Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-03-01

nifty. half one thing and half another; hall
protection and half free trade. II Will DC
ike mule a. to it posteTi-y. Il twill have
none. When the people lave tried Il tney
will never allow another 70 be made IKE t.
You say il is the fret step towards more
complete free-tfade measure. But the nex'
step will never be taken. Your first steE
in that direction will be your last one
When the people shall get at this bill
through the ballot boves they will send 1t "a
death from which there will be no resur'
rection. Its friends will have occasion tc
be mourners during the remainder OF theil
lives.
One purpose of the trainers of thi, bill
seems to be very clear. II il was not mean.
to be sectional, if it was not intended T.,
| loot the North. and at the same time make
/ it pay the expenses drumming the govern
menf, then they who formulated it did moi
know what they were doing. 1t protects
the marble of Tennessee. while it puts the
granite snd sandstone of New England an
New Y ork on the free list. Ii provides fJr
the destruction of the Maine and New York
lime industry, while it protects cement. Ii
places a duty of SO per cent on Southern
rice, while it exposes the Northern farmers
/ to unrestricted competition with the cheap
labor products of Canada. 1t gives Ken
tucky whiskey an extension of the bonde
period, much more valuable to its manu-
| facturers than the amount of the increase
/ tax upon it, and proposes to fill the immense
vacuum which it will make in the treasury,
by levying . heavy tax upon the Incomes OF
the busy, industrious, frrgsl, and hence
| thrifty communities of the North.
| OF the $16,0O0. 900 annual decrease
which it will make in our customs receipts,
added to the alarming'y large deficit which
its depression of onr industries is causing,
| it provide, for making up next to nothing,
except by N income tex, to which the
South will hardly cont, ibute enough to pay
for its assessment and collection.
1t is measure by which you hope. gem
tlemen, to even with us for being OBJ.
liged to eat some of the legitimate fruits of
your defeat 10 your attempt to destroy the
government We understand your motive
and We acknowl, dge that you will fully
crafty it if you shall succeed in making
this bill the law of the land.
Me. Chairman, the issue between protec-
ton and free trade, to which thi. bill pro-
fesses to aim, is very clear. You regard
only the consumer. We have regard for
the consumer and producer also. You for
get that the consum when he is not but
tressed up by fortune, or in some other
way taken care of, must produce before he
can consume. He can neither eat, wear,
nor get shelter until he has earned the
necessary means to procure them.
What may be the price of an article is of
no interest to him SO long as be has nothi"o
to purchase it with. His first inner alive
ne cessity is to earn. That he must do be fore
he can expend and the amount he can arm,
quite as much as the price OF
what he wishes to buy, will decide
how much he caD-- have of what
be wants. To earn at all he must have
employment. Whatever takes away from
him his tmploymen mt AMI gives it to another
starves him, or makes him pauper. That
policy which insurcs to him bis avocation,
whatever it may be. insures him against
absolute want, and if it also gives him a
fair remuneration for his labor it brings
within his reach the comforts of life.
Now, the Republican party believes in q
policy which gives to our own people the
work which we have to 60. We do not be-
lieve we should hire the foreigner to raise
our wool, make our cloth, shoes and hats,
supply our coal and iron, raise the farm
products which we cor s ime build our ships,
saw our lumber, or do anything for US which
our own people can do as we'll and are
waiting with anxious, idle hands to do.
We know that in their labor and the value
of our own resources which they develop
is comprised all the wealth of our country.
We know that ia every days idleness there
are two losses TO the natiOn-the
value of days labor, and the
value of the resources which that
labor would have converted into useful,
available property. Hence, to keep all our
own people at work and give them liberal
wages for their labor is the policy of the
Republican party it is protection.
Ia November, 1892, the Democratic
party, standing upon a platform of free
trade, was elected to full control of the gov
eminent, and this magnificent progress was
arrested. The wheels of business began to
slacken their speed. Banks began to sus-
pend, manufactures curtailed operations,
furnace fires went and we're not rekindled,
mines were closed, railroads decreased their
trains, the receipts at the national treasury
began 10 shrink, labor which had been
sought by the employer began to seek en-
ployment, wages began to be reduced, the
merchants orders decreased, wool took q
heavy fall in the market, many of the farm
er,' products became a drug except at ruin
ously low prices, until today, in whate yer
d rection You look. individual and national
disaster clou Is the horizon.
Gentlemen of the free.trade Democracy,
are you satisfied with your work so far az
you have pursued il? DO its results please
you: Are you encoursged by the present
aspect of the nations aft airs AMI the PEG.
pies condition? Can YOU see any rainbow
of promise of better things to come from
the passage of your bill, the breath of
whose approach has 30 blasted the land!
Will you proceed to enforce upon the
country the economic theory of the British
importer and the ex-confederacy, while its
victims, our dead industries, lie PROSTATE
all about you. as DR.. Sangrado persisted in
Ii, blood-letting practice, though it killed
all his patientsg
That is the proposition contained in your
endeavor to enact this bill into law. Can
not the country's danger and the peoples
distress open your eyes and check your pur-
pose?
All. ! fear we shall be driven to the con-
clusion that you have neither the brains
nor the patriotism to successfully manage
the affairs Of the country. Your vision