I believe in American labor, and I tell you why. The other day a man
told me that we had produced in the United States of America one million
tons of rails. How much are they worth? Sixty dollars a ton. In other
words, the million tons are worth $60,000,000. How much is a ton of iron
worth in the ground? Twenty-five cents. American labor takes 25 cents of
iron in the ground and adds to it $59.75. One million tons of rails, and
the raw material not worth $24,000. We build a ship in the United States
worth $500,000, and the value of the ore in the earth, of the trees in
the great forest, of all that enters into the composition of that ship
bringing $500,000 in gold is only $20,000; $480,000 by American labor,
American muscle, coined into gold; American brains made a legal-tender
the world around.