Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-05-21

- GS AS spoke to a crowded
"rOM" RFFD house, n number of
senator's being present on the floor ana the
galleries being crowded. Reed began the
business with brief comment on the I'M
portance of the subject at issue and then en-
tered into an argument TO show that If the
supporters of the Mills bill were honest they
should have "gone the whole hog" and pro
posed to wipe out all the tariff In this
branch of his argument he quoted the presl-
dent aud others on the side of revenue reform
10 the effect that a protective tariff was rob
berry that had taken about 81, 900, 600 accord
ing to Reeds figures from all the other citi-
zens TO give to the protected class, and he de
clared that the Mills bill was simply com
pounding felony, in that it only reduced
this robbery Z per cent. This part of his
speech is well illustrated by the following ok
tract:
In the face of duty TO free the people from this
iron yoke you gentlemen stand higgling about
the amount of the tribute. Instead Of 81 for
every hundred they proposed to give $40 of the
peoples money and throw into the trade the
markets Of tho world. II it tribute, he bold
and sweep 1t away Why did they hesitatey Was
it because they dared not be- caught lowering the
wages of the laborng men who have votes? Have
the courage of your leaders, convictions-for has
not the gentleman from Texas, godfather of this
bill, who has promised to bring IL up in the nur-
claimed to the open day that tariffs have nothing
to do with wagesy
Reed then spoke of the necessity of divers
ity of industries and declared that II protec-
tive tariff produced that diversity, and then
proceeded as follows:
Which is the richest, Europe American We
are all agreed on that. We say America because
our eyes behold it. You say SO because your eyes
behold it. and you S1,OOoOOO,OO0 wasted be-
sides. What do you mean TO doy will tell you
what mean to do, We mean to keep this
wealth here We mean TO do it even if we build a
Chinese wall of tariff taxes around this country.
Which is II better for farmer to do-send his
surplus wheat 1000 miles to the seacoast, 5000
miles across the water, pay the freight sell it to
the mechanic who gets less wages, or sell 1t fright
here at home to the mechanic who gets more
wagess The answer seems obvious. Mr. Frank
Hurd the melodious child Of free trade, is now
traversing this country founding great Grafton
on this convincing argument: III u labOrer with
So in his pocket won in a day in protectonist
America can buy in Liverpool for 81 what he
wants and you make him pay So to the Rhode
Island manufacturers, don't you cheat him every
day out of half of his payr' Dear, departed
friend first great martyr in this great cause, why
not put 1t the other wayr If poor laboring man
in free trade America, without cent in his
pocket and perhaps pocket In his trousers,
should find out that things cost the SAME In
Rhode Island and Liverpool, would the happiness
he would undoubtedly feel be anything more than
an intellectual delight?
The great folly Of this most taking free trade
argument Is the reasoning from the individual to
the nation. II you should suspend the tariff laws
for single man, he could without doubt, buy
in Liverpool for bushe of wheat what in New
York costs u bushel and peck. But would it not
be the same If the laws suspended as to allr
By manner of means. Oh no. tariffs have
nothing to do with wages. 1t is coal and steam
and machinery. But what set up the machineryf
What caused the cotton factory to be builtr Why,
the tariff. So then the tariff created the mill,
set up the machinery, the machinery increased
the wages but the tariff did not Is not that very
much like saying your father was your proEenitor
but your grandfather wasn't. How could you
improve machinery you didn't have? How could
you increase the efficiency Of machinery that
didn't existr
1 suppose that during the ten years last past I
have listened in this hall to more idiotc raving,
more pestiferous rant on the subject of monopoly
than all the others put together. And yet, out
side the patent office, there are no monopolies in
the country and there never can be. An but
what is that see the far horizons edge, with
tongue of flame and eye of fire, serpentheaded
and griffin -clawed2 Surely 1t must be the great
new chimera Trust" Quick cries every masked
member of the ways and means. Quick let us
lower the tariff. Let call in the British. Let
them save our devastated homes. Courage, dear
brethren Be not too much disturbed, The Lord
will reign even If the board of mayor and alder.
men should adjourn. Call in the British When
rom a dozen of its own citizens without aid from
the sea, hope to be buried 1000 leagues I'M
der some respectable and permanent mountain
range. What unreasonable talk this is. a dozen |
men fix the prices for 100000 freemenl They |
can never do it. There is power on earth that |
can raise the price of any necessity of life above
Just price and keep 1t there More than that, if |
the price Is raised and maintained, even for |
short while, It means ruin for the combination and
still lower prices for consumers. That is one of |
l,,,.e IN,A, for oh,
pared with one of your laws of congress it is a
eviathan to a clam.
But If the revenue reform orator on the mono
poly is terrible like an army with banners, there
S a theme on which he can take up the notes of
he dying swan. How we do love to hear him on
he Impoverished farmer Then he is not sub
ime but he is patheticaly great heard him
irst ten years ago. To Inc, Innocent, untraveled,
I seemed as If the western farmer was the most
voc begone, downtrodden, uckleSSS unsuccessful,
iispirited devil on the face of the earth. The
eastern vampire had mortgaged his farm and
thrown down his fences and scattered his sub
stance watonly to the wind In the fulness of
line | travelled west myself You may well i'm. |
Agine my establishment, who had never ten
scres together in corn, to behold fields of that
great staple stretching way ont to the horizons
,dge, to see tracts of land which seemed to have
10 boundaries but the visible sky; land SO rich
hat If we had an acre of it in Maine we would
AVE sold 1t by the bushel while ON every side
we're the great brick houses. such as only the
quire lived in in our villages After some days
4 this became sulky. l said; Gentlemen, OF
curse we have robbed you; your congressman
would not lie about trifes like that. But what
ise1lsts me is that did not do It more thor
'oghly. The cleaning looks bigger than the har
est" Then they confided TO me that the western
,ngressmen were great orators, and did this for t
ractice. Since then l have not been SO much
owed by 1t.
Here is another unsolicited gun called 'The
iarkets Of the world" The markets of the
GRID! Where is the best market in the worldr | ,
here the people have the most money to spend ,
here have the people the most money to spendr
light here in the United States of Amer
after twenty-seven years OF protec-
onist rule. And you are asked to give !
? such market for the markets OF the d
oridl Once there was a dog. He was nice J
tile dog. Nothing the matter with him except a I
w foolish free trade ideas in his head. He was q
citing along as happy the day, for he had in :
S mouth nice shoulder of succulent mutton ,,
and by he came to a stream bridged by
ahk- He trotted along, and looking over the 5
ds or the plank he saw the markets Of the |
ORD He OWED for them. A minute after he [
as crawling up the bank the wettest the sick |
u the nastiest the most muttonless dog that =
Ter swan ashore.
10 hear these Electricians declainn you would =
laglne the markets of the world a vast vacuum
aiting TIL now for American goods to break
rough. rush in and fill the yearning void. viii Il
II goods go to Austria, TO Italy Germany, Rus r
a or France! Around all these benighted 8
'untr1es are the Chinese walls of tariff taxes | h
ritain herself is protected by vast capital &C !;
lmulated through ages, the spoils of her own
I'd other lands, by trade system as powerful as
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