The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1888-09-22
Mr.. Carlisle Renominated.

G. Carlisle for Congress for the sixth time by
reclamation. On being informed of the ac-
ton of the convention Mr.. Carlisle appeared
and was received with great enthusiasm. In
addressing the convention Mr.. Carlisle said:
''The great question before this country is
the question of federal taxation. 1t makes
but little difference whether | am elected to
Congress or not, but it is of overwhelming
importance to the people that the next House
of Representatives thould be Democratic,
Applause, and that the next President should
he Democrat also.n lCheers.l
i Speaking of the present tariff system, he
said: "The Republican party has substan-
tally declared in its platforms in favor of re.
ducing the revenue by increasing the taxes.
Applause and laughter. This proposition
is put forth upon the idea that the people of
this country can be benefited Individually and
collectively by imposing taxes on themselves.
1t might as well be said that man can make
himself rich by picking his own pocket. In
addition to the fact that it is imposing enor-
nous and unnecessary burdens upon the peo-
pie it is the parent of trust and combination
and conspiracy to control products and prices
of the necessary articles which the people are
compelled to use. While L see Mr.. Blaine,
who seems to be the mouthpiece of the Re-
publican party, has given quasi Endorsement
at least to these monopolies, | believe that
to be allowed to go at the head of the process
sion. Laughter and applause But it
seems Mr.. Harrison is not to enjoy this priv
ilege. Applause. Mr.. Blaine is the great
central figure in this campaign, and he tells
the people, in the face of the platform of his
party, in the face of the declarations of his
political friends on the stump and neighbors,
that these trusts are private affairs, in which
neither the President or anybody else has any
particular right to interfere. Applause and
laughter
''Why, my friends, larceny is private af.
fair-a very private affair, laughter, and
yet it is not supposed i'm proper to interfere
with it by law. The highwayman who meets
you on the public road and demands your
money or your life is engaged in the transac-
ton of private enterprise, but still the law
takes cognizance of his act and Furnishes it as
crime. Applause Now, gentlemen,
Mr.. Blaine has not been occupying very
good position from which to view the inter-
ests of the American workingman, farmer or
consumer. The top of Mr. Carnegie's coach,
as it bowled along with its liyeried outriders
over the hills of Scotland, is not good place
from which to look at the interests of America.
Applause. Nor are the festal halls of Cluny
Castle very good point either. Applause.
Mr.. Blaine had better stay at home or stay
abroad, one or the other. Cheers. Had
he come here to his own country and mingled
with the farmers, with the consumers, with
the laboring men of the land, he would have
a far better opportunity to know what they
desired than he could possibly have dining
and winning with the aristocracy of Europe.
"The system of taxation is continued on
the ground that it increases the rates of wages
of the American laborer. There are two or
three facts which show conclusively that this
argument is not sound. In the first place it
is a conceded fact that there is as much differ
ence between the rates of wages paid in this
country to laborers engaged in the same occu-
patton in different parts of the country as
there is between the difference of the average
rate of wages paid here and in European
countries, and yet the same tariff law prevails
throughout the whole United States. APP
plause. You will find by an examination
of the labor statistics that from so to 60 and
in some cases even as high as 100 per cent.
more is paid for labor in the same occupation
in Chicago than is paid in New York or
Philadelphia. If the tariff regulated wages,
| submit that the rates of wages would be the
same, would be uniform in the same occupa-
tons throughout the United States under
thesame tariff Applause
Another fact is that the greatest differ
ences between the rates of wages paid here
and the rates paid in European countries is
pretends can be protected under the tariff
laws. For instance, there is far greater
difference between the rates of wages paid
here to carpenters, plasterers, painters, stone
and brick masons, teamsters, railroad en-
ployes, steamboat employees and the rates of
wages paid the same classes of workingmen
in Europe than there is between the rates of
wages here in your mills and cotton factories
and the rates OF wages paid In the same IN
dustry in Europe. The rates of wages paid
in this country, too, in the unprotected in
dustries are larger on the average than the
rates of wages paid in this country in the
protected industries, and the difference be
tween them in the one case and those paid in
Europe in the other case is still plainer-much
palmer.
Another fact is that since 1886, when the
English corn laws were repealed and England
entered on what our Republican friends call
free trade, the rates of wages have increased
from 80 to rs, and even as high as 100 per
cent. In some occupations. Can we trace
that increase in this country during the same
time? Another fact is that the rates of wages
in the mechanical and manufacturing indus
tries of the United States increased far more
during what is called the free-trade period,
from 1850 to 1860, than they have ever since
that time. [Cheers.
'.They say if you reduce duties this country
will be overwhelmed with foreign cheap goods,
and all our manufacturing and mechanical
industries will be ruined. Why, gentlemen,
if all the ships in the world were employed
continuously in bringing goods from Liver
pool to New York it would take them two
years to bring as much as single railroad in
this country carries in one year If all the
Cunard vessels plying between Boston and
New York and European ports were to be
employed, it would require them seventy-fve
years to bring to this country as much goods
as the Pennsylvania Railway carries in one
year. [Applause.]
1.-THE farmer, the agricultural laborer, is the
man who suffers more under this system.
Mr.. Frye, of Maine, distinguished member
of the United States Senate, particular
friend of Mr.. Blaine, made speech in that
body on the Esd of last January, in which he
said that he had reason to believe, after
making personal investigation of this ques-
ton of labor and prices of commodities, that
bacon and pork, beef, -four and cheese were
as cheap in this country as they were in Eu-
rope. That is to say, the commodities which
the farmer produces and is compelled to sell
are as cheap here as in the pauper labor
countries of Europe. But how is it with
things which the farmer is compelled to buy ?
Are they as cheap here as in Europe? No.
You are subjected upon every one of them, if
Iney are lmpOrteu, 10 an average LAX vi ~ l-lu
per cent, and on the rest the manufacturer
has the opportunity to add the same percent
age to his price, and in many cases he does
it in the name of American labor, professedly
in the interest of American industry, and to
promote the good of the American people, |
because he says that you must encourage these
industries and give employment to as many
laborers as possible. No man objects to
rate Of taxation, whether it be by the general |
government, or State or municipal govern
ments, necessary to raise a sufficient amount
of revenue to defray all proper and legitimate I
expenses of public administration, but when |
the tax drummer has taken from the people |
sufficient amount of their earnings to ac-
complish this purpose he should take his hand |
out of their pockets. lCheers.l That is the
Democratic doctrine.
'sFree trade? 1t comedies the right and
duty of the government to raise by taxation,
in some form or other, a sufficient amount of |
money to defray all expenses and meet all
honest obligations, but it comedies likewise
that the settled policy of the government is
to raise large portion of its revenue by du-
ties on imports, but we protest that the peo