The Somerset reporter., 1888-08-30
Mr.. Burleigh's Letter.


ACtEFllNG TIE hEft BllGAN 1IUBERNA- /
ToRIAL NoMINAmoN.
AcGrsrA, August %, 1883.
Hon. ANDREW p. W1swELL, President Re-
publican State Convention
Sr-lmportant and imperative engagements
in closing my connection with the State Treas
ury and subsequent personal illness have ne
cessarily postponed my formal reply to your
letter advising me that was NOMINATED by the
Republican State Convention as the candidate
of the Party Tor Governor. Ny first duty on nv
restoration TO health is to announce that | ac-
cept the nomination with deep sense of the
honor conferred, and with a sincere appreciation
OF the responsibility which it imposes lift should
be ratified by the free choice Of the voters Of
Maine. The duties Of the position are so plain
ly manifest under our Constitution that need
not dwell upon them at length. MY conduct
IN the important Offices with which | have al
ready been entrusted by the State will, | hope,
give a sufficient guarantee of the faithful and
conscientious discharge Of all the duties that
may hereafter be deyolved upon me.
agree most cordially with every principle
set forth in the Resolutions adopted by the State
Convention.
In our Federal system OF government the
questions which are at issue in \ ational cleo
ton so directly affect the interests of each State
that it is practically impossible to hold State
election the same year without having first and
special regard to the questions involved in the
choice of President and Of Representatives in
Congress The vote of Maine in September
will be her expression of opinion on the weigh
ty questions which to be finally settled IN
the National election of November.
make no apology, therefore, for directly call
ing the attention of the voters of Maine to the
leading and absorbing issue in which so many
of her material interests are directly involved.
In the changes Of duties embodied in what is
known the Mills Tariff bill recently passed
by the Democratic House Of Representatives
and now pending before the Senate, the leading
interests OF Maine are seriously, and it would
seem recklessly injured, The products OF our
extensive forests, in which so large a number
of citizens are directly or indirectly interested,
Will be subjected TO ruinOus competition il the
Mills bill becomes a law. That bill places all
kinds OF timber, all varieties OF unInanufactured
wool, all sawed boards, panks and deals, slaves
Of wood, pickets and palings, laths and shingles,
capboards OF either pine or spruce, and all logs
on the free list and invites the lumbermen Of
Canada to take possession of the American
market. In addition to this the bill declares
that hubs for wheels, posts last blocks, wagon
blocks, oar blocks, gun blocks, heading blocks
and all like blocks or sticks, rough hewn or
sawed, shall be admitted free of duty. II these
provisions should be enacted into law they
would prove a eeiious calamity to the whole
STATE, Dut especially 10 our frontier counties.
In Washington, Aroostook, Penobscot, Piscata-
quis Somerset, Franklin, and Oxford, it would
enormously diminish the value OF property and
prove disastrous to all interests connected with
lumber.
Nor would the lumbermen Of the State suffer
any more seriously than the farmers. II this
Tariff bill be passed and goes into effect on the
first of October, as proposed by the Democratic
party in Congress, all woods and woods on the
skin will be admitted duty free from all parts of
the world. So also will all roots, and grains,
and vegetables and all fruits, and all meats and
tallow, and game and poultry and milk and
beans and pease and seeds. Farmers in every
part Of the State can see at glance how ser
iousy and how injuriously it will affect them
to permit all these products of Canada to come
into our own markets freely as their own
products do.
As il especially bent OH shifting the industrial
interests OF Maine, the Democratic House of
Representatives declares that all stones, free
stone, granite, sand stone and all building or
monumental stone of which Maine has such
endless variety, shall come in freely from Can
ada, and in many cases by reason of the near
ness To the sea, the stone of the Canadian quar-
ries could reach the markets of the United
States more cheaply than can the product of
the United States more cheapy than can the
product OF our own quarries and thus c0ntinu-
ally undersell us in our own markets. And in
addition to stone the Mills bill freely admits
brick, also extensively manufactured in many
parts of Maine.
All the articles have thus far mentioned are
put upon the free list and are given equal rights
in the American market with the articles pro-
duced by our citizens. Many other articles
while not made entirely free are to he reduced
to so much lower duty that our manufacturer,
and laboring men will inevitably be sorely in
lured The duty upon all fabrics of cotton and
WOOL both so largely manufactured in Maine
that they have created prosperous cities in our
midst, is greatly reduced, and the same with
slate roofing, slate nantes and all other manu-
features of Slate. The duty on potato starch il
lowered to one cent per pound, which will prove
almost fatal to that industry, already hard press
ed by competition. In fact there is scarcely an
interest among all the varied industries Of
of Maine which is not involved in the wide
sweep of destruction which the Mills Tariff bill
threatens.
Not satisfied with assaulting the agricultural,
numbering manufacturing and grazing indus
tries of Maine, the Democratic party in power
has contemporary refused to aid our navigation
interests in the slightest degree. If certain
products OF iron, angles, bars, etc, could be
added to the article made free of duty to aid
ship building the industries of Bath and other
ship building towns OF Maine would be greatly
benefited That proposition made in the
present Congress BY our own Representatives
and received the full approval OF the entire pro-
lection vote, but the Democratic ma GRITTY oppos-
liberty to import the entire ship free, thus de-
claring that they would legslate in favor of ship
builders on the Mersey and the Clyde rather
than in favor Of those on the Penobscot and the
Kennebec. Could mad hostility to the interests
of Maine go farther J The coast towns of our
State will certainly learn from this act that
nothing but unfrendly legislation to their com
mercial interests can be expected from II Demo-
cratic Congress, and no recommendation of any
other character from "a Democratic President
Nor has Names interest in the Fisheries Jared
better at the hands of the Democratic Admins
tration than her other industries. The firmness
of republican Senate has prevented the sur
derer of that great interest to England by treaty
but it is impossible a. this time to foresee what
other form OF INJURY the President may ulti-
nately infict on that patriotic body of men who
are engaged in their hazardous and meritorious
calling. Their reliance Tor protection Is solely
upon the Republican party
The most serious feature OF the whole assault
upon our industries Is the inevitable effect that
i will have upon the iaooring men of the State.
should the Mills PHI become law, the field for
aooI IN Name VIII DC narrowed, ana those who
should still ma employment would have we to sub
MT 10 rnihous reduction OF wages ne pros
'erity ofour State so rapidly developing in late
ears would De arrested ana we should once