St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-07-22
WAR TAXES MUST GO.
Gen. Bakers Address on Re-
ceiving the Alliance Nom
nation.
He Will Garry the War Into
Africa" and Defeat
Lind.
The Gradual Growth Of the
Octopus Of Protection
Traced.
The Mckinley Bill the Cul :
mination Of the Protect
i've Craze.

upon what will be the hardest fought
congressional campaign in its history.
On one side will be the picturesque
figure of Gen. James H. Baker, of Blue
Earth, while OIL the other will be John
Lind, the present member for that dis
trict. A'sThe fight" says Gen. Baker,
"will be a square one between protec-
ton and tariff reduction" 1t will be
vigorous from the start. There are few
more eloquent orators in the country
than Gen. Baker, and his speech in ac-
cepting the Alliance nomination for
congress at Kasota last Friday is a
master effort on the causes that have
led to the present depression in agri-
culture. 1t is given in full below:
This nomination." said Gen. Baker,
"is rendered me by the Farmers ALI
of the fact that | am and have been
hostile to the doctrines of Eigh pro-
tective tariff. The elimination of the
protective craze. as embodied in the
Mckinley bill. has driven into open re-
bellion the agricultural interests of the
entire Northwest. 1t is resistance to
such vicious legislation that has in
spired you to independent political ac-
ton. The protective tariff, as embodied
in existing or proposed legislation, is
the most unjust, uneQual,s extortionate
and rotten thing to-day in American
politics. In vain have | protested with
my party for years against its injustice
and the intolerance of those who inn
pose it upon the party and the country;
In every Republican convention held
in this state, for eight years, there has
passed with regularity resolutions de-
manding radical reform and reduction
of the tariff. Similar resolutions were
passed during the same time, in every
Republican compression district i'll Min
nesota. They were promulgated only
| to be broken. These resolutions have
| been trampled in the dust, and the de-
mands of the people openly defied.
| Five members of congress from this
| state. thus pledged totarlff reform, have
| in contempt OF those pledges voted for
| the highest protective duties known in
our history They have shown how to
reform the tariff upward, but not down
ward. The party lash did its
applied by Reed and Nc
Kinley was more effective than the
will of their constituents. There is no
longer hope for us but in open rebellion,
| and to-day we lift the standard OF re-
volt. The specially protected classes OF
this country have secured the machin-
cry of government, obtained complete
control of the Republican party, and
having saddled it with all the ever-in-
| creasing outrages of protection, are rid
ing it to its death. The excuses of
their tariff eXactiOns have invoked the
amaZement of every commercial nation
of the world. They have even made
Mr.. Blaine, the premier of the govern
| md hQ nf
and revise his opinions, like Sir Robert
Peel, England's premier in 1876, who re-
versed his position from protection to
free trade in an open speech in parlia-
ment in single hour.
"Let me illustrate to you how far this
tariff taxation has travelled in our his
tory in century. Washington began
his administration with a tariff of So
per cent, under the direction of Alex
ander Hamilton, both for revenue and
to encourage the planting of infant in
dustries. Washington closed his second
administration with tariff of 1919 per
cent. This was at time when there
was not spindle turning, nor forge
beating IN the thirteen colonies. With
varying tariffs and policies, we passed
along for seventy years, till we come to
1861, time within the memory of most
of us here present. The Republicans
then came into power and enacted the
well known "MOrrill tariff" which was
content with an average of 1871 per
cent on the entire line of duties. This
was considered enough for both revenue
and protection, in times of peace.
Then came the war and the war tar
ifs made wholly to support the war,
with the solemn promise that they
should be removed at the close of the
war. But the organized protected
classes, grown rich and powerful, now
got in their sdeadly work. They re-
fused to give up their gains and the
sources of their plumber. They seized
the Republican party, and made it but
mental vassal to still further enrich the
manufacturing barons. Their grip can
not be shaken off, and now, thirty years
removed from the war, in time OF
profound peace, they hold the tariff at
an average of 46 ITO per cent, as with
all iron hand.
"But grown still more audacious, and
fattening by that upon which they are
fed, they produce that browning infamy
of protection, the Mckinley bill, which
demands an average of 81 per cent.
Washington, Hamilton and their great
compeerS, thought 1913 per cent duties
sufficient to plant and nouriSh infant in
dustries; but to-day these industrial
giants, at the age of 100 years, rolling in
wealth, demand 81 per cent protection.
Against the audacity of these bloated
protected glasses we are in revolt to-
day. The lines are distinctly drawn.
They have made the issue. AS the man
of your choice to combat these wrongs,
l ask the vote of every man in this dis
trict, without reference to previous
party affiliations, who is opposed to
the oppressive eXactiOnS of the
protective tariff and the Infamous
outrage of the Mckinley bill. And
should be elected, / hesitate not to say
that | would not vote for any man as
speaker of the house of representatives
who is protectioniSt for would never
concede TO that interest, the power to
again pack committees and deSpotically
force legislation in the interest of pro-
lection. as is now being done by the
tyrannical methods which obtain in that
body. Great cheering.]
"The pretenSe by increased duties on
some farm products of protecting the
farmer is the most gross insult ever Of
fered TO his intelligence. You will re-
sent alike the offered bribe and the con-
temptuOus estimate of your understand
ing. AS the farmer studies more care
fully the questions which vitality COIL
! Germ his interests, he appreciates, as
never before, the value of his member
of congress. Those problems. he finds,
are mostly to be settled by ma
tional legislation. The whole flock
of trusts and combines; the
gambling in futures in farm
products; the stamping out of live stock
diseases; the controlling of corporate
power, and above all the reformation
of the all-devouring tariff must be Sc
cured by the action of congress.
Associated with the licensed rob-
berries of the tariff, we witness the eX-
traordinary assumptions of power by
the supreme court of the United States,
as exhibited in recent decisions, over
ruling the rightful authority of the
states. That imperial body denies to
Minnesota the right to control the rail
ways within her own territory. Asso-
ciated with this is the force election