Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1892-09-09
HON. JOHN E, RUSSELL,
THE DEMOCRATIC GOLIAH
His Address at the Town Hall Last
Friday Evening.


Russell Of Massachusetts. the man espec-
tally chosen by the Democrats. and desip-
mated by their national committee. TO ex-
pound the principles of Democracy. and
refute the false doctrines of the Republ-
cans. on the stump in Vermont. Mr. Rus
sell began his speech by telling his audi
ence of the progress which marks the
course of the Massachusetts Democracy:
how it is up to the spirit of the times. how
the young men flock to its standard. how
it has twice elected its young candidate for
governor, and how it hopes to carry the old
Bay state for Cleveland i'm November. But,
turning TO Vermont, he said, what do we
see? You are tied to your traditions. you
are untouched by modern political ideas.
Why this stolidity? Is it that we Of Mas
sachusetts are in the wrong or is it that
You of Vermont have grown so apathetic
that nothing moves you? Mr.. Russell did
not say that the VermOnters are ''moss-
backs, but the thought must have been
suggested to the minds of all his hearers.
/ This line of thought naturally did not stir
the audience to enthusiasm. and Mr. Rus
sell soon proceeded to say that his mission
was Ito answer Gov Mckinley" 1t grieved
him, he said, to appear in antagonism to
his dear friend. Mckinley" and he did it
only because duty compelled him. That
Mckinley was not only an able man. hut
an honest man, and believed every word
that he said, no man could question. The
trouble was that he had not studied his sub
Ject carefully he had not informed him
/ self. Take that pitcher (the sentence
used by Gov. Mckinley in his Brattleboro
speech) Mckinley tells Won that il pays
duty of 80 per cent Why does it paw a
duty of 30 per cent? / will tell you why.
1t is so that they can make crockerv out in
Ohio. Mckinley lives in Ohio" Mr.. Rus
sell said ne believed there were some pot
teries in New jersey also. but the inference
/ which he meant to convey to his audience
was that crockery is mainly made in Ohio.
and Mckinley had the 50 per cent tariff
put on 1t because he lived in Ohio. and so
that crockery could be made there. From
this point on Mr.. Russell said not one
word to answer the lucid explanation Of
Gov. Mckinley. so simple that a child
could understand it-usinC the pitcher as
an illuStration-of the difference between
the Republican policy Of a tariff for pro
lection and the Democratic idea of a tariff
for revenue only. He used many words.
he posed, he prauced up and down the
platform, he swung his arms like Dutch
windmill, hut he did not so much as touch
the essential point made by Gov. McKin-
ley. or try TO touch it. He acted. rather
like man running around pool of water
with a long stick and stirring it up to make
1t muddy, so that nobody could see what
was in il.
4 little farther on Mr. Russell said. Il
have one thing to say for Mckinley: he is
honest in talking about the tariff. which is
more than you can say for most of them :
lac SAYS right out that the tariff is tax,
and ! will tell YOU when he saws it, He
says the foreigner pays the tax. Now what
a nice arrangement that is-to have the
peopl" Of other countries pay our taxes and
pay the cost of running our government.
Nobody can complain, am sure. so long
As somebody else pays our taxes. McKn-
ley also SAYS that YOU can bring raw ma
terial into this country, have the duty paid
by the foreigners. work the raw material
up into some kind Of manufactured pro-
duct, and then export il and draw back
% per cent Of the duty | know now why
il Is that some Of the manufacturers get so
rich. Who couldn't get rich if he could
have have his taxes paid by the foreigners
over on the other side OF the water and
then draw 90 per cent Of them back from the
United States governmeut9" Such talk as
this was an insult to the intelligence of his
audience, 10 be sure, but ii was neverthe-
less exactly the line which Mr.. Russell
adopted in meeting and attempting to an
swer O. Gov. McKinleys denial of the
Democratic charge that the tariff is a tax
on our people, and his explanations of how
the foreign manufacturers pay the tax by
means OF the reduced price at which they
are compelled 10 sell their goods in our
market.
Mr.. Russell did not rouse his audience TO
enthusiasm when he told them, in an in
sinuating condemnatory way. that Redfeld
Proctor had been sent from Vermont TO
the United States Senate to help put a
high tariff on marble to heap up his own
profits. "DOes he pay higher wages to the
workmen in his quarries by the means ?
No; he takes the cheapest labor he can
find; not Irish wOrkmen, or German work
men with a leering infection for the ben
eft any hearers of those nationalities)-
but it is not beneath Mr.. Proctor to 90 TO
Italy for his labor, or to the Scandinavian
countries of the North
Mr.. Russell nearly dismembered himself
in his Indignation over Gov. Mckinley 5
statement that the cutlery trade had never
hourished in this country until it was pro-
tected 10y an adequate tariff. Mr. Russell
knew something about that and he
thought he ought to know, for his own
father was the pioneer in the cutlery trade
down in Greenteld-and so on and so on.
But Mr. Russell forgot entirely TO state
that the first period OF real prosperity which
those cutlery works ever saw was during
the war; after the enactment of the Nor
rill protective tariff, when every such bust
ness received a tremendous impetus.
Mr.. RUSSELL denunciation of the Repub-
lican iniquity of putting bounty on maple
sugar fell into his audience with dull,
sickening thud which nearly upset him for
the moment, and as soon as he recovered
himself he proceeded TO talk for twenty
minutes, without saying anything worth
mentioning, about the first tariff law and
the general subject of the cOnstitutionality
of protective tariff enactments. Scarcely
greater enthusiasm greeted the speaker $
picture of the ruin and decay which he had
everywhere seen in the rural districts on
his trip through Vermont, and his declara-
tiOn that this ruin and decay would 90 on
just so long as the farmers were such fools
as 10 keep on voting the Republican ticket
We do not pretend TO have touched here
on all the points of Mr.. Russell speech, but
we have tried 10 give fair sample of its
general tenor. There were good many Re-
publicans IN the audience, intelligent. can
did men, who went TO the hall with the ex-
pectation of hearing the Democratic side
in this campaign presented in a dignified,
able, and argumentative way, by a strong
earnest man, who would at least command
their respect. In this they were disap-
pointed. From beginning 10 end this
chosen champion OF the Democracy was
avaeiro and illp0ioal. fot a cr..,t -.