The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1892-08-03
Senator Aldrich's Speech.

Senator Aldrich of Rhode Island adj
dressed the senate on Tuesday of last week
on the resolution of Senator Hale as to the
relative effects of protection and tariff for
revenue only. He spoke for an hour and
forty minutes, and the present industrial
situation was ably and clearly presented.
In opening his speech Mr.. Aldrich asserted
that the tariff question is to become by COM
mon consent the leading issue in the APP
preaching presidential campaign. The rad
ical declarations of the democratic platform
adopted at Chicago, and the equally radical
utterances OF leading representatives of the
party, insure this result AT no time in the
history of the country have the lines be-
tween the two great parties upon this ques-
ton been so clearly defined. The party
platforms OF 1892 declare with much greater
candor than is customary in papers of this
kind, the doctrines of their respective par
ties. The republicans enter the campaign
distinctively favoring the continuance of the
protective policy and announcing definitely
the principles which should control tariff
legislation, while on the other hand the
democrats denounce protection as a fraud
declare the unconstitutionality of protective
tariff duties and make special and vicious
attack upon the tariff act of 1890 as the cul-
minating atrocity of tariff legislation. The
democratic platform is in many respects a
radical departure from any of the previous
official utterances of the party. AT no time
in the history of the country, except in the
course of the movement for notification,
has any attempt heretofore been made to
make the doctrine of the unconstitutionality
of protective duties the essential element of
political creed. The steps by which the
democracy have reached the radical posi-
ton they now occupy have been very grad
ual. The democratic platforms of 1884 and
1883 were so constructed as to secure the ap-
prevail of large number of incidental pro-
tectionists who then held place, nominally
at least, in the democratic ranks; but in the
platform of 1892 all DISCUSSES are thrown off
and for the first time the party is arrayed in
emphatic antagoniSm to tariff rates which
contain any element Of protection. This
clear alignment of parties greatly simplities
the discussion of the question. 1t removes
all opportunity for possible differences of
opinion in regard to the republican plan OF
campaign. The friends of protection will
wage aggressive warfare upon the revolu-
| tionary doctrines, which, although long Sc
cretly cherished by democratic leaders, are
now for the first time openly avowed. The
attack upon the indefensible democratic
position must be vigorous and persistent.
| The report of the subcommittee of the
committee on finance, was analysed and its
details explained at considerable length by
Mr.. Aldrich. 1t has, l believe" said the
senator, " been for many months apparent
to the great mass of the people of the
| United States that none of the democratic
| predictions in regard to the higher prices
| and greater cost of living as the result of the
]
! The decline in the cost of living from June,
! 1889, to May, 1892, as shown in the report
| of the finance committee, was "a per cent.
| The advance in wages, as shown by the
same report, was 10 OF | per cent This
makes an average advance in the purchas-
ing power of wages of 415 per cent. AS
Stunning 5000 as the average income of fami-
lies of the country, this would be equivalent
to S25 per family, or an aggregate saving
for $1,000 600 families OF S325, 100000 for each
] a . - sum
nually to the national earnings and wealth
is an achievement which speaks with more
! eloquent voice than | can command in be-
half of policy under which such results
are possible, 1t is very significant that,
while the cost OF living declined for tho Pc
riod covered by the investigation of the
! finance committee, the cost of living in Eng
! land increased 9 per cent. If the condi-
| tons had been reversed, our democratic
| friends would have insisted that this was
the direct and logical result of the rival
revenue systems. am curious TO see what
| explanation they will now make"
Mr.. Aldrich asserted that the recent in
vestigation of the finance committee showed
that in general occupations wages in the
| United States were seventy-seven per cent
higher than in England. He had submitted
a table showing the relative wages in cot
ton and worsted mills in the two countries,
with American wages in many cases more
than 100 per cent higher. The table in ref
| erenCe 10 wages III lne production Oh Yin
plate showed difference of 1872 per cent in
favor of the United States as compared
with Wales, Similar statistics were album
dant. Wages IN the United States showed
| a still greater excess when compared with
those of countries of continental Europe.
Referring to Mr.. Vests assertion that never
before the present time had there been
such disturbances of labor, or of such hos
tile and inimical relationships between en-
ployer and employe, Mr. Aldrich pre-
scented statistics of strikes in each year from
1880 to 1890, inclusive in the United States.
| The strikes varied from go in 1880 TO 79S in
1890, whereas in Great Britain, the paradise
of tariff reformers, 3,l6l strikes had oc-
Cured in 1890. AS to the prostration of
agricultural interests about which Mr.. Vest
said so much, Mr., Aldrich asserted that
MIR. Vests statement was Numerically OPP
posed to the actual facts Of the case. Tie
farmer to-day, with an equal number OF
bushels of grain or pounds of meat, could
buy more and better clothing, machinery or
supplies than ever before. BY the operations
of the act of 1880 farmers were given large
and more profitable markets both at home
and abroad; as an instance of this, the ex-