The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1888-10-05
DEMOCRATIC ENTHUSIASM.
Not Much Of 1t Apparent at the
Tariff Reform Meeting Monday
Evening.

campaign was held at the opera-house
Monday evening, and was good deal like
its predecessor, only that the lightness
of the speeches in last nights effort
made up for the lightness of the house
on the former occasion. There was
a parade previous to the time
for assembling at the opera. house, In
which the boys Democratic club and
the Concordia band took the principal
part. The boys wore their grey plug
hats, which gave the wearers highly
grotesque appearance. The march was
taken up at the city hall and ended at
the opera house, in front of which the
band tarried to play several selections.
But the crowd continued slim inside the
building, the plaintive hymn by the
band, "Whosoever Will, May Come"
not seeming to have any effect. At
length, shortly after eight O'Clock the
crowd, in which boys were largely nu-
merous, seemed to have grown to pro-
portions which suited the managers, and
the speaker was escorted upon the stage
by Judge Porter, followed by Hon. d.
Buck, Hon. p. III. Carney, and John
Hamilton, of the boys club. Hon. M.
s. Wilkinson and Henry Robel af-
forwards accepted seats on the stage.
Judge Porter introduced the speaker,
Hon. Percy b. Smith, of Saltwater, who
began his remarks with very eloquent
flourish. The bills announced that the
address was to be upon Tariff Reform, !"
but what the grandiloquent generalitles
which made up the forepart of the ad-
dress had to do with the tariff, or re-
form of 1t, was as puzzling as the ques-
ton why the band in the gallery played
a batch of religious hymns as entertain
ment for q Democratic meeting. Fur
Their along the speaker gave symptoms
OF getting nearer his subject, for he had
something to say about the surplus, An
as he didn't even charge the Republi-
cans with being responsible for these
things as is the wont of most "reform"
orators, it was rather difficult to see
what he was driving at. He pretty
nearly got into the proper channel by
half asserting that, considering the
amount of tariff workingmen have to
pay, their wages are not higher now than
before the war. He didn't say this was
SO, but advised someone to investigate
the matter. Mr., Smith exhibited true
Democratic proclivities by denouncing
those forerunners of civilization, railways
and manufactures, and relapsed into
some of the old arguments that used to
be heard in the days of the soft money
craze. He also referred to the iniquity
of the coal trust, but failed to show in
what way that great reform" instru-
ment, the Mills bill, proposes to remedy
the coal evil. His reference to the pro-
tected farmer, who plows his ground
with protected pillow, cuts his grain
with a protected reaper, markets it in
protected bags, etc., may have con-
tanned some point, probably that all
these protected articles are better,
cheaper and more improved than the
farmer OF free trade countries can afford,
but if that was his intention he didn't
present it plain enough for anybody to
understand. He also told story about
an lrishman and q bull pup, in which
the point was equally mysterious. His
assertion that in talking about pauper
labor the Republicans insult the parents
and friends of many working men in the
country was a bright gem. He practi-
cally admitted that the state of things
claimed by the Republicans does exist,
but that the latter in calling attention to
The fact as an argument against lowering
American laborers to the same level cast
a deadly insult upon the relatives of for
eigners who have come here to escape
the pauperism of Europe.
Mr.. Smith closed his grafton by the
usual claim that free trade is not W hat
the Democracy wants, and was about as
fierce against that doctrine as anybody
could be. But it is tariff for revenue
only that the "reformers' want, and, ell
oquently said Mr.. Smith, elf that be free
trade, let the Republicans make the
most of itP 1t is needless to saw by
way of parenthesis that that is practical
ly Tree trade, and the Republicans are
making the most of it.
When Mr.. Smith had closed Judge
Porter facetiously introduced Hon. M.
s. Wilkinson, as "the next representa-
tive in Congress" The Judge ENJOYS a
joke hugely and this one was immense.
Mr.. Wilkinson did not speak long, but
held the line down nearer the adyer-
tised subject. He defended Cleveland's |
tariff record, and tried to show that the |
were not consistent in their |
claim of favoring proper tariff revision.
Many people left the hall during the |
remarks, and when he |
closed there were calls for "Bucki' Mr.. |
Buck came to the front but declined to |
crate on the ground of a severe cold.
He dismayed those of the audience who
n