The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-09-24

tialS, resolutions, nomination of officers.
etc., and recess was then taken until s
O'Clock p. m
AT the night session the large auditor
lum was crowded with an audience of 1900
people There was great enthusiasm.
Senator Eshelman, of Yakima, was the
first speaker of the evening
Senator Eshelman said inspart:
Inc Democratic party from the first at the
laying OF the foundation of this government
advocated tariff for public revenue. True,
even the low tariff of per cent. protected our in
iant industries. All tariffs, however low, viii
incidentally protect some one With the DEM
ocracy, however, the primary purpose of tariff is
10 raise revenue for government expenses,
whlle protection is secondary and Incidental.
But with the Republicans protection is primary
and II the public treasury gets cent it seems to
have been mistake. In the beginning,
when our industries were truly infant,
when every heart throbbed with patriotism
and almost every man was Democrat, our
American industries prospered under this low
incidental tariff. But now, when our industries
are hoary with age and owned principally by
foreign capital, under Republican high protec-
ton, they are wretchedly mean, clamorous and
un-American. In our early history, when we
We're all Democrats drink day was suff-
cient but since politics have changed, We have
become drunken and want TO drink all day and
Kick all night. Oh, when shall true, genuine
American patriotism be able to shake off this
infant from the public nursing bottle!
When our fathers threw off British supre-
macy in 1776 and established the American
Union, they thought they had thrown
OFF also all the ideas and institutions
OF aristocratic Europe which tended TO
create artificial and unnatural distnc-
ton among men. This they did as far as it was
possible for human wisdom and foresight The
law should do no more than TO give all fair
show and an equal chance. In no case should
IL ienc help to one citizen as against another.
AT best, inequality will come too soon The
strong will overcome and oppress the weak; the
man OF brains will circumyent the dullard; the
ulhgent. the temperate, the industrious will
march ahead OF their rivals. When one advan-
tage Is gained another becomes easier. In busi-
ness the ratio of power increases with the in
crease of capital When the differences are the
result OF natural causes no one can justly COM
plain; but what shall say of that charac-
ter OF legislation which increases these
depiorable inequali ties-creating them where,
according to natural law, they could
not nor would not exist. Yet
such is the intention and effect of protective
tariff. The supreme power of the land is vested
in the people. The friends of protection, by far
fetched and illogical arguments, have blinded
and mlsled the wage Garner and farmer by tell
Ing theone that it gives him high wages and a
home kmarket for the other The strikes and
Complaints OF laborers all over the country evil
dence the high wages while the privilege of a
home market costs every farmer 800 a year. 1t
is his home MARKET he bought it and paid for it
let him keep it. But learn that the farmers
OF this nation, especially in the West,
have employed the Peoples party
agent to dispose of their home market.
At last, somehow, some way, their wool
gathered pates have been palnctured, and
tRaxy hax-a r,@I &hoA %l1s-
ket," when they have anything to sell, is in
London or Liverpool; and as to getting anything
back in the long run they are generally in doubt,
while they know the manufacturer gets his in
the short run. aud no farmer has ever lived long
enough to be present in the long run.
If from natural causes one class of our people
should become stronger than the other, the noble
function OF legislation should be to assist the
weak-nothing grander than this.
A protective tariff is nothing more nor less
than tax levied on to support B. 1t is tax,
ii would not increase the price OF an article
on which it is imposed; it is paid by the con-
sumner, for there is one else to pay it; it does
protect the manufacturer, for he clamors for it
and says he cannot live without it. High pro-
lection is and has always been an enemy to ag
ricu.ture. No farmer can be benefited by this
system. He goes to the iron master to buy his
farm implements; the price is fixed by the cost
of the foreign article, plus the tariff duty He
goes to the wooden manufacturer to buy his
cloti ing; the price is fixed by the cost of the
foreign article, plus the tariff duty. And so on
through the list. To pay for these articles he
sells his wheat or his cotton or his wool in free
trade England, where the price is fixed in COM
petition with all the producing world. Sells in
the cheapest and buys in the dearest market,
yet this is business, for it is Republican.
1t was the custom of the wives of the old
border robbers to serve up covered dish with
pair of spurs inside, when the larder was empty
of beef Upon this hint their husbands, with
their clansmen, organized an armed foray into
pastures of the lowlands to drive off cattle.
They had one virtue in their lawnessness-they
told no lies about their motives; they confessed
that they lived by these levies upon their neigh
bors; they did not claim that il was all for the
good of the breeders and try to convince them
that they got il all back in the long run-got
more for what was left, besides having a home
market. This, in my Judgment is not nearly so
bad as that species of robbery carried on under
the protective system.
1t is said Mr.. President that revolutions
never go backwards; hence / am much en-
couraged and strengthened in the thought of
being right upon this question when l see every
newly organized party adopting substantially
Democratic doctrine, not on this alone, but on
all purely economic questions. Even James q.
Blaine, than whom no greater statesman is to be
found in Republican ranks, in his reciprocity
scheme simply advocates Democratic doctrine,
with limitations. He has read in our national
nlatform time and again, where we demanded
"freer commercial relations with the nations of
the earth" But the Democrats demanded re-
oiproctty, not only with a few unimportant re-
pubiics i'll South America aud a few small coun-
tries of the Eastern continent but reciprocity
with the great commercial nations of the
world.
He was followed by James NJ. Beck, ex-
attorney general of Pennsylvania, who
spoke mainly on the tariff. He denied
that the Democratic party was composed
of free traders. The exercises closed with
an address by Mr.. Rideout, colored dele
gate from Seattle.
Considerable ill-feeling has been ex-
cited by the failure of ex-President Cleve-
land to send a response to the letter of in
yitation sent to him some time ago, but
this was dispelled this morning by the re-
ceipt of a telegram from him of congratu-
lation and hope.
M.KINLEY SPEAKS IN IOWA.