d that depends upon wages.
If wages are twenty-five cents a day, then we can compete with
those nations where wages are twenty-five cents a day; but if our
wages are five or six times as high, then the twenty-five cent
labor will supply the market. There is no possible way of putting
ourselves on an equality with other countries in the markets of
the world, except by putting American labor on an equality with
the other labor of the world. Consequently, we cannot obtain a
foreign market without lessening our wages. No proposition can be
plainer than this.

It cannot be said too often that the real prosperity of a country
depends upon the well-being of those who labor. That country is
not prosperous where a few are wealthy and have all the luxuries
that the imagination can suggest, and where the millions are in
want, clothed in rags, and housed in tenements not fit for wild
beasts. The value of our property depends on the civilization of
our people. If the people are happy and contented, if the workingman
receives good wages, then our houses and our farms are valuable.
If the people are discontented, if the workingmen are in want, then
our property depreciates from day to day, and national bankruptcy
will only be a question of time.

If Mr. Mills has given a true statement with regard to the measure
proposed by him, what relation does that measure bear to the
President's message? What has it to do with the Democratic platform?
If Mr. Mills has made no mistake, the President wrote a message
substantially in favor of free trade. The Democratic party ratified
and indorsed that message, and at the same time ratified and indorsed
the Mills bill. Now, the message was for free trade, and the Mills
bill, according to Mr. Mills, is for the purpose of sustaining the
war tariff. They have either got the wrong child or the wrong
parents.

_Question_. I see that some people are objecting to your taking
any part in politics, on account of your religious opinion?

_Answer_. The Democratic party has always been pious. If it is
noted for anything it is for its extreme devotion. You have no
idea how many Democrats wear out the toes of their shoes praying.
I suppose that in this country there ought to be an absolute divorce
between church and state and without any alimony being allowed to
the church; and I have always supposed that the Republican party
was perfectly willing that anybody should vote its ticket who
believ