The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1888-09-27

nOpUlleS, L DefevC Ju1L WHICH udH du> |
tends his own funeral he ought to be al
lowed to 70 at the head Of the procession.
Laughter and applause.l But it seems
Mr.. Harrison is not to enjoy this privilege
lApplause.J Mr. Blaine is the great Gen.
traI figure in this campaign, and he tells
the people, in the face Of the platform Of
his party In the face of the declarations Of
his political friends on the stump and
neighbors, that these trusts are pri-
vate affairs in which neither the
President nor anybody else has any par
ticular right to interfere. fApplause and
laughter Why, my friends, larceny is
private affair-a very private affair
flaughtcrl; q nd yet it is not supposed i'm
proper to interfere with it by law. The
highwayman who meets you on the public
road and demands yonr money or your
iifo IL engaged in the transact on Of o pri-
vate enterprise, but still the law takes
cognizance Of his act and Furnishes it as a
crime. TApplause.l Now, gentlemen, Mr..
Blaine has not been occupying q very good
position from which to view the interests
Of the American working men, farmer or
consumer. The top of Mr.. Carnegie's
coach, ~ ii bowled along with its liveried
ongriders over the hills Of Scotland, is not
good place from which to look at the
interests Of America Applause Nor
are the festal halls of Cluny Castle very
good point. either. Applause.
Mr.. Blaine had better stay at home or
stay abroad-one or the other. Cheers.
Had he come here to his own country
and mingled with the farmers, with the
consumers, with the laboring- men Of the
land, he would have far better opportu-
nifty to know what they desired than he
could possibly have dining and wining
with the aristocracy Of Europe
1t is said, gentlemen, that even il it does
impose enormous burdens on the con-
sumers of the country the wages Of our
laborers must be maintained, therefore
high rates Of taxation must be continued.
II had the time l think could show to
the satisfaction Of every intelligent and
candid man within the sound OF my voice
that the wages Of labor are no more
affected by the rates OF duties upon i'm
ported goods than the yield Of corn to the
acre on your farm is affected BY it. Zap
p!ause And one Of the chief bene-
fits of the system, in the cstima-
tion Of Mr. Harrison, is the fact
that the people do not know how
much they are paying. When mans
money is taken away from him without
his knowledge, some malicious people call
it stealing Applause. l will not, how
ever, apply that term to the processes BY
which the Government Of the United
| States abstracts this enormous sum of
money from the pockets of the people who
| earn it and puts it in the public Treasury
| or the pockets Of some one e,se. but Twill
say that it Is the most dangerous form OF
taxation that could be devised [cheersl, be-
cause it makes the people less vigilant Of
the expenditures OF the public money and
lulls them to sleep while their substance
is taken away IApplause.l Under an indi-
rect tax law you would not submit to it a
| single day. and the man who went to Con-
gress from any single Congressional dis
trct of the United States, Democrat or
Republican, who failed to cast his vote in
favor of the reformation Of such system
of taxation volld never see the halls OF
the House again Cheers.l
have said, gentlemen, that the system
of taxation is continued on the ground
| that it increases the rates of wages of the
/ American laborer. There are two or three
facts which show conclusivcly that this
argument is not sound. In the first place,
it is a conceded fact that there is as much
| difference between the rates of wages
paid in this country to laborers engaged in
the same occupation in different parts of
the country rs there is between the dif1er-
ence Of the average rate of wages paid
here and in European countries, and yet
the same tariff law prevails throughout
the whole United States fApplause.
You will hnd Dy an examination OF the
labor stat sites that from fifty to sixty,
and in some cases even as high as one hun
drcd per cent more is paid for labor in
the same occupation in Chicago than il
paid in New York or Philadelphia. II the
ari tnA I onh.,.if that fhr
rate Of wages would be the same, would
be uniform in the same occupations
throughout the United States under the
same tariff. Applause.l Another fact il
that the greatest difference between the
rates of wages paid here and the rates
paid in European countries is found
in those occupations which nobody
pretcnds can be protected under tho
tariff laws. For instance. there is ;
far greater difference between the rates oil
wages paid here to carpenters, plasterers
painters, stone and brick-masons, team
sters, railroad employees, steamboat cm
ployes and the rates of wages paid to tht
same classes Of working-men in Europe thar
there is between the rates of wages herr
in your mills and cotton factories and tn,
rates Of wages paid in the same indus
tries in Europe. The rates Of wage.
| pdlu ln tHto GouutIys too, oA Viz uHpAo y
tected industries are larger on the averag
than the rates of wages paid in this coun
try in the protected industries, and th
. difference between them in the one case
and those paid in Europe in the other case
is still plainer-much palmer. Anothe
fact Is that since 1876 when the Englisl
corn laws were repealed, and what on
Republican friends call free trade, and En-
gland entered on free trade, the rates o
wages have increased from fifty :
seventy five anl even as high as one hun
dred per cent. in some occupations. Cal
we trace that increase in this country dur
ing the same times Another fact is tha
I the rates of wages in the mechanical an,
manufacturing industries of the Unite,
States increased far more during what i
called the frec-tradc period, from 1870
, 1869, than they have ever since that time
| fCheers.
simply state these facts without goin
into argument to prove them. | can prt
) duce abundant and overwhelming test
mony from laboring men, from manufac,
urers, from testimony given before invcs
tigating committees in the House to prov
> the truth of every statement have mad
upon this subject. [Applause.l But the
t say if you reduce these duties this countr
will be overwhelmed with foreign chca
goods, and all our manufacturing and mt
} chanical industries will be ruined. VIII,
, gentlemen, If all the ships in the worl
. were employed continuously in bringin
goods from Liverpool to New York,
would take them two years to bring AS muc
! as single railroad in this country carrie
r in one year. II all the Cunard vessel
plying between Boston and New Yor
!, and European ports were to be employed
. it would require them seventy-five yea,
, | to bring to this country as much goods a
the Pennsylvania railway carries in on
, year. IApplanse And yet these gentl,
men expect y sensible man to believe thi
t reduction of the taxation on the peopl
0 will close up all our manufacturing estat
; lishments and compel people to rely alon
upon foreign products for the necessar.t
l of life. The proposition is too absurd an
: | prepostcrous to be argued From 1850
i. 1860, when we had our tariff, our mani
. featuring and mechanical industries pro
: pered as never before, and not only tina
: but the great agricultural interests of tt
5 country, which we all know is the onl