Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1894-01-29

Judge Powers had a few words to
say as to the effect Of the Wilson tar
iff in Vermont:
In my own State, the effects of the
Wilson bill will be disastrous. Every
thing the farmer produces is reduced
in value. Horses, cattle, hay, oats,
potatoes, eggs, corn, wheat, rye, bar
ley, wool, pork, lumber-in short our
entire agricultural industry is subject
ed to a ruinous competition with like
products in Canada, where wages are
lower and the scale Of living vastly
inferior. Not only this, our marble,
granite, slate and lime industries are
disastrously affected if not absolutely
ruined. Canada is doubly fortunate
She has parliament at Ottawa hon
estly and patriotically striving to leg
islate for the good of her people and
another at Washington legislating in
the same direction.
But the farmer is not alone affected.
Our manufacturers Of wooden and
knit goods must throw large num-
l.
have received many letters and re-
monstrances from both employers and
employees, protesting against this
monstrous infamy, and can confident
ly assure the House that the working
men of Vermont do not belong to the
class of men who can be coerced by
their employers into siguing these
remonstrances. They are reading,
thinking intelligent men, who carry
their sovereignty under their own
hats, and you might as well coerce
Niagara to run the other way as to
coerce a Vermont workingman to act
against the dictates of his Judgment.
The Irishman, the Scotchman, the
Welshman, and the Swede, who work
in our mills and quarries, know that
legislation which closes those mills
and dismantles the derrick in those
quarries is blow at their wages, and
have an altogether more intelligent
apprehension of the effects of your
legislation than the trainers of the
Chicago platform.
In conclusion Judge Powers said:
But the brilliant gentleman from
New York Mr.. Cockran], who has the
faculty beyond any other man on the
floor to make the worse appear the
better reason, cries out in an apparent
agony of despair, "Can not the supe
rior civilization of America success
fully contend against the effete and
worn out civilization of the Old
World?'
Mr.. Chairman, this is not battle of
civilizations. IF the gentleman means
by civilization commercial sagacity,
the civilization of the Old World is
not effete. On the contrary it is Wig
orous, aggressive, and quite as ad-
vanced as our own. But it makes it's
advance by trampling down the rights
of labor and denying the workmen all
opportunity TO better their condition
in the race Of life. The system of Ia
ry as bad as that we were once cursed
with in America. 1t is inhuman, cor
rupt and degrading, while in America
our system gives workingmen hope,
an ambition, and an inspiration. The
humblest son of toll may aspire to the
Presidency and occasionally one
reaches it, The field is clear for all.
Our system not only recognizes the
fact that every man has the right to
grow, the right to prosper, the right |
bo cd, hn riC tO 3
home and all the comforts Of home; |
has the right to participate in govern
ment, and the right TO be governor
over his fellowmen.
Our system is the opposite of that
of Europe. Ours is humane, honest
and elevating, and the battle is not |
between two equally developed civil
izations, but between one recognizing |
the laws of humanity, and the other
the arts Of inhumanity.
The gentleman from New York tells
us that England levies duties on six
articles, tea, coffee, sugar, cocoa, etc.
All these, you will notice, affect the
poor mans table, and he frankly con-
cedes that the Wilson bill is only a
step toward free trade, which is to
come in due time. If it comes it sure
ly and logically means the condemna-
ton of our working classes to the
slavery of European labor.
The first step you are about to take,
but the second will never follow. The
American people are too intelligent,
too honest and too proud to turn the
dial of progress back, and SO soon as
they can get hold of it, they will con-
sign your free-trade scheme to the
sleep that knows no waking.