The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-09-05
M'KINLEY'S FIRST
WEIGHTY SPEECH
Il Was Delivered During Tariff Debate
In Fiftieth Congress.
IT IMPRESSED ALL WHO HEARD IT
His Notable Courtesy Toward Samuel
j. Randali.. The Closing Debate on
the Mills Bill..An Effort That
Packed the Galleries and Won
Praise on Every Side.
Globe-Democrat's Washington Letter.

William McKinleys first leap into
national fame as one of the country's
foremost orators was an achievement
that will never be forgotten by those
who witnessed 1t, and his triumph on
that day was all the more memorable
and remarkable then, and all the more
interesting to recall now from the fact
that it was associated with an exciting
little episode that won for him the
warm good will not only of all Repub-
licans, but Of large numbers of con-
servative Democrats of the old school.
Unlike William j. Bryan's recent ora
torical exploit at Chicago. by which he
captured the presidential nomination,
McKinley's speech was not clever
piece of verbal clap-trap-an ingeniously
contrived use of ammunition already
spent-a patchwork of blasphemous
phrases and sensational sentences al
ready published and paraded; but 1t
was an original, solid and sustained
effort of two hours duration upon a
subject to which he had devoted long
attention--an effort which he has
since equaled, and an effort whose sue
cess he has since more than justified.
The occasion was eight years ago,
back in the Fiftieth congress, when the
tariff measure known as the Mills bill,
now mere historical "reminiscences.
was under discussion in the house of
representatives, of which Mckinley
was q member. 1t was on one of the
last days Of the general debate on the
bill, and the red-letter date was May
18, 1888. EX-Speaker Samuel j. Ran
dali, the heroic old-school Democrat,
of Pennsylvania, with Mckinley and
the silver-tongued Breckinridge, of
Kentucky, occupied the lists in sum-
ming up the arguments of that great
forensic struggle. to be followed next
day by Speaker Carlisle and Thomas b.
Reed, of Maine. for the Democratic and
Republican sides, respectively.
BY special arrangement, ex-speaker
Randall was to occupy the first hour of
the tilt on the field day, and Mckinley
and Breckenridge were to consume
jointly the remainder of the time; and
in order to effect this and to concede
to Randall even the inadequate hearing
of one hour-he being at odds with the
managers Of his own party-it was
agreed that the house should meet at
10 O'Clock that morning. Randall, ac-
cordingly appeared promptly at the ap-
pointed hour, in readiness to address
the house, and Springer, Of Illinois, was
in the chair. But, unfortunately, a Wig
orous Independent" congressman,
named A. r. Anderson, from Iowa, had
secured the floor on the preceding even
ing. and when the house met at 10
o'clock he insisted on his technical
right to continue. So, while the over
flowing galleries, in high pitch of eX-
pectation, fidgeted restlessly on account
of the Interpolation, Anderson reeled
off long free trade composition with
unintelligibie speed, occupying the
whole hour that had been allotted to
Randall.
At IL o'clock, however, Randall arose
and taking position near the front row
of the Democratic side, addressed the
assembly. Notwithstanding he had
been notable figure in congress for a
quarter Of century and had won and
welded undisputed leadership in the
Democratic party, he had been read
OUT of it for refusing to reverse his
lifelong tariff views upon the peremp-
tory demand of the new free trade man.
ayers. Standing up almost solitary
and alone in the defense of the tradi-
tional protectionists tenets of old time
Democracy, and physically weak and i'll
unto death of the malady that after
ward laid him low, he heroically ex-
pounded the non-partisan doctrine Of
American protection, and; like an in
mir bat IN, l.; oil Il
his erirng party associates of the folly
of abandoning good economic principles
for bad. His face paled visibly as he
began, reading from manuscript, and
his hands trembled as he held the
leaves. His progress was painful, but
his audience was impressed by the
simple grandeur of the situation, and
his own marvellous will-power sustained
him.
He briefly alluded to the recognized
necessity of tariff revision and the
promises Of his party to that end, and
proceeded to explain the provisions of
the Randall tariff bill," which he with
mature knowledge had prepared and
introduced, to demonstrate that a tar
iff revision fulfilling the party promises
and remedying existing abuses could
be accomplished upon Democratic lines
and at the same time wreak injury to
no American industry. After adverting
to the Mills bill in a general way. he
next proceeded to analyze the blunders
IN 1t, showing that 1t left dutiable many
so-called raw materials while placing
on the free list articles made from them,
thus not only erecting an insurmount-
able barrier against the production Of
such articles here, but actually protect
ing the foreigner against us, and i'm
posing benefit. He pointed out, too, that
while the bills supporters claimed to
be. the peculiar friends of the farmer.
they took from him his protective duties
on wool, hemp, flax, meats. milk, fruits,
vegetables and seeds, and while profess
ing to give the manufacturer better
rates, deprived him also Of his protec-
tive duties. And instead of removing
taxes from necessaries and imposing
them upon luXuries, the bill gave free
olive oil to the eplcure and taxed castor
oil 81 per cent; gave free tin-plate to
the great oil and meat-canning monopo-
lies, and imposed a duty of 100 per cent
upon rice; gave the sugar trust free
boncback for cheaper manufacture, and
levied a prohibitory duty on grocery
sugar; imposed 40 per cent. duty upon
the poor mans blanket" and only 80
per cent. upon the, Administer carpet of
the rich; and finally. made free the
blooded horses of the gentlemen of the
turf and the fine paintings and statuary
Of the railway millionaire and coal
baron"
At this point, his allotted hour having
expired, the speaker asked for a slight
extension of time; but Chairman Roger
Q. Mills. of Texas, then head of the
ways and means committee, who had
naturally been writhing in irritation un-
der this searching analysis of the meas
ure bearing his name, and whose plans
as leader of the house in control of