The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-09-23

smear in 1884 was niney-eight million dollars TINS
is what our people pay every year Ior tue PM!
ton OF their sugar planters, torty iIiaT I
dollars which is more money than IL Woulu ldhe
10 hay all the sugar plantations twice over, stoch
them with laborers and present the ola owners
with an honest crop of corn made at general eA-
pense. IL, .t;.
tariff tax is made manifest when tell you that our
ABILITY tOl omp with foreign !aOoE IN he lLlarAets
of the world, in many protected INDUSTRIES, IL
shown by our exports. In 1884 we exported nine
millions worth of nails and spikes, which were sold
in foreign markets at one third less than our own
people pay In 1884 we exported Ten lhllIlons
worth of manufactured cotton goods, whlch We're
sold in other countries for one third lees imam our
own people pay for the same sort OF goods .
Away with this tariff for protection, for II has
pauperized all other sections to enrich one: CoI
ceved in a spirit of wrong, it is the offspring OF
usurped power, now cenffa izing at Washington in
defiance of the constitution Under It's operation,
foreign vessee float eight five per cent of our com
merCe for the tariff bars up, excluding talr Tdue
with the world, our ships have no hope OF re-
turning cargo.
Nor is this all, we have no navy to protect our
merchantmen, though the republican party has
squandered since 1866 three hundred and eighty
five million dollars In pretending TO Dullu navy
He have not war ship that could defend our com
merCe, and third class powOr would sweep II from
the seas. We have nothing but rotten hulks, ana
Chilli, weak as she is on land, has two IRON eau
ships that cOulG burn every American sea port IN
sixty days without the fear of injury from either
ships or batteries. Under the operation OF this
tariff Texas pays to the protected Industries OF the
north every year over fifteen millions OF dollars
in the increased cost of goods, which, money,if left
at home. year after year, would make us prosper
as no other people do, and make our lands worth az
much as these of Illinois and Indiana.
Our national democratic platform OF 1850 uttered
great truths when it said: "HOme rule, honest
money consisting of gold and silver and paper CON
vertable into coin on demand, the strict mantle
nance of the public faith, and tariff for Ieyenue
pp1t Mot nj
cratic platform of 1876. 1t said: I'VE depounce
the present tariff levied on nearly four thousand
articles, as master piece OF injustice meg nallty
and false pretense 1t has impoverished many IN
dustries to subsidise few. 1t prohibits imports
that might purchase the products OF American Ia
Dor. 1t has degraded American commerce from the
first to an inferior rank on the high seas. 1t mas
cut down the sales Of American manufacturers AT
home and abroad, and depleted the returns OF
American agriculture, an industry followed by haIt
of our people 1t costs the people five times more
than it produces to the treasury obstructs the pro
of production, and wastes the fruits OF labor
IL promotes fraud fosters smuggling, enriches dis
honest officials, and bankrupts honest merchants.
We demand that ali custom house taxation shall be
only for revenue"
This has the ring of old time Jeffersonian demo-
Cracy. and we will never again have government
in the interest of the people until we cut loose from
the Randall tribe, turn away from Wall street and
the mines of Pennsylvania and hunt for majOrltIes
in the west and south
This day change of single district in half the
states from the side of protecionsts to that of free
trade is all that is required to reform the revenue
system. In more than that number OF districts,
change of less than iveper cent in the district will
change the district.
The true democracy of this land consists of its
tOiling millions. The genius of democracy has
nothing in common with tine methods of monopoly.
Democracy created peoples government; mo-
nOpoly is prOstitutng it to enrich the spoiled chill
dTen TO- cash, cotton spindles, iron furnaces and
watered bonds.
ORGANIZED LABOR
Look around you. The very pillars of the
temple are lettering under the strong en-
brace of organized monopoly, and yet we have
teachers who denOunCe the organization of farm
ing men who ask only to sit with us in council,
and vote with us for relief. There are one hun
bred aud fifty thousand of these organized farmers
in Texas: they constitute the great body of Texas
democracy, and so long they confne their organi
cations to the work of insructing and elevatingand
they come forth to discuss and act on national
problems in daylight, who should complain! Once
drive them from you by harsh epithets, and you
will have but little left but railW ay attorneys, vii
age politicians and corporation stockholders.
Abuse never converted man. 1t would not have
converted the tea party, who in secret disguised
themselves and in Boston harbor started the first
evolution. Abuse will not prevent your national
md state senators from meeting in secret to con-
irm or reject nominations. predict that so long
n Texas as the democracy shall, by true methods,
Ieek to nominate good men with right principles,
he organized elements of labor will rally to their
support; drive from the democracy It's organized
abOrers and it could not carry three congressional
districts in Texas, or single one in northern
tate. If could be heard to address them, | would
'ay never discuss party politics except in public
netting and never trust any national party for re-
.orm except the party which proclaims and prac
ices the doctrines of jefferson; the grand old de-
nOCracy, the party of the people. If it cannot
his government, no other party can.
All men, it is true, have right to organize for
heir social, religious, moral or political benefit;
out no man or set of men have any right to organ
to control by secret methods the destiny of us all
)r to destroy property acquired under the forms of
aw The anarchist and communist is, if anything,
worse enemy TO civilization than the monopOlist
The triumph of democracy must be achieved by
he great middle and laboring asses, who respect
md protect all property rights, which are recog
liZed by law, no mat er how acquired
Even the interest of the great protected indus
res must be respected, for they were fostered by
,ur laws, and the reforms that lead to freer trade
Win the world should be so gradual as not to in
olive financial ruin.
The speaker discussed at still greater length the
of financial power in corporate en-
erprses, and showed, as Senator Coke did in
he senate last May, how the railways of the coun-
ry with their traffic pools Cypress agriculture by
high freights on short hauls to pay interest on
vatered bonds and imaginary yalues; that this was
lone in open defiance of the constitution, and that
10 relief would come until we adopted the remedy
IT New York, Massachusetts and Georgia, and Gre
ted commission to protect the people.