The Portland daily press., 1888-05-21

Nineteenth Century, April, 1885,
On the other hand, for that immense class OF
people, the great bulk of the community $50.
things in America are favorable. Society
Is organized for their benefit. Luxuries
are, as have said very dear, above all European
Injuries but the workingmans clothing is nearly
as cheap as in England. and plain food is, on the
whole, cheaper. Even luxnries OF certain hlho
are within the laborng mans easy reach.
have thus gone over, well or III, the real
arguments ON the other side, all that are
really worth touching, but there are in all
these rhetorical battles much artillery firing
which comes from unsolicited guns. They
make as much noise as real artillery. They
obscure the heavens also with much smoke,
and they seem TO the careless to contribute
to the dead and wounded. Some OF these l
must ask you to examine, for it is really
worth while to see what smoke and part
noise play in this world.
tor of laws, and once candidate of the DEM
scratic party for the Presidency, monopoly
is. perhaps, the most perverted and misap-
piled word in our much.abused mother
tongue" How very tame this language is.
suppose that during the ten years last past
have listened in this Hall to more idiotic
raving, more pestifer0us rant on that sub
ject than on all the others put together. And
yet do not regret it, What beautiful
sight it is to see the revenue-reform orator
go into action against monopoly. Nelson, as
he stood blazing with decorations on the
decks of the Victory on the fatal day OF
Trafalgar; Napoleon at Friedland, as the
Guard went cheering and charging by;
Thomas Sayers as he stripped for the cham
pionship of England when Heenan had
crossed the lifting waters; the eagle soaring
to his eyrie; the royal man-eating Bengal
tiger in his native jungle; nay, the very bull
himself, the strong bull of Bashan, as he up
lifts his below over the rocky deserts of
Palestine. are all but pale reminders of one
of these majestic creatures. And yet, out
side the Patent Office there are no monopo-
lioci In this Q0uptrV and there he
All, but what is that see on the far horiz-
ons edge, with tongue of flame and eye of
fire, serpent-headed and griffin-clawed?
Surely it must be the great new chimera
Der of the Ways and Means. Quick. let us
lower the tariff. Let us call in the British.
Let them save our devastated homes. Cour-
age, dear brethren. Be not too much dis
turbed. The Lord will reign even If the
board OF mayor and aldermen should adj
journ.
Call in the British When the day comes
that this Republic can not save itself from
dozen OF its own citizens without aid from
over the sea, L hope to be buried thousand
leagues under some respectable and perma-
nent mountain range. What unreasonable
talk this is. A dozen men fix the prices for
sixty million freemen! They can never do
it. There is no power on earth that can
raise the price of any necessity of life above
a just price and keep it there. More than
that, If the price is raised and maintained
even for short while, it means ruin for the
combination and still lower prices for con-
sumers. That is one of the laws of God
working for His children. Compared with
one of Gour laws Of Congress, it is Levia-
than to clam.
But if the revenue reform orator on the
monopoly is terrible, like an army with ban
ners, there is theme on which he can take
up the notes of the dying swan. How we do
love to hear him on the impoverished farm
er. Then he is not sublime but he is pa
natf lIxrfr han n Eref &nx,
ago. To me, innocent, unSraveled, it seemed
as If the Western farmer was the most woe
beg0ne, down-trOdden, luckless, unsuccess-
full, dispirited devil on the face of the earth.
The Eastern vampire had mortgaged his
farm and thrown down his fences, and scat
tered his substance wantonly to the winds.
In the fullness of time travelled West
myself. You may well imagine my aston
ishment, who had never seen ten acres to-
gether in corn, to behold fields of that great
staple stretching way out to the horizons
edge to see tracts of land which seemed to
have no boundaries but the visible sky; land
so rich that If we had an acre of 1t in Maine
we would have sold it by the bushel while
on every side were the great brick houses,
such as only the squire lived in in our vii
lagos. After some days of this l became
sulky. l said, gentlemen, OF course we have
robbed you; your congressman would not lie
about trifies like that. But what disgusts
me is that we did not do it more thoroughly.
