The Portland daily press., 1888-05-21

| OF virtue propose 10 90 Win tnese WlohVe Wltt
| people? Sweep them out OF existence VIII
| the strong hand Of justice? Does the gentle
man from Texas intend to lasso these crea-
| lures and tangle them in the folds OF MS
| lariat? Does the gentleman from Arkansas
mean that from their dead bodies the handle
| of his bowie-knife shall protrude? All, no!
| they are still to live and still TO flourish
| They will have only the delightful punish
ment of being turned over to the melting
eloquence, the soothing rhetoric OF the gem
| tleman from Kentucky Mr.. BRECKINRIDGEI
while he explains his theory OF talr plunder,
| of honest and decent robbery, with no re-
| strictiOns save such as will be satisfactory 10
| those good manufacturers who have been
| admitted to private interviews by the Dack-
| stairs.
The castles of these marauders are still to
/ smoke upon the hill-tOps, and the tall chin
neys are still to break the skyline OF this
unhappy country. They are to be allowed
/ to rob within Z per cent. of what they rob
/ now, and as compensation they are to be let
| loose upon the markets OF the world, where,
| according to the learned chairman, they are
to reap larger wealth and pile up statller
millions. Do you think that the calculations
| l have made are but ridiculous imagln-
| ings of scoffer; are but toying with the
| deep seriousness of the Presidential mind?
| Nay, not SO. The belief that what l have
| figured.out is absolute truth pervades the
i Democratic mind from one extremity to the
other; from the very head to the very tail.
| The Hon. John Randolph Tucker, then a
member from Virginia, as delightful in pri-
| vate life as he was able in the service OF his
| country, in the year of our Lord 1882, IN
/ speech delivered May 8, on the twenty NTH
| page of the same, made the annual sum thus
| plundered from the people eight hundIed
| millions for 1880. In the same year, on the
| goth day of April, in a speech delivered that
day, ON page thereof, the chairman OF the
| Committee on Military Affairs, the member
| from Illinois, proclaimed the astounding
| fact that during the last nineteen years
/ these ung0dly manufacturers had sWlnuled
| the people out Of S15,000,000,000. Let me De
exact, for the calculation IS speci1c ana pre-
/ else. The exact sum was S15,063, 7o4 $40.
| Great heavensl These amazing plunderers
| had in their pockets fifteen thousand mil
| lions in 1882 have had eight hundred mil
| lions year since-in all, nineteen thousand
| eight hundred millions, or three thousand
| millions more than this whole country Is list
| ed for taxation, and the Mills bill, the repre-
| sentative of the.concentrated and c0ncatenat-
| ed wisdom OF the Democracy proposes 10 give
| them more. Gentlemen Of the other side,
heroes of the new crusade for revenue re-
| form and civil service reform, if you believe
| what you say, is it not ample time this trib-
ute cease? What excuse have you for count
| ing it?
dare to doubt him, an annual tribute is paid
| protected manufacturers out of the pockets
| of the people more impoverishing that ever
| was expected by an Oriental despot. In the
face of your plain duty to free the people
| from this iron yoke you stand higgling about
| the amount of the tribute. Instead OF S41
| for every hundred you propose to give $40 OF
| the peoples money and throw into the trade
| the markets Of the world!
| If it be tribute, be bold and sweep 1t
| away. Why do you hesitate? Is it because
| you do not dare TO be caught lowering the
| wages of the laboring men who have votes?
| Have the courage of your leaders convictions
| for has not the gentleman from Texas,
1 od of af fhic hill Win hao nr0migp6 tn
bring it up in the nurture and admonition, OF
/ the Lord, loudly proclaimed to the open day
that tariffs have nothing to do with wages?
Is 1t out OF mercy to the capitalist that you
falter?
DO you say there is capital invested under
/ our laws, and we must keep faith with those
who have invested it? Whether faith should
| be kept faith with such vampires Is for you
| to say. But surely no better faith need be
kept than to pay back every cent they have
| invested. IL the President be right, If John
/ Randolph Tucker be right, il the honorable
and gallant member be right; If j. 5. Moore,
who fixes the tribute in 1882 at one thousand
/ millions more than any of us, be right-f
| they all be right then every year more than
| one thousand millions come out of the people
| for these men.
