St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-09-15
APOSTLE OF REFORM.
Henry Watterson Talks Of the
Tariff to Gotham's Kid
Democracy.
The Republican Compared
With the Bandana
Structure.
Knownothingism and Doodle
Personified by Harrison
and Morton,
While Cleveland and Thur
man Represent the In
tepestS Of Life.


Kentucky, was to speak on the 1.-TWO
Platforms" and he was we'll received.
LytletonG. Sarrettson opened the meet
ing and introduced Col. Watterson, who
said:
Fellow Democrats and fellow citi-
zens! Next after being protected to
death the most distressful and linger-
ing fate which can befall people is to
be talked to death. Laughter. If you
were not the most enduring and amia-
BILE people on the face of the
globe, you might be excused
for getting new party
which would do neither. But in
this country the thing we call politics
not usually first choice; it is what
we call in Kentucky getting place,
laughter. do not think that in the
Mills bill the country is getting any
thing like what it ought to have lap
plausel, in the reduction of revenue
add war taxes. The Mills bill
embraces concessions to what [ be-
lieve to be the unjust demands of GER
class interests, which as an original
proposition L never could consent to-.
There are objections to it from free
trade standpoint. but what protection
list can find to be the matter with it | am
only unable to define. | am
going to try tonight to put
the platforms of the two parties on
the stand, and let them say how they
stand on the great question. The pres
ent tariff is a peace tariff on a war foot
ing. The Republicans not only failed
to decrease them, but actually did in
crease them. have little
EXPERIENCE IN PLATFORNI-MAKING,
but if had made this platform of my
friend McKinley's would not be here to-
night. 1t is funny i'll its errors, III its
blindness, in its very falSehOodS. This
platform says the Republican party
favors the reduction of letter postage
to cent. But year before this
comic almanac [laughter- II mean this
platfOrm-was written, Senator Beck IN
PRODUCED bill to this effect, and the Re
publican majority in the senate sent 1t
to the committee on postOffices and post
roads, and Senator Beck has not been
able to resurrect it. Perhaps he
will have better luck after the
cows come home in November.
The Chinese plank amused Mr.. Wat
terson, and he calculated, ''Why. Har-
rison misses was China's own-the best
and truest and almost the only friend Of
Chinese cheap labor" Referring to the
fisheries trouble, Mr.. Watters0n said
President Cleveland [cheerS had taken
the British lion by the tail and snatched
him bald-headed, [Great laughter
Let us come to the issue OF the cam
paign," continued Mr.. Watterson.
They say they are unqualiiiedly in
favor of the American system of pr0tec-
ton. Why, this system is no more an
American system than Russian, German
or French, for protection exists in all
those countries. We have had high
tariffs, low tariffs, war tariffs and
peace tariffs, and we have had good
times and bad times under all of them.
There were never such bad times as the
panic of 1878, after we had had this
American tariff ten years. This plat
form denounces the Mills bill as hostile
to the manufacturing interests OF this
country. 1t goes out of its way
on the wool question. L propose
to make a test case of this and break
down this platform whose right wing
rests on Blaine; its left Oh free whlSkey,
and the
CENTER HAVING NO SUPPORT
unless it be Mr.. Foster. L can't see why
the wooden manufacturer objects. The
Mills bill proposes to give, him free
wool and protection, and yet he
calls it a free trade measure
and saws it will ruin his business. Why
don't we hear from the raiSerS of sheep?
They don't hold mass meetings to pro-
test. and it is because the farmer found
out long ago that the tariff took away at
one end what he got at the other.
This platform proposes a scheme
in lieu of the Mills bill, and
that is to abolish the tobacco tax.
Well, the Mills bill does that, but they
give strange reason. They say it is an
ANNOYANCE and imposition upon agri-
culture. How about the tax on plows,
barbed wire fence and everything the
farmer uses? Then they will reduce
the tax on distilled spirits used in
the arts. Laughter. If this be
not enough, if there be still
remaining a surplus, they propose the
repeal of the internal taxes. That
means free whisky and dear blankets,
free whisky and dear everything else.
If | were rank free trader
l would jump at this plank of
Mr.. McKinley's but it is because
[ am not free trader, be-
cause am conservative man who
loves his country and all the interests
of all parts of it (applausel, that L re-
iect it and take the Mills bill, defective
as it is, because it takes one step down.
ward from the
MOUNTAIN OF HIGH TAXES
and takes that step with exceeding
caution (applause.) The Democratic
platform cannot be worse; it is great
deal better. 1t is based on the declara-
ton of Independence, which was pro-
test against unjust taxation, and an
appeal to the people from corporation,
combinations and trusts. The Demo-
cratic party meets these Quack doc
tors with the simplest and plainest
statements of facts. They are fond of
dilating upon the presidents lack of
beauty. | admit that he may not be
altogether lovely, but he is one among
10000. for he is doing the part of brave
and honest man in taking care of
the peoples money and business, and
makes up in honesty, industry and
integrity what he lacks of those char
acteristics which better suit the cour-
tier than the president of the United
States. Voices. "How about his wife,"
His wife has enough for two" replied
the speaker. ''They take the work
man upon nigh HiOuutdlH anu
offer him the earth, which don't
belong to them laughter; we
say to him, You will get work only
promise you riches, nobody can do that,
but we do promise you to cheaper the
interests of life and to tighten your bur-
den for you.' The lines are drawn, and
the fight is on in earnest. The Repub-
lican party is
A WOLF IN SLEEPS CLOTHING.
All its pledges which it had not previ-
ously discredited it now disowns. 1t
has assailed every labor interest in the
country through the antecedents of the
head of its ticket, and in his Know
Nothing record he is an insult to every
foreign-born and every CathO-
lie citizen. Its candidate for
vice president is not nominated