The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-10-21

mestic trade OF the United States amounts 70.
Some good stetistician has stimated it as being,
last year, from $25, 900, 900, 900 10 $1,000 900, 900.
This total would represent all the ex-
changes which took place within our thirty eight
states and nine Territories. On the other hand,
our total foreign trade of last year. exports and
imports, Is estimateda at 81 400, 900, 900. / repeat
tnat 1t IS that domestic trade of ours which all
the nations of Europe want to get a share OF.
Ihey practically say to you Pittsburgers, You
need not bother yourselves in extending so
much persplration and natural gas in making
steel and iron; we will send it over to you. and
we will undersell you a little if you will give ua
the chance llaughterl, and if you will inst lot us
make that exchange we will transfer our steel to
you. and probably we Will transfer a good deal Of
our misery with it. LApplause. Far be it from
me to exult over the misfortunes or reverses Of
human beings. / wish that the colonies of Eng.
land were prosperous. | wish there was not a
man in England in want of bread; but there are
many there in rags and hungry. and | do not
know of any obligation upon me, if have a voice
in legislation, to try to help them by putting the
laboring people OF this country in their eondi-
ton. Great enthusiasm
''There is another question upon which | wish
to speak to you. 1t is one which, in my judy
ment, in this conflict, there has been too much
disposition to avoid, one as to which many
strong arguments have been met by the cry OF
the bloody shirt Several weeks ago called
the attention of the laboring men of Maine.
whom l was addressing, to the fact that formid-
able competitors we're rising up against them in
the South, where there are ,l00, 900 able bodied
laborers with dark skins. These latter were
originally employed almost exclusively in rails
ing cotton, tobacco, sugar and rice, or in a
wholly agricultural employment. They are
now, and have been for ten years, entering into
many of the mechanical industries. In Bir-
mingham, Ala, in Chattanooga, Tenn, and in
various parts of Virginia they are making pig
iron, and this they are making at wages of from
go to 20 cents per day. The product OF their
labor has thus far been so small that the I'm.
a - - a.
comparatively no attention. BGs If the guam
tity which they manufacture attains large
proportions it will necessarily compete In
the markets Of this country with the
pig-iron made in Pennsylvania and
Ohio, and they themselves will compete with
men here who are paid 81. so per day. What re-
Spouse is to be made to that by our workingmen
who receive the better wacesa The answer will
be just this, that either that great body of work.
men In the South must have justice done them
and be fairly compensated for what they earn in
the sweat of their faces, or else the wages OF
every Northern aboring man must be iujuriously
affected. This statement, when made ny me.
was met with ridicule and d~erision; but when
that great organization, the Knights of Labor,
met in national convention in Richmond, Va,
the other day, under their chief. Mr.. Powderly
whom l take 20 be a man of extraordinary
ability and perception prolonged cheersl--the
first thing they ran against was the absolute un-
willingness on the part of the dominant whito
race of the South to allow the colored laborers
of that region to have any benefit from knights
Of Labor organizations or from any other organ
ization that could protect them in their right to
be paid the wages which they earned.
By a strange coincidence, l received,
this very morning, a letter from the
South on that subject. My correspondent
gives me an appalling picture OF the South. and
in one portion of his letter says: But, after all,
we are ahead of you in the North in respect to
labor, for in a great many parts of the South we
have established the eight-hour rule for the col.
ored men-eight hours in the forenoon and eight
hours in the afternoon Universal and long
continued merriment Now, gentlemen, ! do
not hold out to you the slightest belief on my
part that the Republicans have any prospect OF
carrying a Southern State. The white men
have the political power OF that party In their
grip. At the first they said they would not let a
negro come to Congress-as soon as they got the
power to stop him. Well, the negroes stepped
aside. Then they said they would not let a car
pot Dagger come to Congress. Well, the carpet
Dagger eloped. Laughter Now, they say that
they will not let any native white man come to
the front if the colored men vote for him.
Laughter That closes up the avenues pretty
tightly. That would speedily settle the ques'
ton. They have eighty-fve Representatives 10
Congress- from the eleven States that werein the
rebellion. With the exception of, Ibelieve, one 10
Virginia, from a white constituency, and one in
Tennessee they take in the whole of them, al
though in several of those States, three at least,
the colored race are in the majority.
LET me correct another thing. even if / be re-
peating what / have said elsewhere. refer to
it because I regard it as of prime Importance to
correct n popular misconception on the part OF
the vast number of young men whom I have had
the pleasure of meeting in Pennsylvania. ! am
not imputing ignorance to them, but merely
mean that they have been born and have grown
up since the events to which am going to allude
took place. You often hear from Democrats in
Allegheny county, perhaps, as elsewhere, that
the Republicans were served just right because
they put negro suffrage on the South. and that
it has returned to plague them. Well deny it.
/ deny-and | want to make that denial as in.
~telligible and forcible as l can-I deny that the
Republican party, in its system of reconstruc-
ton, started out with the idea Of fore
ing the South to take negro sut-
frage. | had a small part in that
the Constitution. What we did was this: We said to
the South, That amendment is of inestimable
advantages; that amendment makes citizenship
of the United States nationals; it conserves and
preserves the national credit; it conserves and
preserves the pension of the soldier; it prevents
the men whose hands have been made bloody in
fields of battle against Union men from taking
part in the government until Congress, by a two
thirds majority, shall release them from that
disability We said to them, Agree to this
amendment and come in; but you will find in
that amendment this provision | am giving you
the popular meaning, not taking the exact lam
guage of the lswI if you exclude the negro from
voting he must be Excluded from the basis OF
representation; but if you will give him the
right to vote, he shall at once be put in the basis
of representation That was a perfectly fair
ard square proposition. Representation is based
upon constituency, and IL they did not
allow these coIored men to be in
cluded within the constituency then these
men ought not to be reckoned in the basis Of
representation to increase the number of repre-
sentatives among their enemies. But if you
will do the one we will do the other. you en-
franchise the colored man. and we will increase
your representation Tennessee alone of the
Southern States accepted that condition, and
came in at once, and the other ten rejected it ia
their legislatures. scornfully, promptly, abso-
lutely, by overwhelming majorities, not one
tenth of the votes in any Legislature being in
favor of it. What was the United States to dol
/ go over this because I had seen in one Of the
metropolitan journals what purported to be a
correction of a statement which / had made. as
though / had made a mistake and had omitted