West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1888-10-26
THE SPEECH OF LUCAS.


on the 18th of September, was not
made six months ago, and distribut-
ed over the State. 1t is the best
speech We have yet either read or
heard this campaign.
Mr.. Lucas calls attention to the
fact that, as Presidential Elector in
1872, he earnestly urged the neces-
sity of reforming the tariff and that
his views then expressed are those
expressed by Cleveland. In other
words, the President has raised the
issue Mr.. Lucas tried to raise some
sixteen years ago. He says;
Il have enforced these views from
that day to this in spite of the oppo-
sition of our so called Democratic
leaders in West Virginia and have
never hesitated in season and out OF
season to preach the gospel of a
REVENUE LIMITED Tariff. On
the other hand, our assumed Demo
cratic leaders up to the date of Mr..
Cleveland's message last December
have ueen avowed protectionists.
They have had no sympathy with
Hurd. Morrison or Carlisle, but have
sympathized with Brown of Georgia,
Converse of Ohio, Randall of Pa. and
German of Nd. At the St. Louis
Convention, they instigated our del
egation to vote for German against
Watterson as Chairman Of the
Committee on Resolutions, and if
their policy had prevailed, the Ma
tional Platform would have been 4
tissue of anything town platitudes
susceptible of as many interpreta-
tions as the exigencies of the aver
agedemagogue mightsuggest.
The farmer pays 800 for agricul-
tural implements and gets S55 worth
of machinery and pays $40 tariff
tax. Hepays 81 for barrel of salt
and gets GA cents in salt and pays
So cents in protection. When he
complains of this enormous tax,
some old fashioned demagogue, with
a mouth like a blast-furnace, informs
him that he has been furnished with
q home market for his productions.
The logic of this answer is rs fol-
lows: The protectionlst says
"You give me J Of your crop IN or
der that 1 may be rich enough to
pay you good price .for the other
half" The lunatic asylums are
full of just such logicians.
1 hold in my hand a little pam
phlet published by wheat specula-
tors in Chicago. Itread one sen
tence:-"It is safer to speculate in
grain after it is grown than to throw
good wheat on the ground and take
the chances of making crop"
This pamphlet gives me the price
of wheat from '76 to SO; taking the
average, / find q gradual decline
from $1.04k in '76 to II cents in $50.
This decline of 81 cents bushel is
the difference between prosperity
and bankruptcy. During this de-
cade farmers were paying At per
cent of their crops to protected man
ufacturers, and where was our HOME
MARKET? Mr.. Lucas then called at
tention to the fact that the price in
Chicago was regulated by the price
in England. He next quoted from
a publication by the National Far
mers' Alliance, that in Illinois from
z to : of all the farms were mort
gagged, and that the crops of the
last five years have not paid the cost
of production. He next makes the
instructive statement, that the total
wealth of Jefferson County declined
from $S,000,000 in 1870 to $6,0OO,-
900 in 1880; and says, that this
agricultural depression will continue
to grow worse until the War tariff
is reduced. 4 The ar
gument used to seduce the laborer
into voting for protection is exactly
the same in fallacious character as
that addressed to the farmer: the
manufacturer says to Labor,-Pay
me an enormous and compulsory
bounty upon all you buy from me,
and when grow rich, | shall be able
to increase your wages. Protect me
from foreign competition in my bus
mess but leave the gates of emigrant
and imported labor wide open, and
/ will erect great factories in which
you can work" 1fthis sort ofargu-
ment were addressed to fools, it
would be amusing; but when adj
dressed to grown men, it is adding
insult to injury
Touching coal he says: In the
47th Congress. our Senators left
their party to vote with the Repub-
licans, to raise the duty on coal; an
industry in which they were both
personally interested. This increas-
ed duty on coal was the considera-
ton of an increase of duties all along
the line, and could not be of any
possible benefit to laborers except
those engaged in coal mining which
embraced an 1-29th of the laborers
in this State. 1t did not benefit them.
1t increased the profits on coal. but
these profits went mainly into Tie
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