The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1888-06-21
Maine Industries and the Mills Bill.
EXTRACTS FROM THE SPEECH OF HON. S.
MILLIKEN.


| and honest means the prosperity of the farmer
and workingman. First, because l have been
| both, and know how to sympathize with them;
and secondly, because regard the farmers as
| the great conservative element of our people,
| and because the workingman is he whose
| strong arms and sturdy will turn our crude re-
sources into materials for the comfort and hap
| piness of mankind. But the professional farm
| er and labOrer he who with hands as soft
kittens ear, never having done days manual
| labor in his life, and who knows not enough
| about farming to set a hen. who goes about
| giving US theories upon labor and shouting his
| love for the workingman and farmer from the
| hou>e-tGp, is not character that inspires my
confidence or commands my respect.
OUR HOME MARKET.
The farmer wants the best market for his
| produce and the workingman wants the same
for his toll. They have it now at home but
whatever gives away the American market to
the foreigner, as free trade proposes to do. Is
| inimica TO both farmer and tocr, and to every
| producer of whatever pursuit in the land.
| Yes. our home market is the best in the
world the best for the farmer, because he sells
| in it TO those whose earnings enable them to
| pay him the most for his products: the best for
| the laborer. because he works for those whose
profits enable them to pay him the most for his
toll the best for the manufacturer. because he
| therein sells his goods to 4 more thrifty nation
| of consumers than can anywhere else be found.
| This home market with all its unrvalletl ai-
vantageS the Democratic frec-traterS propose
| to open and share with all the producers upon
| the globe who choose to come to it to sell their
pauper-made goods. And will they not come
| to it? Aye, they are looking through and over
our fence Of protection to it as eagerly rs hum
| CRY lockS and herds ever looked from barren
| pasture lands into fields Of rich bluegrass and
| clover.
! The prDtectonstS say that these rich fields
are our pwn; that their fertile acres are for
our own people, those who live under our flag
| fight our battles pay our taxes. develop our re-
| sources. enhance our industries, and contribute
| to the greatness and glory Of cur country. We
say to the honest and industrious foreigner
''lou may come in through the gate and enjoy
with us. but you shall rot reach oNrror through
and gather our substance while Nou remain on
the other side of the fence. :ndarc neither with
| Us nor of us nor for us.
The Democratic free-tra,er says, OH the eth
! er hand, i costs something in the way Of taxes
to keep up This fence, and " hilc we arc al i,pr-
| Gifted hy the endowment of our Great advnnt-
| ages not all benefited alike. Some who
| are more industrious than others get more than
an equal share of these blessings: therefore we
| will throw down the fence and let all the world
reach iii and de>poil our fair fields of prosperity,
OUR CARRYING TRADE.
And gentlemen who have for years refused
| to vote even the smallest subsidies to our ship
| ping have the temcrity to say that protection
has demolished our carrying trade. somebody
the other day quoted James Russell Lowell
|
good authority i'll New England. lie began
| life pretty we'll. but, as George Francis Train
once said of Lord Brougham. ''lle has been Il
| sort of cucumber poiticiar-he-t when he was
green He has become . galvanized witt
| the notions of Old England that New England
| can hardly recognize that he is one of her sons,
and is beginning to be >orry for The fact that
| he is.
| 1t is not the tariff that has affected our carry
| iny trade un1avorablv. Its decline began in
| L.4fn he lIrI i,s
| ed. Afterwards, from 1851 to 1850. our ships
| were swept off the ocean by Democratic cruis-
ers of English build, and Democratic hostility
| to protective legislation for our foreign carry
| ing trade has completed its ruin. Our domes-
tic CARRYING trade, which has had the benefit of
| protection is in Il fairly touri>hing condition..
| But even that our Free Trade Democracy wish
| to surrender to the foreigner.
| Gentlemen tell us that great cry comes up
| from the people for ii. And whom DO they call
| the people: Why, certain Free Trade news-
papers. members of the Golden Club. college
doctrnairc>. and Democratic politicians. But
| what of the knights of Labor? Have they been
| at the doors Of the Capitol urging ihe passage
| of the Mills bill, that great work of the great
| est committee of the House? No. On the con-
trary, their protests against it have been many
| and loud. What of the merchants, ana work
| ingmcn, and farmers and all the men who earn
| their bread in the sweat of their faces: W here
are their petitions: In the petition-boNe>. pre-
| scning Il picture of the disaster which they
| believe this bill will work.
