, 1888-09-19

or anybody else has not any particular
right to interfere. Why, my friends, lar
ceny is a private affair, a very private
affair, and yet 1t is not supposed to be
improper to interfere
WITH IT BY LAW.
Blaine has not been occupying a very
good position from which to view the in
terests of the American w~orkingman,
farmer or The top of Carne-
gie's coach as it bowled along with its
liveried outriders over the hills of Scot
land is not a good place from which to
look at the interests OF America. Had he
come here to his " country and mingled
with farmers, with consumers, with the
labor1ng men of the land, he would have
had a far better opportunity to know what
they desired than he could possibly have
dining and wineing with the
ARIsTooRAoY OF EUROPE.
1t is said that even if it does impose
enormous burdens on the consumers of
the country the wages of our laborers
must be maintained and therefore high
rates of taxation must be continued. if l
had time | think [ could show to the sat
isfaction of every intelligent and candid
man within the sound of my voice that
the wages of labor are no more affected by
the rate of duties upon imported goods
than the yield of corn to the acre on your
farm is
AFFECTED BY IT.
AND one of the chief benefits of the
system in the estimation of Mr.. Harrison
is the fact that the people do not know
how much they are paying. When a
mans money is taken away from him
without his knowledge some malicious
people call it stealing. l will say that it
is the most dangerous form of taxation
that could be devised, because it makes
the people less ~vigilant of the expendi-
lures of public money and lulls them to
sleep while their substance is taken away.
l have said that the system of taxation
is continued Of the ground that it In
creases the rates of wages of the Ameri-
can labOrer. There are two or three facts
which show c~onclusively that this argu-
ment
is NOT SOUND.
In the first place it is a conceded fact
that there is as much difference between
the rates OF wages paid in this country
TO laborers engaged in the same occupa-
ton in different parts of this country as
there is between the difference of the
average rate of wages paid here and in
European countries, and yet the same
tariff law prevails throughout the whole
of the United States. The greatest differ
ence. between the rates of wages paid
here and the rates paid in European coun-
tries is found in those occupations which
nobody pretends can be protected under
the
TARIFF LAWS.
For instance, there is a far greater differ
ence between the rates of wages paid here
to carpenters, plasterers, painters, stone
and bricklayers, teamsters, railroad m
ployes, steamboat employees and the rates
OF wages paid the same classes of work
ingmen In Europe, than there is between
the rates of wages here in vour mills and
cotton factories and the rates of wages
paid in the same industry in Europe.
The rates of wages paid in this country,
too, In unprotected industries are larger
on the average than the rates paid in this
country in
PROTECTED INDUSTRIES
and the difference been them in the one
case and those paid in Europe in the
other case is still palmer. They say, if
you reduce the duties this country will be
overwhelmed with foreign cheap goods,
and all our manufacturing and mercantile
industries will be ruined. Why, gentle.
men, if all the ships In the world we're
employed continuously in bringing goods
from Liverpool to New York it would
take them two years to bring as much as
a single railroad In this country carries in
one year. If all the Cunard vessels ply
ing between this country and EuroI can
ports were to be employed, it would re-
quire seventy five years to bring to this
country as much goods as the Pennsylva.
MIA railway carries
IN N YEAR.
And yet these gentlemen expect sensible
men to believe that q reduction of tax
alton would close up all our manufactur
ing establishments and compel the people
to rely alone upon foreign products for the
necessarIes of life. Tie proposition is
too absurd and preposterous to he argued.
We protest that the people shall have
cheaper clothing and agricultural nipple
ments before they get cheap whisky and
cheap tobacco. The Republican platform,
on the contrary, declares that they will
repeal the internal revenue system rather
than surrender any part of the protective
system.
HIGH DUTY
upon wooden goods and cotton, and upon
steel and iron, is part of their protective
system. The true meaning of the Re.
publican platform is that it will repeal the
tax on whisky, and beer, aud cigarettes.
and cheroots, but it will repeal no part of
the duty upon the articles l have men
toned. Are the people ready to endorse
that document? How many of you are
there who are in the habit of purchasing
and using in your family articles of for.
eign production the like of which are not
produced in this country? Very few.
And vet these are articles upon which the
Republican platform pledges to take off.
know that if the intelligent and hon
est men of this COUNTRY will take this
question of federal taxation unbiased BY