The cleaning looks bigger than the harvest.
Then they confided to me that the Western
congressman were great orators and did this
for practice. Since then / have not been so
much moved by it.
Here is another unsolicited gun, called ''the
markets Of the world" The markets of the
world How broad and cool these words
are, They, stretch from the frozen regions
of the northern pole across the blazing trop
les to the ice-bound shores Of the Antarctic
continent. All this we can have if we will
but give up the little handsbreadth called the
United States of America. What are these
markets of the world?
To hear these rhetoricans declaim, you
would imagine the markets of the world
vast vacuum, waiting till now for American
goods to break through, rush in, and fill the
yearning void; VIII your goods go to Aus,
Around all these benighted countries are the
Chinese walls of tariff taxes Britain her
self is protected by vast capital. accumulated
through ages, the spoils of her own and 9th
e. lands, by trade system as powerful as it
is relentless. All these nations will contest
with you the other countries which they al
ready overflow.
Does your mouth water over the prospect?
What market do you give up fol all this?
Where is the best market in the world?
Where the people have the most money to
spend. Where have the people the most
money to spend? Right here in the United
States of America after twenty-seven years
of protectionist rule. And you are asked to
give up such a market for the markets of the
world! Why the history of such transac-
ton was told twenty-four hundred years ago.
1t is classic. You will find it in the works
of Esop, the fabulist.
Once there was dog. He was nice lit
tie dog. Nothing the matter with him ex-
cept few foolish free trade ideas in his
head. He was trOtting along happy as the
day, for he had in his mouth nice shoulder
of succulent mutton. By and by he came to
a stream bridged by a plank. He trotted
along, and looking over the side of the plank
he saw The markets of the world and dived
for them.A minute after he was crawling up
bank the wettest, the sickest, the nastiest,
the most muttonless dog that ever swan
ashore.
We have now spent twenty days on the
discussion of the Mills bill Have you no.
ticed what has been the most utterly insight
icant thing in the discussion? The most ut
terly insignificant thing in the discussion has
been the Mills bill. How do you account for
it? will tell you. If the principles you
have enunciated are true, it is an unworthy
compromise with Satan. II the principles
we have stated are true. it is an unworthy
ambuscade, and you know it. You mean
this merely for one step. You mean to cut
deeper next time. You mean destruction of
the system that now exists.
The whole case can be put succlnctly in
few words. If the principles you announce
are true, you must have direct taxation. If
the dollar you pay the custom-hous on the
import is followed by dollar to the manu-
ldCtutCi lUA CfCiJ hhC qudnbly VI OOihCobtS
goods, which your tariff accidentally encour-
ages, then that manufacture is misfortune.
1t takes dollars out of the farmer or lawyer
without return. 1t is no reply, under this
government to say that the indirect collec-
ton of two dollars, one half of which is lost
to the people, is easier because the poor folks
don't know it.
That is the old quotation made from Col
bert by the gentleman from West Virginia.
Surely in this country you do not avow that
you are tryingto get 1.-THE maximum of feath-
ers out of the goose for the minimum of
squalling." You don't mean to take feath-
ers out of the American goose and deny him
the poor privilege of noise. No, if our proud
bird ought to surrender feathers he is plucBy
enough to surrender like an eagle, and If it
is a tax alone he has a right to see just what
feathers 60.
The forefathers of these Democrats saw
this, and, like the honest men they were,
clamored for direct taxation. They were
right. Why do you not act like them! Why
not be bold? Why do you hesitate? 1t is
because twenty seven years of knowledge di-
vide you from them. In your heart of hearts
you suspect your own logic and you dare
not. You may well hesitate. Whoever takes
down the map of 1860 and the map of 1888
will look upon the most wondrous growth
that ever the sun shone on in all its myriad
courses around the earth. 1t is marvellous