The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-08-07
REVIEWING HIS CRITICS.
A TALK WITH SENATOR VOORHEES,.
The Indianapolis journal" and the Tariff
Pluuderers ovsrhauled-Elaborat Of
Certain Features of the Late Bloom
field Speech-Interesting Points.
TTerre Hautc Gazette. 7

recent Bloomfield speech had seriously dis
turbed certain organs of the favored few"
be said:
"les, so it seems, but my best success in
political life has always been when the Indian
apolis Journal and that class of papers have
said their worst things about me. Their abuse
now is a good omen for the future, and hope
they will keep it up"
"But you are charged" suggested the re-
porter, with using harsher terms than usual
toward the millionaire monopolists of the
country. Do you accept that as q just crit.
cism2"
"As Lincoln used TO say" said the senator,
that reminds me of a story. Do you remem-
Der the case of the rude boy who was found in
the apple tree2 He was stealing apples in
great style, and all he wanted was to be let
alone. He was an infant industry in another
mans orchard. and was in fair way to
become monopolst of the whole fruit crop.
II there had been a high protective tariff to
keep the owner away, what a lordly time that
young robber could have had devouring stolen
f:uiti And when the old man put in an ap-
pearanee this sturdy, dishonest infant had no
idea of abandoning his perch and his plunder.
He laughed at gentle means such as soft words,
tufts of grass, and munched away at the apples.
At last the old mans patience gave out,
and he concluded to try what virtue there was
in stones. He pelted the young scoundrel
sonndly. and soon brought him ont of his
robbers roost. But how dreadfuly abused
and wronRed that incipient millionaire thought
himself 10 be. lie felt himself awfully
aggrieved, and no doubt made faces at the old
man, called him an anarchist perhaps de-
nounced him as dislOyal to his government,
and accused him Of being on all sides of the
subject of larceny because he had dropped the
argument of grass and taken to the argument
Of stones.
"OfcOursc you see the moral Of this little story
The tariff plunderers do not intend to give up
their clutch on the fruits Of labor; they have
been appealed 10 in vain with fair words aud
gentle means; they tighten their grip aud
increase the tax for their own enrichment
on every prime necessity of life, from salt
and sugar 10 woOens, cOttOns, lumber and
iron. lt may be that in the past have been
nearly as conservative with the manufacturers
as the owner OF the apple tree was with the
precociOus thief he found in its branches but it
don't imply any Inconsistency that ] should use
stones now as a last resort The time for gentle
means with the great public plunderers, spoil
iators and rObber barons Of this country is gone
by, and the issue is now and will be from this
time forward, whether the laboring people Of
the United States shall govern themselves and
ENJOY the lrultS OF tnelr own industry or
whether they shall be governed by the power
of money wrenched from their hands by unjust
laws and placed in the hands OF q privileged
class. That is the question from now on, and
there will be hard blows given as well as re-
ceived by those who take their stand for the
people"
Q.-'Is it true that you think the tariff issue
has undergone great change in its scope and
character within the last few yearsp
Al know it has. The ideas of Henry
Clay on the tariff are no more in harmony with
the republican policy OF the present time than
the ten commandments are with stopping
stage coaches and robbing express trains in the
far West. The tariff advocated by Clay was to
be temporary, and on no article ever to exceed
so per cent, and to be scaled down from time
10 time to purely revenue basis The tariff of
the republican party of to-day is to be perma-
nent not depending on the want of revenue,
laid and increased at every opportunity solely
for the protection OF high prices to the manu-
facturer, just the same with surplus as If
the treasury was empty. IL is this bold and
audacious claim OF right to enrich one class of
Of citizens at the expense OF all other classes,
and without any reference whatever TO the
revenues of the government, that is now so
deeply ineensing the thinking candid man Of
the whole country, and of both parties. IL was
never plainly put forth and avowed until il ap-
peared in the republican Chicago platform of
last year. Now 1t is understood, and IL will be
met at all times and under all circumstances
with the aggressive courage of those who know
their cause is Just"
Q-"Did the reporter of the indianapolis
journal report correctly what you said about
Carnegie and his class of monopolists"
Al have no complaints to make of that re-
porter. nor have anything to take back and
but little TO explain. The reporter was not on
the platform and had an uncomfortable position.
would have secured him better one had !
known he was there. | have no idea he in.
tended to report me incorrectly but st the same
time my severe remarks in regard to legalized
plunderers and highwaymen, Carnegie amongst
them, are not given in full connection with
the thoughts and reflections which inspired
them. | was thinking and speaking of
those who ground the faces of the poor
oppressed the helpless-reduced their
wages, increased the price of life's absolute ne
cessties, devOured widows houses and for a
pretense make long prayers. The Savior of
mankind has said that such as these shall re-
ceiye a greater damnation than anybody else.
Carnegies name came to my mind as an Illus
trstion of this class, not for the purpose of
personal assault, or to indicate that he Is any
worse in principle than thousands of Others
His income however. for some time past has
rated at 81, $4,000 a year, which means, as
some one has worked il out, S125.O00 a month,
$2S, ,sI5 q week, $4,l20 a day. Sl7l.66 an hour,
50 sc a minute. knew that he did no work
himself, and that he received from the labor Of
others for every minnie OF his life. for nearly
every breath he draws more money than he
pays TO thousands of men and women in his
employ for a hard days work twelve hours
long. l had read many descriptions
OF the pitiful. abject and squalid cOndi-
ton 10 which laboring people are re-
duced by the system of unrighleous taxa
ton which has made him richer than
many Of the crowned heads OF Europe. Here
is one now at hand. Speaking of a of aged
and decrepit shanties on the MOnongahela,
near Pittsburg, the headquarters of protection,
the writer says:
"'They are filed with pallid humanity .
black with age, painless, carpetless and un.
com ortable. In summer they are dreadful
places TO live in. The bare hills tower each
side, making a sort of urn in which the hot sun
turns the dense air fetid. The sewage runs
through open CUTTERS
walk through the streets tells all. There are
no disguises The bare, brown doOnteps. the
tables seen through the open doorway, the
frowsy bed standing by the open window all
bear their testimony OF q comfortess life ia
plain view Of the passer-by. You may know
how much or how little the families have TO
eat COuTtship and marriage,
sickness and sorrow, deaths and births all 20
on in the the purview OF men for poverty can
allord no secrets and the clid dwellers OF the
sort might show you, but this is fair sample
OF all.
"How much protection is there here for the
laborng man and woman? Not enough to
keep their children from being born in full
view OF the streets, nor from dying in the same
way. Carnegie's income from their labor, not
from his own, is S4,120 for every day the year
round, but the poor. weary wife and mother
can find no hour In them all in which TO suffer