a few men anxious to surrender our mar
kctS rs they are to give up our shipyardS. our
| fisheries, and our manufacturers to foreign pos
| session. and Il few British inspired news papers,
| and flood of circulars from the Golden Club
make great noise, and it is called the voice of
the people. They will hear the ,oice Of the
| people, tie real living. actual people of this
country. if this bill shall pass, when the work
| ing man, deprived of labor, or >horn in the rate
of his wages; when the farmer. seeing the de
| parturc of his home market; when the manu-
facturer. looking upon his uncnantcd mills;
| when the merchant, realizing in diminished re-
turns for his goods. the pinching poverty Of
| his customers. shall let their ballots speak at
| the polls.
| Their petitions are here now. They have
| come up from the workingmcn in almost every
industry in the country. but they have been I'M
| needed by the maj aoriIy of the Ways and Meal $
| Committee. and they are not such Workingmcn
as Henry George; not the theoretical working
men: not they who swell up and cry out,
| "Look at me; biz lnjun workinginan; work
insmen's great friend and advocate hui prac-
teal worknen who put their hands to labor.
who do work and not talk it simply, and who
know from the best Of all teachers, hard cX
| perience, what the workinwman'S interest is.
And they do know it better than any frcc-trade
thcori>t or college dortrnairc can tel them.
| They have, many of them, known enough to
come to this protected land of plenty, and
those VINO knew not before are fast learning
w
they had none in the lands they came from,
what gives them comfort and education for
their children here while they had none there.
They know ii is not frcc-rade Democracy.
which, while with loud speech pretending to
be the labOring mans friend, has for genera
tions held him down under the heel Of absolute
despotiSm in one section of the country and de
luded him with specious promises and pretcn-
sons in the other, but that great Republican
party which broke the shackles of bound and
| fn ed la n he tpun m tlip
wall of protection to it al! over the country;
which has never bought and sold the man and
woman who toll in any land. and will not con-
sent that they shall be pro>tracd and swept
down by ,lcuge of cheap products Of pauper
labor from Europe now.
| That party which gave to the poor people of
the country the homestead law; TO the freed
man schools and the ballot and has fought al
ways, as now. to give high wages and the
means of intelligence to those who toll and TO
their children, that is the party which has been
the friend in fact, and not simply in speech, of
the workin.man, which recognizes labor as
the magician that. with the wand of toll, touches
our country'S resources and summons them
forth in forms Of usefulness and beauty; which
sees in the thrift of the laborer the prosperity
and progress the people, and which has treat
ed him with respect never deSpi>in% nor OPP
pressing him at any period of our history in
any section of our land.
WHO SUPPORT THIS BILL:
| W no are Tue supporters Ol tHiS Dli: Ilt
men who Il few years since did not believe iii
the Republic and do not believe in projecting
its industries now; they who wrote III Il new
constitution of new Confederacy which they
attempted to set up within the domain of the
Union these words: Nor shall any duties or
taxes on importatioDs from foreign nations
be laid to promote or foster any branch of in
dustry." These men dominate the Democracy
to-day as they did prior to the war. They
were then and are now recognized in England
and here as free traders; they are now. a>
then, the American pets OF the British free
trade aristocracv. They and their Northern
followers constitute the present Democratic
party, and they support this bill for the des-
truction of American industries as they did
the measures taken for the destruction of the
American Union Twenty-Five years ago; and
confidently predict that their present project
will fail as completely and fortunately for the
country as did their former one
| Let it be admitted, if you please, that they
were honest in their undertaking then, but the
conflict which it precpitated was none the less
terrible for that; and their success. had they
been victorious. would have produced con-
sequences no less disastrous If they be honest
in their present purpose they are no less delud-
ell now than then; they no less fail to COM
prehend the right and wrong of the situation; :;
and their success, could they achieve it, would
bring ruin hardly less complete to the nation.
Secession and free trade were born of the
same parentage and reared in the same school.
The one has had its day and died, smothered in
! ho hIooI II pauSaI to How and anil the thrOes