Huntsville gazette., 1893-12-02
SOUND SENSE.
sneech of Gov. Mckinley at Bos-
ton.
Eacts for Capital and Labor-Lessons for
the Hour as Drawn from Present
Conditions-Questions to
Be Studied.

At a recent dinner given by the Home
Market club, of Boston, Gov. Mckinley,
of Ohio. delivered an address which
was enthusiastically received. After
congratulating his hearers upon the
result Of the late elections GOV. NC
Kinley said:
If the great consuming classes are cut OIL IN
their incomes and wages the merchants safes
decline, and when they decline the demand lor
labor declines and the workman's wages de-
cline II capital cannot get profit out OF It's
investment 1t will not work, and II capital does
no. work labor is idle When labor is idle
wages reach the lowest point even to the rev
who are employed
CAPITAL must have faith In the future. 1t
must be able to calculate on the future 1t
must know that what 1t makes to-day 1t can
dispose OF at profit to morrow or next week
or next month It must be certain that
no legislation is to intervene which Will
iniure or affect the value OF the goods
it makes or the market in which they are SOLD
Manufacturing indus tries have no assurance
to-day as to market beyoni the immediate
present II they turn wheel beyond present
orders they are confronted with uncertainty
and probable loss, and capital always sensi-
tive, shrinks from these, ana while IL sits IN
fear labor sits In idleness
The very threat of tariff changes has been
sensibly and injuriously felt in every industry
and enterprise, and those who were wont TO re-
gard protection as a mere bounty TO manu-
facturers and to the laborer In protected indus
tries have come to regard 1t quite as essential
to one occupation as another ami quite as nee
essary to the prosperity of one branch OF busi
ness as to another.
1 cannot be mistaken that the most vital part
of the economic contest row going n is the
question Of labor and wages. The more there
is to do the better wages will be paid; the less
there is to do the less the wages paid for what
is done 1t is the more to do, not the less, that
is the patriotic striving of the people and
should be the aim of all political parties. There
will be less to do at home the more we have
done abroad
The more free trade we have, the more for
eign goods we will have: and the more OF such
goods we have in competition with our own
products, the less we will have at home. and
the less we have at home the less labor will be
employed at home. and the less labor employed
at home the less wages will be paid at home
the less wages will be spent at home
Free trade, or revenue tariff, Is the remedy
offered by those who differ from us on this
economic question More foreign goods is the
prescription offered BY our political opponents
as sure to reopen our idle mills. VIII, 1t helpi
Win it do it? Free trade cannot rekindle fires
In our factories Free trade cannot increase
our production at home Nobody advoc ates Il
with any such views Its whole aim Is TO In
crease foreign importations, which increase
must OF necessity diminish like home produc.
ton
There can be but one of two results to follow
the introduction of free trade or revenue tar
if. Either domestic production diminishes, or
the wages of labor will be diminished, or both.
and ither or both are results which should
meet with prompt condemnation from the great
body of American people.
Is there anybody any longer in doubt about
the real trouble in the country to-day? The
president of the United States In his August
message announced q great fact He said
ut MY be true that the embarrassment from
which the business of the country is suffering
arises as much from evils apprehended as from
those actually exis ting" This is true Re
move the apprehension of threatened tariff
legislation remove the scare of the promised
Tree trade bill, remove the fear which has set
tied upon every business, and confidence will
be returned.
the recent elections OF the people and these
however they may be reg lrdei In certain
quarters were an impressive protest against
the party which created the fear. We have
every thing this year had last, but gooe
times We have The same men and same
money the same machinery, the same mar
kets here that we had last year, but we
same people, with the same pluck and the
same perseverance and the same manufact
pring plants but the people last year
voted for change Of policy policy which
prevailed before the war, o policy which had
not been in operation since the war, which
was not In operation during the war, which old
policy is untitled to our present conditions. L
full and free expression could be had, tlert
is scarcely state of the union which woule
record its majority vote In favor of free trade
or purely revenue tariff
am firm in the conviction that the pre-
ponderating sentiment Of the country is for o
protective tariff as it was in '92 and is now.
The verdict of last year was not against the
protective system, and if the party in power Sc
tnterprets it, 1t will do it at its own peril as c
party and at the peril of the vast invested In
terests of the country.
There is not state, If its real sentiment
could be had to-iay, but would advise congress
20 keep its hands off the present tariff and
leave any revision which experience MAJ prove
TO be necessary to the friends OF the protective
system: no democratic representative from
any Industrial state who, II he would vote the
true sentiment of his constituents to-day but
would vote against the proposed raid upon our
industries
What would be more welcome to the busI
ness interests of the country, to the wage
workers Of the oIntry and every true Ameri.
cNn tuan Inc assurance tnat thiS congress
would adjourn without meddling with our in
dustrial legislation. What a sigh of relief
would be felt in every part of the country.
What confidence would be created, what vi.
taiizing force would be infused into eve de-
partment OF human activity, what cheer would
enter the homes of the laborer. Such an as
surance would bring glad tidings OF Joy to the
millions OF American homes whose occupants
tee the winter coming, the savings Of years go.
Ing or gone and no work or ages in sight
free trade congress is a fearful menace to
the indus trial interests of the country. Busi-
aess is now waiting on the uncertainty of the
congress soon to convene, or, or TO be more ex-
act, upon the certainty OF unfriendly legisa.
tion when 1t does convene, and while business
is waiting the laborer is waiting outside with
nothing to do
sound the notes Of warning here to night
l wish 1T might reach every corner of the
country, that every reduct ton of the tariff will
be followed by reduction of wlges, that every
cut in the tariff rates will be followed by cut
in the wege rates. The effect of the proposed
tariff legislation whether intended or not is
an unerring blow at la Dor which will be felt in
the home of every operative in the Unitet
States.
The threat of il has already heen felt tn.