Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1884-05-22
Our Frank.


upon Mr.. Hurd's great speech upon
the tariff, clipped from Julien's Wash
ington letter to the Montgomery, Ala,
Advertiser of April 20, says:
Frank Hurd has spoken. He has
conquered. The one always follows
the other in Frank Hurd's case. No
man can sit within the magic circle Of
that wonderful voice and not be
moved to higher things. He may be
dreamer, as some say, but surely it
is sublime dreaming. He may be a
wild theorist. but theories never led
to loftier heights. The apostle of free
trade they call him; but apostle never
glori6ed a cause more beautifully.
And bless your heart, reader, it is the
dreamer who moulds the destinies OF
men. 1t is the theorist who blazes
the starry way to fame and wealth and
immortality.
1t has been a rare day In the House
this day when Frank Hurd moved
old men to tears of enthusiasm. The
dreamer, if you please, took the hand
of the stern grey headed statesman
and led him away to the beautiful
land of dreams creation. Frank Hurd
is Young man, round, dapper, bust.
ling young man. His hair is dark
and short, dark moustache crowns
his lip, and to-day he wore a blush
spring suit that fitted him as perfectly
as tailor's skill could make. Hand
some always, striking in appearance
ever, he was especially good looking
as he rose to address crowded house
and well filled galleries He had
mastered himself and his subject, and
was as calm and deliberate as if he'd
had only one listener instead of a con-
tlnent of people His bitterest foe
could not have denied him the tribute
of admiration as he warmed with his
subject. At the outset it was plain
that this dreamer from Ohio had
caught the ears and hearts of his hear
ers. His well-roundeG and glowing
periods were adorned with enthusias-
tic and prolonged applause. No big
words, no confusing terms-a child
might have understood. No wild
flights of high-sounding rhetorlc-he
was calm as father lecturing his
children, that young man whose crime
is theory. The dry bones of hard tar
iff gave forth music at his touch, and
the dust of constitutional argument
became golden. He held up free trade
as goddess and protection as mon
ster of hldeous mlen. Not that he
was prepared for free trade pure and
simple, but he wanted protection shorn
of some of its grinding power of op.
preston. The Morrison bill was a
step in the right direction, and it was
a step the great people demanded.
They had begun to move, and let that
party which stood in their way beware.
The protectionists might call him
dangerous agltator or dreamer, as it
suited the fancy of their disordered
imagination, but The people were wax
ing up, the people were beginning to
look the truth in the face. Freedom
of commerce must come. Every rip,
pllng wavelet that dashed into laugh
ing silver against the shores of this
ocean bound republic was an invita-
ton 10 the world to come and enjoy
our freedom. The winds, eager to
bear our flag the wide word over,
would yet sing songs of the freedom
of commerce; and that Republican
policy of protection which had driven
our flag from the seas and our pro-
ducts from foreign markets would
soon give way to justice. The present
tariff agitation for which the protec-
tionists blamed him and his associates
was the beginning of the end. The
people couldn't be hoodwinked and
cheated and wronged much longer.
The protection America of 1884 was
the protection England of 1884. And
we, too, would have our Cobdens and
our Brights. The speaker then went
on to prove by statistics that the work
ingmen of free trade of England are
to-day one hundred per cent better
off than were the workingmen of pro-
lection England forty years ago He
showed that wages were higher in this
country in 1860 than they were in 1880,
and the cost of living was then 25 per
cent. cheaper than now. Last year
free trade England exported one
thousand five hundred millions of dol
lars worth of manufactured goods,
while America, the land of unlimited
resources and grandest possibilities,
exported less than seventy. lgnor-
rance has caused this country to sub
init to legallzed robbery, but the peo-
pie were growing wiser every day, and
the days of grinding oppression were
numbered.
Each point scored by the speaker
drew forth prolonged applause, es-
pecially when Mr. Hurd stated that
tariff leform was the acknowledged
policy of the Democratic party, and
that he couldn't see how any Demo-
crat could oppose the Morrison bill
since two.thirds of the party in Con-
gress had declared for it. They might
stife it here in the House: but they
couldn't in the country. Each and
every Democrat would be held to
strict accountability. There could be