St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-01-22
Henry Watterson in a Ring
ing Speech Defends the
Presidents Policy.
He Charaeterizes the Presi-
dent as a Puzzle to the
Politicians,
And a Complete Contradic-
ton to All Past EX-
pepiences.
His Words Remove All OBJ
StructiOn From the March
Of Reform.

NEW YORK, Jan. 21.-The Tariff Re-
form club gave dinner tonight to $50
guests, at the Metropolitan opera house
After the dinner half score of the
guests discussed the issues of tariff re-
form. Anson Phelps Stokes presided.
The speakers were Hon.W. G. p. Breck-
enridge, of Kentucky; Hon. Melbourne
III. Ford, of Michigan: Hon. Henry Wat
terson, of Kentucky; Hon. M. ID. Har
ter, eof Ohio, and a number of local
speakers. President Stokes was the
first speaker. He said that never before
had the people shown such a general
and intelligent interest in the discus
sion of economic questions. The great
presidential election of this year
turned upon tariff reform. The large
surplus in the treasury had alarmed all
honest people. The wise, prudent,
practical, patriotic message had sounded
the note of warning. The coal miners
in Pennsylvania, the wool manufactur
erS of England, the farmers in the South
and West had come to doubts at least the
advantages of protection. The Tariff
Reform club welcomed tariff refOrmerS
generally, including those who would
lessen the duty on single raw material
and those who would lift some tariff
burdens from consumers, those who
would do away with protection and those
who would abolish all custom houses.
After several speakers had made an
earnest Endorsement of the president
and his tariff policy, Hon. Henry Wat
terSon spoke as follows:
l rise with diffidence and trepidatiOn.
Somehow the impression has been con-
veyed to me that | am expected to stir
your enthusiasm by a great array of
statistical information and to amuse
you with a facetioi.5 and florid burst OF
figures, not of speech, but of schedules
and classification. In these lines of the
rhetoric art, believe me, | am power
less. My mission is to deal with mat
ters of fact and to tackle truth. The
platform and the outlook. The platform
is the message the presidents message.
The outlook is most encouraging. Con-
sidering how the painted harlot of pro-
lection is WhiStlng to keep her, courage
up, as She stalks across the graveyard
OF. false vows and broken promises. she
has made-mainly tOithe work people
! should call it assured. For more than
year my fear has been that we might
not be able, in advance of our national
convention, to close the ranks and move
in solid column against the enemy on
distinct lines of our own deliberate
choosing, and as | believe that nothing
clears the political atmosphere like
PLAZA speaking right out in meeting,
have given the administration and the
country the best the shop has afforded in
the way of disagreeable persistency and
the sincerest candOr. 1t was obvious to
my mind that unless we could agree in
congress we should not agree in con-
yention. The tariff plank in the last
national Democratic platform was not
intended for a stradde, because, al
though the platform committee had
been adrOitly packed in the Interest of
protection, the revenue refOrmerS were
still strong enOu:.l to hold their ground
and to carry all their points. But it
was made to seem a straddle. Hence,
nothing short of declaration, which
might not bear two constructions, would
satisfy the demand of reform in the
next national platform, and any one
could see that this could not be OBJ
tanned without a fight, and possibly, a
split. Just in the nick of time, the
PRESIDENT CAME TO THE RESCUE
with the wisdom of an impetuOuS cour
age. and the craft of common sense
deriving its strength from its integrity,
this brave and honest man-thiS puzzle
to the politicians and contradiction of
all eXperience-witha a single stroke of
his pen did what might for years have
baff1ed the efforts of the greatest states
men and philosophers. By that act he
has reversed the situation from one of
cOwardly indecisiOn to one of enthus-
iasm and confidence. He has forced
the enemy back behind his earthwOrkS
and warned stragglerS to come into
camp. Upon the lines of that message
! would rather be beaten than win
1rnnp thncn nf lvinp cnbStifntp
But we shall not be beaten. The presi-
dents words are preSages of victory.
They remove all obstruction from our
march OF progress and reform. They
lead out of the bushes and into the
highway. An honest Democrat may
now hold up his head, look the world
in the face and call his soul his own
without q furtive side glance at the Re
publicans. / believe in clearly defined
political difference, stub5Ornly and
honestly maintained upon the open
field OF party combat, and loving no
man less because he does. mot agree with
him most who lets Il dare not wait
upon would and possesses neither the
candOr nor the courage of his convIc-
tions. But a thousand purposes are
ascribed by the protectiOnists to the
party of revenue reform which never
crosses the mind of any responsible
revenue reformer. These we may now
disavow.
THE POLICY OF EVASION
and repression is to be succeeded by
policy affair and free discussion. 1t is
this the Republicans have courted, and
which they affect to be nightly pleased
with. Let US in the coming battle give
them their belly full of it. Let the
good people of the East go as we have
gone to the people of the West and
South with the truth. The period of
agitation has passed. Thanks to the
president, we have the ear of the ma
tion. The period of affirmation and con-
StructiOn is upon us: and its vocal Or
ganS are not those of exclamation, but
of practical business. When we
seek to arrest the attention
of friend acress the street we elevate
the voice; when we have him face to
face we proceed in a lower tone to tell
him why we stopped him and what we
want. So it is with the movement for
revenue reform. Its friends have for
years sought by agitation to direct the
interest of thinking men to the evils of
the tax system, full of inequality and
false pretention. They have sud 0eded;
and now they are prepared to apply
definite measures and methods of re-
form to the disorder. But these are no.
/ wise precipitate or extreme. They
contemplate no revolution. They pro-
pose at one and the same time to reduce
both taxation and revenue and to effect
this on the lines laid down SO admirably
by the president in his message, and
HOW ARE WE MET