Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1880-10-29

! merits OF the proposed amendment.
! The resolution was adopted on The part Of til
house. under suspension OF the rules.
| Adjourned.
Senator c:ntlias cn the Tariff Question.
| from Mr.. C3n&!tna'5 speech AZ Albany, octobei
.lst.l
But what are we to say Of the stultiiica-
tions ard contradictions, | will not use a
harsher expression, into which Gen. Han
cocks anxiety To he President has lately be-
trayed him Look, for example, at the
tariff \ protective tariff has been since the
/ birth of the Republican party one of the
trusts of its faith. Applause In every
National Convention, in Congress, in every
| forum where the question has been discuss
| ed, the Republican party has stood for the
/ American system, rs Henry Clay called it,
that is, for the system OF raising revenue by
| placing duties on those articles manufactured
| in America in order to give check TO for
cign competition. Why? In order that
| American enterprise, American industry
might be favored and fostered in order that
| American labor might not he hidden down
| in the auction to the level and TO the bottom
of the starving, unjust wages which are
paid in Europe. The Mill Boy of the Sllshes
and the men who believed in him, the men
who have given tone and character TO the
Republican party ever since the foundation
of that party was laid, have maintained this
doctrine.
The Democratic party, on the other hand,
has opposed it for more than fifty years.
! The convention which nominated General
| Hancock was explicit on this subject. iicre
is the platform which ii adopted: I'VE
pledge ourselves anew 10 the constitutional
doctrines and traditions of the Democratic
party, as illustrated by the teachings and ex-
ample of IL long line Of Democratic states
men and patriots" Now, mark you, 'and
embodied in the platform of the last National
Convention" Further on they say: I'VE
are in favor of tariff for revenue only"
Let us turn back TO the platform of the
last convention of the party which was in
1876 and see ON the tariff question what that
platform declared
I'VE denouacc the present tariff levied upon
nearly 5000 articles masterpiece Of injustice,
inequality and false prctcsces. II Yields dwlnd-
ling. not yearly risiGS revenue II has Impover-
ished many Industries 10 substitute few- II pro-
hlblls imports that might purchase the products Of
American labor. II has cut down the sales of
American manufactures az home and abroad, and de-
plctcd the returns OF American agrculture-.In i'll
dustry followed by half our people II promotes
fraud and we demand that all custom house taxa
ton shall he only Tor revenue.
Are those statements true? | ask men
of the county of Rensselaer,, speaking of their
BcsScmer steel works, | ask men of the coun-
ty of Albany, speaking of their blast fur
naces and their variety of manufactures,
whether it is true that the present tariff has
paralyzed and injured those industries: |
ask farmers, all over the State, is it true that
owing to the existing tariffs, the price of az
ricultura products has been put down and
kept down, and the farmer has been impov-
erishcd and injured: This platform says all
this and it reminds me of that conundrum
of, How many lcgs does the cat have, calling
her tail one !: The answer is: Why, it has
r'',", I-.i w.. tail n ir.s don't
make it lee. Stating all this, which j. NJ
toriOusly and ahsurdly untrue, does not
change the fact, although il may mislcad
some people.
Here is tie deliberate, cool letter written
by General Hancock accepting the nominal
ton. Every politician. at least, who hears
me. knows that the letter Of acceptance of
Presidential candidate is Il cabinet paper.
lie not only writes it carefully himself but
he carefully consults careful friends in order
that to the utmost of his ingenuity and judy
mcnt it may state exactly what he means To
say. Here is Gen. Hancock letter
"G"vEExoE's Island,
New YORK CITY, July 80, 1850.
