The Portland daily press., 1892-09-12
John TORREY COMPANY, Manufacturers,

will be the result? Every manufacturer
will buy all the raw material his mill can
manufacture; he will hire all the men he
can get, and he will produce all the OBJ
jects of luxury and necessity which he
can produce. What does all that mean?
1t means what we call good times.'' If,
then, my friends, you mean good tines
in the future, vote the Republican ticket.
Applause If you mean s'bad times
daily with the Democracy and you will
get them.
I have had the very distinguished
honor, / am informed, to be criti-
cised by the gentleman who de-
sires to be my successor in
the position which | hold. There are
two points of his criticism which, per-
haps, it is worth while for me to answer,
not because he is kind enough to be my
critic, but because the answer illustrates
the principles of his party and of mine.
He says that the shook business has dis
appeared from Cumberland county and
York county. He says also that haven't
restored it. Those two statements are
correct. He intimates that the disap-
pearance of the shook business is due to
the Republican party. That is correct
enough for Democratic speech That
is to say, it is not true at all. Now the
shook business was very important bus
mess in this district. 1t had existed from
time almost immemorial. 1t consisted in
the manufacture of material for hogs
heads in which sugar was brought here
In old times sugar used to be made out
of molasses in the crudest possible way.
Brown sugar, damp and moist and drip
ping with m0lasses, was put into hogs
| de- ho1 70 ho in
that way After it arrived here it was
refined and cleared and purified. Our
grand fathers used to eat it just as it
came, our fathers got little farther
along and had it refined, yellow sugar,
and their descendants, almost to man,
now refuse anything except white sugar.
Cuba, after the centrifugal method OF
extraction of superhuous molasses was
invented, set up this new system, and. in
stead of exporting to us the raw sugar,
exported to us what is called centrifugal,
that is, sugar so dry that it will bear
transportation in bags. In other words,
the loss of the trade in shook in this dis
trict was the result of one of those
changes of trade which takes place in
the progress of the world for which no
part is responsible, and no man of sense
ever misunderstands it. Applause.
Very naturally, those who were engaged
in the business were reluctant to give it
up, and for my part l sympathized with
them deeply, and my sympathy did not
take the form of a post norton speech,
delivered two or three years, or five or
six years, after the industry was dead.
1t was sympathy that showed itself by
inviting them to inform me if there was
any remedy for this trouble,
and the only remedy which
they proposed was that we
should place a lower tariff on sugar i'm
ported in hogsheads than on sugar i'm
ported in bags. presented their bill to
the committee on ways and means, of
which my respected friend, Colonel Nor
rison, an able, straig htforward, truthful
and honest Democrat if there is one on
the face of the earth was chairman. Col
onel Morrison and his associates heard
my argument, and every Democrat on
that committee, every single, solitary
one, without any exception whatever,
voted against it, and it never appeared in
the House because it couldn't. Now, |
don't know whether I did my duty in
that case or not. | must leave it for you
to decide. Another point of criticism is
that the sugar refinery here has disap-
peared under the Mckinley bill. That
was a refinery that made sugar out of
molasses. My original idea in regard to
The Sugar Question
was that the duty should be cut in half.
thought that we might need the reve-
nue., and thought also that there was
great chance that we should raise beet
sugar in California, and I thought that
the duty would not only do that, but
would save all the business that there
was. But the House of Representatives
saw fit to demand free sugar, and think
they were backed up by the people of
the United States, and they got free SUI
gar. AS the result of removing that tax
it was no longer profitable in this coun-
try to boil molasses and make sugar
There was only one way in which that
business could have been saved and that
was by bounty. Did my Democratic
brother want that? If he did, why is he
making such a noise about all other
bounties? 1t is true that we did leave a
bounty for the business already estab-
lished by the sugar planters in Louis
lana. We did that in a non-partisan way,
for that state is Democratic beyond COM
pare, hopelessly so. We did it for anoth-
er reason, which [ think is quite as
wise. We thought that in time beet SUI
gar and sorghum sugar could be raised
in this country to such an extent as to
lower the price, but nobody believes that
molasses could be boiled into sugar in