The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1888-03-08
Third Congressional District. Republican Con
ventiOE.
A Misft Statesman.

In making up his committees i'll the interest
of free trade Speaker Carlisle had necessarily
to use some exceedingly poor material and it
is not surprising that his chairman of the
Ways and Means Committee should have late
lv been made a laughing stock by reason of his
ignorance of things man in his position is
supposed to know. Accompanied by col
league from Arkansas. Mi. Breckenridge, this
Texan statesman undertook the other day TO
enighten an audience in the manufacturing
city of Providence. II. L.. as to the benecent
results which must follow the adoption of free
trade. Among other things Mr.. Mills said:
There are some things you cannot make As
cheap!y rs elsewhere. and these must be I'M
ported. 1t won't hurt you to import seamless
stockings, because they are made by a secret
process. The foreigners wont let lis into the
mills to how these stockings are made.
Content yourselves with those thai are Got
seamless. Do not come to Congress and ask
IL, to make laws to govern things that you can
not make
The fact is that the seamless stocking indus
try. which Mr. Mills calls '.>ecret process"
known only to foreigners. originated in this
country. The first experiments were made
| about thirty years ago. and dating from ISIS
the industry has grown and llouri,hed. The
seamless stockings manufactured i'll Europe
are made on American machines, and 21.000
dozen pairs of seamless haf-ho>c are knitted
daily i'll this country, employing lJ,000 hands.
Ninety nine per cent of all the seamless goods
worn in this country are made in this country.
and the annual product is marketcd.a at twelve
millions OF dollars. of which four millions of
dollars is paid for labor directly employed,
saying nothing about other labor employed III
directly, As furnishing supplies, for example.
This is the secret process" known only to
foreigners. Yet il is to men of the stamp of
Mr.. Mills, who evidently could moi tell a cot
ton factory from Il saw mill, that Speaker Car
Isle entrusted the framin. of tariff l,il.
la debate in the Senate last week over the
pension bill introduced by Senator Mander>cn
the Grand Army of The Republic was honorcd
by wholesale denunca,ion from men like Black
burn and Beck. who. unable to conquer it
twenty-five years ago with their swords, think
that they can afford now to lc>m;rch it with
their tongues. Mr.. Beck called the veterans
who offered their lives to preserve the Union
'bencticiarie>." Mr.. Black expressed the hope
that the bill would he defeated in the Senate /: if
not in the Senate, then in the House: and if
not in the House. then by the Executive. In
his opinion the Grand Army of the Republic
was political! organization. which did not
approach Congress aS other petitioners did.
humbly and respectfully. but demanding and
threatening. For the time he seemed to lose
sight of the fact that even among his own con-
>tituent> there are thousands of Democrats to-
day who are members of the Grand Army.
Carried away by his rhetoric he accused certain
Senators on the Republican side of favorin. the
bill because of their Presidential aspirations.
His speech had the true rin" of Kentucky
stump oratory in it-unrepentant. devoid of
logic and triumphantly defiant. Senators EIoar,
Teller and Henderson who followed. tittin.ly
rebuked the bluegrass Senators and vigorous
~ defended the Grand Army from the I'M
warranted asper>ion~ east upon it. AZ for Mr..
Beck. who received the special attention of
Mr.. lloar for using the offensive expire >>ion
"bencticarie>'' in connection with the Grand
Army. he took bis merited punishment in
ii.