Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1888-10-31
TALKING TO DRUMMERS.
A BRIEF BUT TELLING SPEECH BY
GEN. HARRISON.
Nearly Three Thousand Comm erciaI Trav-
elers Call ON the Republican Candidate,
Who Talks to Them Briefly on the Sub
.ject of the Tariff.

ject of the Tariff
About 1900 commercial travellers recently
called OH Gen. Harrison, at Indianapolis. There
were no Introductory addresses Gen. Harrison
was in good voice and spoke with great earnest
ness as follows:
My friends. as you know already, 1 believe,
the commercial travellers have honored me by
calling me in large delegations. You have as
sembled to-day, not from single State or Ter
ritOry, but from many States, upon the invita-
tion of your associates of this city, to show your
Intelligent inter in the principles that are in
volved in this campaign. / do not need to re-
peat what have said on former occasions that
l highly value the respect and confidence OF the
commercial travellers of the United States. /
value it because l believe they give their adj
herence TO the party whose candidate I am
upon intelligent investigation and upon an
earnest conviction to what is good for the
country of which they citizens. Who should
be able better than you to know the commercial
and business needs Of our country? You,
whose hand is every day upon the business
pulse of the people; you who travel the country
up and down upon all the swift high
ways of commerce, and who are brought
country, not only in our great centers of COM
1nerce but in all the hanlles of the land? / be-
lieve l may say for you that a5 a result of this
personal knowledge of our business needs you
have concluded that the policy for Americans is
the policy of q protective tariff. There are,
doubtless. here many representatives of great
American manufacturing estabi Inn tents and
who should know better than they the prostrat-
ing effects upon the industries they represent Ct
this policy OF q revenue tariff or the not much
differing policy of free trade? Who shou d know
better than you that if the discriminating duties
now leyiel and which enable our American
manufacturers to maintain q fair comp stition
with the manufacturers of other count ies ard
at the same time to pay scale of living wages
to the men and women who work for them is
broken down, that American competition with
foreign production becomes impossible except
by the reduction Of the scale of American wages
to the level of the wages paid abroad?
Certainly you do not need to be told that that
OF hoe 40 QIl0ct roll
proportion to its production will take the mar
ket. Certainly you do not need to be told that
tho wages now enjoyed by our American work
men are greatly larger and the comforts they
enjoy greatly more than those enjoyed by the
work ng people of any other land Certainly
you do not need to be told that If the American
Government. instead of patroni8ing home indus
tries buys it's Blankets for the public service in
England that this is just that much less WORK
for American workmen to do.
This is to me the beginning and the end of the
tariff question. Since was old enough to have
opinions, or to utter Them have held to the
doctrine that the true American policy was that
which should maintain not only living rate of
wages, but one with @ margin for savings and
comfort for our wOrkingmen
believe that policy is essential to the pros
perity and possibly to the perpetuity of our Gov
eminent. The two propositions that now stare
our working people and our whole country in the
face are these:
Competition with foreign countries without
adequate discriminating and favoring duties
means lower wages to our working people. A
revenue tariff only, or progressive free trade,
means larger importation of foreign goods, and
that means less work in America. Let our
Democratic friends fairly meet these two indis-
putable conclusions. How do they do il? BY en-
deavoring to pervert and poison the minds of
our working people by utterly false and scandal
Gus campaign stories. Let me say in conclu-
sion that believe the managers of the Demo-
cratic campaign greatly underestimate the in
telligence, the sense of decency and the love of
fair play which prevails among our people. You
will pardon further remarks. The evening is
drawing on, and many of you, 1 am sure, have
through the streets of our city. ] cannot omit,
however, to thank my friends from Lafayette
for this beautiful flora tribute which they have
placed at my side, an emblem OF their profess
sion. I accept it gratefully, and very highly ap-
preciate it as a mark Of the confidence and
respect OF the intelligent body of my own fellow
citizens of Indianapolis.