The Indianapolis journal., 1894-10-09


than has existed in recent years and sub
stituted for the uncertainties and huctua-
tons that have been experienced period
or certainty that must be OF great ad-
vantage to those engaged in commerce.
Mr.. Wilson responded as follows:
"As a citizen OF the United States cor
daily reciprocate, on behalf or my country,
the friendly words with which l have been
ten years the United States has been the
arena for the greatest political conflict
er nao nds ever Sv inst M nsbt ne and lust
won the first battle in that conflict, and al
though the seeming results are far less
selves disproportionate to the wishes and
deliberate mandate Of the American peo-
ple,we are confident that those results
era in the history OF the United States and
Of the rest Of the world. For the last
the he policy of the Celestial empire. ZAP
plause.)
For the last twenty-five years we have
clusion; we have called off our ships from
the seas and have clipped the wings of our
industry and enterprise. Never pefore IN
the history Of the world has the protection
system had an opportunity TO work out Its
beneficent results, If it had any, in SO vast
an arena; never before has 1T been SO far
tested as to its fruits and tendencies, and
never has ii so conspicuously demonstrated
its own falsity, it's utter impotence as an
economic factor, and its incompatibility
istration. (Applause.) -
For a whole generation the people OF the
United States were taught to believe that
national greatness, individual prosperity.
higher wages and increased welfare for the
working people and the general well-being
of the country itself were dependent not
upon free and stable government, not upon
individual effort and virtue, not upon the
energy and enterprise gained In the new
or ready invention and quick adapta-
tion of the instruments of modern produc-
ton and distribution, not upon the boun-
ties of Providence that gave US whole
continent for our country, free from con-
nection with the wars and Internal policies
of other countries, but on account OF Con.
gress taxing all the people for the benefit
of the few and upon separation from COM
mercial intercourse with the rest Of the
world.
REPUBLICAN ARGUMENTS.
1--WE thought that a people enjoying self
government would in time reject such
policy. but it was pressed on them through
long years by every argument and fallacy
that could anywhere be found to bring up
falsehood. Every appeal to selfish interest
was resorted to. We have had every argu-
ment that has followed the system of pro-
lection all over the world. including the in
fant industry argument, according to
which it is proper to support and cherish
into premature existence in a new coun-
try industries, which was presented
TO us with the authority of our first great
Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton, and
fortified by the dictum of your own great
political economist, John Stuart Mill
Our working people were constantly
er standard of living depended solely on
the taxation of foreign imports, and that
any reduction in the taxation would plunge
called pauper labor of Europe, and our
farmers were led to believe that their
only prosperity lay, in providing for them
caIx Iaxrf ring al
ket; in putting the factory beside the farm
to consume the products of the farm
against all & these arg1m1ssnt&s g1as Sane ana deiusions
boriously to carry on this fight. We have
had to reckon with the difficulties of some
of our protected industries, with the crafty
selfshness of others of them, with the hon
est deluSions OF our working people and
the equally honest fears of the farmers
and with that general and potential. If
somewhat hazy, sentiment that taxing our
selves for the sake of American industries
was an American and patriotic act, and
benefic of other Countries instead of their
own country. (Applause and laughter)
Against all these Arguments | am glad TO
people They were not hard to educate,
because they have been trained by the ira
dition and inheritance In the great prlnci,
who speak our language and enjoy our in
when they could give their attention,
free from other distracting issues, to the
great question of their own taxation they
were quick to learn that infant industries
supported by the taxation never become
self-supporting, but as age increases be-
come more clamorous for public assistance.
Q1ear, hear) Our working people finally
learned that while taxation protects to the
benefit of the employer there was free
trade in that which they had to sell, name
~. their own labor, and that the compensa-
ton of labor in our protected industries
was relatively smaller than in the general
unprotected Industries of land, and our
farmers found, after long and costly ex-
perience and patient endurance OF high tax
alton, that the surplus of farmer products,
which required the development of foreign
markets. was absolutely growing larger
that under the protection of our tariff sys-
tenn there had grown up in the country
trusts and monopolies that were becoming
and we We're seeing the very wealth that
they had extracted from taxation debauch
elections and corrupt legislation Gre
PROTECTION ovERTHRowN.
''Such has been the contest in which we
have been engaged for the last ten years
more or less exclusively in the United
States. Such was the growth and over
throw of the protective system in that
country, for while it would be exaggera-
tion to say that the tariff BILL which was
to become g. law months ago, is in itself
the overthrow Of the system, 1t marks
the first and the most difficult step in the
revolution which will go forward from this
time by it's own impetus / should not
make my statement complete If L did not
tell you something Of the accounts and
objects that have had in view, seeking
to emancipate the industries of our coun-
try, and while what i may say may not
be so welcome to you as business men as
what i have already said, do not feel
that / should show a just appreciation of
your welcome tonight If | did not speak
to you the whole truth with the utmost
frankness. (Applause)
''In this great contest for tariff reform
we have kept before the American people
two great objects. The first was to reduce
and speedily abolish all those taxes LEVIED
upon them for the support and enrichment
of private Industries and the establishment
of the great principle that a government
for the support of the government The
second was the emancipation of American
industries from those restraints which have
heretofore excluded them from the markets
you as an apologist and defender of the
system Of protection, and especially of
Chinese protection in my own country,
should undoubtedly run counter to your
own broad and intelligent views OF what
is the wish and just policy for every nation,
uals, may sometimes profit by those
have saved them from. But
standing here as one identified with the
great movement for tariff reform in the
that | can call on you to rejoice over It's
accomplishment, except as you approve of
sound principles more than you follow sell
FISH advantages. (Applause) Undoubted-