The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 09 (of 12): Dresden Edition—PoliticalIngersoll, Robert Green
History
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 09 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Political
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
Let us take this next step. Everybody, of course, cannot be a farmer.
Everybody cannot be a mechanic. All the people in the world cannot go at
one business. We must have a diversity of industry. I say, the greater
that diversity, the greater the development of brain in the country. We
then have what you might call a mental exchange; men are then pursuing
every possible direction in which the mind can go, and the brain is
being developed upon all sides; whereas, if you all simply cultivated
the soil, you would finally become stupid. If you all did only one
business you would become ignorant; but by pursuing all possible
avocations that call for taste, genius, calculation, discovery,
ingenuity, invention--by having all these industries open to the
American people, we will be able to raise great men and great women; and
I am for protection, because it will enable us to raise greater men and
greater women. Not only because it will make more money in less time,
but because I would rather have greater folks and less money.
One man of genius makes a continent sublime. Take all the men of wealth
from Scotland--who would know it? Wipe their names from the pages of
history, and who would miss them? Nobody. Blot out one name, Robert
Burns, and how dim and dark would be the star of Scotland. The great
thing is to raise great folks. That is what we want to do, and we want
to diversify all the industries and protect them all. How much? Simply
enough to prevent the foreign article from destroying the domestic. But
they say, then the manufacturers will form a trust and put the prices
up. If we depend upon the foreign manufacturers will they not form
trusts? We can depend on competition. What do the Democrats want to do?
They want to do away with the tariff, so as to do away with the surplus.
They want to put down the tariff to do away with the surplus. If you put
down the tariff a small per cent, so that the foreign article comes to
America, instead of decreasing, you will increase the surplus. Where you
get a dollar now, you will get five then. If you want to stop getting
anything from imports, you want to put the tariff higher, my friend.
Let every Democrat understand this, and let him also understand that I
feel and know that he has the same interest in this great country that I
have, and let me be frank enough and candid enough and honest enough
to say that I believe the Democratic party advocates the policy it does
because it believes it will be the best for the country. But we differ
upon a question of policy, and the only way to argue it is to keep cool.
If a man simply shouts for his side, or gets mad, he is a long way from
any intellectual improvement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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