Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1893-02-22


schedule of tariff rates, he disclaimed
the idea of protection, but urged the
necessity Of recompenslng the manu-
facturers OF this nation for the large
outlay imposed upon them by the rev.
enue laws of the time, enacted for the
sole purpose of carrying on this great
war, in which the nation was engaged
for its very exiltence. 1t was not claim
ed as protective measure, but purely
as compensatory one to be set aside
when the exigencies of this terrific
struggle should no longer make neces-
sary these heavy burdens imposed upon
the American people.
E / believe. Mr.. President, with Robert
Ingersoll, the nations gifted, silver
tongued orator, that these favored in
dustries have been rocked in the cradle
of protection, until they have grown to
be six feet tall, and wear number
twelve boots and threaten to kick the
top of our heads off. 1t is time to stop
rocking the cradle.
| want TO make the statement, Mr.
President, as an economic truth, and
as an economic proposition, defy the
senator from Leavenworth, or any SEN
ator of the other side of this chamber,
to successfully controvert, that a pro-
tective tariff only protects, when every
dollar of the duty is paid by the con-
sumner; and, MIR. President, | want to
make the further statement, that
whenever a single dollar of such duty
Is paid by the man who lives on the
other shores Of the great deep sea, that
it fails just so far to contain a single
item of protection. Whenever, Mr..
President, there has been a reduction
of the tariff urged, and Sir, every politl-
cal platform of whatever party, during
the past twenty years, has advocated
and pledged its party to such reduction.
This country has seen the spectacle of
vast lobby directly and personally in
terested, congregated in the Capitol
city of this nation for the avowed pur-
pose of preventing such reduction de-
manded by the necessities of the indus
trial classes. We have presented to the
world by such lobby. what has been
spoken of i'll European Capltols as the
National Disgrace of this people.
Sir, what but this infamous econom-
ic system that has been forced upon
this people by the greed and selGshness
of those who live beyond the Alleghan-
les on the narrow sea-coast, who pro-
duce nothing for export, but who loan
the millions, that our unjust laws, unto
the support of which we have been ca
jOled in the past, have enabled them to
accumulate, has been the direct cause
of the recent grave troubles in that lit
tie Pennsylvania village in which with
in the recollection of men on this floor.
a shrewd Scotchman. under the advan-
tages given him, has amassed prince
ly fortune. The government of this
great Republic has gone into copartner-
ship with this man, who looks upon ev-
erythiEg English with pride and is Sc
far unamerican as to lament that we
are not more, in our. financial policy
like the ''wise old bird, and as a result
l want to say to the gentlemen on the
other side, by this copartnership, con-
ceiYed in selfishness, and executed to
the everlasting disgrace of the admins.
tratiOn of public affairs, we see the
streets of Homestead running with
blood, and we see widows weeds
thrown around woman's form, and we
see, Mr.. President, a private armed de-
tective force, uniformed, Differed, and
drilled by private enterprise and hired
out as was the Banditti of Italy centur.
les a go, invading this village with sin.
lister purpose, and when, Sir. these mer
whose industry, whose energy, has ere.
ated all this wealth, whose sweat and
toll has built up all this vast work
from the heart-ache of whose wives and
children, this man Carnegie has rune
his millions, resisted this unwarranted
invasion of their homes, we see the i'll.
dietary of proud commonwealth as.
sisting; and these hard working wealth
producing citizens condemned on the
charge of treason and other crimes.
This resolution, Mr.. President, upon
which all this discussion is based and
which has given rise to all this heated
argument, provides for the imposition
OF graduated property tax upon all for.
tunes of a million and over, and we are
told by the Senator from Leavenworth
and by his conferes that such system
would be an innovation of the time
honored practice of the American peo-
pie. l want to make the statement,
Sir, that in this, the nation created by
Washinton and Jefferson, fostered by
jackson. perpetuated by the heroic sac
rifce of half million of Americas
best citizenship, the Flower of the
World, so that there might be here a
Government dedicated to the idea of
freedom, administered by the people,
and for the people, that in Republic,
Mr.. President, of Is millions of people.
In which has been accumulated the
enormous aggregate of sixty billions of
wealth, there is not one dollar of wealth
held tor the purposes of Investment,
from the Atlantic to the Pacific. and
from the Lakes on the North to the
Gulf OF Mexico on the South, that con-
tributes single penny in support of
the Federal Government. / want Mr..
PRESIDENT, to go on record as making
the further statement, that we stand as
the Only example of government among
all the civilized nations of the world
refusing 10 tax the wealth we protect.
In every other country where ctv1liza.
ton has traced Its benign influence
governments have imposed upon the
wealth OF the nation an income tax for
the sole purpose of retarding the prog
ress of unjust and unreasonable accum-
ulations of gigantic fortunes.