Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1891-09-24
ROGER O. MILLS IN OHIO.

Hon. ROGERQ Q. MILLS opening speech
at Mansfield has caused moro comment
among prominent political people than
any event recently. The cause OF this
furore is that he entirely Subordinated
the silver issue to the tariff issue. He
plainly told the multitude who listened
to him that the free coinage of silver
would not relieve their burdens. There
was something else infinitely worse eat
ing at their vitals.
He said that he did not believe the
free coinage Of silver would relieve the
country from the distress which it is
now suffering. We were suffering a
deeper distress from 1873 to 1879. 1t
was greatly relieved during the year
1850, 1851 and 1882 by heavily increased
foreign trade, but since then our for
eign trade has not been so prosperous
and we have been grsvitating back 10
ward the same old rutS. We began the
limited coinage of silver in 1878, and
since then we have coined SAG, 100000
Of silver and 1929, 100000 of gold, and
yet with this addition Of S945, 600, 600 Of
gold and silver 10 our money stock we
are still in the land of shadows. Under
the act of July II, 1890, the Secretary
of the Treasury is required to issue
Treasury notes and pay them out in the
purchase of 100000 ounces of silver
annually. Up to August 6, 1891, he has
issued and put in circulation S57, OPS, OBS
Of these notes in the purchase of silver
bullion, but no one has seen during the
year any relief from our troubles. With
the minis thrown open to the world we
could not get more than Sixty-fye
millions or seventy millions Of silver per
annum. Our present law gives US from
ifty-four millions to sixty millions Of
Treasury notes in lieu of the silver
Ten or twelve millions more is all that
free coinage could possibly add to the
circulation, and if all the gold and sill
YER which we have coined and the paper
we have issued since 1878 have not re-
lieved US, eau ten or twelve more mil
lions do it?"
The point made against the free coin
age is a strong one. If we have had no
relief by the coinage Of some S54, OOO,O 900
annually, how are we TO get relief from
an additional coinage Of $4,000, 900 or
1000, 600 more a year? The logic of
Mr.. MILLS statement seems invulner-
able.
Mr.. Mills rightly locates the cause Of
the distress to a large part of popu
lation to the high tariff taxes. He
speaks Of them as the Scourge that is
tormenting tbs land and driving con-
tentment out Of so many homes. 1t is
excessive taxation, remorseless, confs-
eating taxation, indirect, concealed,
hypocritical, exhaustive and blighting
taxation. Not your State taxation that
is levied on wealth and requires from
you less than one dollar on every hun
dred dollars of your property; not your
county or other local taxation that is
levied in the sight Of your eyes, and is
imposed, too, on wealth But it is the
other taxation that comes over the
wall like a thief in the night,
that mutiles its feet and gloves
It's hands with softest kid, and
conceals its features with the smack of
patriotism; that taxation that tells you
it is making you rich, when ii is rob-
bling the mouth of labor of the bread it
has earned; that taxation that like a
vampire fans your cheeks with cooling
airs and sootneS you to sleep, and while |
yOu are slumbering burieS It's beak in
your veins and draws your life away;
that taxation that by jugglery decreases
the prices of what you have to sell, and !
increases the prices OF what you have to !
buy; that taxation that passes by ac- |
cumulated wealth, and lays all its re-
morseless exactions upon articles which |
men, women and children are COM
PEELED to buy in order to live; that tax
alton that concentrates and increases
the power of wealth, reduces the wages
Of labor, shuts the laborer out Of en-
ployment, paralyzes production, re-
stricts consumption and plunges the |
country into the depths of distress
this is the cause Of all our troubles, and
TO this we should direct all our thoughts,
and use all the power with which wea are
invested to remove it. Because the peo-
pie DO not count down the dollars they
pay TO the tax collector and see and
know just how much they pay, the sup
porters Of this inlQuitouS system, rely
ing upon the ignorance of the people,
make bold 10 say that duties levied on
imported goods are not taxes"
So QUAY's influence in Republican
politics in Pennsyl vania has been
souelched, has it? MATTHEW STANLEY
Quay is still a slick citizen, and by his