The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-10-05
Gen. Harrison's Speech

dent ana GOv. Mckinney 10 the nail,
where they were uproariously cheered
on enterina Gen. Harrison presided.
Gen. Harrison's Speech.
Mr.. Harrison said in part:
My Fellow Citizens: The delightful duty
has been assigned me by the state central
committee Of the republican party of Indiana
to preside over this great meeting. am to be
its chairman. not its speaker, and congratu-
late you on that fact. Laughter L brought
the distinguished gentleman to whom you are
to listen to in this hall this afternoon without
sending any courier in advance to find whether
there was enough people here for him to speak
to. Cheers / notice in the audience here
to-day, with great satisfaction, the presence Of
many of our older citizens. They are fond Of
talking about the good old times" but the
times to which they look back to with so much
delight are glorified by the fact that the pro-
cesses of nature and providence have covered
things that were hard and brought out in the
memory those things that were sweet and
pleasant. But the good times which 1 have
in mind were not good old times, but very
young good times. tApplause.1 So young
that the unweaned babes have
no memory of them. Two years ago this coun-
try was not only the most prosperous country
in the wOrld-fOr that il had been befOre-but
1t stood upon the highest pinnacle of prosper
ity that it had ever before attained. Cheers
This is not the verdict Of politicians: it is the
verdict of the commercial reporter; it is the
expression of those men who make a profess
sion Of studying business conditions. The last
two years have been years Of distress and dis
aster. The losses of them defy the skill OF the
calculator. 1t has been said. and think not
without reason, that they exceed the cost of the
great civil war. These losses have not been
class losses; they have been distributed. The
holder of stocks and bonds has found his
wealth shrinking and so has the farmer. and
the workingman has found his wages shrink
ing. There has been general participation in
the calamitieS of the past two years, as there
was a general participation in the prosperity
Of the preceding years. Applause.
Great national losses. like those Of a civil
war, have sometimes their adequate compen-
sations. Great was the civil war for the
union, we feel that it was adequately compen-
stated in the added glory that was given to our
civil institutions and the unity OF the nation.
Cheers. But the losses of the last two years
have no such compromising thought There is
no good to be gotten out OF them Ilaughterl ex-
cept for guidance. They seem to have been OF
a retributive nature. Like the swamp into
which traveller has unwittingly driven, they
have no ameliorating suggestions except that
they teach him how to keep on the foothills
and on the roads that are on the hilltOpS Still
the people seem inclined to make the most
that can be made out OF these years of disaster
We were told the rich were getting richer and
the poor poorer, and to cure that imaginary i'll
our political opponents have brought in time
when everybody Is getting poorer lGreat ap-
plause.1 I think that I remember to have
heard once Of an inscription on a tombstone
that ran something like this: II was well: 1
thought to be better; took some medicine,
and here lie" Laughter and applause.
THE TARIFF BILL.
Our democratic friends have passed tariff
bill that is approved-so far as can learn-by
six democratic senators and by nobody else
[Laughter.l We hear Of a little coterie of SEN
ators whose names 1 could mention, perhaps,
for they have been well identified, but their
number has generally been fixed at around q
half dozen-who decided what the tariff bill
should be, and they are pleased with It, and
nobody else. Applause. Mr.. Cleveland has
repudiated Ii, and has declared that 1t involves
"perfdy and dishonor;" that 1t was so shame
full in its character and influences produced
that he would not even put his name TO 1t. All
the leading democratic papers Of the country
have condemned it-both the old stalwart va
riety and the mugwump variety. The demo-
cratic chairman Of the ways and means COM
mittee has condemned it, and the entire demo-
cratic majority in the house Of representatives.
Now, that is a great misfortune. tits mis-
fortune that the democratic party was not able
to evolve a tariff bill that that party would &C
cept as a settlement of the tariff question.
But it is not accepted as a settlement.
In the very nature of things bill thus passed
and thus characterized cannot be settlement,
and already we have proclamation from Mr..
Cleveland and Mr.. Wilson that this is only the
beginning OF the crusade against American in
dustries; that the war is to go on. Now that is
a great misfortune II we could have been told
by our democratic friends that we were at the
bottom OF the WELL dark, damp and dismal as
it Is we would have begun to LOOK up to see
whether we could not find some star Of hope;
we would have begun to annoint our bruises
and try to build some scaffold by which we
might climb out. But we are told that there
are lower depths yet in store for US And so
this country Is to be held in state Of sus-
pense upon this question. 1t can be ended in
Just one way. and that is by overwhelming re-
publican victories in November. lGreat ap-
plause.
When New York gives Levi p. Morton 5000
majority tapplause, and Indiana her state
ticket y 900 [applausel, and Illinois and those
states that have wavered fall again into line,
and the next congress is republican. there will
be sn assurance that We have found the end Of
this disastrous condition. CHEERS 1 think
the Ohio democrats the other day declared that
all these disasters Of which we speak came up
on the country under the Mckinley bill. Well.
to ee sure the Mckinley bill was a law until
tina. 18th day--was it-of August when the Cor
mau bill passed. 1t had been arrested We
were listening from day to day to prophecies
that in two weeks, or three or four, il would be
repealed, 1t was not a law in q sense that any
merchant or manufacturer could act upon it,
It was dead, in a business sense, though alive
on the statute book. Why, sir, IL would be just
about as reasonable to complain Of a man who
had been arrested handcufied and locked up in
a cell for not supporting family, as to COM
plain that the Mckinley bill did not give pros
perity during this period of suspense. And
then we are told that under the Mckinley bill
-fx .