Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-02-14
NO POLITICAL DEAF MUTE.
Ex-President Harrison Doesn't Pro.
pose to BE One.

The Indiana Lincoln League of Republi-
can Clubs held its annual convention at
Indianapolis yesterday, re-electing Marcus
X. Sulzer Of Madison president and r. E..
Mansfield of Muncie secretary. In the
evening a mass meeting was held, at which
ex-President Harrison made q speech. He
said:
Mr.. President and fellow citizens-There
are some people who hold that an ex-Presi-
dent should be a political deaf mute
Naughter) / do not accept that theory.
The present condition of our country is
not one of prosperity. We were recently
prosperous. and the recent prosperity We
enjoyed was not due to any man, but to a
great policy that had been adopted and put
into law and long maintained. The present
distress which We enjoy is not due to any
man. but. as think. to the imminent threat
of a reversal of the old policy and the in
stitution of a new one.
Il am not one of the ancient land
marks. but my memory easily runs back to
time when Thomas A. Hendricks and
Joseph Z. Mcdonald were representative
Indiana democrats. 1 have heard my es-
teemed and learned friend, Mr.. Mcdonald,
PROFOUND the democratic view of the tariff
He said that IL was the accepted principle
of the democratic party that the expenses
Of the government should be raised by
customs duties, and that it was only
proper ana right that in laying these duties
they should be imposed upon such articles
and in such way as to give incidental
protection to the American manufacturer
and the laborer.
THAT was the old democratic doctrine.
If 1t were applied now, il the Wilson bill
had been constructed on these lines, it
would not have been so hurtful, because
the present necessities of the government
are such. the demand is for such a large
sum TO meet our annual expenditures,
that If this sum were now to be collected
by customs duties and those duties i'm
posed by men who had no theories TO
exploit, and who were sincerely friendly
to the American manufacturer and laborer,
We might get along pretty well.
But there has come a new gospel, and
new creed has been adopted by the
democratic party; and it seems to be now
the theory that all protection Is uncon-
stitutional, and that it is better to resort
to exceptional, extraordinary, and even
odious methods of direct internal tax than
to derive the necessary revenues from
1T is generally accepted now as a right
principle that our city councils, our county
commissioners, our state legislatures should
all legislate to create work for the I'M
employed. You may read in the same news
paper on one page an appeal to the city
council to appropriate money to inaugurate
a public work to give employment to the
unemployed, and on another an article
favoring the proposed system of tariff
reduction that closes American mills
THE republican theory has been all
along that ii was right to so legislate as
to provide work, employment and comfort
to the American workingman. We believe
that the national government has a duty
in this respect well the city council
and the board of county commissioners,
and that duty is best discharged by so
legislating that American mills can keep
their fires going"