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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 17, 1901)
S BPBMwv' 5iS ; Cbc Conscrv | iw. J * jt * & VOL. IV. NO. 15. NEBRASKA CITY. NEBRASKA. . ER17.1901. / SINGLE-COPIES. 5 CENTS. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. OFFICES : OVERLAND THEATRE BLOCK. J. STERLING MORTON , EDITOR. A JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE DISCUSSION OF POLITICAL , ECONOMIC AND SOCIOLOGICAL QUESTIONS. CIRCULATION THIS WEEK , 13,873 COPIES. TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. One dollar and a half per year In advance , postpaid to any part of the United States or Canada. Remittances made payable to The Morton Printing Company. Address , THE CONSERVATIVE , Nebraska City , Nebraska. Advertising rates made known upon appli cation. Entered at the postofflce at Nebraska City , Neb. , as Second Class matter , July 29 , 1808. The last and most M'KINLEY , impressive speech SEPT. 5 , 1901. ever made , by Wil liam McKinley was at Buffalo , N. Y. , Sept , 5 , 1901. In that deliverance he said : "The period of exclusiveness is past. The expansion of our trade and com merce is the pressing problem. Com mercial wars are unprofitable. A policy of good will and friendly trade relations will prevent eprisals. Bee - iprooity treaties are in harmony with the spirit of the times ; measures of retaliation are not. If , perchance , some of our tariffs are no longer needed for revenue or to encourage and protect our industries at homewhy should they not be employed to extend and promote our markets abroad ? " "Exclusiveness" brought about by a prohibitory protective tariff is a thing not to be tolerated in the future commer cial career of the Republic. And to that sentiment thoughtful citizens of all par ties , who have no special interest to governmentally foster , will cheerfully assent. Hereafter legislating high prices upon commodities by shutting out competition from abroad , through th schedules of a prohibitory tariff , can not be made to appear a purely patriotic proceeding. The famous free-trade report made by Robert , T. Walker , Secretary of the Treasury , during February , 1845. the administration of James K. Polk , is dated February 5 , 1845. It is the first out and out plea for commercial free dom ever officially filed by an executive officer of either the American or British government. It ought to bo read in all the public schools of the United States and placed in every village , city and of the country. It demonstrates i , the first movement in favor of free trade was made in the United States of North America and not in the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Like lib erty of speech and liberty of the press , liberty of trade is an American thought , not an English one. On the fifteenth day of May , 1840 , more than one year after the report of Robert J. Walker- May 15 , 1846. which was addressed - * ed on February 5 , 1845 , to George M. Dallas , Vice-Presi dent of the United States at four o'clock in the morning the repeal of the Corn Laws was passed by 827 votes to 229. And on June 25,184Gthe Customs Duties Bill and the Corn Bill were passed by the House of Lords and on the 2Gth of June , the next day , received the Royal approval. Sir Robert Peel , who had been a pro nounced and active protectionist , alien ated many of his June 29 , 1846. ardent friends by his support of the repeal of the Corn Laws. He had changed conscientiously from the side of "exclusiveness" to the side of free dom. Like President McKinley , Sir Robert had , in effect ; declared : "The period of exolusiveness is past. " And in replying to his assailants he patriot ically proclaimed : "In proposing those measures of com mercial p5licywhich disentitled us to the confidence of many of our former sup porters , we were influenced by no other desire than that of promoting the inter ests of the country. * * * The love of power was not the motive for the proposal of those measures ; for I had not a doubt that , whether these meas ures were attended with failure or suc cess , one event must certainly occur , and that was the termination of this administration. " Then with fervor and candor , Sir Robert Peel avers that the success of the measure is due to "a man acting , I believe , from pure , and disinterested motives , who has advocated this cause with'untiring energy , and by appeals to reason , enforced by an eloquence the more to be admired because it is unaf fected and unadorned the name which will be , and ought to be associated with the shccess of these measures , is the name of Richard Cobden. * * # I shall surrender power , severely cen sured , I fear , by many honorable men _ , "r'io. from uo interested motives , have , . ,0 the priiSoiples -protection , becauo they look$6n them as im portant to the interesfe and nv&lfare of the country. I shalKleliye a name ex ecrated , I know , by overy/'lfiouopolist , who would maintain protection for his own individual benefit. But it may be that I shall leave a name sometimes re membered with expressions of good will in the abodes of those whose lot it is to labor and to earn their daily bread by the sweat of their brow , when they shall recruit their exhausted strength with abundant and uutaxed food , the sweeter because it is no longer leavened by a sense of injustice. " And so the English tariff on Ameri can corn died. History repeats itself. Prohibitory duties will die in the United States. Robert J. Walker , the American , and Robert Peel , the English man following as Walker's pupil in free trade , struck the first blow for untramrneled markets in all the civilized countries of the globe. The reciprocity talked about now by those who recently were ardent protectionists is only the first symptom of free trade the world over. Appeals to the ENVY. envy of the unfor tunate , the indolent - lent , the intemperate and improvident are the chief power-agents of those demagogues in American politics who generate , nourish and organize discon tent. The'se desperate place-hunters and power-seekers who assault all who have acquired even a competency , and who condemn as dishonest and disrep utable all who have accumulated large fortunes , teach the less fortunate that they have been wronged and robbed by the well-to-do and the rich. Those elo quent sophists instruct the plain people that wealth has seldom been honestly obtained in the United States and that there ought to bo redistribution , di rectly or indirectly , of all the personal and real property of the country. The appeals to envy , malice , jealously , eovet- ousness and indolent greed which have been made to the American people since 1890 by uneasy vagarists , by the moulders of discontent and by ambi tious and conscienceless agitators , seek ing high political positions , have spawned anarchy and nerved anarchists to assassination. Yellow statesmanship and yellow journalism have inspired to arson , to robbery and to murder.
