The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-05-10
WILSON TALKS TARIFF.


The willy vfrginian Does the Proselyting
Act ut the Armory.
A Democratic missionary, under the pay
of his party, voiced the free trade senti-
ments of Democracy at the Armory last
night to fair and sympathetic audience.
He was no less than Hon. w. L. Wilson,
the smooth speaker from West Virginia,
who presides over the national executive
committee of Democratic leagues Mr..
Wilson did his best to convince his hearers
Of the alarming evils Of the present pro-
tcctive system. and though he intended,
doubtless, to be serious in his argument,
he brought TO his aid weapons of satire
and ridicule which could not fail of some
effect. The speaker certainly amused his
hearers.
Upon the platform with him, each wear
ing q Jeffersonian simplicity Of counte-
nance, becoming well their respectful
silence, were Eugene Semple, ex-governor;
John Y. Ostrander, ex-register of the land
Office; ]. NJ. Lyon, ex-postmaster and ex-
chairman of the county committee:
Thomas E. Jones. ex-councilman; George
Donworth, ex-presidcnt of the Democratic
League of King county; Hillory Butler,
W. II. Thompson and J. r. Mcdonald;
uA10 w IA SakAs POtA4S CA-On itC0 Ve0tSo
marshal for Minnesota, and present chair
man Of the Democratic state central COM
mittee Of the North Star state. Music was
furnished by the First Regimental band.
The speaker discussed the tariff ques-
ton; that is, he showed difference be-
tween levying direct tax upon accumu-
lated property and an indirect tax upon
articles Of consumption. He laid great
stress upon the tariff on wool and cloth
ing, and said the result is that 1.-THE Amer
leans are the poorest and most uncomfort-
ably clothed people in the world that
the shoddy mills are kept running manu-
featuring '.wool" while the wooden mills
are shut down or only halt running, and
that instead of American workingmen be-
ing protected against the competition Of
foreign pauper labor, the whole nation is
clothed with the cast-off rags of the cheap
pauper labor of Europe" The long and
short ofitis, the speaker commended, that the
masses are taxed for the benefit of the few,
and the only labor and sweat that are pro-
tected are 1.-THE labor of the driving wheel
and the piston rod, and the sweat of the
steam gauge and the tube boiler'-ma-
chinery taking the place of human indus
try and skill. This he illustrated by the
Pacific mills of Lawrence, Mass He also
recited an imaginary dialogue between a
superintendent and an employee, the latter
having ascertained that his - per week
wouldn't go very far if he accepted in lieu
thereof an equivalent in protected cloth.
The dialogue wound up Is follows:
SUPPLEMENTARY poor fool, the gov
eminent gives me 100 per cent protection
for the cloth sell you, but free trade in
the labor you sell me.
Evidently the superintendent, according
to the Democratic orator, had the best of
1t, and could have foreign labor, though
his employee could not buy foreign cloth
without paying tax. And OF the same
nature was the remainder of Mr.. Wilson's
lecture, the burden Of which was that the
great object of the tariff is not SO much to
provide revenue as to protect the manu-
facturer, and make the monopolist richer,
while the poor grow poorer.