The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1894-10-19
BATTLES FOR HIS PARTY.
Ex-Presidcnt Harrison at Work In In
diana.

points. The general is said to have been
in his best form and at Evansville to
an immense audience he made the
chief address of the day. In reference
to the work of the democracy he said:
Fellow Citizens: When I left my public
duties and returned to my beloved state and
| resumed again the pursuits and the enjoyment
| OF private life had thought to escape the la
bors and the excitements of political cam
paigns, but when the state central committee
OF my party. voicing the expressed wishes OF
counties like yours asked that should come
and talk to some " you did not feel that it
was at all in derogation OF any dignity that you
have bestowed upon me that should yield. and
once more as an American citizen talk to my
| fellow citizens OF Indiana l come to speak
words Of soberness and quietness. leone with
a personal contest with no man come with
out words of bitterness or criticism for any
snan in public life. come 20 speak TO you OF
interests that are still dear to me as a citizen
| and that are dear to you, as they touch your
most vital concerns. We have been living IN
| der the shadow of tariff reform for nearly two
! years now. The shadow has been pretty deep.
1t has clouded every home in the land.
! For thirty years everybody has talked about
the tariff. but the talk at last seemed TO wear
out There seemed to be no end to it. The free
/ trader. the tariff reformer who was still in the
/ field. and the protectionist who stood for Amer
/ lean manufactures and for competent wages
still held his place upon the rostrum. But
there has in the last two years entered into
| this discussion the most eloquent and forcible
| speaker that ever addressed an audience an
] orator who has more power to move men than
any other-that orator is experience. He has
| been talking for two years and am much mis-
taken II he has not been talking effectively. This
| question seemed to be one oftheory so far rs the
free trade sideis concerned. in this generation.
| The democrats have not been able to put into
law their view until within the last two years.
! Before that time they exercised themselves in
! platform declarations ard in oratory. One
would think they might have been consistent
| in their platforms, but thai Is not true. Some
democratic platforms distinctly recogn ized the
! force and effect OF tariff legislation upon
/ American interests and American wages. and
expressed u sympathy with policy that
should protect these: but then. again. there
appeared n declaration in favor of taril TOR
revenue only-a policy which our distinguished
/ fe.low-citizen. my former colleague in the
senate. Dir. VOORHEES,, declared in letter to
Bay!esS llama TO tic g.eit nonsense
Democracy Is KesponsibIe.
But now we have come to q time when tho
country has endowed the democratic party
with power TO deal with this question. For the
I first time there mas been responsibility in the
utterances and doinCS OF the democratic party
{ There came time when the democratic party
muss stop making platforms and begin making
laws il nay be important to settle the queS-
/ t!on as to what condition they found the coun-
Try il when they assumed this responsibility.
Fortunately we don't have To resort 20 tables
or statistics, or historical treatises 70 solve
that question. Our appeal is to the individual
memory and to the individual experience.
Just before this radical change in our response
bic government the country was in the highest
state OF prosperity. Our foreign trade was
larger than it had ever been in the history OF
this country, and the beauty OF it was that 1t
was something like s200DcoO larger il cX-
ports than in imports. You all realize what
that means, il means that we were selling
abroad more than we were buying from abroad.
/ There is not 4 farmer here who does not know
| that he tests the question as TO whether he has
| prospered on his farm b. casting the balance
/ between the value OF what he brings to town
/ to sell and the value of what he buys in town
| and takes home
That is not all Everybody knows that
| everybody was busy. Everybody knows that
every mill was running. The comforts of l,fp
/ rs distributed among our people were greater
| than ever before. But wheat was low and some
| of our farmers became disconnected But now
what do we see: Wheat has not appreciated
/ but has gone lower than ever before in the
memory of any farmer who hears mo. u has
/ been hard To get enough of it III the shape OF
! flour sometimes in the home OF the working,
Man: but it has been SO cheap that ii has in
some places gone into the hog trough. / said
/ some years ago that the American worlingInal
had rne most favored lot of any wo-llingr4an
| in the world, and this was evidenced Is the
fact that the gates of Castle Garden always
| swing inward to the workingmen seeking our
shore. The workingman knows the land OF
promise as well as the swallow knows the land
OF summer. l could not say that to-day. be-
I cause the gates OF Castle Garden have been
swinging outward. That is one OF me few
ameliorating conditions in connection with the
distress OF the country that perhaps our popu-
/ lation has diminished We do not need any
| body here who thinks he knows OF a better
place. and l am glad that to such the gates
have swung outward. IL is a chimericai Sug
gestion that We can bring in time when The
workingman will be fully employed at reuun-
erative wages and the mill be losing money.
Cause of the Depression.
THE relations of capital to labor in that re-
/ gard are such that the one cannot prosper
without sharing its prosperity in u measure
with the other. and is is impossible that there
| should be profitable employment for labor
when the owner of the mill would just as soon
shut down as not. Now what brought the pres
/ ent condition about: 1t is important to know.
| because the party or the policy that brought
| 1t about that is responsible for bringing it
about. carries d fearful weight OF responsible
/ ity. Was anybody foolish enough to suppose
/ that we could change the tariff policy of this
country from the Mckinley bill to a bill
/ framed upon the lines Of the Chicago platform
without disaster: can see how some sanguine
/ professor might insist that could not get
out of the rough water after while. that there
/ was a very smooth and calm sea beyond, but
/ cannot see how even q half-witted m1n could
/ suppose for one moment that We could pass
/ from the protective policy OF the republican
/ party to law on the lines of the Chicago plat
Il t.
1 choice Of q congress pledged to put that plat
/ form into legislation introduced an element of
uncertainty that made II impossible for any
manufacturer or merchant to go on with his
work il he gave the democratic party any credit
/ for sincerity. In August last a year ago con-
gress assembled, and after dealing with the
Sherman bill organized the committee of ways
and means OF the house Of representatives and
charged 1t with the duty Of having tariff bill
ready for action at the regular session, and the
promise was made that it would be rushed
through and speedily put into law. Instead OF
/ getting bill speedily through, this condition
| of uncertainty and distress was prolonged
| through whole year, and August OF "a came
! around before our democratic friends had
/ passed bill And then they passed a bill
/ which, according to the Judgment OF Mr.. Cleve-
/ land, was so unequal in its provisions. so IN
/ like democratic promises. so full of party per-
/ Ady and dishonor that he would not attach his
/ name to IL.
The democratic arty owed it to this coun-
| try IL il would maintain its competency TO deal
with such questions to pass bill speedily and
/ secondly to pass bill that when passed they
would stand by. II the democratic party had
had consistency in their platform declarations.
/ IL the country could have known what they
/ were likely to do. all this uncertainty would
have been diminished. but the trouble about it
/ all was that there was no conference OF belief
I rharr and nOhOdy cnslii rail yChat they