Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1892-04-06
Extracts from Bryan's Great Speech.

A few weeks since, Hon. William j.
Bryan, of Nebraska, who is serving his
first term in Congress made an able
and eloquent speech of four hours
length on the tariff, which demonstrat-
ed that he was one of the ablest young
men of the country, who is destined to
make his mark in history. From this
remarble speech we make the follow
ing extracts:-
you cannot, my friends, raise an
infant industry without putting the
burden somewhere. Whenever you
see the Government, by operation of
law, send dollar singing down into
one mans pocket, you must remember
that the Government has brought it
crying up out of some other mans
pocket. You might just as well try to
raise weight with lever without a
fulcrum as try to help some particular
industry by means of taxation without
placing the burden upon the consum-
err.
Back in Illinois when we were re-
pairing a rail fence we would some
times find corner down pretty low in
the ground. and not wanting to tear
down the fence we would devise way
of raising that fence corner to put I'M
der it new ground chunk. How did
we do it? We took a rail, put one end
of it under the fence corner, then laid
down ground chunk for fulcrum.
Then we would go off to the end of the
rail and bear it down; up would go the
fence corner-but does anybody sup
pose there was no pressure on that full
crum?
'"That, my friends, illustrates just
the operation, as conceive it, of pro-
tective tariff. You want to raise an in
FAINT industry, for Instance; what do
you do? You take protective tariff
for lever and put one end of it under
the infant industry that is to be raised.
You look around for some good, fat,
hearty consumer and lay him down for
a ground chunk; you bear down on the
rail and up goes the infant industry,
but down goes the ground chunk into
the ground.
1.-The reason our friends justify the
principle is that they see the infant in
dustry rise, but they forget the man
upon whom they are placing the bur-
den. And the trouble with this coun-
try is that all over the land are the
homes of forgotten men-men whose
rights have been violated and whose
interests have been disregarded in Or
der that somebody else may be enrich
ed. 1t is the principle that is involved
in this little binding-twine bill. You
see the industry that gets the $50,
but you never think of the farmers
who go down into their pockets and
pay the little sums that make up the
great amount. Is not that fact? Is
not that the effect of the tariff? There
fore, the man who justifies protection
as principle must prove three things.
He must prove that the principle is
right; that the policy is wise, and that
the tax is necessary.
when some young man selects a
young woman who is willing to trust
her future to his strong right arm, and
they start to build a little home, that
home, which is the unit of society and
upon which our Government and our
prosperity must rest-when they start
to build this little home, and the man
who sells the lumber teaches out his
hand to collect tariff upon that; the
man who sells paints and oils wants a
tariff upon them; the man who fur
nishes the carpets, tableclOthes, knives,
forks, dishes, furniture, spoons, every
thing that enters into the construction
and operation of that home-when all
these hands, l say, are stretched out
from every direction to lay their blight
ing weight upon that cottage, and the
Democratic party says, Hands off, and
let that home industry live,' it is pro-
tecting the grandest home industry
that this or any other nation ever had.
"And l am willing that you, our
friends on the other side, shall have
what consolation you may gain from
the protection of those home indus
tries which have crowned with palati-
al residence the hills of New England,
if you will simply give us the credit of
being the champions of the homes of
this land. 1t would seem that if any
appeal could find a listening ear in this
legislative hall it ought to be the ap
peal that comes up from those Gotten
ants of earth's only paradise; but your
party has neglected them; more, it has
spurned and spit upon them. When
they asked for bread you gave them a
stone, and when they asked for fish
you gave them a serpent. You have
laid upon them burdens grievous to be
borne. You have filled their days with
toll and their nights with anxious care,
and when they cried aloud for relief
you were deaf to their entreaties."