Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1892-06-29

Hon. w III. liz w iiooL, VI " Wv - b..
ginia. a learned, able, and eloquent
speaker, was elected Permanent Chair
man of the National Democratic Con-
vention at Chicago, when, on taking
the Chair, he delivered the following
able, admirable, and interesting
speech = -.-.,--
"Gentlemen of the Convention
thank YOU most heartily for this honor.
I shall try to meet the duties of the
high position to which you call Inc
with the spirit of fairness and equality,
that is democracy. This convention
has a high and patriotic work to per-
form. We owe much to our party we
owe more to our country. The ms
sion of the democratic party is to fight
for the under dog. When that party
is out of power we may be sure there
is an under dog to fight for, and that
the under dog Is generally the Ameri-
can people. When that party is out
of power we may be sure that some
party is in control of our government
that represents section, and not the
whole country that stands for class,
and not the whole people.
"Never was this truth brought home
to us more defiantly than by the recent |
convention at Minneapolis. We are
not deceived as to the temper, we are
not in doubt as to the purpose OF our
opponents. Having taxed us for years
without excuse and without mercy, |
they now propose to disarm US OF
further power to resist their eXactions.
Republican success in this campaign,
when we look to the party platform,
the party candidates or the utterances
of the party leaders, means that the
people are to be stripped of their
Franchise through force bills in order
that they may be stripped of their sub
stance through tariff bills.
sELF-GovERNMENT.
Free government is self-goveynment|
There is no self-gOvernment where the
people do not control their own cleo
lions and levy their own taxes. When
either of these rights is taken away or
diminished breach is madeb not in the
outer defenses, but in the citadel of
our freedom. For years we have been
struggling to recover the lost right of
taxing ourselves, and now we are
threatened with the loss of the greater
right of governing ourselves. The loss
| of the one follows in necessary success
sion the loss of the other. When you
confer ON government the power of
dealing out wealth you unchain every
| evil that can prey upon and eventu
ally destroy free institutions
taxation, class taxation, billion-dollar
Congress, a corrupt civil service, a de-
bauched ballot-bOx and purchased
elections. In every campaign the priv
ilege of taxing the people will be bar
tered for contributions to corrupt them
at the polls; after every victory new
Mckinley bill to repay these contribu-
lions by which taxes were wrung from
the people. For every self-governing
people there can be no more moment
Gus question than the question of tax
alton. 1t is the question, and, as Mr..
/ Burke truly said, the question around
which all the great battles of freedom
have been fought. 1t is the question
out of which grow all the issues of gov
eminent. Until we settle this question
wisely, permanently and justly, we
build all other reforms on a foundation
of sand. We and the great party we
represent are to-day for tariff reform
because it is the only gateway to gen.
uine democratic government.
EFFECTS OF PROTECTION.
F 1.-THE distinguished leader who pre-
sided over the republican convention
boosted that he does not know what
tariff reform is. Whoever said that,
/, let us hope, with that charity which
endureth all things and believeth all
things, that he is truly as ignorant as
> he vaunts himself to be. Unfortunate
ly the people are not SO ignorant of the
meaning of protection-at least of the
protection which is dealt out to them
in the bill that bears his name. They
see that meaning writ large to-day in
Frustrated agriculture, in a shackled
5 commerce, in stricken industries, in
the compulsory idleness of labor, in
law-made wealth, in the discomfort of
the workingmen and the despair of the
farmer. They know by hard expert
, ence that protection as system of tax
alton is but the old, crafty scheme by
which the rich compel the poor to pay
the expenses of government. They
know by hard experience that pro-
lection as system of tribute is but the
old, crafty scheme by which the power
of taxation of the people is made the
private property of a few of the people.
WHAT TARIFF REFORM MEANS.
Tariff reform means to readjust this
system of taxation and to purge away
this system of tribute. 1t means that
we have not reached the goal of per-
feet freedom SO long as any citizen is
forced by law to pay tribute to any
other citizen, and until our taxes are
proportioned to the ability and duty of
the taxpayer rather than to his ig
norance, his weakness and his patience.
Governor Mckinley charges that
the democratic party believes in taxing
ourselves. I'm afraid, gentlemen, we
must admit this charge. What right
or excuse have we for taxing anybody
else, with a continent for country,
with freedom and intelligence as the
instruments for it's development We
stand disgraced in the eyes of mankind
if we cannot and if we do not support
our own government. We can throw
that support ON other people only by
beggary or by force. If we use the one
we are a pauper nation if we use the
other we are pirate nation.
"The democratic party does not in
tend that we should be either. No
more does it intend that they shall
falsely call it taxing other people to
transfer our taxes from the possessions
country to the bellies and backs of
those who do the work of the country.
1t believes that frugality is the essen
tial virtue of free government. 1t be-
lieves that taxes should be limited to
public needs and be levied by the plain
rule of justice and economy
| RECIPROCITY.
"But, gentlemen, we are confronted
with new cry in this campaign. The
republican party, says Governor Nc
Kinley, now sta nds for protection and
reciprocity. He was for protection
alone when he framed his bill in the
House, or rather permitted its benef-
Charles to frame it for him, and firmly
resisted all efforts of the statesman
from Maine to annex reciprocity to it.
No wonder that he favors the recipro-
city added by the Senate. You may
explore the pages of burlesque litera
ture for anything more supremely
ludicrous than the so-called reciprocity
of the Mckinley bill.
''It is not reciprocity at all. 1t is re-
taliation, and, worst of all, retaliation
on our own people. 1t Furnishes Ameri
can citizens f,r the necessities or the
fo lilies of other people. 1t says to a