Evening journal., 1888-05-29

fort and their political future.
The speech Mr.. Scott made in advo-
cacy Of ahe Mills bill was the admins
tration's defence of The measure on
which it means TO stake the future Of
the party. Mrs. Clevelond was in the
Speakers gallery the Cabinet was
represented in the audience. IL WAS
felt that the party must put its best
foot foremost in honor of the occasion.
9 Mr.. Cleveland spoke TO the House to-
day on the tariff question. W. i,
Scott, Of Pennsylvania, his personal
representative on all political ques
tions, was the instrument through
which he talked. 10 was queer
spectacle TO sae the President
talking tariff reform through
Western Pennsylvania coal
baron. Scott's speech was really a
supplement to the Presidents mes
ssge, though five times rs long. 1t
wac revised at the White House in
advance OF delivery. and it is said that
copies were mailed by order OF the
President to various Democratic and
Mugwump organs"
Mr.. Scott is very able man at the
business of making money. BE has
the talents, not Of high order. which
tend to acquisitiveneas in trade. He
shares, however, in the rather preva-
lent idea that these are talents of the
highest order, and that the man who
has millions of money is the best en-
titled to have an opinion upon all
things in heaven and earth. The news
paper correspondent who wrote from
Washington that Mr.. Randall must be
a low down, no account sort Of
fellow, as he had nothing but his
salary to live on, gave voice to this
feeling. Mr.. Scott might have sug-
geated the correspcndents statement,
for he has lofty conceit of the evil
dence OF first rate ability be has shown
in making himself rich man. His
own speech was full OF it. and when
he taunted Mr.. Brumm of bis own
state with not having had the talent to
grow rich, the world was put in pos
session of Mr. Scott's standard and
test Of social and political worth. He
ought TO re member Dean Swift's ga, =
ng that Providence expresses its
opinion Of riches by the people on
whom It bestows them
The Erie millionaire has but one
good quality as a speaker: He has
plenty of adjectives, These are the
feminine element of speech rather than
the masculiae; and when Mr.. Scott
called Mr. Randall's speech "a mis-be-
gotten, i'll shaped, ,portentious, unjusti.
fable monster" there would have been
a slightly hysterical sob to bring that
sentence to a close. When we turn
from this to the other elements in the
speech we are forced to regret that he
+, did not get some free trade "expert"
to write a speech for him, as Mr.. Mills
is said to have done. It always is sat
isfactory to find an adversary saying
something which is in the line Of fact
and argument, even when the facts"
are inaccurate and the argument awry.
II wrenches ones system to have to
kick at nothing. And nothing but
stale commonplaces make up
the burden Of the "coal baron's'
speech, with abundant assertions
ia place Of evidence. We must have
free wool, for instance, in the interest
of the wool growers as we'll as the
wool-spinnor. The effect of even low
duties on wool in 1850 60 showed last
week. But Mr. Scott believes that if
the manu- acturer were free to get his
wool supply from every corner Of the
earth he would buy more largely Of
those who pay the highest wages to
their shepherds, and not Of Russia,
Australia, and lhe Argentine Confeder
alton. Because we must import a
! small amount of coarse carpet wools
from Russia, therefore let US have no
protection for any wool, fine or coarse.
Mr.. Scott went cut Of his way to
attack great steel manufacturing
firm OF Western Pennsylvania which
has substituted natural gas for coal,
but did not mention that the firm had
offered TO establish the rule Of profit
sharing with its workmen and that these
preferred small advance in thsii
wages instead. The truth is that there
= has been little or no money in iron and
. steel for any one, whether they use
coal or natural as.
! Mr. Scott had recourse to a good dea
Of defamation over the advantages
labor was to reap by removing the re-
strictions on its power to purchase for
! eign products. He did not venture t
meet the challenge OF the projections
! lists by showing that there are any
. laborers livinA under free trade anC
|. with absolute freedom to "buy in the
!. cheapest market" who are as we'll of
as American laborers under the restric
! ton he denounces. BE claims that hl
and his friends were the true protec
tors OF labor because they propose Il
v remove all such restrictions. He stoo,
!. confessed by this statement as an un
a qualified free trader. He evidentl,
4 believes that no legislation can tend t
/. make the condition OF labor bette
= than it would be in the entire absenc
i of all such legislation. II this be tru
q then the Mills bill itself is a "misbe
q gotten, ill-shapen, portentious, unjust
I a