Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1892-08-13
Mr.. Warmers Free Trade Speech,

Monday night basked In the sun
shine of their most brilliant exposi-
tor now on the stump. For two
hours, more or less, Mr.. Warner, of
New York, poured forth in a con.
tinuous stream, and with uneXcelled
"fuidity," mos. of the iunumerable
quiddities with which democratic
teachers have sought and continue
to seek to befuddle aud bamboozle
the good sense and intelligence of
the mass of the people He prated
of reform, but failed TO define the
sense in which he used the term, or
to name the persons and things to
be reformed, or the manner in which
those models of virtue and wisdom,
the advocates of free trade who
openly or tacitly proclaim we are
better and wiser than thou, wish to
effect their purpose. However, some
light may be thrown on their plans
and purposes by taking the tenor of
Mr.. Warmers speech, which may
be thus interpreted, by reading
between the lines: The democratic
party has been left out in the cold
and has been unable to enjoy the
"usufrucp Of power, vulgarly called
the spoiIs Of office, with very few
and rare exceptions, since their lead
ers under Buohanan's administration
inaugurated their desperate scheme
TO dismember the states of this
Union and destroy the Nation, that,
from what they know of the matter
through the tradition Of their party,
it must be sweet and pleasant to
guide the affairs of their fellows, to
the end that the latter may receive
pleasure and the former profit there
by, and, that, having observed at
various times, and in divers states
of this Union, that, whenever the
Republican party has had a hopeless
majority over the Democratic in
any locality, experience has taught
them that Democrats, by dropping
their name may still retain their
identity, and chameleon like, after
brief seclusion, reappear in politi-
cal life with gaudy brilliancy, after
passing through the metamorphoses
of ''reformers," the "reform party"
etc, befooling many of the young
and unwary into belief in their
sincerity and honesty of purpose.
Illustrative instances are too numer-
GUS and well known here in Wis
consin to need specification.
One thing Mr.. Warner made clear,
namely: that the democratic party
believes in and advocates the doc
trine OF free trade, as exemplifed
by a tariff for revenue only, like
that from 1843 to 1860, under which
the Nation groaned and staggered,
and gradully drifted into practical
bankruptcy in 1861, our manufact-
uries ruined by foreign competition,
laborers enforced to idleness and
clamoring for bread, unable to pro.
cure employment because of the
closing Of the mills, factories and
industries by which only they had
earned their subsistence, the whole
eliminating in the humiliating fact'
that Bucbanan's secretary of the
treasury was obliged to hawk about
U. 5. 6 per cent. government
bonds at a discount Of - per
cent, to obtain the small amount Of
funds required for the current ex-
penses of the government.
Those are the halcyon days Of
wise government, commended by
Mr.. Warner to the admiration and
imitation Of the young and rising
generation which he would embrace
in the democratic party, yclept
"reform." He graye,y tells US that
people generally and the farmers in
particular, must return to free trade
with England for relief from their
financial ills and woes, and he
triumphautly asks whence England
obtained her food stuffs in 1892 {?
and why she did not get them from
us as formerly? His answer is
grandly er cathedra: because VIC
will not trade with those people on