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Show THE COUNTRY'S PROGRESS. In reckoning the business possibilities of our country, economists often lose sight of the fact that from the first there has been no brake on American progress except through vicious or foolish fool-ish legislation. It was slow at first because the country was poor and the - needed money was .lacking. Two or three times the Democracy took away reasonable tariff protection with the never-failing result that our country was stuffed with foreign goods, it was drained Qf money, and our artisans were without employment. That experiment was tried at intervals for thirty years, and though the result was always the same, as late as 1894, Mr. Cleveland showed more irritation when the Wilson Wil-son free-trade bill was emasculated in the Senate than perhaps on any other occasion while he was President. The law that demonetized silver brought to the country more sorrow and loss than any other one thing ever did, except the; civil -war. The pressure under it increased steadily and with' crushing force to all debtors and all men who relied re-lied upon work to make for themselves a living until the misfortunes of the outside world restored re-stored the money volume to the wants of the people. peo-ple. The anti-tariff legislation was mere Idiocy, the demonetization of silver was direct robbery of -the masses of the people, for no purpose save to ,swell the fortunes of the interest-gatherers. But when neither of these calamities have been upon the nation, there has been no break in the upward sweep of business and prosperity. , dsons have been manifold. Every man has M bev.ii free from the first to do any legitimate thing. M The area under cultivation has been increased by millions of acres with every decade. The precious H metal mines of the western states' have, during H the past fifty years, doubled the world's money H supply. Our great rivals have been Great Britain, H France and Germany, but we have individual H states almost as broad in area as any of these H rivals. While they have withdrawn half a million H of their young men annually to serve in their armies and navies, we have drawn from them H another half million who have merged with our H countrymen to help make the nation the foremost Jl in the world. We iave- npt done as well as vfe aH should. By this time all American ocean freights H should be carried in American ships and the mil- :H lions paid to foreign ship-owners should have ,H been transferred to home lines. But, neverthe- H less, there is steady progress until now from east H and west the nab vns look across the sea to our H Republic for food and textiles, and the roar of the H country's industries rises up a constantly increas- JM ing diapason. H We are all interested in Presidential and Con- gressional elections, and we certainly should be, H for as we look back during the career of our na- 'H tive land we realize that every blight that. has H been brought upon our country thus far, has been H due to unwise or unjust legislation, and tho s only M thing we have to fear for the future is more un- M wise or unjust legislation. This fact ought to M temper partisanship enough to cause men to de- JM termine that only the best and wisest candidates M should be named. M |