The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-10-22
THE ROBINSON MEETING.
A LARGE CROWD AT THE ORAW.
FORD LAST EVENING.
Ex-Governor Robinson Speaks on
Tariff, Silver and Resubmis-
sion-Lucien Baker on
Resubmission.

the streets yesterday. Around the corners
of Main and Douglas, attention was called
to the banner across the avenue, showing
Robinson the first and next governor of
Kansas" About 7:30 in the evening band
with transparencies paraded the streets
and a large crowd assembled at the Craw-
ford. When Ex-Governor Charles Robin
son appeared on the stage accompanied by
f. w. Bently, chairman of the Democratic
central committee, the audience responded
with liberal cheers After music, Mr.
Bently said the meeting would not be a
partisan one and disposing of the situation
in that manner, presented Mayor Clement
as chairman. Mr.. Robinson being pre-
sented, spoke as follows:
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen.
I have often heard of Wichita as the
metropolis of the southwestern portion of
Kansas. 1t has not been my pleasure to
address your citizens at any length if | re
member Alright On this occasion need
not say that l feel myself highly comDli
mented by the demonstrations that / see
before me- However, do not take all to
myself this great honor. l know that you
are here to hear Mr.. Baker, and l know
also that it is not so much to hear me or
| Mr. Baker, as it is to listen to the cause we
have to present to you Kansas, as was
intimated by our chairman, Kansas has a
proud record, it is a record that no other
State in the Union can boast of, and no
state in the Union will ever be able
to boast of it, for it was here that
the tide of slavery, which seemed to
be sweeping over the entire country
was STAYED 1t was the handful of men
that came to Kansas in "a, 80 and sc that
turned back this tide and stayed the ad-
vance of that institution, which had con-
| troll of the congress and or the churches.
| A few men, laboring men, men belonging
! to the industrial classes, as the men before
you, came here, and threw themselves
| across the track of this monster and turned
| it back.
The turning back of that institution
caused an agitation that resulted in the
| election of President Lincoln. The South
! then saw that they could make no more
slave states, as they were to be under the
administration of free state man, and
| they determined that as for themselves,
| they would not submit, and they chose to
| secede That brought on the war of the
rebellion, and in that war slavery went
down.
Now what do we see today? Any man
who will look into the condition of our
country unprejudced will find that there
is another slavery threatening the people,
not the black people alone, but the white
people as we'll And it IS this state of
| things that we have come to talk about
! tonight. Not as partisans.
| l was glad TO hear your mayor say
| that we were not here as partisaus." /
am not most certainly. am here as one
! of the citizens of this great state of Kan
saS, and desire to talk TO you as citizens,
/ and not as partisanS.
Before the war of the rebellion the
wealth of this country was pretty evenly
distributed among the people. There were
! but few milliOnaires, and but very few
! pauperS comparatively. We bad John
| Jacob Astor, A T. Stewart and Girard as
millionaires, and they had but one or two
millions each. How is it today? The
millionaires are counted by the thousands.
and not with one million each, but with
| 10, so and 200 millions each. And how
about the rest of the wealth? Mr.. Shear
man, probably the greatest political econo-
| mist and ablest writer on that subject, in
| the county says, that one-half of the wealth
of the United States is now owned by
/ 40 600 people. The wealth of the Union
in 1880 was estimated at about sixty
two billions, that would be
about thlrty-one billions for the other
sixty-two or sixty-three millions of peO-
Pile If the wealth was equally distributed
in 1881 il would give about $1,000 to every
man, woman and child. Take one-half of
twill leave about $500 for each man,
woman and child, and that not equally di-
vided. For many have more than 500,
some have $4,000, some 100000, that do
not belong TO the 10000 that own one-half
of the wealth. Yet that is the state of
things we want to consider tonight. We
want, if we can, to find out how this has
happened. We want to see whether it is
mere accident or whether there has been
design. l must ask your pardon for being
brief on a subject that would require
whole evening to discuss. | VIII, however
fh 10
them home with you to investigate and
think them over.
How has this wealth been accumulated
by a few men? AT the time OF the war
there was a great debt incurred which had
TO be paid. 1t amounted TO some two or
three billion dollars, and the question
arose, how should it be paid? IL was the
duty of congress to provide means for the
payment of that debt. You would say, let
the wealth OF the Union pay it; let those
who have their millions pay 1t; let those
incomes of SO, 900. and So, 600, be taxed TO
pay this debt. Was it done in that way!
We very naturally supposed that it
would be done in that way. The
government is for the protection
Of the wealth of the Union as we'll as The
citizens of the Union. They did not do 1t
that way: not dollar was raised from
such a source How was it done?
As an illustration; they found poor
white woman with half dozen children,
and they put tax upon the lum Der IN her
shanty, upon the few panes of glass that
let the light of day into her cabin, they
taxed her bedding, her quilts, her blank
cts, sheets, ticks, crOckery, cutlery, tin
pans and broken stove, they taxed every
thing almost that they could find that be
longed to her. She is an illustration OF
the class that was taxed They taxed the
industrial class to raise this money to pay
- int nd eli r inc n oh
to pay the expenses of the government and
the pensions of our soldiers. How did
they do it? They put on what
they called tariff on imports; they taxed
goods imported from another country.
If they came in the country they must pay
certain per cent, which per cent went into
the treasury Here is a blanket manufac-
tured in some foreign country that cost
81. If the tax is 100 per cent then the pur-
chaser paws 81 for it; 81 for the blanket and
81 to 90 into the treasury. But while we
are paying that tax on imported goods we
have to paw the same amount on the MANI u
featured goods. The manufacturer who
makes the blankets at home may put the
price on his 81 up to s., the same as the
imported blanket but the second dollar
does not go into the treasury, but into the
pockets of the manufacturer. So of all
the goods manufactured in this country.
That is protection.
Now what proportion OF the goods we
consume are imported, and what manu-
featured, IL is estimated that we manu-
facture in this country five times as many
goods as are imported On an average we
raise on imported goods tax Of so, 90 90
per year some years more, some less This
wear it is little more. II we manufacture
i've times as many goods a. we import,
then we pay five times 500 $1,000. Where,
To the treasury TO defray the expenses of
the government. 20 pay the debt, the pen
slonss No, to the pockets OF these manu-
facturers- Dive times two hundred million