Speech #460122643

Under the form of an interrogatory there were assertions -of a very positive character. to which the assent of the witness was invited or his denial challenged. The "facts" thus suggested are -indeed the most startling and striking in the book. and nothing which .any witness testified to equaled the statement that forms the pregnant suggestions of the questions which the honorable Senatorsput to -the witnesses. But so far as the real testimony is considered. no one can read it with close attention without coming to the conclusion that there was -nothing in the condition of the States from which this emigration proceeded. to produce such a result as driving its labor from the employments in which it was so actively and profitably engaged. and nothing in the condition of the States to which this current of omiAration moved that invited such an influx of labor there. upon the contrary. that there was much in the pressure of labor upon employment in these States last mentioned. and the consequent depression of wages and want of employment. to discourage and repel such inIlux. and even to roll it back to the locality from which it started. It also. sir. discloses. beyond any question or cavil. that the emigration itself was in large measure one of those instances becoming very frefluent in modern times. of powerful combinations entered into for the aggrandizement and enrichment of their projectors. which by the anagnitude of their operations can contravene for a time the natural laws and economic principles which govern the production and distribution of a countrys wealthcombinations that never fail to result in mischief and disaster. as this one did. to all except those for whose benefit they were formed. The proof. sir. which the Senator from Indiana has brought together upon this subject. is absolutely impregnable and stands unshaken by the angry rhetoric of the Senator from Minnesota. which. in dashing against it. has only foamed out its own imbecility. There is no doubt about the fact that the testimony which has been .adduced is contradictory.