Gcnilcmcn-l have the honor 10 acknowl-
edge the receipt uf your letter, etc. | ac-
crpt the nomination with grateful anprecia-
tiOn of the confidence rcpnscd in me. The
principles enumerated by the convention
are those have cherished in the past, and
shall cndcavor TO maintain in the future"
One would suppose that that was tolerably
specific and tolerably deliberate, but imme-
diatcly dissatisfaction aIosc in the West
There was i clogd NJ bigger than Il man
| hand, but ii grew and spread AMI threatened
wherever diversified industry finds u hGmc
on this con incnt, from the Atlantic To the
Pacific sea. Not only in New England,
where they have mills, hut in Ohio, in In
diana, where they have mills, in those two
State where manufacturing is becoming
leading factor in the spread of wealth and
civilization, 81 ltaiing factor tl:at in the
city of indianapolis, where went the other
day Ia inquire Tor the figures of the authorl-
| ties il turned ont that in lS'0, only ten years
ago, the manufactures .! Indianapolis
amounted 10 ten millions Of dollars; and
this wear. Ten years later the manufactures
of that single city amo Int to one hundred
million dollars. Applause.
| Ohio has found cheap water Communlca-
| ton up Lake Erie and the great inland seas
to the iron mines of Lake Superior the
I llllHtS Sb laI4l III liit hiil- VI H4tAhlN ii'h
a greater metal than gold or silver and Il
richer one in the world. Applause. She
had found that bringing down the metal of
| Lake Superior to the coal mines lying with
in her own borders, when the two touch
each other and are rubbed together rs Alad-
din's lamp was rubbed, untold wealth has
l,y magic arisen out OF the operation. Ac-
cordingly Ohio and Indiana are tariff States.
Applause
When tins doctrine WIS announced, many
men were old enough 10 rcmc.Hhcr what had
happencdin .ht past. They remembered: the
counterfeit pres, ntmcnt, the very alter ego ui
! this canvass in which We are engaged, the
canvass in 1911 when Polk and Dallas ran
against Henry Clay. Everybody knew how
! Clay stood On Il protective tariff, but i'll
| Pennsylvania especially where 81 many fur
| naccs ilnd trip hammers are, the Democracy
said. rs Mr.. Speaker Randall is saying to-
night somewhere in this State, as General
/ Hancock has said, all the Democrats were
| good tariff men. \ "iudiciOus tariff they
were in favor Of and they went through that
canvass in P,nnsy lvanin with the cry of
| Polk and Dallas and the tariff of ~ that
was a protective tariff which the Wings bad
enacted. What hprrncd: The people
listened and believed. Clay WAS defeated ;
Polk was elected. Dallas took his seat rs
presiding officer in the Senate, and in lSi6
when tariff Till came up which smotc at
the very vitals of the manufacturing inter
csts oi this country, Mr. Dallas gave the
casting vote which lrovc the nail into the
coffin of American manufacturers. Ap
plausr.
That was in 1916. The fires went out
the trip hammer stopped; the products
which were wruug out uf the starved labor
of Europe came here and tlrniilcd and Stlil1l
rivalry and American competition. | speak
to men who have moi forgotten the proSlrl
tlpn ot 1854, whtn this l1nd from shore to
shore was strrwn with the wrecks OF com
mcr,lul enterprise and manufacturing dlsaS-
ter say this history haul moi been forgot
ten. In the West, the spcCtrrs of the past
ar,sc AMI slrct,d ghosts srucaktd and slh
bcrcd moi IN the streets ul Rome, but III the
streets of the Western AMI Eastern cities.
Cen Hancock thought something must ht
done Ohio and Indi,n were To vote ON the
twelfth Of October. accurliuslp on the ninth
of Octohrr. So as to rive three days grace,
aS the bankers wnulI say, On the ninth "i
October. ten Hancock held mn interview
with an editor from Paterson, an interview
which has never been denied And what did
hr say That the question oi tarl cannot
affect the manufacturing interests ui the
country IN the least" Well, il seems inCrcd
lille that a man who has attained the a"'' OF
three score years, who was alive in 1881,
and in 1891 could say that the tariff cannot
affect the manufacturing interests "i thu
country in the least.
But he goes on There is. To lie a certain
amount uf millions ot dull;us raised by The
tnril that can hr gut in nuothcrw way, and thai
must necessarily he protective I" the manu-