The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1892-06-10

piaUSe.I That cannot De SAID OK any pO-
litical organization other than ours
Gentlemen of the convention, we are
here today to make platform and nom
mate q ticket that will commend them
selves to the conscience and the intelli-
gence and the judgment of the American
people, and we will do it. [Cheers 1
Whatever is done by this convention,
either as to platform or as to ticket, will
receive the approval of the American peo-
pie in November of this year. [Great APP
plause.
We have already heard some of the notes
OF victory, for this is a Republican year.
Rhode Island has spoken. Only yester-
day Oregon spoke, electing three represen-
tatives-three Republican representatives
to the congress of the United States; and
when we get through with this conven-
ton its conclusions will be the law of Re
publican action, as they viii! be the assur-
ance of Republican victory. Applause
We are for protective tariff and for reci-
procity. tGreat applause.] We propose
to take no backward step upon either one
of these great Republican principles We
stand for protective tariff because it rep
resents the American home, the American
fireside, the American family, the Ameri-
can girl and the American boy and the
highest possibilities of American citizen
ship. [Applause.]
We propose to raise our money to pay
public expenses by taxing the products of
other nations, rather than by taxing the
products Of our own. lApplause.l The
Democratic party believes in direct taxa
ton, that is, in taxing ourselves, but we
do not believe in that principle so long as
ind al to fov On
tective tariff does everything which rev.
enue tariff can do in raising all needed
revenues, but protective tariff does more
than that. a protective tariff encourages
and stimulates American industries and
gives the widest possibilities to American
genius and American effort. Does any
body know what tariff reform is? ['No,
no, F" and laughter.l And that is to be
the platform of our politician opponents
this year. What does it mean? You can
study President Cleveland's utterance
from the first one he made in New York
when he said he Gid not know anything
about tariffs. Laughter. You come
away ignorant and uniformed rs to what
tariff reform means. Since the war there
have been three great tariff reform bills
proposed by the Democratic leaders, none
of them alike; neither of them with the
same free list; neither of them with the
same tariff list; neither of them with the
same rates of duty, but all made by the
Democratic party upon the same principal
to symbolic and represent tariff reform
You may go to Mr.. Mills; you may go to
Mr.. Springer's, and you will find they
differ totally, but you may go to the house
of representatives which was elected dis
tinctively upon the tariff reform issue, by
two-thirds majority in the house, and
what do you find. They passed three bills.
Let me name them: First free tin plate
leaving sheet steel, from which it is made,
fairfield. That is, the finished product
free and the raw material bearing duty.
Second, free wool to the manufacturer,
and fairfield cloth to the consumer Third,
free cotton ties to the cotton states, and
fairfield hoop iron to all the rest Of the
states. That is their idea of
tariff reform. Gentlemen of the
convention, how do you like 1 it?
This contest that we enter upon is4for
the maintenance of protection and reci-
procity; and l want to say here that there
is not line in that tariff bill that is not
American; there is not paragraph that
is not patriotic; there is not a page that
does not represent true Americanism and
the highest possibilities of American
citizenship. ...~as-
We are to declare ourselves on other
questions here today We are to declare
ourselves upon the question of free bal
lot and fair count. No platform should
ever be made that does not reiterate that
great constitutional guaranty; no Re-
publican speech should ever be made that
does not insist firmly and resolutely that
that great constitutional guaranty shall
lie living birthright, not cold formality
of constitutional enactment, but living
thing which the poorest may confidently
enjoy and which the richest and most
powerful dare not deny. We can we'll
leave to the committee on resolutions the
duty of making platform that shall
represent the best thoughts and the best
ideas and the best wisdom of the Republi
can party. When we go out of this con-
vention upon true Republican platform
we go out marching to victory, no matter
what name may carry the banner" lGreat
app1auSa