Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1890-10-30
senator GRAY on the MIN, nm.

NJ y leHnW clllzenS, you Will reCollect
that in 1888 the Democratic House of
Representatives gave a pledge of what
their craftsmanship was and would be,
by certain measure, that was passed
by the House and failed in the Repub-
lican Senate, called the Mills bill. 1t
was revision of the tariff law; it was
u very careful and cautious and con-
sentative revision of that law. 1t didn't
go as far as a great many men thought
it should do; but the traditional con.
servatism and craftsmanship that is
always found in the Democratic ranks
said that all these war taxes have been
imposed for some % years and, as GER
tain interests and industries have grown
up under them, we will proceed eau
tiously; we do not wish to injurc any
interest or industry we do not wish to
rudely assail or shock the localized in
terests Of this country; and our starting
step will be tentative; so that, ii we find
that we have made a mistake, it can be
easily withdrawn; for it is only the in
terest of the whole people that we arc
after.
And so they took down few courses
from the masonary of this great struc-
ture of war taxation, to meet the ext
gency Immediately confronting them,
Now, what was that? They took the
mere necessaries of life, the things that
all men must use-these things, some of
them, that our Republican friends say
are not necessaries, but are Injuries for
what they call the plain people Of this
country, but which am sure they and
all Democrats think should be consid-
cred necessaries, who have right 10
the best which can be had honestly
they took down little-not great deal
because they were very careful Of the
manufacturers-they took down little
the duty on woods and blankets and
clothing and yarn and worsted, so that
your wooden clothes and your hats and
your yarn stockings and your wooden
dress goods would be a little cheaper;
and, in order to compensate the manu-
facturers, they gave them free their raw
material wool-by which they could
make their profit and charge less to the
American people l say that was a
sensible, practical, business-like per-
Torrance Of great duty.
Why should This duty on raw wool
exist, this great industry of making
blankets and worstcds and clothing be
taxed by making raw wool dear to those
things that have to enter into fabrics of
comfort and utility? Well, they say,
it was in order that the great sheep
ranches west of The Ohio and west Of
the Mississippi might be a Hale more
profitable to the owners; to the English
syndicates who had put millions into
these great ranches and sheep walks.
They were very clamorous; yet / don't
Know that VIC sec them very thickly on
the streets; they are not very large pro-
portion Of our population; never saw
them till saw them in Washington;
they came down thare, these shepherds,
and they came in palace cars and lived
at expensive hotels and staid there all
winter; and they said how necessary to
the protection of the labor of sheep
it was that raw wool
should not only remain taxed but
should be more heavily taxed,
in order that these foreign woods should
be kept out, or at least made to sell at a
higher price; and they seemed to be so
imbued with all these Christian graces
rs to think that the other sixty mil
lions of people should be willing to
make sacrifice in order that these shep- |
herds might have what they wants.i. |
Ono boy to thousand sheep, that is the
labor, and the land costs them almost
and the profits they make,
Heaven knows, ought to be satisfactory.
But no, these gentlemen--and it is a fact
that large part of that capital is Eng
fish capital, and just as far as they are
reaping the benefit of this legislation,
passed by an American Congress, you
see in this country, to that extent, that
odious system of absentee landlordism
that has been the curse of unhappy Ire
Iand-these We're the people largely
for, tell you, the farmers Of the whole |
Delaware Peninsula, who have their
little tlocks of twenty, thirty, forty or
hundred sheep, are not interested enough |
to make the affair Of any moment to
them, they get their profit largely from
the mutton and from the lambs
they sell, and it would not
make difference TO any farmer in this
region of IL cents year whether wool
We're free or not-hut it was these men,
one of whom was pointed out to me
that owned 100000 sheep, who had the
interest to make it worth their while to
ask the American Congress to leave this
tax burden upon the American people
Why, 1T would be better to pension these
American monopolsts and these Eng
fish landlords right out Of the treasury,
and say TO them Go, and don't disturb
us any more; get out of here and we
will give you pension" 1t would be
in the long run.-iScpator Gray's
Opera House speech.
The result of the canvass of Philadel-
phia, made under the auspices of the
Democratic city committee, foots up as
follows: Democrats, 97,114; Rcpuhli-
aVI