The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1894-04-10

fatally injured by the Wilson schedules
of ad valorem duties, while the large ex-
tension of the free list which the bill pro
poses will be equivalent to prompt
transfer of certain important industries
from this state to the manufacturing and
mining districts of foreign lands.
Referring to the deceptive character
of ad valorem rates half century ago,
Henry Clay said, ''Let me fix the value
Of the foreign merchandise, and do not
care what your duty is" The funda-
mental objection to the system of ad va
loren duties on which the Wilson bill is
based is distinctly stated in the quota
ton from the Kentucky statesman. On
Oct. 20, 1890, Governor-now Senator
Hill delivered at Wheeling a speech be-
fore large audience of manufacturers,
mechanics and laborers, discussing the
tariff in view of the passage of the Nc
Kinley bill, and speaking as a Democrat
in defense of his party he said:
"Our opponents assert that the policy
which we advocate tends to lower the
wages of laboring men because they
must compete with the underpaid work
men of Europe. The proposition is as
insolent as it is unfounded. The Demo-
cratic platform of 1888, reaffirming the
platform of 1884, declared that
"our established domestic industries and en-
terprises should not and need not be endan-
gered by the reduction and correction of the
burdens of taxation. On the contrary fair
and careful revision of our tax laws, with due
allowance for the difference between the wages
of American and of foreign labor, must pro-
mote and encourage every branch of such in
dustries and enterprises by giving them assur-
ance of an extended market and steady and
continuous operations.
"This is plain and explicit. It COM
pletely refutes the silly charges of our
adversaries. 1t entirely protects the
American mechanic and places him upon
an equality with all others. The plain
and simple Interpretation of this plat
form is this: We believe in the recogni-
ton of the demands of labor and propose
to shield our workmen from such COM
petition as can justly be considered as
unfair-for instance, if it costs 50 for la
Dor to produce certain manufactured
article in foreign countries, while it costs
"a to produce the same article in this
country, then we favor tariff of 50 on
that article in order to equahze the diff
ference in wages. The imposition of
that amount amply protects the Ameri-
can workman and prevents his being
placed at a disadvantage by reason of
the competition of the alleged pauper la
Dor of Europe This is all the tariff that
any intelligent American workman ever
desired or asked for"
Less than two years ago, at a mass
meeting held in the Brooklyn academy
Sept. 10, 1892. Senator Hill expressed
his views s'as clear as the MONDAY sun"
in the following language:
''Our position upon this question is as
clear as the MONDAY sun, and it required
no special plank in the platform to EN-
phasize it. We believer in the encourage
ment of labor and are DESTROYS of pro-
tecting its interests in every reasonable
way consistent with the rights Of the
whole people"
At this same mass meetingin Brooklyn
Senator Hill was determined that his
large audience should have no misunder-
standing as to his being a protectionist
and not free trader. The year previous
1991) he had been invited to address a
free trade mass meeting in New York
city at Cooper Union. Senator Hill de
clined to do so, and in order to empha-
size his position as protectionist he read
at the Brooklyn meeting the reply that
he had made to the free traders. That
reply was as follows:
STATE OF NEW YORK, EXECUTIVE CHAMBER, [
ALBANY, April !, 1891.
Louis f. Post, Esq, President, etc:
DEAR SrR-I am in receipt of your favor of
March % inviting me to attend a free trade
mass meeting to be held at Cooper Union on
Thursday evening, April 2, While thanking
YOU for your courtesy, l cannot attend the
meeting because / have no sympathy with its
professed purpose. l had supposed that my
oninions upon the tariff question had been Sc
frequently expressed in public that nobody
could expect me consistently to attend meet
ing intended to promulgate the doctrine of free
trade.
am not an advocate of free trade and never
have been. believe that the best interests OF
our country-industrial agricultural and COM
merciaI-demand the establishment of that
policy declared and particularly defined in the
national Democratic platforms OF 1876 1884 and
1888, and / am earnestly opposed to the attempt
which is now being made in some quarters to
undermine the sound and conservative position
Of the Democratic party upon this question
and TO commit it irrevocably to the doctrine OF
free trade.
The men who are engaged in this effort, no
matter how honest or sincere they may be in
their individual convictions, have no right to
longer masquerade as true Democrats while
seeking to commit the party to policy when
1t has always distinctly repudiated, and which
if adopted must inevitably, in my judgment,
affect iniuriously the welfare of the country
and unfit the Democratic party for the main
tenance of those wise principles of government
of which it has for nearly a century been the
proud and unyielding representative.
AS a Democrat must respectfully decline to
support any movement, no matter by whom in
Btigated or championed. having for its purpose
the adoption of any such suicidal policy as IS
said to be contemplated by the meeting to
which you have invited me.
DAVID B. HILL.
Senator Hill has mo sympathy" with
free trade. He is mot an advocate of
free trade" is earnestly opposed" to it.
He believes that such policy must in
evitably affect injuriously the welfare of
the country" He regards it as sui
cidal policy" This is decidedly plain
and explicit" and unless Senator Hill has
political suicide in contemplation he
must cast his vote against the free trade
abortion known as the Wilson bill.
The sentiments thus uttered by Gov
ernor Hill at Wheeling and Brooklyn
committed him to the protective policy
as fully as if he had distinctly approved
the great measure that bears the name
Of William Mckinley Of Ohio. No intel
ligent protectionist, from Washington to
Harrison, has ever claimed that tariff
schedules for the protection of American
industries should recognize the de
mands of labor" further than to ''shield
our workmen from such competition as
can Justly be considered as unfair
such competition as that so aptly Illus
trated by Governor Hill himself.
This is the sum and substance of a tar
iff for protection, in contradistinction to
the principle and policy of the Wilson
bill, the practical effect of which, when
applied to the most important industries
Of New York, will, in the language of
Hon. Abram s. Hewitt, simply reduce
the wages of labor to the foreign stand
ard"
Senator Hill is thus confronted with a
duty to his constituents that affects not
only their highest welfare, but his own
consistency as an American statesman
and as an avowed exponent of correct
economic principles. If he was sincere