The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1891-06-04


The speech as whole was fully up
to the average of partisan political
speeches. Mr.. Allen makes no pre-
tensions to lofty flights of oratory or
Sky-scraping, and his personal APP
pcarancc is not specially striking. His
strong forte is drollcry and story tell
ing to illustrate his points. and in this
he appears to fine advantage and new
er fails to amuSc and entertain his
listeners, whether they agree with
him or not.
lie introduced the subject of the
tariff. to the discussion of which Il
large portion of his address WAS de
voted, with sidc-Splitting ancc-
dotc. Like some other Democratic
leaders, he attributes to the high
tariff nearly all the ills from which
the country is suffering, though he
admits that the vOlumc of currency Is
insufficient for the business of the
country and proposes as the remedy
the free and unlimited coinage of gold
and silver and the issuance of green
backs in sufficient quantity to buy
up all the bonds of the government,
paying premium, if need be, to do
this. The volume of currency he
would have not to fall below forty
nor exceed fifty dollars per capita of
population. and this he would rcgn
late by Il Constitutional amendment.
As the father of Lee county rCsolu-
tons. of course Mr.. Allen was ''agln
the Sub Treasury, and believes that
measure unconstitutional. impracti
cal. undcmocratic and tending to cen
tralization." and class Legislation of
the rankest type.
Mr.. Allen had forgotten. or he
thought his hearers had forgotten, the
class distinctions recognized i'll the
Mills Tariff bill passed by Demo
cratic House, and he had perhaps for
gotten the virtual giving away OF
several hundred thousand acres of
State lands to the Gulf 4 Ship Island
Railroad Company few years ago by
a Democratic legislature. and the eX-
traordnary privileges and exemptions
granted to other railroad companies
and corporations by Democratic leg
islaturcs; also the exemption from
taxation for ten years of the big Mis-
sissippi Mills and other manufacture
ing enterprises. Possibly he had for
gotten that the late Democratic Con-
stitutioral Convention fixed i'll the
organic law that certain new manu-
featuring enterprises should he cN-
empt from taxation until 1873; but
that no offer has ever yet been made
to exempt from taxation for day
any farmer. mechanic or saw mill man
who would come to Mississippi and
invest his money.
1t is true. as Mr.. Allen so well said,
that if man is hard pressed for mon
ey, he can wear his last years clothes
and sort O scramble along somehow
until times get better, but if he Is
out of something to eat and money is
scarce and provisions high, he's got
to have them anyhow, or go to bed
hungry; nevertheless, Mr.. Allen had
nothing to say against granting cN-
cmptions and incidental protection to
the men who manufacture cloth and
other articles of commerce. But
when the hard worked and poorly
paid farmer, who produces the bread
that keeps the whole nation from
going to bed hungry-and the mate
rails for its clothes too, as for that
matter,-asks for relief and meas
urc by which he can escape the
clutches of m0nopoliStS and spccula-
tors and receive IL fair compensation
for his toil,--he must be denounced
for wanting c-l-a-s-s legislation, and
expecting the great and only Demo
cratic party, Of which Mr.. Allen is
one of the chief moguls, to go back
on its practices and traditions
But Mr.. Allen completely over
reached himself when he pulled out
his Lee county resolutions, read them
and proposed that the meeting adopt
them as their own. 1t was enough for
him to read and endorse himself rcsO
tons denouncing the Sub-Treasury,
condemning the Alliance as Il secret
political organization (for that is what
his resolution meant, if it meant any
thing) and endorsing men for re-elec-
ton to the Senate who are avOWed
opposers of the Alliance demands, but
when he coolly asked Alliance Demo-
Gratis to vote for such resolutions, he
was rubbing it in.
The Alliance is a secret Organiza
ton, and it is political organiza-
ton, but it leaves every member in
dividually free to choose his own par
ty affiliations, and all of its prin
ciples and political acts and measures
are openly published to the world