Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1894-10-18
WILSON'S LoNpon spEEcH.
Text of the American Statesman's Re-
marks on the Tariff.

the evening OF September 81 reached
this country on the same steamer that
brought Mr.. Wilson and is given be-
low verbatim 1t is from the London
Standard, which neglects to say
whether the speech was revised by
Mr.. Wilson or not before being printed.
The dinner chairman, Sir A. Z.
Rollit, III. P, IN presenting Mr.. Will
son said:
the anticipations cf the president. it may not
have ended a system that is at variance with
the true finance a1d the principle of trade. it
may be compromise that Is no compromise,
but it established, If not free trade, system
of freer trade than has existed In recent years,
and substituted for the uncertainties and
fluctuations that have been experienced a
period Of certainty that must be of great ad-
vantage to those engaged In commerce
Mr.. Wilson then said:
LAS citizen of the United States cordially
reciprocate, on oehaf OF my country, the
friendly words with which have been intro
duced by the chairman For the last ten years
the United States has been the arena of the
greatest political conflict which has ever
CURED in the history OF our people We have
Just fought and just won the first battle in that
conflict, and although the seeming results
far less than we hoped and expected-are in
themselves disproportionate to the wishes and
deliberate mandate OF the American people
we are confident that those results and their
momentum will open out a new era in the
history of the United States and OF the rest of
the world. For the last twenty-five years
have been following the policy OF the Celestial
empire [Applausel For the last twenty-five
cial exclusion; we have called on our ships
from the seas, and have clipped the wings OF
our industry and enterprise. Never before in
the history OF the world has the protection
system had an opportunity to work out its
Oenefcent results If it had any, in so vast an
arena: never before has it been SO far tested
| to its fruits and tendencies, and never has
it SO conSpicuOuSly demonstrated It's own
falsity, its utter impotence an economic
| factor. and its incompatability with pure gov
eminent and honest administration. lap
plause.l
..For whole generation the people OF the
United States were taught to believe that
tional greatness, individual prosperity, higher
wages and increased welfare for the working
people and the general well-being of the coun-
| try 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 development OF new coun-
try, not upon our ready invention and quick
ADAPTATION of the instruments of modern pro-
duction and distribution, not upon the boun-
ties of Providence that gave a whole CONT
nent for our country. free from connection
with the wars and internal policies Of other
countries, but account of congress taxing
all the peopls for the benefit OF the few and
upon separation from commercial intercourse
| with the rest of the world.
I'VE 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 any
here be found to bring up falSehood Every
| appeal to selfish interest was resorted TO. We
| have had every argument that has followed
the system Of protection all over the world, in
| Guiding the infant industry argument, &C
| cording to which it is proper to support and
| cherish into premature existence in a new
| country new industries which was presented
| to US with the authority Of our first great sec
| How -T1d fiod
by the dictum of your own great political
| economist John Stuart Mill. Our working
people were constantly told that their own
! better wages and higher standard OF living
| depended solely on the taxation OF foreign
| i'm ports and that any reduction in the
| taxation would plunge them into the hope
| less condition OF the so-called pauper labor OF
Europe, and our farmers were led to believe that
their only prosperity lay In providing for them
| selveS-by taxing themselves home market;
! in putting the factory beside the farm to con-
sumo the products Of the farm. Against all
| these arguments and decisions we nave been
| compelled slowly and laboriously to carry on
| this fight. We have had to reckon with the
| difficulties of some OF our protected indus
| tries, with the crafty selhshness OF others OF
| them, with the honest deIuSlonS OF our Work
| ing 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 that those
! who opposed it were seeking the benefit of other
| countries instead OF their own country. Zap
| plause and laughter. Against all these argu-
TnentS am glad have prevailed with the
American people. They were not hard to edu-
cate, because they have been trained by the
| tradition and inheritance in the great princi-
| pies of liberty, which is the heritage Of all who
speak our language and enjoy our institutions
| (Applause.l
| when they could give their attention, free
from other distYaC<ing issues, to the great Ques-
tion of their own taxation, they were quick to
| learn that infant Industries, supported by the
| taxation, never become self-supporting, but as
| age increases become more clamorous for pub
| lie assistance. Hear, hear.l Our working peo-
| pie finally learned that while taxation protects
to the benefit of the employer there was free
trade In that which they had to sell-namely
their own labor AMI that the compensation OF
labor in our protected industries was relative
| ~ smaller than in the general unprotected In
dustrieS of land and our farmers found after
long and costly experience and patient en-
| durance OF high taxation. that the surplus o.
farmer products, which required the develop
ment of foreign markets, was absolutely grow
ing larger than ever. The people at large
learned that under the protection Of our tariff
system there had grown up in the countr!
trusts and monopolies that were becoming ;
menace to free government lapplause] and
were seeing the very wealth that they had eX-
tracted from taxation debauch elections ant
corrupt legislation. (Renewed appiause.l
such has been the contest in which we havt
been engaged for the last ten years, more o
| less exclusively, in the United States. Suci
was the growth and overflow OF the protective
system in that country; for, while it would b
exaggeration to say that the tariff BILL whicl
was to become law months ago. is in itsel
the overthrow OF the system, it marks the frs
and the most difficult step in the revolution