Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1891-10-22

want to declare that six hours shall con-
stitute days work instead of eight, and
that the employer shall pay as much for
six hours as he now pays for eight. And
the farmer and the wage-earner have as
much right to demand of the government
that they shall increase the value of their
products and their labor as the silver pro-
Queer has to demand of the government an
increased price for his products of IS per
cent on the dollar, Applause. ]
We want no false weights nor false bal.
| ances. We want an honest yard we want
an honest pound, we want an honest dol
lar. false balance is an abomination to
the Lord, but just weight is his delight.
[Applausel.
am opposed to free and unlimited coin,
age for another reason. When the war
| closed we had two great debts, one to thu
money creditors of the government. com.
monty known as the bondholders, and the
other to the soldiers of the republic, who
were just returned from that great war. The
debt to the bondholders could be ascer-
tanned. 1t reached more than So, ooo. ooo,-
900. The debt of the old soldiers could
not be computed for we did not know how
many of them came home disabled or
| diseased, and who hereafter might become
government pensioners So that in 1867
the account of debts stood in this wise,
So, 900, 900, 900 to the bondholders, $I47,-
900, 900 of annual interest on the principal
of that sum, and S22, 600, 900 to the pension
ers, their widows and orphans SI47, ooo,-
900 of annual interest we're paid to
the bondholders, S22, 900, 900 to the old
soldiers for pensions. You will remember
that in 1868, 1860 and 1870, there was
great party in this country, and it was not
the Republican party, that said "You
might as well repudiate the debt, you never
can pay it, and if you do not repudate il
in whole, you must repudiate it in part by
paying it off in deprecated and irredeem-
able currency" The Republican party
said mo, i" and the old soldiers returning
home war SCARED, said, I'VE will wait
on our pensions; we have saved this govern
ment from armed rebellion, we will never
now consent that any stain shall be put
upon her financial honor" And the old
soldiers uniting with the party of public
integrity achieved great victories for
National honor
Twenty-four years have gone by, and
the positions are exactly reversed. We
have paid off more than two thousand
millions of that great debt to the bond
holder. We have reduced the interest
charged from $I47, DOC, 900 to S22 600, 900,
and the pensions of the soldiers have gone
up from $40, 900, 900 in 1867 to $I35, 600, 600
in 1891. Great applause. The chief
creditors of the government to-day are
not rich, are not the opulent, not the men,
of means, they are the old soldiers. poor
as they are, and their widows and orphans
scattered from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
1t is proposed by free and unlimited
coinage of silver to pay them in a dollar
worth only eighty cents Against that
the Republican party enters it's solemn,
protest. [Great and continued applause,
The old soldiers must be paid in as good
coin as the bondholder. [Cries Of That's
right. And if there is any man in this
audience who differs with me l would like
to have him raise up his right hand Il
would like to bring him to the platform
that might interrogate him Laughter
l would like to know what flag he followed
laughter from 1851 to 1865. Laughter J.
And now, my fellow citizens, having said
that much upon the subject of the money,
and of silver, l want to talk to you little
while on the subject of the tariff. [Ap-
plause. | was glad to see as rode through
Iowa yesterday that the new tariff had
brought no blight to your great state. IA
voice: mo, but it brought twenty pounds
of granulated sugar for $I.oo."l
My fellow citizens, did it ever occur to
you that if we did not have a government
and if we did not have to raise money to
meet the expenses of the government,
that we would not be vexed about either
protective tariffs or regiment tariffs. If the
government could create something out of
nothing if the government had some way
by which it could raise its own revenues
for public purposes aside from taxation,
then we would have no need for taxation,
a revenue or a protective tariff but we
have got-remember that we have got $780,
$500, 900, 900 to raise every year, 5000, ooo,1
600 must crome from source and be raised
somehow or the wheels of this government
are clogged. Think of it! 1t takes 81, ooo,-
600 every twenty-four hours to run this
government; from the rising of the sun
this morning to the rising of the sun to-
morrow morning 81, 900, 600, must flow into
the treasury of this United States or its
obligations will go unchecked. And how
will you raise it? Why, you can raise it by
one of two ways, either by product taxation
or by tariff taxation. Either by taxing tho
products of our own soil and own shops OF
our own labor, our lands our income and
investment, either raising it in that way, on
by taxing the pIQdgcts of other nations
seeking market in the United States. But
have we had enough of taxation in tbs,
country today State and county and
municipal bear quite heavily enough on the
American people, and l doubt if vote
was taken from one end of this country to
the other there would not be cor
poral guard of our citizens who would
vote to tax themselves in the sum of $780,
900. 900 every year for federal purposes TO
pay the expenses of the federal government.
If you cannot raise it that way and don't
raise it in that way-and the raising
it that way is against the spirit
of the American people, and against
the traditions of the American PEG.
pie. We have only had direct taxation but
three times in our history, and they were
in periods OF war or great emergency when
the tariffs would not supply all the money
necessary for public purposes, but Just as
soon as the emergency had gone the cry
arose from one end of this country to the
other irrespective of party or politics, and
demanded the repeal of direct taxation,
and consequently every one of the direct
taxes which you bore during the war and
after the war have been repealed, except
those on spirits and tobacco So / say
that the sentiment of this country,
Republican and Democratic mean
among the masses of the peoples in
favor of raising the bulk of this great
annual sum required by putting tariff on
foreign importations. What is the differ
-. Il. II