The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1888-08-23
HARRISON AND woRKING-MEN.
Himself "A Poor Man, He Knows How &c
SympathIse with Those Who Toll.


Sympathlse with Those Who Toll.
One fact that goes far to make Repub-
lican presidential candidate strong with
the people is his earnest and outspoken
championship of the interests of the
workingmen. AS matter of principle,
every broad-minded man must have this
cause at heart, but not every one has
the personal sympathy with the strug-
Cling toilers, possessed and often eX-
expressed by Gen. Harrison. The Sc
cret of this sOlicitude is not hard to find
1t is simply fellow feeling, growing
out of his own experience and poverty
with which he had to contend in his
early years. Never in his life has Gen.
Harrison been man of leisure. For
thirty years, from the time he began the
practice of his profession until to-day,
he has been hard worker, and much
of this work, as all lawyers know, must
have been in the nature of laborious
drudgery. In these thirty years, says
the indianapolis Journal, he has Sc
cured modest competence; but 1t is
the result of this patient, persistent in
dustry, and is less in amount than that
gained in the same time by men in me-
chanical pursuits and who class them
selves more especially as working
men,"
Indeed, the mechanic is likely to win
| fortune sooner than the lawyer, and
with less outlay of vitality, other things
being equal. 1t is because the danger
threatens that the other things may not
continue equal. and that the laboring
man will be oppressed, that brings
friends like Gen. Harrison to his de-
Tense. The General has suffered priva-
tions and gone through struggles, but
before him was prospect that success
would finally crown his efforts. With
danger threatening labor, he sees that
this prospect may be taken away from
the workingman, and that he will be
left in a position in which he may not
only be unable to provide for immediate
wants, but will have no hope ola better
| future. Gen. Harrison's sentiments on
this subject have been indicated in a
general way by his utterances on the
tariff question, and his earnest advocacy
of protection for home indurtsies. The
trend of all his public speeches, whether
on the subject of the Southern negro's
wrongs, or the American tariff system
which the Democracy is attempting to
break down, have all been in the direc-
ton of lettering the industrial situation.
His expressions on these points have,
however, been very direct. He has re-
peatedly and specifically pointed out the
danger threatening the laboring classes.
In speech made in this city last De-
cember, he said;
Il think our working-men will wake
up to the fact that reduction in their
wages, which every candid advocate OF
| free trade or revenue reform admits
must come with the adoption of his
theOries-a reduction variously estimat-
ed at from ten to twenty-five per cent.
is poorly compensated by the cheaper
coat he is promised. This bull-in-the-
china-shop sort of work that our Demo-
cratic friends want to make of the tar
| if will not do".
In an address made in Chicago in
March of this year he said:
II am one of those uninterested po-
litical economists that have an impress
sion that some things may be too cheap;
that is, cannot find myself in full SYM
pathy with this demand for cheaper
coats, which seem to me to involve a
cheaper man under the coat. | believe
it is true to day that we have many
things in this country that are too cheap
| because whenever it is proved that the
man or woman who produces any ar
ticle cannot get decent living out of it
then it is too cheap"
What nottingham can read these
utterances and not feel that he has a
true and sympathetic friend in the Re-
publican candidate? They are the
words, not only of a statesman, but of
man with soul, and one who, through
a life of hard work and struggle, feels a
loyal sympathy with every worker,
whether by hand or brain.