Wichita eagle., 1888-10-18
AT THE CAR WORKS.
A TYPICAL REPUBLICAN MEETING
WITH A FULL MEASURE OF
ENTHUSIASM.
The Hons. @. II. Bentley and George
L. Douglass Address a
Large Crowd.

''NANN-
last night was a decided success. The
drum corps and about car load of Repub-
licans went up on the motor line to join in
the fun. Arrived at the car works the
drum corps marched to the Harrison and
Morton club rooms playing their livellest
tunes, waking the echoes of the town and
rallying the boys from ali directions.
After listening to the music for time
| the crowd took seats and DIR. Morgan,
president of the club, introduced Hon.
| Geo. l. Douglass as the first speaker.
Mr. Douglass first alluded to the fact
that the election Of Republican members
of the legislature at this time was of more
than ordinary Importance, for the coming
legislature must elect United States SEN
| ator.
So far as he was concerned if elected to
the legislature it would be no less a duty
than privilege to vote for the reelection
of Senator Plumb who had honored the
state and was credit to the nation. The
speaker then proceeded directly to a dis
! cussion of the records of the two great
parties in their past and present relations
| to the question of labor in this country,
| showing that by the necessity of Its posi-
ton on the slavery question the Demo GRAFT
ic party was the most dangerous enemy Of
free labor, while the Republican party was
| then, as it is now, his best friend. He
| traced the course of the country under the
| free trade experiments which had been
made In this country, as outlined IN the
messages of former presidents, which in
dicated that only disaster had come from
the attempt to force this doctrine upon the
the people. Yet the Democracy is at the
same thing again today and occasional
sayings of their leaders indicate the true
spirit of the party. Senator Vest IN let
ter which he explained was mot Intended
for publication" saysf Mr.. Cleveland has
challenged the protected industries OF the
country to a fight of determination. The
| fight is to the death"
We are thus afforded true insight into
the motives. purposes and determination
Of the Democratic party upon this great
subject, not intended for publication but
| the more valuable on that account. They
are to fight the great Industries of the ma
ton which have been built up in the past
| twenty-five years under the fostering care
OF the Republican party, and they are to
| fight them until the industries have per-
! ished or until the Democracy is dead.
Illustrating the absurdity Of many OF the
| free trade stump arguments, he said:
| The Democratic candidate for governor
came down here to tell us how we are
robbed" by the tariff. Among other
things he laid stress on the tariff on salt.
Now want you to understand the enor-
nifty of this particular outrage. | find
| from personal investigation that a ihouse-
hold of six persons excluding babies) con-
dc or colt
which makes seven and half pounds to
each person. There are go pounds IN
barrel of salt, and it takes one man thirty
seven years and four months to eat bar
rel. During all my life have never eaten
barrel of salt. But if L begin now, and
keep my appetite until February, 1926. |
shall have eaten a barrel of salt, the tax
on which, at the highest rate per hundred
weight, will aggregate "a cents and mills
If, therefore, Wichita man is foolish
enough to eat foreign salt when be can
buy Kansas salt for less than one-tourth
of the freight on foreign salt from New
York to Wichita, he may pay the enor-
nous sum of 81 cents tariff on barrel,
but even then he can pay in installments
and take thirty-Seven years to do 1t. Think
of it, fellow citizens-this prolonged rob
berry. 81 cents in thirty-seven years filched
from your pocket and mine; robbery
from which there is no escape unless we
accept the humiliating alternative of do
ing as other people do and buy better
American salt for one quarter the price
of foreign salt.
| will agree to pay with a one cent post
age stamp all the tariff on salt paid by the
entire Democratic party in Kansas for the
last year. and hive some change left over.
There is not a dollar of salt tariff paid
directly or indirectly in the whole state of
Kansas, and the Hon. John Martin proba-
bly, knows it. The freight from New York
to Wichita on a barrel of imported salt Is
about So 10 and you can buy salt by the
cart load in Kansas for 65 cents barrel.
This then is the weight and depth of the
robbery on salt, and it is fair specimen of
the average Democratic stump argument.
It is kind of argument that may work
with the average Shawnee county Demo
crat but to the Wichita man it sounds like
clap-trap and flap-doodle.
Another like robbery is the s. tariff
on lumber If this lumber argument has
any weight anywhere it has less lin Wich-
tia than in almost anv city in America. /
believe it to be fact that the great bulk
of the lumber ased in Wichita is yellow
pine from the south, which is sold here at
prices fixed solely by the law of supply
and demand, and from So to s. less than
northern pine: and it is for many purposes
the better wood 1t sells here cheaper
because of our proximity to the southern
forests. II therefore, we admit, for argu-
ments sake that a removal of the tariff
would reduce the price of white pine
to the Wichita buyer, by the whole
amount of tariff. it would not affect the
price of yellow pine at all; for that would
still be by far the cheaper and would hold
the market in this section of the country.
| hav the word of man who is perhaps as
well informed on this lumber question as
any man in Kansas, the head of one OF the
largest lumber companies in the state.
that the tariff on lumber not only does not
affect the price of yellow pine here, but
that the conditions under which the north
ern lumber is now produced and put Oh
the market are such that a removal OF the
tariff would not reduce the price ty Gus
toners in Kansas single cent. His in
terests would all lie in reduction of the
wholesale price, if it could be effected in
this way; but he recognized the real facts
in the case He is a Democrat and, what
is mere, an honest man: and l would |
rather have his judgment on this question |
than the deliberations OF all the Demo |
cratic stump orators in the state.
Mr.. Douglas closed with an earnest ap- |
peal for the whole Republican ticket. He |
was frequently interrupted with cheers.
DR.. Morgan then called for music by the |