Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-09-07
BIGGEST RALLY
OF Voters Yet Held in Maine.
nr. Blaine Addresses Them al South
Berwick.
Frank and Square Statements on Tariff
Issues.
Why the Mills Bill Doesn't Iniure the
Wood Pulp Industry.
SourH BERWICK. Sept. {


SoUTH BERWICK. Sept. 6.
Thousands of enthusiastic people of Maine
and neighboring States greeted Blaine this
afternoon when he made one of his last
speeches in the State campaign. Special
and regular trains from Kennebunk and Bid
deford in Maine, and Dover. Exeter, Roch-
ester and other points in New Hampshire,
and Lawrence in Mass, came in heavily
loaded and when the monster meeting was
called to order in the Academy Grounds and
Blaine was presented there were 10000 peo-
pie present.
Upon this basis the meeting was Just about
as large as that at Old Orchard yesterday
but it contained a much larger proportion Vi
men. Blaine arrived before IL o'clock with
o her speakers of today and became the gues
of Walter {. Burleigh, son of the late Hon.
John II. Burleigh. for several years his col
league in Congress. From, Burleigh's house.
which adjoins the Academy grounds, Blaine
was driven to the place of the meeting
Shortly before 3 O'Clock the procession
formed and marched to the Burleigh re ST.
dence and was drawn up in open ranks TO
allow the Blaine carriage which also con-
tained Gen. Adam E. King of Mary land, and
r. f. Frazier of Michigan, to pass. through.
In the procession, several of the places al
ready named, were represented.
Blaine was heartily cheered as he neared
the grounds in which be was to speak, and
his appearance upon the speakers platform
vas the signal for a renewal Of the enthus-
asm. Among those who had come from far
and near TO hear Mr.. Blaine were forty vet
Grams of is40 from Dover n. ii. just
word from Precedent W. H. Downs, caair-
man of the town committee was all tlat was
given b! way of Introduction, and then came
more formal greeting by the crowd
W. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen:
One OF the great difficulties in discussing
the tarltl question is TO get frank and hon
est response from our opponents. If they
will consent to any statement of fact, mark |
say of fact, that may be derived from the
statistics of the United States, or the expert
enCe of manufacturers, their cause IL gone.
Applause. Therefore, they do in most
systematic aud persistent manner, misrepre
sent the essential truths of the hole question.
read in democratic paper With" the past
week that all the statements male by the re-
publicans to the effect that laborlng men in
this country received better pay than labor
ing men in England, was simply Il republican
lie. Laughter Well, it took very ner
getic and very courageous man to make
that statement, AMI SO far from the truth is
it that if you take the average wages paid
TO skilled labor in England under free trade
and to skilled labor in Amtr.ca under
the system of protection, the average run
ming through "a series of years, it stands in
the relation of 10 to Is 20, that is to put the |
case in nutshell, the skilled English labor
cr is able to earn $40 where the American
gets SlS 20, (applause) and the difference
between working for SlS 20 instead of $40 |
a week makes a vast difference in the pecun- !
ary condition of a man in the course of D. 10
or l5 years. 1t makes the difference between |
being able to lay up something for rainy
day and being compe He'd to spend every |
thing he earns as he goes along for the mere |
subsistence of ones self and family, and
constitutes that wide sweep, that immense
distance between the condition of the whole
mass Of |. Dor in this country and tie con-
tiltlOU OF iiIt NuOit mass OF laDOr Ill Eng
land. have said already as | now repeat,
that when ou get down to the last element
and reduce this tariff question to the basis
on which it must ultimately stand or fall. it |
is question of wages to the wage Garner |
1t is not a question of defending capital; it |
is not a question of helping the sick. |
If you adopt free trade instead of protection
in this country. | would like any man to
point out by what possible process you can
keep the wages of American labor above
those of Europe, applause. and the whole
question lies therein. have made my ap-
peal on behalf of the republican policy 20 the
vast multitude of men, and they constitute
the vast majority of every people on the face
of the globe, who earn their bread in the
sweat of their faces, and this election is to
be decided by the votes of those men. 1t is
in their power to approve Mr.. Cleveands
tariff policy. or it is IN their power TO up
hold the republican policy OF protection.
Many of them know the tariff policy practi-
cally and thoroughly. All of them have ex-
perienced the benefit of protection, and To
them is remiited the question | have said
that msrepre sentation is what we meet. and
have an illustration in the concrete of what I
| have stated in the abstract. | have said |
within the last ten days that among the APP
par mt designs of the Mills bill was to strike |
~ blow at the material interests of Maine /
| might in broader sense, have said Eng /
iand, and | showed, from quoting the bill, !
that Il manufacturer of cotton, and of
wool the farmer, the man who has an orch (
urd the gardiner, the dairyman, wool grower I
the man who ia ses meats and poutres, the /
uIan who quarries stone. the man who makes |
brick, almost every material interest in
Maine which is now protected is to be sub I
! 81. -
reafiirm " hat have said and emphasize /
every point have male. This morning |
find n letter in the Portland Argus from s. |
d. Warren & Company of Boston, who are
very large paper makers, to their employees
at Cumberland Mills. 1t is the first time in
my experience in Maine, so far as | recol- |
lect, that the owners of a mandatory OF
any kinG made a direct address to tie men
who were working in II, Oh any political is
sue This appeal began by making this state
ment to these employees, As you know, pol
itics were never mixed in the relation of
MIR. Warren, Senior. to the men at his mills
and we need hardly say that the same policy
will be continued now" But in speech
recently delivered by one of the republican
leaders in Maine, we find him reported as
sa!iug tina, proper designation of the Mills
tariff bill (Which has recently passed the ma
tionsl House of Representative, s. would be a
bill for the destruction of the material inter-
ests of Maine. So far as the measure re-
/ ferred TO affects the paper making OF wood
! pulp interests of Maine, which are certainly
/ very important, the above statement is not
I in our opinion true This very large
| firm that thus talks and they inform all the
material interests of Maine that in their
Judgment my statement, for it (it was to ME
they referred) was not true, for the wool
pulp interest, they aver, has not been affect
ed. Well, do You know why it has not been
affected Mr.. Chairman? In the original
Mills bill wood pulp was on the free list,