The Portland daily press., 1884-07-17
HARVARD COLLEGE IN POLL
TICS.
Senator Hoar Pays His Respects
to "the Gentle Hermits
of Cambridge"
PRESIDENT ELIOT SUBJECTED
TO CRUEL vIVHsECTEON.

- OEhO
(From the speech of Hon. George F. Hoar at the
great Boston ratification meeting).
1 see the president of Harvard tells his
neighbors that the platform is immoral and
demagogical. Well, 1 differ with the worthy
president. hope every citizen Of Massachu.
sets will make himself familiar With the plat
forms of both parties. The Republican plat
form states squarely aud clearly what a
majority Of Republicans think. 1t cannot be
expected that the representatives of CONT
nent should not differ on some important
questions. But the platform declares the hon
est belief of honest men The civil service
plank was drawn by George William Curtis,
and that about the surplus by Cabot Lodge.
PresGent Eliot thinks the civil service resolu-
ton is not honest Well, I would rather stand
for civil service reform with the men who
passed the law of last year, with Edmunds and
HaWiey and John Sherman and Dorman b.
Eaton, than with the men who retired Pendle-
ton to private life.
President Eliot does not like the Chinese re-
solution. qaits agree with him. I like the
Declaration of Independence batter Bot am
sorry to say that the policy of Chinese exclu-
sion is in accordance with the opinion of q large
majority OF the American people OF both par
ties. We must submit to it till we can convert
them.
President Eliot expresses the sentiment of a
little body Of men Babout ambridge-I am
happy to believe he does not represent the col
lege-whose influence, in my Judgment, has
tended infinitely to degrade the public life of
the Commonwealth. These men have taught
our educated youth to be ashamed of their
own history. They have told them that "since
the close of the war there has been no time
when young man knew how he could honor
ably serve his country" They were preach
and before the war. Their eyes are
miscroscopes which can see blemish on the
skin, but cannot take in fair landscape or a
healthy human figure. They can find no
craftsmanship and no public virtue in the pay
ment OF the debt, in the settlement of the
currency,in the return to specie payment, in the
sublime clemency that dealtwith the conquered
after the war, in the great self-restrsint of the
Alabama treaty,in the miraculous development
of our manufacture, in the creation of our
great domestic commerce, in the peaceful set
element of the disputed presidential succession.
There is hardly man who has taken any
of the responsibilities of public life who has
not been compelled to undergo the contemp-
tuous criticism of these gentle hermits of Cam
bridge. 1t has been so from the beginning.
Even the men whom they are now most eager
to praise, and whose examples they cite to
show the decay of modern craftsmanship, they
dealt the some measure to in their time
John Adams and his illustrious SOD, Sumner,
Andrew, Wilson, as they erect their ma0s0-
leum to each, they should write over it the in
scription, 'O1r fathers stoned this prophet and
we build his sepuchre." But President Eliot
has been rejecting upon the tariff. think l
ought TO detain YOU moment more to give
you his contribution to that discussion. He
says to his Cambridge auditors:
Then this platform says a great many wrong
things, for the sake of trapping votes in Ohio and
elsewhere about tariff legislation. That is a tick
lish subject, gentlemen, and perhaps you wish
would OF say anything about it. 1t is a disputed
question, and for that very reason believe that
political party which is undertaking to have pro
found interest in the country has got to commit
self upon that question clearly and distinctly zap
pause), and am perfectly sure that the young men
OF this country are going to divide into two camps
on that question. (Applause.) And they are going
to divide with ardor III the spirit of strong inter
lectual combat. The young are determined tC
have clear issue that subject dare Say ie is
not time yet to make clear statement of that sub
ject, but there is one principle which believe in
namely that the tariff should be treated that the
impostS which now prevent American industry from
entering ON fair terms into competition with the
rest of the world shall be gradually removed. Zap
plause) We have here right in Cambridge, plenty
of illustrations of the prejudical effects these i'm
posts which prevent our pc pie from competing on
equal terms with other nations of the world.
learned from a merchant fiiend of mine that Mr
Ivers had valuable trade with Australia in wagons
and shortly after went up to Mr.. Ivers and con-
graduated him on his trade with Australia. well
bHdb Is all SbOppou, sdlQ SdlQ, w nat is The
matter? Didn't they like your wagons2'' "oh, yes
they liked them well that the Englishmen got all
the patterns, and now they supply the wagons to
Australia" That is to say the imposts on Mr.
lvers' raw materials used in his manufacture lost
him the trade. Our imposts made here by American
legislation lost him the business he would otherwise
have commanded. There are thousands and thous-
ands of similar cases.
