The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-10-16
WAYNE M,VEAGH

PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 15.-One of the
largest political meetings of the campaign
was held in the Academy ofiMusic tonight
under the auspices of the Young Mems
Democratic association of this city, which
had invited Wayne McVeagh, formerly
attorney general under President Garfield.
10 explain his reasons for abandoning the
Republican party. Mr.. VcVeagh recently
wrote letter announcing that he would
vote for Cleveland. The great auditorium
was filled, and many were turned away.
The audience was decidedly Democratic
In its sympathies.
BY way of beginning Mr.. McVeagh re-
ferred to the fact that he attained his ma
jority the day the Republican party was
born; that he had never voted for Demo
erat, and that four years ago he voted for
Harrison. Until now he had not felt at
liberty to vote for any but Republican
candidates. He had watched with pain
the steady growth of the corrupt use of
money in politics. He had hoped that the
Republican party would turn itself against
congressional bouLties and diminish tn lat
awful traffic in votes. His hopes had been
disappointed, and he was convinced that
unless the Republican party was checked
il would make the poor poorer and the
rich richer ore corrupt and selfish and
less patriotic There was too much truth
in the rumorS that the election of 1888 had
been bought. A prominent Republican
manufacturer had said: THE Mckinley
bill Is ours-we bought it," There was no
way of accounting Tor the action of the
Republican l.arty for the last four years
than as the bargain and sale of legisla-
tion. he aid not see how any man in his
senses Thought 1t wise to infiict upon the
poor the awful burdens of tie Mckinley
=. Il a i)aI pPh l,- oFo
pensions; to lmpoverisii the taxpayers; to
buy vast masses OF silver, for which there
was no use, or 10 insult small and weak
sister republic like Chilli by sending such
a diplomat as Patrick Egan. or t. threaten
her with war without waiting to translate
her apology for wrong done
On the tariff question Mr.. McVeagh
saio that less than II per cent. of the
laborers Of Pennsylvania could secure em-
ployment i'll the protected industries,
while the other SS per cent had to pay
bounty on almest everything they ate and
wore. The rich paid substantially
nothing, but, on the contrary. realized
immense benefits out OF the prevailing sys-
TEN of taxation. The depreciation in the
value of farms in the country since 1870
was greater, in the speakers Judgment,
than the cost of any manufacturing in
terest in it. The farmer had TO sell his
wheat at a price fixed in Liverpool and at
less than III cost HIM. The farmer WAS
forced to pay a big bounty to the cordage
trust for twlne, owing TO the Mckinley
bill. The former further found his pow
erty increased by the tax he had to pay on
almost everything he had to buy Labor
ing men We're obliged to pay artificial
prices for sugar on account of the sugar
trust. kept alive by the Mckinley bill.
Seeing these things. ii was not strauc ce
that ministers of the Gospel cried out that
the laborer is looked upon as a beast of
burden, and that Carnegie and his asso
ciates were responsible for every drop of
blood shed at Homestead These were
not the rawlings of Anarchists but the
words of Christian teachers. And what
was true OF the Mckinley bill and the
great group of gigantic monopolies which
were nouriShed by it was true of the reck-
less pension legislation. The wicke,,ness
of such legislation was more APPARENT when
it was known that every dollar voted to
pensioners involved distinct diminution
of the wages of labor. Eloquent million
aires spoke slibly of the $3.50, ,000, coo voted
for pensions, forgetting that the vast sum
came almost entirely from the earnings of
the toilers. The speaker did not object to
just pensions.
Mr.. McVeagh then turned his attention
TO the silver question, and said that the
present silver legislation was driving gold
out of the country and that it was only a
question OF time when we would be re-
Guced 10 a silver currency.