The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-18


earth. But what was TO become of the
laborer when they shut down their fires and
turned their employees into the streets
What was to become of the cotton, wool
and ores! Where were our markets.
When our manufactures were stopped
and the wheels were stilled and the fires
were banked the laborer would go about
the streets seeking work and finding none,
and this was said to be an American policy.
That policy was American which clings
most closely to the fundamental principal
OF our government, the principal of freedom.
tie wished to show that the tariff was not
Tor the benefit of the workingmen. He
wished to do this by figures given by manu-
facturerS themselves, exhibiting the total
cost of the product and the labor cost of the
articles they were making.
LABoRERs OF BENEFITED.
He had put the tariff table by the side of
these figures to see whether the little re-
duction the committee asked in this bill it
was going beyond that pledge made by the
Democratic party that it would not reduce
taxation SO low as to expose labor. This
table showed the tariff was not intended to
benefit the laborer; that the benefits of
the tariff pass into the pockets
of the manufacturers and never
come to the pockets of the laborer. Con-
tinuing, he said, that it was asserted that
SOllSI6S UdQ 10 Dene1lU Un6 ldDOTGT
by the tariff. 1t had failed and not dollar
of the protection offered got beyond the
manufacturer. He, however, hired his
labor at the lowest rate in the market. The
committee had left in the bill more than
enough protection to pay for all labor and
a bonus besides.
Mr.. Mills then went into the details of
labor citing flannel, sewing silk, linseed oil,
bar iron, bessemer steel, morocco skins,
Ol n he int.
and other articles as exhibiting the cost
where the tariff charge invariably greatly
exceeded the labor cost, and where none of
the excess got beyond the manufacturer to
help the laborer.
PALACES AND HOvELS.
This policy, he said, built up palaces. and
it concentrated wealth, but it distributed
none of its beneficence in the home of the
poor laborer 1t compelled the government
to take large share of his daily earnings.
1t was making a vast distinction in this
country between two classes, one poor and
numerous, the other small and
powerful, and rich. Concentration
of the wealth of the country in the hands
of few men would overthrow our free
government. In conclusion he said that he
hoped that the bill which the committee
had presented-which had met with favor
throughout the country-would receive a
majority of the votes of the House, though
it was not all that the committee could ask.
1t was a very moderate bill, yet it would
send comfort and happiness into all the homes
and bosoms of the poor laboring people of
this country, and he asked the House, in
behalf of these people, to consider their
claims and help to reduce the burdens that
had been loaded upon them. [Applause
and cries of "vote, "vote" from the Demo-
cratic side
Mr.. Mills spoke about an hour and three
quarters, and as he took his seat he was
surrounded by crowd of Democratic
members who pressed forward to shake his
hand and tender their congratulations.
The House, at the instance of Mr.. Breck-
inridge, of Kentucky, extended to Mr..
Kelley the same privilege in the matter of
time that had been granted Mr., Mills.
MR. KELLEY's REPLY.
Mr.. Mills closed his speech, amid loud ap-
plause, at 2:50 O'clock and Mr.. Kelley, of
Pennsylvania, took the floor to reply. Mr..
Kelley said that the enactment of
this bill would instantly paralyze
the enterprise and energy of the
people. Under the baleful influence
of such a law the report of the census of
1890 would announce the overthrow of our
manufacturing supremacy, and the reduc-
ton of our commanding commercial posi-
tion to that of colonial dependence. 1t was
studiously designed to produce these dire
results and nicely adapted for its purpose
1t was confessedly a partisan measure and
was framed i'll the interest of the party
whose leaders appeared to be obliyious to
the overwhelming social and economic
changes wrought by the abolition of slavery
The gentlemen who framed is bill
and could brook neither modification nor
discussion of its provisions by their associ-
ateS in the committee to which the prepara-
ton of revenue bills was confided by law.
were with but two exceptions representa-
tives of what was slave territory. The bill
was an anachronism; it had no relation to
this era; it belonged to the saddest epoch in
our national history-the period between
1924 and 1861.
THREATS OF WAR.
During that period slavery dominated
our national councils and guided the admin
stration Of our national affairs in hostility
to the national interests, and in the interest
of free trade twice threatened war. 1t was
in the interest of free trade that war was
threatened in support of the doctrine of null
LITIGATION and it was in the interest of free
trade that the country was involved for
more than four years in the fratracidal war,
the proportions of which were more gigantic
than ever characterized a civil war. The
entire South knew that free trade was essen
tal to the perpetuity of the slavery in the
republic, and it should also know that
the logic that could defend free
trade in country endowed
with boundless diversity of elements of
manufacture and an immense supply of
forces for their conversion, which we en-
Joy, vanished when slavery was abolished.
As a measure proposed for future guidance,
the bill was an anachronism and was il
Illustrative of systems Of ethics and econo-
mic philosophy, against which history had
written in blood DEGREES that are final and
immutable.
NOT UP TO THE TINES.
None Of its provisions were in harmo
with the spirit of the age for they an tago-
nized the aspirations of the American peo-
pie, and are not adapted to facilitate their
efforts to supply their wants, crafty their
desires, and provide for the future Of their
families. Its first effect, should it BEEN
acted into law, would be to arrest the
magnificent development Of the mineral
wealth of manufacturing power, and OF
diversiications of agriculture now taking
place throughout the South, and 20 paralyze
the organized Industries Of the North.
WOOL on THE FREE LIST.
Mr.. Kelley said that the proposed law by
putting wool on the free list would abolish
sheep husbandry, destroy the immense
capital embarked therein, and impoverish
more than 100000 men who own fiocks or
are employed IN their care, and by working