Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1892-10-21
FOR CONGRESS,
WILLIAM M. McKAIG,
OPPOSED TO PLAIN SPEECH.
OF ALLEGANY COUNTY

VI OCHD 4 " LAIN OF hbCL.
The great campaign is now in full progress
and IL becomes necessary TO speak plaiI
words, and plain words sometimes shock
honest men quite as much as they do dis.
honest and corrupt politicians. 1t is always
easy TO drift with the current, and it be
comes easier still as the waters near thu
precipice. The privileged classes in Americd
ARE opposed to plain speech because they
have everything to lose and nothing to gain
1t would indeed be highly gratifying tC
the protected interest if the American PEG
pie would always take the trouble to speak Of
them as "our infant industries. They would
like to have certain governmental policy
in which they are deeply interested cabied
che fostering of domestic manufactured
They would like 10 have the vulgar word
tax" removed from the dictionary. When
family has enjoyed the privilege of taxing
other men for a generation or two it be-
comes highly refined and sensitive. Any
thing that is harsh or earnest CRATES upon
its sensibilities. Euphemisms it will toler.
ute, but plain words are positively too rude
for delicate ears.
No privileged class ever yet mounted to
luxury and ease without carrying with 1t
more or less of the respect which success,
even Of the dubious sort, usually commands.
The tariff lords Of America are no exception
10 the rule. The ties of society, of good fell
lowship, of politics and of the church are
strong, and plain speech that tends TO dis.
turb them is likely to be reprobated by men
who themselves may have nothing to fear
from it. There is an element also in every
society that always stands in dread of
change, that is timid almost t, the point of
cowardice and that is forever expostulating
with the sincere, restraining the courageous,
rebuking the bold and entreating the de.
termined TO be cautious
Every moral or political revolution of
which we have any record has had first to
deal with this repressive influence on the
part OF good men, to say nothing of the
more brutal manifestations of dislike on
the part OF the vicious and ignorant. The
hrickbats and bludgeons of the mob are less
disheartening TO a man who has Justice on
his side than the Indifference or the timidity
OF the pretended friend. The rabble that
ieers to-day will cheer tomorrow, but the
man who knows the truth and who will
conlidentially acknowledge ii, but who hest
tates about boldly proclalming it, may be
looked for on the side OF error when the
final and inevitable separation shall take
place.
The movement against the great crime of
protection has gone through all o. these
preliminary stages. 1t has encountered the
diets laugh, the FOOLS jest, the knave's leer
and the towards stare. 1t has overcome |
the good mans doubt, the ,mid mans lrown,
the churches indifference and socety's petty
CONSERVATION. II has prevailed against the
trckster's lie, the deserter's retreat and the
scoundrel's cool defiance. No trifle can stop
II now These years of discussion and prep.
aration have not been wasted They have
given time for the Encouragement of parties,
for the realignment of forces IL from the
one side have been drawn the men who
yield easily 10 the Establishments of power
and wealth there have come from the other
greater number who respect truth and
revere Justice The separation of the sheep
from the goats has been a tedious but a
necessary process
A law that enables one man 10 exact from
another any contribution of money or of
ioil for which no equivalent Is given must
contain radical error-a wrong land IL
is the duty Of every good citizen to search
out that error or wrong and correct il. A
farmer who gives forty bushels of wheat for
II coat when thirty would purchase the same
garment in free market is robbed of ten
bushels, and the time that he spent in grow.
ing that ten bushels was passed in seryi.
tude, and so on throughout the provisions
"i the monstrous and ruinous system of :
tariff laws now on our statute books.
This is the crime OF which protectionism
stands accused. The question involved is
not a complex one, though il has been made
10 appear so by those who have personal
ends To secure. II "A thief puts his hand in
your pocket you know him TO be thief,
aud no amount of stuffed reports, lying and
statistics that he may produce tending TO |
how that pious men always get their hands
in other mems pockets will deceive you in
Iae least. II man who tells you plainly
hat he is a thief and that he intends 10 /
make living by then is apprehended with I
'iolen goods in his possession and then de !
,lares that he took the valuables with the o
lea of replacing them with something bet v
er or bestowing them on the poor YOU Q
now him to be not only thief, but a liar h
{ you are invited TO high mountain by an
who points to the beauties of the
ED and forest or the streams as they gush
ON every hill, TO the waving grain aud the 90
odding corn, TO the glad sunlight aud the 4
ealth giving springs, and who says: "Be. Il
old my handwork," you rebuke him in
rath, for you know that he is a liar. IN
The protective tariff is TO be judged by lit
! primary object, the object no one denied Sp
hen II was first instituted. That object
as and is the taxation Of one man for the