Morning journal and courier., 1888-02-07
Fiftieth Congress-.First Session.
RESTRICTION. Feb.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 6.
 ] SENATE-Mr. Hoar from the select con-
 mittee on the celebration of the centennial
 of the constitution reported joint resoiu-
 tion providing, Gin addition to such other celebration as may hereafter be provided
 for" that the two houses of Congress shall
 meet in the hall of the House of Represents I lives; that the chief justice of the United l States shall deliver an oration, and that the l President of the United States, the justices of the Supreme court, the members of the Cabinet, the executives of the several 1 States and territories, and such other persons as may hereafter be determined upon, shall be invited to attend. After some debate the resolution was adopted.
 1 MT. r.Sawyer called up and the Senate passed l the bill to amend the postal laws so newspa- 1 pers now sent free of postage to persons re- siding within the county of publication may be sent to persons living in ether counties when they receive them at postof6ces within ! the county of publication.
 The educational bill having been laid be- ! fore the Senate was temporarily laid aside at ! the request of MT. Platt, who proceeded to address the Senate upon the Presidents mes- sage MT. Platt pronounced the President a free trader and said that he had made free trade versus protection the issue of the next presidential campaign. The Republicans welcomed square issue in which the Demo- crats looking South could not wear a free trade face while looking toward New York, Connecticut and New Jersey they wore a protection mask. Eight weeks had passed
 since Congress assembled and the exultation or the Democrats over the message was some
 what tempered by sadness. A few protection
 Democrats after the trst gush of admiration
 for the President had begun to realize that
 something had hit them. They did not
 know exactly what it WAS. There was no
 doubt as to what the President would be un-
 oerstood to mean in the southern and west
 StQtRa " f0
 to convince Democrat preteotionists in New
 York ,NewJers andConnecticut that after all
 the Presidents message was not 8 free trade
 message, but pretty good protection doeu-
 ment. The Presidents argument was aimed
 not at irregularities, not at inequalities, but at what the President assumed 10 be a pro- tective tax, and it WAS that which was to be stricken down. MT. Platt challenged any of the thirty-six Democratic senators to rise in his place and say that the President of the United States was in his judgment protec- tionist. They dared not go to the country on any such issue. The President had re- ferred to the import duties as being a scheme for the benefit of manufacturers. The pro- tectionists denied it, and they insisted that whenever duty was laid which protected the American manufacturer competition among home producers always had brought down and always would bring down the 1 price of the domestic article to the price of the foreign article less the duty. The speaker then introduced figures to show l that calico could be bought at retail here for less than half the amount of duty paid per yard that steel rails had been sold for $28. 50 ton, which made the price, minus the duty l of $17, $11. 50 ton, while street rails could | not be bought abroad for double that price, I and that blankets, cotton goods and wpolen l clothing were as cheap in this country as any l where, while articles of women's wear were | superior in workmanship and cheaper in | Yario iO fho Tai all The truth was that everybody except the l dude and the millionaire could be clothed l cheaper in this country than England, and l woolen clothing, too, and he took 1t for I granted that the Senate was not particularly | anxious to legislate for the benefit of the 1 dude end the millionaire. He repeated that l there was not one article of domestic produc ! ton (manufactured here to considerable l extent that was not approximately l as cheap as it was abroad. l Mir Platt said those who were seeking to de- l stroy the protective tariff should not delude 1 themselves with the idea that they were aim l ing their blows against New England. The | New England manufacturer was the man l who had the least interest in the preservation | of the protective system. If he were to name | the order in which the different classes of l people were interested in the maintenance of | protective tariff he would say first the labor- l CTS everywhere. The blow would hit them | first. That might as we'll be understood and | the laborers were coming to understand it all | over the land. First the artisans, the men | in the factories; next the agri- l euIturists, the men who worked on the farm, who followed the plough; next those engaged | in manufactures in other sections of the ! country where the industries might indeed be | called 'sinfant industries," next those en- l gagged in transportation, next those engaged l in merchandise, and last and least the l of New England. As l to putting raw materials .(such as | wool, iron and ceaD on the free l list he declared that the manufacturers of | New England, as a class, "spurned that l bribe" and he quoted from letter by ex- Governor Bigelow, of Connecticut, in cor rection of an interview published on that | subject in the New York Times and remark l ed that he was informed oa good authority l that the correspondent who was sent to get l up these interviews was an ernploye of the | general government. He declared (with | full understanding of what he said) that | either the President in his message intended | free trade or else he was not dealing fairly | with the people.
 Without finishing his speech MT. Platt at | 4:30 yielded to motion by MT. Manderson l to proceed to executive business
 The Senate at 5:30 adjourned.
 cL.