What is their whole stock of trade? What
| is the tale Of every dollar they have as capi-
| tai invested? Ii you take one-half the in
| dustries as protected, and we have made our
| other calculations on that basis, the whole
| capital is only one billion eight hundred and
| sixty million dollars. Now we have shown,
according to our chief ruler, that the plunder
| of these manufactures is 81, ,QO0, ,O00, 900.
| Therefore, in one year and four-hfths OF
| year, every dollar of that capital could be re-
! paid, provided they kept their mill wheels
| unturned, and the people OF the United States
| protected against protection, could be as free
| and as happy as If the agis Of the Confederate
| constitution, article /, section 8, were spread
| all over the land.
| Why do men with such beliefs so plain, and
| so distinct, hesitate to do their duty? 1t is
| because every wind that blows, every sight
| that strikes their eyes, every sound that re-
| sounds in their ears, shows the folly OF their
| theories, the absurdity of their logic. What
use is it to tell the people of this empire that
they have been robbed and plundered one
thousand millions Of dollars every year, dur
| ing the very time when over $500 miles OF
distance cities have been springing up like
magic, richer in a decade than the old world
cities have grown in centuries, when 10000
miles of railroad have been built, which COM
press the broad expanse of continent into a
week Of time. When the commerce OF Its
inland lakes has grown to rival the commerce
between the two worlds; when from every
land under the sun the emigrants have been
| fi0cking to its happy shores, drawn there by
the peace and prosperity which shine on all
| its borders and sweep from circumference to
centre. There are no eyes so dull that can
not see the ever-rising glories OF this Repub-
/ TIC tACtpb LuOSt WulCu Dduud6CQ W bhC
prejudices Of long ago.
Thus far have employed familiar method
of augmentation which is called in Latin
reductio ad dbsardunl, or in plain English,
confronting the principles man lays down
with the facts of the universe and showing
him the dreadful absurdity Of which he has
been guilty. The principles are the Presi-
dents, the facts are from his own familiar
friends. Which do you believe? The two
sentences of the message which l have
uuOtQ1 the Of frpa trade WhO-
ever believes them has but one honest course
to pursue. lie must demand direct taxation
There is no escape from it.
Now let us turn to the other side. The
system wesbelieve in is called protection, and
is founded upon the doctrine that great ma
tion like ours, having all varieties Of climate
and soil, will be richer, more independent,
and more thrifty, and that its people will be
better fitted to enjoy the comforts and lluxur-
| les of peace, and better situated to endure
the calamities of war, If its own people sup
ply its own wants.
do not purpose to defend protection. Its
vast growth within the last quarter Of CEN
tury defends it better even than eloquent
orations: 1t was born with the Republic. 1t
Is the faith and practice of every civilized
nation under the sun savetone. 1t has sur
vived the assaults of all the professors OF the
dismal science" called political economy.
1t has stood up against all the half knowledge
OF learned men who never had sense enough
to transmute their learning into wisdom.
On the face of the earth today there are
but two sets of people who believe In Tree
trade, whether pure and slmpleo or disguised
as revenue reform, and those Two are tne
masked majority Of the Committee on ways
and Means and their followers and the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with
Ireland suppressed.
Russia. the granary of Europe, has aban-
doned free trade, with the striking result
that whereas, in 1876, before the duties were
raised. she bought eight million hundred
weight of British metals and paid therefor
thirty million of dollars eight for thirty, she
got the same quantity in 1884 and paid only
seventeen million for it eight for seventeen).
Three dollars and seventy-fve cents per
hundred-weight before tariff and, $2.121 after
Austria, Germany, Italy, Mexico, and the
Dominion of Canada, that child Of Britain
herself. have all joined the army of protec-
tion. 1t is the in stinct of humanity against
the assumption of the bookmen. 1t Is the
wisdom Of the race against the wisdom of the
few.
Perhaps the best argument can make for
protection is to state what 1t is and the prin-
ciples on which it is founded.
Man derives his greatest power from his
association with other men, his union with
his fellows. Whoever considers the human
being as a creature alone, by himself, iso-
lated and separated, and tries to comprehend
mankind by mathematically adding these
atoms together has utterly failefl IN oomnre-