People's party paper. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1891-1898, 1892-09-30

money and a resolution against State
banks, and they pledged those dele
gates to 60 to the national conven-
ton at Chicago and vote for that
platform. They went there and
met the delegates from the East,
West and North, and made no fight
for the principles of that platform,
and came back home like the cow
ards they were, recreant to their
trust.
Cries of right, right, right you
are. Loud and long continued ap-
plause.
Mr.. Watson. Why did they not
stand up and fight for the income
tax? Because they knew they had
no more chance to effect anything
than a feather IN a cyclone. And
when Mr.. Black talks about the Geor-
gia platform, he knows well that he
is indulging in the most idle fan
faronade OF nonsense. Great cheer
ing. There Is not a man in the
State of Georgia, with enough sense
to come in out of the wet, who does
not know that national questions
must be decided by national plat
forms, and that State platforms cut
no figure.
A wave of enthusiastic endorse
ment swept over the audience, last
ing several minutes, coupled with a
feeble attempt by the enemy to turn
it by insultingly referring to the
Corbin bank myth, which the
speaker SO deeply buried at Sparta. ]
Mr.. Watson. He says that they
will reduce the tariff. How much !?
They do not say how much. They
have not formulated q bill, and can
not. Why? Because it requires all
the present revenue for the current
expenses of the government. But
let US say that they will reduce it
ten per cent, which they cannot do,
in my Judgment, without devising
other means Of supplying the de-
fciency. How much does the
tariff amount to? It raises in round
numbers, S200,O00,00O for the gov
eminent and for every dollar it
robs the people of, it gives the manu-
facturer from four to six. Now it
proposes to the robber to reduce the
robbery one dollar out Of every ten,
and we will say that you are a
scholar and a gentleman, and go on
doing the best you can, contenting
yourself with nine in place of ten.
In other words, a Sc per cent tariff
is an unmixed curse, and 48 per
cent tariff is an unmixed blessing.
Cheering That is Democracy.
Derisive laughter. Why, my
friends, in 1892, even supurb Demo
Gratis like my distinguished compel
itor had to pause at Charlottesville
and ask, "Where am I at % Loud
and long continued applause. Why,
my friends, less than one hundred
thousand men in this America Of ours
own more than half G the wealth
thereof. Under the present system
they do noa pay,gtaxes on their I'M
mense fortunes, made by this iniquit-
GUS system, and when people demand
reform of the abuses the Democrats
propose to reduce the robbery to
nine dollars where before it was ten.
F Great applause What do we say
in our national platform? | do not
mean in the McDufie county plat
form OF the Georgia platform, but in
our national platform? We say that
the hundred thousand men who own
half the wealth Of the country
should pay half the taxes.
Cries of That's the talk; that's
right and just. Cheering.i
Mr.. Watson. And the moment
that was enacted into law, there is
not q poor white man in the crowd,
there is not a poor black man in the
crowd, that would not feel bur-
den lifted from his shoulders, cloud
swept from his horizon, and Gods
sunshine illuminating his heart.
Great applause. Why should not
the millionaire pay taxes? His
rage has been more cruel than that
of Alexander, more desolating than
that of Napoleon. Renewed APP
plause. They have taken your
public land-paid for with your tax
money, paid for with your blood
and to-day the man who marched
under the conquering banners to give
us this vast domain, or the men
whose taxes purchased the splendid
territory under Jefferson, does not
have the poor privilege Of marking
out his homestead without paying
bounty to the railroads which re-
ceived it as a gift. The grandest act
of Thomas Jefferson's life was that
he purchased 147,000,000 acres from
France and Spain and consecrated it
to the homes of happy and con-
tented people. (Applause.) To-day,
who has that land? The monopo-
lists and railroad corporations, and
the people who paid for it with
their blood and treasure holding
banks in the lottery. Tremendous
cheering) Where are the Mexican
soldiers to day, like my friend
Emanuel Bush, who served valiantly
in that campaign, feeling that it