The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1877-08-27
pEND1EToN'S SPEECH,
HE HOLDS THE REPUBLICANS
RESPONSIBLE FOR HARD
TIMES.
His Financial Views.


a speech on the 23d to between two and
three thousand people, nearly all of whom
were workingmen, from which we make
the following extract
HTHE TARIFF is AN ILL-ADJUsTED TAX.
1t produces little revenue; is extremely
Onerous on those who import and pay
duties; EFFORTS large subsidies for private
interests from those who do not, and says
the prosperity OF every industry, even
those it affects to protect. Scarcely ship
navigates the ocean under the flag of the
United States, and the few which do are
built on the Clyde and belong to foreign
owners.
THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM
may be briefly stated. An immense
public indebtedness, payable In paper, has,
by the effect Of two laws, been made pay
able in gold only, and thereby been in
creased 30 per cent. Silver has been
demonetized, and gold, the only remaining
legal tender for the bonds, has been en-
HANGED accordingly. Resumption Of
specie payments has been ordered for
January, 1879, and within eighteen
months they have no plan, except the
illegal contraction of greenbacks or the
impossible boarding OF gold. The first
measure largely increased the indebted
ness The second diminished the currency
in which that indebtedness can be paid,
The third effectually and necessarily de-
strOys the industries and energies by which
the means OF pay can be earned. The
Egyptian policy of requiring bricks, and
not furnishing straw, was mercy in COM
parisOn. | state facts only | pass for
the present a closer examination of the
effect Of these various laws. An Ohio
audience understands them well. The
great campaign of 1875 was fought upon
these laws. Their effect was foreseen, ex-
amined, predicted with unnering accuracy.
The resumption act was analysed and its
furthest consequences were pointed sout
The demonetiZation of silver was not then
appreciated it has only increased the
momentum Of the general movement
Prophecy has become accomplished in
history, and, this night, the ten thousand
failures of the last twelve months, the
weary footsteps of the innumerable null
titude seeking work, the strikes of unpaid
labOrers,
THE BLOODY AND DISGRACEFUL RIOTS
in our cities, the roads filled with tramps
anu HldLlDUuOuStS ulltu Will uuu1bi6So
paupers, indict the republican policy as
the cause of this condition of affairs.
We have heard much in this connection,
and at this time of
THE CONFLICT OF LABOR AND CAPITAL,
Undoubtedly this was a most unnatural
conflict between the men who work and
the capital which was seeking to give them
employment The railroads and their en-
ployes should be allies and friends. With
out labor the capital invested is wholly un-
productive. Without human labor EN-
ployed directly on them, the rails and en-
gines and cars are wholly useless, aud daily
depreciating. This capital aud this labor
supplement each other. They should always
cooperate. They should never antago-
nize. There has been gross mismanage-
ment of railroads Rates have been cut,
ruinous competition has been carried on
compacts have been made with insin
cerity, to be broken with CishonOr. Blu
business has been stagnated, the bull
carried has fallen off enormously and beer
subdivided. Receipts have been cores
poudingly diminished, dividends have
been passed, and expenses necessaril!
must be reduced; and 50 the conflict CAM
between the labor aud the capital, which
were CLOSELY lnteruepeDueOt.
But down at the bottom, underlying thi
conflict, which is but an incident acc
symptom, there is a graver conflict and
mightier struggle, arraying greater forces
and stimulating more gigantic efforts.
is conflict between that capital whicI
employs no human labor, which work
with no human hands, which never pause
by night or by day, in winter SHOWS, o
baat ar rainG xUbJp
never wearies, never rests, never loses
but ever gathers in it's increase aud its in
terest-and that capital which employs Ia
Dor, feeds enterprise stimulates industr
aud brings into activity aud cO-operatlo
the hand, the head, the busy brain, tn
cunning ingenuity, the productive energie
of all the forces of accumulated wealt
and human vigor 1t is the conflict be
tween that power which seizes the produC
ton of others and that power which itseI
produces. 1t is the conflict between
THE MONEY POWER
and the industries of the country. By tn
money power | mean those whose aim an
object and purpose in life is not by energ
and enterprise and industry and the co
operation of capital and labor to add to tn
aggregate wealth Of the world, but by leg
isatiOn, Interpretation, and combination t
add to the value of accumulated money
Every man knows this can be done oBl
by decreasing the value of every produC
of labor aud skill, destroying or maxim
doubtful the profits of all enterprise dis
couragiDg all business. In this struggl
the money power has been successful
Energy, enterprise, industry, business Ii
PROSTATE before it. The great crime Q
the republican policy is that its whole his
tory marks one long, prolonged, paiDfu
sacrifice OF the interests of every industr
in the land to the greed of this RELENTLESS
money power. Need repeat the proof {
youP The law authorizing the issue G
greenbacks provided that whenever the
were presented by any Individual in sun
of fifty dollars they might be couverte
into fve-twenty bonds. Two years after
ward this provision was repealed. Greer
backs deprecated immensely in the hand
of the people. and the sale of bonds wa
mouopolized by the capitalists.
THE FIvE-TwENTY BONDS
we're by law Of their issue payable 10 greer
backs. There can be no question OF tina
fact. Thaddeus Stevens asserted 1t whe
the law passed The republican CONVEX
tons of Ohio, Indiana Illinois, Iowa, an
Michigan declared it. Senator Morto
approved it. Secretary Sherman in hi
place in the senate, six years after tn
passage of the law, asserted it. The Cir
cinnati Gazette within two mouths has &C
mitted that it never doubted that interprt
tation of the law. Yet republican cor
gress passed the law of 1869, whereby
was declared they should be paid in coil