The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1894-10-05
HARD TIMES
AND THE TARIFF.
SPEECH OF HON. CHARLES R. BUCK.
ALEW.
Delivered al the Court. House al Sunbury
Tuesday Evening, Sept. rs, 1894.

An old and powerful party has au-
thorzed me to speak for it in the
present canvass as its nominee for
Congress in this Congressional Dis
trict have accepted this trust as its
representative for the time being with
alacrity, but deeply sensible of the
obligations and duties which that po-
sition imposes. Would that l could
speak with almost unearthly wisdom,
with supernatural power, in behalf of
these principles and policies with
which our great party has been identi-
fed in the past and to which it is COM
mitted at the present time. But you
must accept In what have to say to-.
night such imperfect utterances as
shall be given me at the moment when
they are expressed.
Gentlemen, we arc emerging from
a period of calamity and suffering
commonly described as hard times,
but not SO severe and appalling as the
hard times Of 1S72-73 which swept
over the country to the great distress
of our people, under system of high
taxation similar TO that under which
we have recently suffered. Allow me
in the outset of my remarks to con.
gratulate you, and | do so most hearti.
ly, upon the signs of improvement,
gradual but sure, to be fulfilled en-
tirely, and consummated only, under
the benehcent operation of laws re-
Gently enacted, for the full fruition of
which time alone is required.
The Democratic party, or its ad
ministration of the affairs of the nation,
did not bring upon this country the
hard times. They began before it was
seated in power. The retiring Presi.
dent of the Republican party informed
us in his final message that our exports
had fallen off two hundred million of
dollars. We were informed partially
by his secretary of the treasury, and
more fully upon investigation, that
the treasury at that time was unable
to meet its public obligations. That a
loan even in time Of peace would be
necessary. Appropriations made by
Congress were withheld because there
was not sufficient money in the treas.
ury to pay them. Our party took
power, therefore, when this great col.
lapse, if it was one, in public and pri.
vate credit was under way. Our party
could not have prevented what fol-
lowed. 1t is not chargeable with the
results which came to us in 'o3 and
partially in "a. All intelligent men
know this, or ought to know it, and
even the humblest citizen, with the
most limited intelligence, ought now
to be able to see that this is true
that the hard times were the result of
causes much more extensive, much
more deeply seated, than change of
political power in the United States
by its passage from one party to
another.
One of the main causes was the col
lapse of trade and business in other
countries of the world, preceding our
calamitous conditions here for in
remote Asia, in South America, in
Europe, even in the Islands of the
Sea, before the hard times came to
us they had spread over those great
portions of the earth. 1t was impossi-
bic that this great country of ours,
with one thousand five hundred mill
ions of commerce with other countries,
should escape the cyclonic movement
of that great disaster. We have from
seven to nine hundred million of
exports and about an equal amount
OF imports annually, showing the
intimate relations we occupy IN trade
and commerce with other countries OF
the world. Therefore, it was inevitable
that hard times should come to these
United States and that our people
should feel them severely. Over plo.
duction In certain channels of enter
prise and business in our own country
had accumulated objects of trade
and commerce that no longer could
find foreign markets. To illustrate,
wheat from Chicago and other parts
OF our country could no longer 60
abroad in large volume and bring 10
us returns. Wheat, as you all know,
has fallen even below sixty cents
bushel, because the channels of for.
eign trade were closed to it. Foreign
countries could no longer receive and
dlsburse the results of our farming in.
dustrles in the great valley of the
Mississippi or any where else where
cereals were produced.
There was another cause for the
hard times, and one of much impor-
tance, and that was the unwise policy
OF our own Government, especially in
The two sessions of the 5Ist Congress,
when Mr.. Thomas B. Reed presided
over the House of Representatives,
when there was large Republican
majority in the Senate, and when the
same party held the Office of President