The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1888-02-04

wool, and theretpon we suddenly learn
what We never knew before, that the whole
basis and structure of our national pros
perity rests on the fleece Of acoot laugh
ter, and to hear them talk and read their
writings we should suppose that whole
droves of sheep were bleating on every
pain and hillside, and that at every school
house door Il hundred lambs were patient
ly waiting for Mary to appear Loud
laughter and applause Did we ever stop
to consider for moment what this pro-
position of the President, that longseeing
and far-seeing patriot, means? Do we
think, not only of the wool that is raised,
but do we appreciate that from 100000
900 to 10000, 900 worth, and i do not
know but more, of wooden fabrics are i'm
ported into this country every year rob
bling tile american laborer of their manu-
facture, paying our money to foreigners to
make our goods for us because wool is
prohibited to them? Think of the army
of men it would take to handle that wool, to
comb it, to card it, to spin it, to dye it, to
weave it, to sell it, and think Of all the
ramifactions of trade it would enter; of the
mill engineering involved, the steam engi-
neering and the new factories to be built,
and the steamships to be made to help that
industry, and the employment it would
give certainly to 100000 people at S1.50
per day-the percentage of labor that
would enter into this amount of money
and that those 100000 people would each
one of them support two more. There are
600, 900 men that this United States fails
to support, and pays foreign people to do
their work for them, in order that Ohio
may continue Republican State! Pro-
longed laughter and applause
Why, they have had this tariff on, and
what has been the result to the American
laborer? There are to-day 867 less wooden
and felt mills in the United States than
there were in 1860 What commentary
that is upon this prohibition upon the OBJ
tanning by our manufacturers of the raw
material upon which to work. now pro-
coed to enter into another, and a more
solemn consideration. Laughter. A
proposition has come vibrating beneath
the waves of the storm-driven sea, from
the good old man (Blaine) now absent
from this country, but who watches with
tmselfsh interest over her welfare loud
laughter, and who is fearful that the
country may go to wreck and ruin while
he is away! More laughter He tells
us that the true way to benefit the people
of the United States is to give them I'M
taxed tobacco, because it is neces-
sa,y of life laughter Well, good
many of us are now bald-headed and pot
bellied, and show signs of years and of age
laughter, but when we were in the days
of our callow youth, we entertained the
same craftsmanship. Laughter. We
believed that tobacco was necessary Of
life, and we largely added to it rum, which
l do not doubt this great statesman would
also add, if it were necessary for the pre-
servation of the sacred tariff. Laughter.
But marriage and home, wife and children,
poverty, struggle, responsibility, are the
arguments that have dispelled that illusion.
We now kno,o that fuel and warmth and
food and clothing and comforth and health
are the real necessaries, and things which
we should minister to the peoples benefit.
Talk about tobacco being necessity of
life. Look at that boy up there in the
attic this cold night, shivering in his rags,
and wishing that blankets were not such
luxury, but contenting himself with the
thought that his father is chewing an un-
taxed cud down there in the kitchen
CGreat laughter and applause. Think of
that wife, with her little thin dress, long
ing for shawl to wrap around her to pro-
tect her freezing form, compelled to con-
sole herself with the knowledge that her
husband is smoking an untaxed cigar in
the saloon See that boy coming down
Washington street, his legs the size Of
your thumb, carrying cane bigger than
his body [great laughter, ] sallow, pimpled,
worn, lighting his cigarette at every street
corner, and thanking God that we have
such statesman as Blaine to give us this
necessary of life, an untaxed cigarette
Loud laughter and applause | saw that
one of these boys dropped dead in the street
in New York from freely partaking of this
elixir of life Laughter All this is
worse than rot-it is aoickedness, and we
mean to make use of this opportunity, this
surplus, for better things. We mean are
form that shall sweep away useless taxation
from coal and salt and sugar and lumber
and wool and clothing-the grand univer-
sal necessaries of life. [Applause.] We
mean reform that shall give relief, not to
the man who is chewing his untaxed cud
in the saloon or smoking his untariffed pipe
around barroom fire; we mean a relief
that shall stretch out to every cabin and
every humble home, to every kitchen and
chamber, to every table and every fresidel
| TT ,oud annlonse I