Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1888-10-27

Britain herself is protected by vast
capital, accumulated through ages,
the spoils of her own and other
lands, by trade system as power
full as it is relentless. All these ma.
tons will contest with you and 9TH
er countries which they already
overflow.
Does your mouth water over the
prospect? What market do you
give up for all this? Where is the
best market in the world? Where
the people have the most money to
spend. Where have the people the
most money to spendi Right here
in the United States of America af.
ter twenty years of protection
list rule. And you are asked to
give up such market for the mar.
kets of the world Why the his.
tory of such transaction was told
twenty-four hundred years ago. 1t is
a classic. You will find it in the
works of Esop, the fabulist.
Once there was dog. He was
nice little dog. Nothing the matter
with him except a few free trade
ideas in his head. He was trotting
along as happy as the day, for he
had in his mouth nice shoulder of
succulent mutton. By and by he
came to stream bridged by a
plank. He trotted along, and look
lug over one side of the plank, he
saw the markets of the world
great laughter and applause] and
dived for them. A minute after be
was crawling up the bank the wet.
test, the sickest [great laughter, the
nastiest, the most muttonless dog
that ever swan ashore! Great
laughter and applause.
We have now spent twenty days
6 months on the discussion of the
Mills bill. Have you noticed what
has been the most utterly insignifi.
cant thing in the discussion has been
the Mills bill. How do you account
for it / will tell you. If the prin,
ciples you have enumerated are true,
it is an unworthy compromise with
Satan. If the principles we have
stated are true, it is an unworthy
ambuscade, and you know it. You
mean this merely for one step. You
mean to cut deeper next time. You
mean the destruction Of the system
which now exists.
The whole case can be put sue.
cinctly in few words. If the prin.
ciples you announce are true, you
must have direct taxation. If the
custom house or the import is fol.
lowed by dollar to the manufacture.
| er for every like quantity of domes-
tic goods, which your tariff accident.
ally encourages, then that manufac.
ture is misfortune. 1t takes dol
lars out OF the farmer or lawyer with
out return. 1t is no reply, under this
Government, to say that the indirect
collection of two dollars, One.half of
which is lost to the people, is easier
because the poor fools don't know it.
That is the old quotation made
from Colbert by the gentleman from
West Virginia. Surely in this coun
try you do not avow that you are
trying to get the maximum of
feathers out of the American goose
for the maximum of squalling." You
don't mean to take feathers out of
the American goose and deny him
the poor privilege of noise. No, if
our proud bird ought to surrender
feathers he is plucky enough to sur
render like an eagle, and if it is tax
alone he has right to see just what
feathers 60.
The forefathers of these Dem.
ocrats saw this, like the honest men
they were, clamorcd for direct tax.
alton. They were right. Why do
you not act like themY Why not be
bold? Why do you hesitatef 1t is
because twenty.seven years of kuowl.
edge divide you from them. In your
heart of hearts you suspect your own
logic and you dare not. You may
we'll hesitate. Whoever takes down
the map Of 1860 and the map of 1888
will look upon the most wondrous
growth that ever the sun shone on
in It's myriad courses around the
earth. 1t is marvellous spectacle. 1t
1t is not alone the great cities, born
exhalations, which flash prosperity
over the great lakes, over the broad
plains, over the mighty fields rich
with verdure or teeming with un.
counted harvest. 1t is not alone
the piled-up billions under which the
great national debt caused by the
greatest war expenditure the world
ever saw has melted like an iceberg
under tropic sun. 1t is not alone
the rejuvenated South turning it's face
to its great future. Nay it is not even
all of these combined. 1t is the fact
found by the most cultured English.
man of our day that all this wealth
and prosperity has been so shaped
that it seeks the comfort-not of the
rich, not of the lounging owner of
fixed income, not of the pampered
minion of governmental power, but
of the plain people whom Abraham
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