dillingham; spoke as 1 follows:
 During the debates in the United States senate on the Underwood tariff ] bill in 1913 John Sharpe Williams of 1 Mississippi challenged the proposition | that a protective tariff increases the | rate of wages paid to operatives in | position upon the broad proposition 1 that wages are high in any country | just in proportion as institutions are free; he madt the broad assertion that even In the colonial days every trav eler from either England or France | who visited the American colonies noted the high amount of pay re- ceived -rby labor, whether common or 1 skilled, and insisted that since the | organization of our government and the advance of free institutions every | historian has noted the existence of l I 6iSnnSitiOn to differ with him regarding the his 1 torjc fact. Every well read man knows that low wages are the bequest 1 of serfdom; that wages are lowest | where despotism is most arrogant and caste most exclusive; that the rate of wages paid indicate the type of every | government by era ard by country. | In the orient, where the most grinding g tyranny has been practiced, wages have been tnfnitisimal in amount Labor conditions in Egypt and Japan, with all their progress, are even now i a vivid reminder of the fact. In the ] United States where, aS the English historian, Mckenzie, tells us the peo- pie were bold enough to form a gov ernment based upon principles dia- merfcally opposed to those upon which | all previous governments had been based, wages advanced from the begin ming and have been maintained as mo- | where else in the world.
 l a. slave controlled nation for 40 years. Cotton was king, but 80 per cent. of it was exported. Today corn is king, and 98 per cent. of it finds a home market. Wheat nearly equals cotton in value, and 70 per cent. of that crop goes to satisfy the American appetite.
 What has wrought this mighty change? What has brought us from obscurity and made the United States the leading nation of the world? The answer Is found in the republican plat form of 1860, and in the admirable constructive statesmanship which for g half century has found expression in the administration of the affairs of
 the nation.
 Under the Homestead Act
 In the very first year of it's adminis-
 tration the republican party opened up
 to free labor the great public domain upon which the slave power had vain = ly looked with greedy eyes. Under the homestead act we opened up in 40 years farms twice as great in number as those opened up during two cen
 turies of colonial and national life
 Our agricultural resources have ad-
 vanced by leaps and bounds until al
 the present time the cultivated land Of the United States alone is greater
 in area than the entire territory cul-
 tivated or otherwise, of the United
 Kingdom, Germany, France, Greece and Portugal combined. But the vision of the republican leaders extended into
 the futurt and they saw there must
 be created a home market for the fruits of this vast and fertile area. In
 order to establish that system of na-
 tional exchanges recommended in the
 republican platform of 1860, and to
 protect American labor in the advan =
 tages which had resulted from free
 institutions it adopted the protective
 principle in it's tariff legislation and
 under the Merrill act, the manufac-
 tured products of the United States so
 that in 1870 they equalled in value
 those of France; in 1880 they equalled
 those of England; in 1890 they had so multiplied that their value was greater than those of England and France
 combined, and in the year 1900 Bis
 marks prophecy was fulfilled and the
 manufactured products in the United States were found to be greater in
 value than those of England, Germany and France combined, and the United States had under our protective policy passed Europe at ga1lop'
 In this magnificent development we
 have advanced from a nation of 31 states to one of 4S. The workingmen of each stand upon precisely the same basis and while under republican ad- ministration they have been protected against foreign competition, they have sharpened their wits in competition with each other, the men of one state against those of every other state, 1 with an efficiency which has reduced
 the cost of production and prevented that increase in the price of commodi- ties which our enemies charge against 1 our system.
 What the Home Market Means. I What does this home market mean 1 to us? It means that the interchange of commodities among the people of the several states is actually greater in amount than the foreign trade of all the nations of the world combined. Under this comprehensive system in augurated by the republican party and vigorously pushed for a full half cen- tury, and as bitterly opposed by the democratic party, we have become the wealthiest nation of the world and the material condition of the masses has advanced beyond all precedent.
 The wealth of tho people has ad- vanced from $513 per capita in 1880 to $1,965 in 1910.
 I have already called attention to the fact that in the development of our manufactured products we had 16 years ago exceeded in value those of the three principal nations of Europe and that they at that time amounted