Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1884-07-05

Ill DuSlucss auO PAAs"eS Ac'
and as one equally applicable II polltl,
cal economy, that it is v SOUND
policy to buy from others you
can make at home; and going hand IN
hand with that is the other proposition
that it is never q sound policy to make
at home what you can buy from others
cheaper than you can produce. The
Protective policy, asEI said beforehand
l shall t4ke occasion at some future
Etime to say it more fully-has destroyed
our commerce; it has. driven it from
the seas. II locks up the industries OF
the American people, and it has cut us
off from the markets of the world. ln
the year 1855, there was built in this
country, employing millions OF dollars
of capital and thousands of hands, how
many vessels !? -Four hundred mer-
chantmen. Twenty-four years after
ward, in 1879, how many did they
buildP Thirty five! In 1857 there
was registered as American tonnage
fourteen million tons lin 1879 there was
engaged in commerce the Insignificant
sum of six hundred thousand tons!
l have already referred to the great
ness of your city, and I refer to that
again, to say that no progressive citizen
Of Kansas City can afford to be a pro-
tectionist. You may think that alb
surd, but wait just one moment. Take
| Wonder channel and stay its banks SO
| that upon its broad bosom may float
countless :fotillas laden with the vast
| resources of. all this western country,
and down down over the bosom OF that
river will it go until upon the ears OF
the pilot will float the ripple Of the
ocean. Each wave will tell him of the
rich harvest beyond, but it there be no
| vessels there to meet the commerce Of
this great western country aud carry it
to foreign ports and bring back to US
the richness of those countries, all the
| surplus products of these smi ling val
leys become worthless onyour hands and
this great gateway to the ocean OF no
benefit to you. You might as well stay
its banks and make q mighty canal to a
frog-pond. The great point is to have
foreign Or native ships at the port to
meet the fotillas and carry their wealth
to foreign lands and bring back in ex-
| change the products of those countries.
When you do that your city will be-
come the great meat market of the
world. CApplause. And never will
it until then. In the language of the
democratic platform of 1S76,a platform
| which has eve been excelled, written
as it was section by section by a man
thoroughly yconversant with political
economy, I make this charge: "We
denounce the present tariff levied upon
nearly four Thousand articles as q mas
ter-piece OF injustice, inequality and
false pretense, which yields a dwindling
and not u yearly rising revenue, has
Impoverished many industries and sui
sidized q few. 1t prohibits imports
that might purchase the products of
American labor; it has degraded Amer
lean commerce from the first to an in
ferfor rank upon the high seas; it has
cut down the values of American nan
ufactures at home and abroad; it has
depleted the returns OF American agri-
culture, an industry followed by half
our people; it costs the people five
times more than it produces to the
treasury, obstructs the process of pro-
duction and wastes the fruits of labor;
enriches dishonest officials, and bank
rupts honest merchants. We demand
that all custom-honse taxation sha ! be
only for revenue"
The republican party has always
pointed with pride to the fact that it
has made the truths Of the Declaration
of Independence a living principle, and l
will close this portion of nay remarks
with one sentence from that time
honored paper. 1t charges the British
king with establishing tyranny and
despotisln in this country. "To prove
this let facts be submitted to a candid
world. He has refused his assent to
laws the most wholesome and necessa-
ry for the public good. He has COM
bined with others to subject US to a juris-
dictiOn foreign to our constitution, and
unacknoWledged by our laws; giving
his assent to their acts of pretended
legislation. For cutting off
our trade with all parts of the world"
De you tell me that under that banner
demanding free commerce with the
world that right has been wrenched
from a foreign king only to meet its
death blow at this day under a power
more tyrannical 7 No; the first free
trade captain was George Washington
continental army and congress; and
L1O5C Pl1IlClPlCS oIC ID uC0I lOudy Us
they were then.
Now, my fellow citizens, I have de-
tanned you too long, and in closing let
me say that these r questions ofmag-
nitude before the American people.
These are great issues, and the high
duty you are called upon to perform is
to select q man to represent you in
congress who is alive to these great
questions in which Kansas City as a
metropolis is SO much interested. While
glorying in her strength, living under
the shadow OF her greatness, 1 find some
mel here who think no man is fit to
represent her unless he lives upon some
street car line in the city. Where are
the gentlemen who are my opponents
in this race Do they propose to go
before the people and discuss these
issues I? Do you know the views
Of any one of them upon these ques-
tons !? One of them ear back with a
great deal of dignity aud says he has a
record. l have heard Of horses that
did not have a record at times beating
those that did. l admit that | am not
as familiar with American history as
l ought to be or as l wOnld like to be,
and | admit that l am not SO familiar
with that record for power and bril-
liancy that it would commend itself to
my consideration. Another gentle
ina comes into this anvass and seeks
to throw a tire-brand into the demo-
cratic party. He comes in and seeks to
make an issue which is not a political
issue. As understand it, it it is some
thing like Bill Apps suit. He says he
hired a fellow to dig a we'll the fellow
was hard up and wanted pay in ad-
vance. Bill paid him, but was never
able to get him to dig the well. Hav-
ing a horror of lawyers, and | don't
blame him much for that, Bill cencIud-
ed he=wOald bring -his=own suit; so he
wrote out his complaint, "So-and-so
debtor to Bill Arp, TO II we'll he
didn't dig. soemnch." Now, as neal. as
L can get at the position Of my oppo-
nentit is thatss Both of these gentle
meIa will find RefOre this canvass is
Overthat they have got to face the peo-
pie. The time fos u man,to hand-shake
himself INTO congress, when great
issues like these are staring him in
the face, is over One of these gentlemen
seeks, say to throw a fire brand into
the democratic party. He says the chief
executive and l am not here to defend
that gentleman, he is much ADLER to de
tend himself, and 1 am not going 10
take up that issue-but he a y the chief
executive of this state is in sympathy
with a Wlessness IN this state. He saws
hn has tho nrnnf on6 oop n,o3,o 4