Читать книгу Speeches of Benjamin Harrison, Twenty-third President of the United States - Benjamin Harrison - Страница 40

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The city of Kokomo welcomed the party in the evening with a brilliant illumination by natural gas. Three thousand people were present. General Harrison said:

My Friends—I very much appreciate this spontaneous evidence of your friendliness. That so many of you should have gathered here this evening to greet us on our return home after a brief absence from the State is very gratifying to me. Kokomo has been for many years a very prosperous place. It has been the happy home of a very intelligent and very thrifty people. You are now, however, realizing a development more rapid and much greater than the most sanguine among you could have anticipated three years ago. The large increase in the number and business of your manufacturing establishments, the coming here from other parts of the country of enterprising men with their capital to set up manufacturing plants, has excited your interest and has promoted your development. There is not a resident of Kokomo, there is not a resident of Howard County, who does not rejoice in this great prosperity. I am sure there is not a man or woman in this city who does not realize that this new condition of things gives to your boys, who are growing up, new avenues of useful thrift. It opens to those who might otherwise have pursued common labor access to skilled trades and higher compensation. There is not a merchant in Kokomo who does not appreciate the added trade which comes to his store. There is not a farmer in Howard County who has not realized the benefits of a home market for his crops [applause and cries of "Good!"], and especially for those perishable products of the farm which do not bear distant transportation. Now I submit to your consideration, in the light of these new facts, whether you have not a very deep interest in the protection of our domestic industries and the maintenance of the American standard of wages. There can be no mistaking the issue this year. In previous campaigns it has been observed by evasive platform declarations. It is now so clear that all men can understand it. I would leave this thought with you: Will the prosperity that is now realized by you, and that greater prosperity which you anticipate, be better advanced by the continuance of the protective policy or by its destruction?