Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1888-09-06
erzINz.s BANGOR SPEECH.


Utterancss aud Compares British and
American Savings Bank Deposits to the
Dism&y OF His Opponents = How the
Toiiers Prosper and Grow Happy Under
Protection.
Hon. Jas G. Blaine opened the Repub-
iicaI campaign at Bangor, Me-, on August
q, with fore. BILE speech on the benefits OF
protection. As he stepped on the platform
he was enthusiastically greeted by the
multitude assembled. His speech was as
follows:
FELLOW CITIZENS: In a brief speech
which l made in the city Of New York on
the day of my arrival from abroad, L re-
marked, as illustrating the superior con-
oition of laboring men in the United
States, that the Wage-workers in the
United Kingdom Of Great Britain and Ire
land did not have in the savings banks Of
tina. country as large sum to their credit
Bs did the wage workers Of the compare
lively small State of Massachusetts in the
savings banks of that State. A day or
two afterward this ponderous and most
significant fact was violently contradicted
by maRy Democratic papers. They one
AID all perverted my statement by imput-
tnS 10 me the declaration that there was a
larger aggregation of money in the savings
banks of Massachusetts than there was
IN the savings banks of the British Isles
rs | happened to know quite as well as the
gentlemen who contradicted me the exact
fgures in both cases, / was very careful in
making my statement, and l confined my
self strictly to the wageworkers in Great
Britain and Ireland, and the amount to the
credit Of the workers ia MasSachu-
sets. 1t VIII he shown by the part of
my speech in the very papers that after
ward msqu0ted it. 1t is really in that
sTeciaI feature as to deposits that the pith
OF the whole question lies. Let me now
give the figures iOr Great Britain and Ire
land, and in doing so / VIII use dollars in
stead Of pounds, 50 as to make all COM
parsons the more quickly apprehended,
and l Will give the British depositors an
advantage OF 3.per cent. in reckoning the
pound as equivalent to s..
The total amount at the close of last year
in both savings and postal banks CT the
United Kingdom was, in round numbers,
ST., 000, 00J But the whole of this sum was
by no means to the credit of the wage
workers of the kingdom Under the En-
giish law various other classes are permit
ted TO make deposits both in the savings
British publication you may learn that
persons of Independent means, profession
al men and their wives, may deposit in
these institutions; so also may policemen,
letter carriers, revenue officers, pension
ers and their wives so also may minors
having accounts in their own names; so
also may females described only as mar
Gied women, widows or spinsters;" so
also may trust accounts" be deposited,
Including all joint accounts or principally
for minors; so also may persons engaged
in education, male and female, which in
cludes professors in universities and col
Geges, principals and teachers in all other
schools. The limit for any one depositor
Is $50 per year, and the amount can not
exceed 81 600 with interest. What proper
ton the deposits of wage-worker5 bear to
the whole is not officially reported, but, as
in this country, is simply estimated. l
found in England that the amount belong
ing to actual wage-workers was variously
stated, some putting it as low as 10 per
cent. of the total deposits, while most of
those from whom l sought information put
tt at about . per cent For the sake of be-
ing just and even liberal in the compari-
sons let up estimate at 35 per cent. or more
than one-third of the total deposits, sum
equivalent to S1S2, 900, 600 belongs to actual
Wage-workers in the kingdom. This is an
estimate many millions higher than was
made me by an Englishman of whom /
made inquiry. Let US now turn to Massa-
chusetts for the other side of this COM
parison. At the close of last year the total
amount of deposits in the savings banks of
that commonwealth was more than $3l7,-
QQO, 009, and this in addition to S5S,-
0O0, 900 in trust companies and CO.
operative banks, which also receive de-
posts from wage workers, but of which
shall take no note, combining myself to the
savings banks proper, as in England there
Is no official statement as to the occupation
Of the depositors but at the treasury Of
flee of Massachusetts, it is estimated that
f5 per cent of the whole amount, or S237.-
BOO 900, belong to the wage workers of the
State. In the case of the British deposit
urs, / assigned them 10 PER cent. more than
any estimate which | received in England
So now let US reduce the estimate of the
treasury of Massachusetts by 10 per cent.
and assign only 90 per cent. to the credit
of the wage-workers of that State. and the
amount will be found to be $206, 900, go, or
S24, 000, 900 more than the amount to the
credit of the wage-workers Of the United
Kingdom. 1 beg you, gentlemen, to take
On the full force of this statement. l am
making comparison between the savings of
the wage workers of a kingdom accounted
the wealthiest of Europe, with popula-
zion of B, 900, 900 on the one hand, and on
the other hand the savings of the
Yage-workers in one Of the small
est States territorially of the Ameri-
can Union with a population at the last
census of a million and three-quar-
tiers Q,7S3,0S3), and only a little more
Perhaps than 2,0)O,0O0 to-day. The
british artisan working under q system
ri absolute free trade, the Massachusetts
workman working under a well-organized
system of prOtection-the figures have
such portentious meaning that it is no
wonder the free-trade Democratic papers
Gy from them and reject their conclusions
But they can not escape, for am willing
after vindicating as have the correctness
OF my statement, as made in New York, to
take the statement which they imputed to
me, and ask them to publish the figures
ana the comparisons which are so readily
deducted. Admit, for the argument, that
the whole sum of $520, 900 O0O in the saw
ings banks belonged to the wage workers
on the United Kingdom, and that on the
other hand the entire SS11, 0OO, 900 in the saw
tnCs banks of Massachusetts belong to the
wag workers of that State.
What, then, is the inferencel That tie
wage workers among $500, 900 Of people
have saved the one sum, while the wage
workers Smong 2,0OO010 people have saved
the other; or. that nineteen wage-workers
in England have saved 500, while one
wage-worker in Massachusetts has saved
Sl5S. 20, or that one wage-worker in Massa-
chusetts has saved as much as twelve
wage-workers in England. But 1 antici-
pate tho fling from the Democratic editors
that these startling statistics are in Mas
sachusetts, and that she has always been