Birmingham age-herald., 1894-10-11
ADLAI STEVENSON.
TContinued From First Page. I

this country. This is iu the, interest of
 revenue. The objectionable feature of the schedule under discussion and the one
 many of us desired stricken from the bill was that s of a cent, per pound to the re- iners. As l have said, the democratic
 members of the house and majority of the | democratic senators, earnestly desiredthe
 total repeal of this odious provision of the
 Mckinley law. The democratic house so dereed. In the senate, vir- tually without democratic ma-s
 jority, and with the bill at every
 stage antagonized by the solid republican
 But even this partof the sugar schedules which has been so much criticised, is a vasr improvement upon the Mckinley law. Why? For the reason that the new law allows the refiner but H of cent per pound, while the protection given him was E cent per pound under the Mckinley law. Thus it will be eeen that the 'sprotectiono given the refiner under the new law is but
 little less than one-half that given him by the Mckinley law.
 The true test of the value of the new law is by contrasting 1t with the old. The
 merits of the sugar schedule of the new
 bill eau only be determined by compar-
 isou with those of the Mckinley law, which
 it has displaced.
 How, then, stands the account? The new
 law takes from the trust two- fifths-almost
 one- half-the benefits 1t received under the
 Mckinley law. The new law totally re-
 peaIs the provision of the Mckinley law
 which gave to the sugar planter a bounty
 Of cents per pound for fifteen years upon
 his product. The cost of this dsring fea-
 ture of the Mckinley law was SIP, ,000, 900
 annually to the federal treasury and the
 people. But this is not all. The sugar
 schedule of the Mckinley law was charge
 upon the treasury to the extent of the
 bounty thus paid the planter. Under the
 careful estimate of the secretary of the
 treasury under the new schedule the reve-
 nues coming into the treasury will for the
 current fiscal year amount to $43, ,000 ,000.
 Now. fellow citizens, you have before
 you something of what democratic con-
 gress has omplished-something of the
 manner in which it has kept faith with
 the people. Tarif reform has achieved no
 easy victory. Since the repeal of the corn
 laws of England, by which the people
 world has witnessed no such parliamentary struggle against monopoly and privilege. It is your battle that has been fought, and you are the benefciaries of the victory
 been struggle of the people against the
 monopoly and greed fosfered and made
 powerful by more than thirty years ot re-
 publican Legislation. The combinations
 and trusts, new the curse of our people,
 protective tariffs which have enriched the
 few at the expense of the many. Under
 and solely because of high protection
 colossal fortunes have accumulated, W ht ,h
 are menace to our free institutions. The
 men who control the trusts and unlawful
 combinations against trade have been from
 the beginning the beneticiaries of high
 tariff-the determined advocates of the
 Mckinley law: The time had come, and
 fully come, when such legislation should
 cease. The people so decreed. By the pop
 ular edict the republican party-under
 whose evil auspices had sprung class leg
 islation and inc trusts and conspiracies
 A11t- I>( >(wI,
 passed from power. It was not to be ex-
 pected that the individual recipients of the
 benefits of protection would sit idly by
 when the attempt was being made to reduce the tariff and lessen the burde ns
 of taxation. The struggle was long and
 doubtful. It was literally organized priv.
 ilege, monopoly and greed upon the one
 side and the unorganized people upon the
 other. repeat that, with the single excep.
 ton I have mentioned, a moro desperate known to our English speaking people. The new tariff law is now upon the stat ute book. He who runs may read that business conditions are even now more fla vorabIe; the fires have been lighted in our workshops; the wage earneris no longer in enforced idleness, and light is breaking upon our commercial pathway. Under the beneficsnt operations of low tariff the evils and our country enter upon career of un- exampled prosperity. The practical Ques- ton for y6ur determination is, shall this law be administered by it's enemies or by its friends? If you believe that for the first time in third of a century you have been taken into the account in the preparation of tariff bill, and that your interests lie along the plane of the low taxation have indicated, then need hardly remind you
 of tho imperative necessity ot holding up those who have wrought out this great re. form. History will but repeat itself, and the prosperity that followed the passage of the Walker tarif-the low tariff of 1846- will as surely follow that which has just beeu enacted. a
 From the high vantage ground already occupied ths- struggle will be continued until upon all of the necessaries of life the
 minimum of taxation will be reached. bound up in the success of the great his- toric party which has, in the face of bitter | opposition, secured for you the reforms have mentioned. Shall the work accom- be turned back upon the dial2 The liues are sharply drawn-the issue clearly pre-. sentsd. A democratic house and senate will but perfect the work so auspiciously
 begun. The election of g republican con- | to your sorrow, the un6oing of all thst has been done. It portendS agitation and the | Arrangement of all business. It neans | tho restoration of high tariff taxes upon
 comfort and human life. Nay more, it means that the Mckinley law, with it's class favoritism, it's organized greed, it's horrors of depleted treasury and of bank | rupt country, shall for the next decade l find place upon your statute book.
 | In a word, what benefits will follow the passage of the new tariff law7 Let me re-
 peat. It has cheapehed to every house.
 holder the cost of many of the nscesssries of life, thereby adding to the sum of human | orf nd of huu u honYi haq added to the value of the daily earnings of | every wage worker in the land. It has les.