The Portland daily press., 1888-09-05
SPEAKING TO MAINE W0oL-GROWERS.
Pennington Crowded to Hear the
Maine Statesman.

Harrington Crowded to Hear the
Maine Statesman.
The Effect Of the Mills Bill on Frank
lin County Industry,
With an Interesting Review of Her
Progress Under Protection.
PENNINGTON, Sept. 4.-The Republican
rally here this afternoon was one Of the most
successful outdoor meetings of the Maine
campaign. 1t was held at the Willows, very
near the spot where Mr.. Blaine, in 1866, made
his first speech in this part Of the State, and
it was attended by 1900 people. Stands had
been erected at the grounds by enterprising
statesmen and hawkers, who cried campaign
wares. Mr.. Blaine, the chief speaker of the
day, arrived about 2 p. M, ana he was taken
under escort by the Pennington, Livermore
Falls, Strong and Kingfeld clubs, the streets
| being crowded at the time. The Pennington
| club members wore big straw hats with wool
plumes, and one of the banners carried in the
column was inscribed with quotation from
"The sheepless shepherd" and was dec
Grated with wool. The very cordial recep-
| tion which was given to Mr.. Blaine as he
stepped from his special train at the depot
was renewed at the Willows when he was
presented by Hon. w. w. Norcross, of New
Sharon. the chairman of the day, as "that
| distinguished statesman, that invincible
champion of American principles, whose
very presence is an inspiration to the friends
of American progress and prosperity" Be-
hind him on the platform sat members of
clubs composed of men who had voted for
"Tippecanoe" in 1s4O As Mr.. Blaine rose
to address the assembly the cheers were re-
newed. He said:
MR.. BLAINE's SPEECH.
Mr.. Chairman, Ladies and gentlemen: The
| pending naturalization touches with more
| direct influence upon the material interests
| of Maine than any that has occurred within
| the last twenty-eight years. have been
| within the last ten days over a considerable
| portion Of the State, and have come in con-
tact with many branches of varied industries
| agricultural section, on the borders of our
| forest, or in the manufacturing towns, that
| was not struck at in a deadly manner by the
free trade message Of President Cleveland,
| as it stands embodied in the Mills tariff bill.
Whether you go to the cotton industries, or
| the wool industries, or the industries of the
quarry, or the numbering interests, OF the
| farming Industries, or the dairy industries,or
you will find that the Mills bill, with an in
genuity that grasped the whole
subject, has given us a direct shot. Here, in
Franklin, with the adjacent county of Som
erset, we find the headquarters of the WOOL
growing industry in Maine, and by the Pres,
| ident's policy you are to be stripped of all
| possible protection on the part of the gener-
al government President Cleveland. l
think, when he wrote that message, must
have been fresh from reading the life of
John -Randolph of Roanoke laughter and
| applausel, who, In a debate on the tariff more
than half century ago, said he would go
| mile any time to kick sheep [great laughterl
| and the President has done his best to kick
| every sheep in the United States [renewed
| laughterl and to knock down every wool
| grower. Ii you. will read the Democratic
| the Presidents policy, they tell you what an
immense, outrageous addition there is to the
| coat ON your back from this twelve cents
pound on wool. | have never read Demo-
| the people that the wool tariff doubled the
| cost on every garment and yet, If you will
take the coat worn by the average American
citizen you cannot show. by any possible ar
gument, even allowing their own statistics,
| that 1t can add more than go cents t0sa dol
| lar on the coat, and this, even allowing the
Democratic theory that the duty adds just so
much to the cost of the WOOL The Demo-
cratic exaggeration is on par with the man
| who put 81 week extra on the price of his
board and did 1t on the ground that the wood
from which the toothpicks were made, had
| advanced in price 80 cents cord (laughterl
| and so the enormous enhancement of the
clothing Of the United States, for which
they make you believe that double as much
is paid as in other countries. is laid to this
| wool tariff.
Now, gentlemen, laying aside the amusing
| part OF 1t look at the question seriously and
see what would happen, learn from the past
| when we know what has happened on ex-
| actly similar efforts, If you should today or
in the approaching session of Congress
respond to President Cleyeland's recon-
| mendation and destroy the wool tariff. /
| think we could gather together here, DEM
ocrats and Republicans alike. and agree up
on what would be the probable result In
the first place within three years, or even
| within two, great many millions of sheep
| would be sent to the shambles ana the
amount of wool produced in the United
States would be very much less. At present.
we grow more wool In the United States
Australia. The moment the prodnct at
home began to decrease here the demand for
foreign wool at first cheaper. would be so
great on the part Of our people that the i'm
every pound of wool they would sell to our
| manufacturers, and instead OF protecting
our own growth Of wool the result would be
that we. would be paying higher price for
| Australian wool than we pay for our own
| now. That would be the logical and the
| inevitable result and then all the Demo-
cratic orators would have to assign some
other reason for the advance in the price of
a coat. They could not lay it to the wool
tariff, but they would find as they find now
that when we have had the lowest tariff the
people OF this country have paid the highest
for their. clothing. and that there is less
money paid today for good woolen clothing
in this country than there ever was here in
the history of the United States. Voice,
That's fact. that's true."J You will testi-
~ to that. Is there any reason then why
this change?
| find that the people on the coast who are
interested in fisheries and in quarries are
very hostile to the Mills tariff bill / find
the people in the neighboring numbering dis
tricts the same. find the manufacturing
towns the same, and are you, the wool grow
ers OF Franklin county, are you ready to
have that interest struck down? [Cries of
no, mol Are the Democratic wool-gr0wers
Of Franklin county ready for thatP [Slight
cries OF mol Ii they are they can be accom-
modated by voting for the reelection of
President Cleveland Laughter and ap-
plause.]
If were going to illustrate exactly what
the protective system has done for this coun-
try In the last twenty-eight years, would
not want better example than the county
OF Franklin. 1t affords probably. in some
respects a better test than almost any other
community in Maine, and certainly as good
as any one in the United States. To begin
with your population has not increased.
You do not, perhaps, have quite as many
people in this county today as you had in
ward. Brighter prospects lure young men
from home. Then the question remains
what has been the effect upon the aggregate
| wealth of community which has not, as it
went along, produced more laborers, has not
had more hands to do the work? When you
| get county that has bounded ahead as the
counties in our western progressive states
have it is hard to establish unit of CON-
| parison. In the county that starts with
| 10000 and jumps in fifteen or twenty years
| up to $1,000 or 10000 you cannot get lust
unit But here the population of this county
has remained at about the same number