This is very serious matter; and | have
taken pains to search it to the bott 1m. Mr..
Ivers made for export two kinds OF buggy wag.
on, one open, costing $175, one covered, cost.
ing $780, The only imported articles entering
into IL are two yards of cloth for trimming, the
best costing So per yard; 30 pounds of Swedish
iron, costing four or five cents pound: the du.
| ty on the cloth would be $3.50, the duty on the
iron 90 cents; outside limit of duty, $3.50. Fol
both these American material is frequently
substituted. On both have stated the out
sids limit. On both he can get his drawback
But let us deal with President Eliot with en-
tie candor. The other stock entering into
the buggy is as follows: Forty-four pounds
| stsel tires cost four cents per pound; iron ak
| les, 60 pounds for a set; wood, hickory fol
| spokes and rim, elm for hub, white oak fol
| body and shaft, all of domestic production
S20; paint, pound for q carriage, 35c: one
| quort Of varnish; leather for open buggy, $40;
| covered buggy, $50. 1t is barely possible that
the price OF the iron axles and steel tires
though OF domestic manufacture, may be in
creased by the duty on the corresponding for
| eign article. This duty, all told, would amount
TO but 81 81, SO that the Cambridge wagon
maker has to pay 50 so he can draw back, anC
| possibly VI 80 that he doesn't get back on
/ $l75 or $3.50 buggy. But what is the real differ
| ence between him and his British competitor.
| He pays his workmen in Cambridge all tht
i year round: Blacksmiths, SIS per week; trim
mer, $40 per week; hand painter, SO per day
all other hands average $14 per week, Will,
| his English competitor pays none of his work
Il mi AN mar AoU lot
| right in saying that there is difficulty in com
| peting with England for the Australian mar
| ket, but he doesn't venture to state the reason
| 1t ls true the workman in Cambridge, soy
ereign and ruler of this realm, receives fer hi
| compensation two and half to three times al
much as the Englishman. A gentleman il
| whom have full confidence said to Mr.. Iver
the other day: "Do you know you only pa,
$3.50 duty on the material for one of you
wagons?" Mr.. Ivers replied: 81 don't pa,
| that, for sometimes use American cloth ant
American iron, which are as good. But Presi
| dent Eliot is all wrong about what said tt
| him. When said was prevented from sell
ing carriages in Australia by the duties, dit
not mean oar duties, but Australian duties
| Formerly there were nc duties on carriages
They have put on a duty of 80 per cent, an,
gone to making carriages themselves
What is it that the Massachusetts wagon
builder gets in exchange for the slight inter
| AAPtAoh w LAO AOAOiSA OAoOO OcUSou Ny gu
tariff. Under our policies every 10 years o
| our life adds 30 per cent. to our population. Ii
| II years from this hour new nation of 20.
100000, more than six Australias will bl
| added to our number. These men ara not. a
| they are abroad, consumers ouly of the bar,
Decessaries of life. They will become custom
| ere, with no foreign middleman or British
| shipper to consume the profit, for the farmer
| wagon, and many of them for the carriage TO
the man of wealth. Every morning that tn,
| sun rises tae American people lays up as al
| addition to its accumulated wealth $1,000. 900
one-third OF the daily accumulation of thu
| entire globe. The value of our existing CAPT
tai exceeds that of every other country excep
| Great Britain, who exceeds US by a quarter
and our income equals hers. The increase O.
cur wealth since 1850 is enough to buy thu
| whole German empire, with all It's farms
shops, factories and palaces. Every 10 year
| adds to our wealth sum equal to the Who'll,
| capital value of Spain or Italy. This incom,
| is not only larger in its aggregate, bat it il
more evenly distributed than elsewhere. 1t il
| not commerce and manufacture alone bu
| agriculture, labor, manhood that reaps tn,
| harvest
The cadets at West Point are taught, durins
| the summer months, to swim, rescue the
| drowning, and resuscitate life in the speeches
| manner in those half drowned. Sixty-seVen O.
| last years class were unable to swim at the
| opening OF the season, but before the summer
| ended each one could swim across the Hudson
| where 1t is three-quarters of mile wide, anC
| hoo