Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1888-08-28
HON. W. L. WILSON
BNTHUSEs TRB BAGBR ILLINOISIANS WITH
HIS BRILLIANT ORAT0RY.
BE Rakss the Sugar Trust Fore and Ah-Explain'
How They Robbed the PeOpls-An Object
Lesson to LabOr-0lsveland on
the Mount

In Hon. VIM. IL. wilson west NlrRinta
has representative in Congress OF whom
she may we'll be proud. His speech a
Chicago at the grand Thurman ovation
was q mastery effort The RKaIsTEf
takes pleasure in reproducing synopsis
of it this morning. Mr.. Wilson spoke
substantially as follows:
"Fellow-citizens, why do men oppost
the reduction of tariff taxation in THU
country? IA voice. Because they art
not honest. Because they are paid
great big commission for collecting them,
because they have farmed out the revenues
of this country, and we are giving
set OF revenue collectors two
thirds if not more of the taxes for col
lectipg them for the Treasury. You
bear a good deal about tariff for revenue
and tariff for protection. Let me see if
can illustrate that to you. / went into
store in Boston some time ago, and asked
the proprietor, who was an importer o.
goods, to show me q piece of ordinary
wooden cloth. He took down bolt of Or
diuary Scoth cheviot, such as a great many
of you wear for your business or your
Sunday suits, and he said tnat it cost him
81. 25 a yard, and the government charged
him for getting it into this country $40
q yard. SO that when You went to buy
your suit of cheviot you had to pay al
least 81 50 yard for it. and you were get
ting ST. 25 worth and paying $l.05 to the
government.
"Now, if this great big Government oI
ours is so pressed for money that it il
obliged to tax the necessary clothing of the
American people at that rate we will pay
it, and that will be taxation for revenue
to run the Government, but if the Govern
ment, not needing that ST. 05 yard, as j,
does not, puts it on that piece of cheviot
to run up the price to 81 so yard, 80 that
the man in this country who makes chev
lot can sell his cheviot for 81 so yard,
that is protection. In the first case the
Government has collected .05 yard for
its own Treasury and you have paid
it to the Government when You bought ths
foreign article. In the other cass the Coy
ernment has loaned out to fellow. citizen
of yours, who has no more rights under
this Government than you have, the power
to gather 81 O5 from you. 1t is the peopl,
that gather this immense tax from the
country who stand in the path and say you
shall not bring these things to this coun
try; you shall not give to the people of thl!
country constant employment at steady
wages. They could have them if they
were not obliged to pay these great take:
to the privileged classes of the country.
THs GREAT LABOR QUESTION.
"Fellow- -citizsus, there is a good deal o
labor in this country out OF employment
and you hear it in every direction ths
there is overpI pIoiuction. We make more
agricultural products than we can con
sumo. We make more manufactured good.
than we can consume, and so the story i.
told from one end of the country to the
other that the reason men are out of en-
ployment is that there is overproduction.
MISREPRESENTATION.
"Another mode of expressing that il
that there is underconsumption, that We
do not consume all that we produce. W.
never will bs able to consume sill that We
produce in the way of agricultural pro.
ducts nor all that we produce in the way
of manufactured products; but there is nc
real nderconsumption in the proper sense
of the word until all the wants of all the
people of this country are supplied. Does
everybody in this country have as much
food as they need TO eat? Does everybody
in this country have all the comforts and
all the necessities Of life? No. There
is no underconsumption in the ordinary
sense of the word. There is some
thing which prevents that full consump
tiou that would give to the people of al
the country the necesssries and comforts
Of life which they need. Why is there
under-consumption. or, if / may express il
80, what is consumption under? l will
tell you. Consumption is under the op
pressive burden of Federal taxes in thi:
country. 1t is pressed down under thai
great burden of six or seven hundred ol
more millions of dollars year, counting
the taxes the Government gathers into til,
Treasury and the taxes it forces into tht
pockets of privileged individuals, leavins
that great burden over consumption
Tighten that burden and there will b,
greater consumption.
'Now, fellow citizens, You are mucl
more anxious to hear Mr.. Mills than h
hear me, and so will not continue this
discussion much further. Cries of ct
on. What is the claim of those that re
sist that reduction of taxation for which
the Democratic party fights in this cam
paign? They come before the people ant
say: we maintain this system Of taxa
tion in the interest of American labor
Judge Thurman wisely and truly sale
that there never was greater
piece Of srrsnt humbuggery since tn,
world began than this claim tha
these taxes are in the interes
of American labor. Applause. TAX,
the census, sit down and figure out how
many Of the lsboring people of this coun
try are employed in those industries whicl
are protected under the tariff, and You viii
find that there is not more tnan one il
twenty. Take the labor reports of thi
country and tell me which are the indus
tries Of this country which labor is fgitips
the death struggle with capital, and yor
will find that it is in the protected indus
tries Of this country. 1t is Just the poin
where capital, having the Federal Treasury
to back it, can fight and overcome labor
"Fellow-citizsns, notwithstanding you
kindness / will bat use one or two othe
illustrations before / give way to Mr.
Mills. You have begun to hear of some
thing in the last year which you feel j,
ominous which you feel is threatening
danger and distress in some way to thii
country, that you have not heretofore en-
countered. No bad law is stationary
There is no surveyor who with line and
compass can mark off the extent to which
bad law will 60 and no further. And 81
that vicious system oftaxation which is pill
ing mp wealth and adding to capita
by degrading labor and taxing the peopl,
OF this country is producing new danger
in our day that we had not seen before
You begin to hear in the present year o.
grace, in the huudredth year of the exis
tence of our free republic, obout trusts and
combinations and pools. What is thu
meaning of trust, my fellow citizens
A voice, "A private affair" Laughter.
That is what the grand Agamemnou and
tha ohachard ,f tbo ran1lo -. TT..xh