Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1888-09-19

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lation of the manufacture and sale of oleo-
margarine is important, and the revenue,
derived from it is not so great thata repeal
of the law need enter into any plan of
revenue reduction.
The surplus now in the Treasury should
be used in the purchase of bonds. The
law authorizes this use Of it, and if it is
not needed for current or deficiency appro-
priations, the people, and not the banks in
which it has been deposited, should have
the advantage of its use by stopping the
interest upon the public debt. At least
those who needlessly hoard it should not
be allowed to use the fear of monetary
stringency thus produced to coerce public
sentiment upon other questions.
Closely connected with the subject of the
tariff is that of the importation of foreign
labOrers under contracts of service to be
performed here. The law now in force
prohibiting such contracts received my
cordial support in the Senate, and such
amendments as may be found necessary
effectively to deliver our workingmen and
women from this most iniquitous form of
competition, will have my sincere advoca-
cy. Legislation prohibiting the importa-
here will, however, afford very inadequate
relief to our working people if the system
of protective duties is broken down. If
the products of American shops must COM
pete in the American market, without IA
voring duties, with the products of cheap
foreign labor, the effect will be different,
if at all, only degree, whether cheap
labor is across the street or over the sea.
Such competition will soon reduce wages
here to the level of those abroad, and
when that condition is reached we will
not need any laws forbidding the importa-
tion of laborers under contract-they will
have no inducement to come, and the en-
ployer no inducement to send for them.
In the earlier years of our history,
public agencies to promote immigration
were common. The pioneer wanted
a neighbor with more friendly in
stincts than the Indian. Labor was
scarce and fully emplo"ed. But the day
of the immigration bureau has gone by.
While our doors will continue open to
proper immigration, we did not need to
issue especial invitations to the inhabi-
tants of other countries to come to our
shores or to share our citizenship. Indeed,
the necessity of some inspection and linn
itation is obvious. We should resolutely
refuse to permit foreign governments to
send their paupers and criminals to our
ports. We are also clearly under the du-
ty to defend our civilization by excluding
alien races, whose ultimate assimilation
with our people is neither possible nor
desirable The family has been the nucle-
US of our best immigration and the home
the most potent assimilating force in our
Civilization.
The objections to Chinese immigration
are distinctive and conclusive, and are now
80 generally accepted as such that the ques-
ton has passed entirely beyond the stage
of argument. Laws relating to this SUBJ
ject would, if l should be charged with
their enforcement, be faithfully executed.
Such amendments or further legislation
as may be necessary and proper to prevent
evasions of the laws and to stop further
Chinese immigration would also meet my
approval. The expression of the conven-
tion upon this subject is in entire harmony
with my views. Our civil compact is
government by majorities; and the law
loses its sanction and the magistrate our
respect whent the compact is broken.
The evil results of election frauds do not
expend themselves upon voters who are
robbed Of their rightful influence in pub
lie affairs. The individual or communi-
ty or party that practices or connives at
election frauds has suffered irreparable in
jury, dllu VIII SOOuel vi ldlel ic1lILo lllttL
to exchange the American system of ma
iority rule for minority control, is not only
unlawful and unpatriotic, but very unsafe
for those who promote it. The disfran-
chisement of single legal elector by
fraud or intimidation is crime too grave
to be regarded lightly. The right of
every qualified elector to cast one free bal
lot and to have it honestly counted, must
not be questioned. Every constitutional
power should be used to make this right
secure and punish frauds upon the ballot.
Our colored people do not ask special legis-
tion in their interest, but only to be made
secure in the common rights of American
citizenship. They will, however, natural
ly mistrust the sincerity of those party
leaders who appeal to their race for support
only in those localities where suffrage is
free and election results doubtful, and
compass their sfanchisement where their
votes would be controlling, and their
choice cannot be coerced.
A nation, not less than State, is depen-
dent for prosperity and security upon the
intelligence and morality Of her people.
This common interest very early suggest
ed national aid in the establishment and
endowment of schools and colleges in the
new States. There is, 1 believe, a present
exigency that calls for still more liberal
and direct appropriations in aid of COM
mon school education in the States.
A territorial form of government is a
temporary eXpedient, not a permanent
civil condition. 1t is adapted to the ext
gency that suggested it, but becomes in
adequate and even oppressive when ap-
piled to fixed and pOpulous communities.
Several Territories are we'll able to bear
A. Int; Df
free commonwealths in the American
just rights Of their people, and may we'll
excite their indignant protest. No ques-
tion of political preference of the people of
Territory should close against them the
hospitable door which has opened to two
thirds of the existing States. But admis-
sion should be resolutely refused to any
Territory, majority of whose people
cherish institutions that are repuguant to
our civilization or inconsistent with Re-
publican form Of government.
The declaration of the Convention
against "All combinations of capital Or
ganized in trusts or otherwise, to control
arbitrarily the condition OF trade among
our citizens" is in harmony with the
views entertained and publicly expressed
by me long before the assembling of the
Convention. Ordinarily, capital shares
the losses of idleness with labor, but under
the operation of the trust, in some of its
forms, the wage worker alone suffers loss,
while idle capital receives its dividends
from the trust fund. Producers who re-
fuse to join the combination are destroyed,
and competition as an element Of prices is
eliminated, 1t cannot be doubted that
legislative authority should and will find
a method of dealing fairly and effectively
with these and other abuses connected
with this subject.
1t can hardly be necessary for me to say
that am heartily in sympathy with the
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