Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-09-27
F0I.LET,S SPEECH.
A Large and Enthusiastic Meeting of
Democrats.


meeting a large bonfire burned at the cor
ner of Ninth ard K streets, and the Hussar
Band discussed patriotic airs in front of the |
hall. The meeting was very enthusiastic, !
and the speaker was frequently interrupted /
by storms of applause. His speech wss |
eloquent and forcible. from his standpoint, |
and evidently pleased his hearers greatly. |
Soon after o'clock the speaker was es-
corted 10 the platform by Thomas X. Fox, |
Chairman of the City Central Committee.
The meeting was called to order by T. ". |
0'Neil, Vice Chairman of the Democratic |
County Committee, who introduced Add |
C. Hinkson as President of the meeting.
Mr.. Hinkson addressed the meeting !
briefly and introduced the speaker of the |
evening who said that two weeks ago il !
was his pleasure TO visit for the first time /
the Pacific slope. He haG heard OF Cali
fornia, of It's wonderful productions and |
vast resources, but was satisfied that the
half bad not been told him. On behalf of
Ohio ne thanked The peOple of California
for what it had done for that noble man,
Alien G. Thurman. [Applsuse.l Until
he came here lie could not understand fully
the reason for the affection entertained by
the people of California for Allen 6. Thur
man. lie knew that even before the
people of this State were really aware of
the danger they were i'll, OF the threat to
their political life from the M0ngolian i'm
migration to this coast, Allen G. Thurman
saw and warned the country against it.
He had listened to & speech delivered by
Judge Thurman on the 18th of September,
1870, when he announced what all had
since found out to be true. He had said that
the excuse given for Chinese immigration
was that cheap labor was needed. To this
idea Judge Thurman said he never would
subscribe. America had no use for cheap
labor. The speaker then proceeded to say
that no action was taken by Congress on
the subject until during the administration
of President Hayes, an anti-Chiuese bill
was passed which received the vote Of every
Democratic member of Congress. 1t was
vetoed by the Republican President. An
other bill was passed during the term of
President Arthur. 1t was vetoed by the
President, but at that time enough Repub-
cans joined with the Democrats to pass it
over the veto Benjamin Harrison voted
fourteen times to continue this plague.
LAppiause. Benjamin Harrison and his
law partner natuIalized seventeen China
men, the only Cinnamon that he knew of
that had ever been naturalized in this
country. II they were alive on election
day they would all vote for An Ben for
President.
President Cleveland in his message
| had presented 2 live issue TO the
psni>la = his cn,i0t-y which at
once insured his denomination. He
! had declared it with no uncertain
| tone OF sound. The Republican party had
taken up the challenge and replied to ii by
putting up for President the friend and
| champion of the Chinaman, and as a run
| ming mate they gave him the representa-
| tive of the importation of foreign laborers
IL,
the man who had made himself notorious
by his importation of dairy maids and
farmers for his magnificent plantation near
New Y YOrk.
The Republican party had adopted the
cry of protection TO American labor, but
those who looked closely into it had found
out that they did not mean protection to
American laborers. Senator John Sher-
mar had introduced and had passed
/ law making it legal to import laborers
under contracts from abroad, and that re-
mained the law Of the land until Demo
| cratic Congress repealed the law and passed
an Act making it criminal 10 import la
borers into this country under contracts
made abroad. [Applause.l
| The speaker then, in thrilling language
rehearsed the story told by Mr.. Powderly
! Chief of the Knights of Labor, of the mis-
/ cry of the Hungarian miners who had been
| imported to take the place of American la
| borers thrown out of employment for dar-
| ing TO ask for fair wages. He said that the
| intelligent workingmen had learned that
the Republican party did not mean protec-
! ton to the American laborer, but to the
men who were rolling mp fortunes for
| themselves at the expense of the laborer.
He told how the notorious Harper, of
Cincinnati, during The Campaign OF 1881,
called the employees of his iron works to-
gether, and told them that if Cleveland was
elected it would be necessary to close the
works or reduce the wages of the men.
One man had replied that he believed that
if Harper thought the election of Cleveland
would reduce wages he would vote for him
himself The works were still running,
and wages had not been reduced, but Har-
per was not running them, for the United
States Court had sent him TO the peniten-
| tary for ten years.
MIR. Follet then spoke at length of the
| burdens of taxation, and asserted that the
war taxes had not only not been reduced.
but had been actually increased. He quoted
from the Republican platforms of 1882 and
1884, to show that the Republican Marty
| was pledged to reduce the tariff and correct
its inequalities and from speeches of Jas.
G. Blaine, General Logan and President
Garfield, TO the same effect He asserted
that Syracuse salt was cheaper in Toronto.
Canada, than at the Syracuse salt works.
American copper, from the mines of Mich
igan, was cheaper in Canada than on this
side of the line. You can bEy an Ameri-
can sewing machine, made in this country.
cheaper in any part OF Europe than any-
where On American soil.
The reduction in the tariff proposed by
the Mills bill was not free trade. 1t was
only a reduction of per cent. If a reduc.
ton from II per cent to AZ per cent was
free trade, he wanted to know what protec-
ton is? The speaker then illustrated in a
most forcible manner the taxation of yari.
GUS kinds of manufactured wooden goods
and drew pictures which brought forth
storms OF applause. Protection never added
a farthlng to the wages of labor Wages
were higher in this country than anywhere
else, and they ought to be. 1t was the
greatest country on the face of the earth.
The highest wages paid in the wosId out
| side OF this country were paid in free trade
| England, being 90 per cent. higher tlsan in
| France and Germany.
| On the dsy previous the speaker bei met
| a great isin-producer of Fresno. who vas
q good Democrat, and who only asked the
| Government tG keep its hands off and al
| low him to sell his goods where he wished
to. On the platform where he spoke sat
| four Eice- Presidents who were large nro-
|
could not pull the wool over their eyes
| Wool was selling here for less than it was
in Australia, which was our chief connect
itor. The fact was, that every time the
| tariff on wool was raised the price had gone
down, simply because il destroyed the abil
| Ety of the American manufacturer to get
| the necessary wool to mix with the home
| product and compete iI the markets. He
insisted that the pauper labor of Europe
had never competed With anything in this
country, and never would.
The result of the imposition of the tariff
on several articles was then illustrated
The speaker asserted that the result of in
Tesiment in farms in the United States
amounted to $3.50 per hand, while the in
come on the highly protected industries
was 500 per hand, He asked his hearers
ii they had ever heard of labor strike in
the United States before 1860; if thew had
ever known the tramp before that time.
No; they were the legitimate ouigrogtb Of
Republican legislation
The speaker said that the Renriblican
party had not dared TO give the country
bill which agreed with their platform
Even Harrison had found the free whisky
plank of the Republican Convention hard
.0 svalfaU He told on apao,,o.- :: -.