Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-10-08

What a Workingman Thinks of IL.

BCsIN ESS MEN" AND LABORIN(i MEN.
What a workinsman Thinks of IL.
For the ISTELLIeESoER.
lam not fortunate enough to be bust
ness man, but belong to a much larger
class, whose labor and industry contribute
not little to the boasted business pros
perity-past, present and prospective-of
the gentlemen composing the "business
mems" meeting held at the county's ex-
pense in the court house on Tuesday and
Wednesday evenings. Business men, like
all other mortals, have the undoubted right
tc parade the streets under black silk hats
and such other apparel as becomes their
lofty station or that may lend eclat to the
grand pageant that is to inspire the men
who "vote through their eyes," but
when men combine together as "busi-
ness men" and give out that the election
of Garfield is a "business necessity" it
naturally awakens a spirit of inquiry as to
the grounds for such a startling declara-
tion for surely laboring men have a CON-
mon interest with "business men" in the
material prosperity of a common coun-
try.
But VIC desire more light on the subject
than was given us at the court house, and
considerably moro than the torchlight
parade will be likely to throw upon it.
Will the wise business oracle who made
the declaration inform US how the bust
ness interests of the country will be sub
served by the election to the presidency of
man who a few years ago was condemned
by congressional committee and branded
by the Republican press as a bribe- -taker
and perjurer? We are told that he is a
statesman and has large experience as a
legislator. But pray tell us what has he
done during his long term in Congress to
distinguish him above the demagogue or
political trickster What measures of re-
lief, or what legislation of public inpor-
tance, has he originated? Gifted with
rare powers Of speech though he was, did
he ever raise his voice against the corrup-
tion that ran riot in the halls Of Congress,
or cndcavor to stay the plundering hands
that infested the lObbies? His own cOnstit-
uents answered the question two years ago,
when they declared in convention that ':he
has ever been found in speech and vote on
the side Of 'ings, monopolists and political
iJertines.'
His connection with the Credit Mobilier
and DeGolyer steals and salary grab
swindle, to say nothing of the part be
took in the great crime of the century
which has been fitly denounced all over
the civilized world as "the rape of the
presidency are acts which do not in
spirc us unsophisticated working men with
a very exalted idea of his fitness to be
president.
Is such man fit to be president: Will
his election conduce to the business in
terests of the country
We may be told, as We often are, that
the protective tariff is the great principle
that supersedes all others and must needs
be maintained in order to keep business
prosperous. am tariff man myself and
like the majority Of my fellow workmen
believe in protection. But somehow we
got the impression somewhere that the
tariff is regulated by Congress-the law
making power of the egovernment-and not
by the president. It therefore strikes us
greater service in Congress, where he now
is than in the executive chair.
But is Mr.. Garfield a protectionist Let
his vote and voice in Congress answer the
question. In 1870 he voted to reduce the
tariff Oh pig iron from 80 to 81 per ton.
In 1872, when our iron and steel manu.
facturers were giving employment to thou
sands of industrious wage, people when
the competition between domestic and i'm
ported iron left the American manufacture
ers but living margin, he voted for another
reduction of 10 per cent on iron and steel.
It was such legislation that brought about
the panic of 1873, by which thousands of
our manufactures were obliged to suspend
and hundreds of thousands of working |
people thrown out of employment, their
families rendered destitute, and tho land |
filled with trampS from PENNSYLVANIA tn |
the gulf. Again in the 42d Congress he |
voted to put foreign coal on the free list. |
The only tariff vote he has over cast was |
his vote against resolution to put tea and |
coffee OIL the free lst-a commodity little |
produced in this country, but which fur |
nishes part of the daily meal of our work.
ing men.
Such is the history, as we have read it,
of the boasted protective tariff mana
man who for his free trade proclivities was
elected a member of the Golden Free
Trade club of England, and who maintains
that "against the abstract doctrine of free
trade nothing can be said"
When our ''business men, have An.
swcred these questions, when they have
explained away the apparent Inconsistency
between his professions and his practices.
we may be induced to vote for Garfield as
4 business necessity
A WORKING MAN.
No Star Chamber.
cambria Freeman.
Tho c,,,,ro,,,n oo,,,,k of xl>:. 81