Chairman. that a recapitulation of the distress. disaster. and misule on the one side is as superfluous as tWe industrial and business revival and the beneficent administration of public affairs by the party now in power. because every wageearner. every employer. every investor. and every business man in the entire country knows. sees. and feels the contrast. but it is sometimes salutary to recite wellknown occurrences. that the lessons they teach may be kept.fresh in the minds of men. who. unfortunately and too often. as the history of recent times demonstrates. forget. while in the enjoyment of industrial blessings. the distress and the hardships themselves and their families have endured under conditions brought about by narrow. unpatriotic. and unprogressive legislation. unsuited to either the conditions or genius of an energetic. intelligent. and selfreliant people. At the close of the Democratic Administration of Grover Cleveland the National Treasury was empty. Scandal and disgrace were the coupons attached to the methods adopted for raising money to run the Government. a tariff law almost universally condemned. except by its immediate promoters. had been enacted. the business of the country was paralyzed by its provisions and the corollary conditions then prevailing from the distrust and uncertainty engendered by vicious legislation. public credit was at a low ebb. while private credit and mercantile confidence had almost ceased to exist. except in its worst und most speculative form. the streets or our cities were black with idle men: farms were unproductive. mines were closed: the fires in our mills had been extinguished. railway traffic had fallen off 20 per cent. immigration was discontinued. and every outgoing Atlantic liner carried mechanics and artisans back to their respective native lands In search of the employment they failed to find in this country. Tramps lined every road. and in daily increasing numbers the honest. independent. and selfrespecting toiler was being reduced to the condition of an applicant for public charityfor a tin of soup at the kitchen of municipal charity! -All enterprise had ceased. there was. little work and less wages. The Republican party and its candidate for President assailed this condition of affairs and pointed out that they were due to the vicious legislation and maladministration of the Democratic party. and not to any diminution in either the products of the farmor in our natural wealth and resources.
Keywords matched
immigration