Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1884-08-28
BUTLER SPEAKS.
And Accepts All that Has been rendered
Him.


have issued this address at an earl
Ter day than had intended, at the de-
sire of many trusted and valuable
friends, but some what against my own
judgment, because think that the peo-
pies campaign should not be begun in
fact, except perhaps skirmish or two,
until some 80 days later; and / had |
hoped to have had the advantage of q |
distinct statement of principles by the |
democratic candidate for the presidency. |
and ascertain from his own declarations |
whether recanting some of his public !
opinions he might not show himself bet.
ter than the official action of his party
has shown itself by its platform.
We make the following extracts from
the long and exhaustive document.
''To MY CONSTITUENTS"
''In compliance with oft repeated and
anxious inquiries, hasten to give &C
count of my stewardship of tho political
interests with which was charged. They
were four:
/. Hostilities TO ali monopoiies in
commerce, Industries and lands.
2. The preservation of the national
legal tender currency of the people
constitutionally issued by congress.
3. The needs of all men and women
who labor in the production of wealth,
to be protected against the encroach-
ments of those who absorb and consume
without producing.
4. The necessity of reform and cor
rection of abuses in government, so
that its pressure on the people would
be made as light as possible; its admin
istration effective TO guard the rights of
American citizens at home and abroad;
to make public servants individual or in
corporate, subservient to the use and
will of the people only so as to restore
the prosperity of the country, with
equal rights. equal burdens, equal pow
ers and equal privileges of all peo-
ple."
Gen. Butler then proceeds to review
the action of the national Democratic
convention and pointed out that the
subcommittee of eight, chosen to pre-.
pare tariff plank rejected the follow
ing resolution by vote of to 3:
THAT the laws imposing duties for
revenue should be so adjusted as best
| to promote American enterprise and
American industry, to cherish ard fos-
ter American labor and not create mo-
nopolies.
From that hour" continues the gen.
eral, "any candidature of mine IN that
convention became to me impossible.
The defeat of any possible nominee of
the party upon n free trade platform
seemed TO me inevitable, even if not
desirable. The influences which caused
the change of three votes out Of seven,
clearly foreshadowed the nominee.
Gen. Butler then points out that sue
cessive resolutions of his, with reference
to the currency, monopolies, the rail
roads, the land question and foreign
navies were successfully voted down.
Every claim of the anti-monopolists
and of the national greenback and
laboring men was contemptuously re-
jected. Can the people trust the
machine democracy with power, upon
shifting, evasive and deceptive plat
formp" Gen. Butler declared, too. that
the anti-monopolists had nothing to ex-
pect from the Republicans. Capital
engaged in manufactures and other
industries can only be successful when
the American laborer is well paid and
surrounded with the comforts of life.
But how little has the greed of capital
allowed or comprehended this great
fact; to prove which need only TO re-
call TO your minds how capital, chatting
under even partially fair division OF
its great profits with labor, has sought
TO relieve itself from this scant measure
of Justice even, by the importation of
foreign labor from every country
whence it could be brought, from the
Chinas to the western shores of the At
lantic.
In addition TO this imported cheap
labor and the use of convict labor at a
nominal price wherever it could be had,
thereby debasing and lowering the high
standard of American labor, the per-
lection of machinery, by which so
great share of production is effected,
has so lessened muscular effort in
labor that capitalists have been enabled
to utilize the labor of women and chill
drep to very large extent to do that
work which men formerly did. Thus
the workingmen's wives and sisters are
made the instruments of lowering his
own rate and wages.
Then follows q long dissertation on
the employment of women and children
and its attendant evils. Employ wom-
en- If you will and must, but let it be at
the same remunerative wages when they
do the same work as men, SO that they
may at the earliest moment release
themselves from thraldom
Point me to one grant or act IN aid
of the workingman. l do not forget
the eight-hour law for government la
borers and mechanics, but there has not
been honesty and power enough in re-
publican administration to enforce the
law.
"When in congress | introduced a
bill and advocated it as well as could
that congress grant aid to families of
laboring mon in cities to settle on the
public lands in tho west and make
homes for themselves, and as commu-
mites be able to protect themselves
against the Indians and thus dispense
with the cost of the army. This bill
would have been another much need
ed reform, the reduction TO a skeleton
of the regular army which is
extensively used in time of peace.
Let congress expend half of the vast
sum, thirty millions, now appropriated
to the army for its varied expenditures,
in organizing and disciplining the mill
tia to be trained under the authority of
the states, instead of the paltry $780,
| GOO heretofore given, and we shall
have military force as reliance in
every emergency, like the trained and
organized militia of Massachusetts,, and
| the national guard of New York. the