The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-10-08

such inconvenience and from so great
| distance, to my home. 1t is with pecu-
mar pleasure that | welcome this club
from the Capital city of the great com
monwealth of Pennsylvania, COM
| ing as you do from city
of great rolling mills and other
manufactures having a product in value
of more than $12,OO0,000 annually when
| your establishments are all running full
| time and from one of the greatest manu-
featuring states of the country. l need
| hardly be told of the deep and profound
| interest which you have in the rightful
settlement of the issues presented in
this campaign. Both of the leading
issues are Of sufficient Importance to your
industrial life and prosperity to command
your unremitting labor and effort, nor
need, L remind you that the issue which
involves the restoration of our pro-
tectlve. policy, unhappily and unwar-
rantedly abandoned in the presidential
| campaign four years ago, is to be
settled this year, as well as that other
issue OF continuing safe monetary sys-
TEN, resting on the best money of the
world and guaranteeing to our people
the use of all the forms of money now in
circulation to be of equal value and pur-
chasing power. The mistake of 1892
needs no elaboration. 1t has been felt
and realized in every section of our COM
mon country and this year, 1896, is the
first since it was made that the whole
people have had a chance to correct it.
What will they do, my fellow citizens of
will elect Mckinley followed by ire
mendous cheering) For three years past
the, trade of manufacturing, agriculture
and mercantile at the end of each quar-
ter of the year could be readily summed
up in single sentence, prices all along
the line have declined and with that
the hope and comfort of the American
people have also declined. In 1895
Dun's review of trade reported % per
cent decline in iron and steel, 81 per cent
ON wool and 80 per cent on cotton. 1t
might have been supposed that the bot
tom prices were then reached, but on
March IA. 1896, the same excellent
non-partisan review made this report of
the condition Of the trade of the coun-
try and | can not see that it has greatly
changed from that time to this, and GER
tainly there is little improvement or ad-
vance in prices generally:
LAS prices on February 1 were on
the whole the lowest ever known in this
country, considerable space is given this
week to a comparison of quotations in
the most important branch of manufac-
lures and then follows long table, of
which | need only say that it sustains
its assertions and shows most de-
plorable condition of all kinds of bust
ness. AS legitimate result. we never
knew so many failures as in 1895. We
had hoped that times would take turn
for the better, but they have not, al
though l am sure that such is the wish
of the American people today and the
earnest and sincere wish of the republic
can party. But such condition seems
impossible under such our present reve-
mn Iaui SIa he,
distressing record further. Never has
business been poorer, never has indus
trial distress been greater and the prog
ress of the country been so retarded as
during the low tariff or no tariff years
of 1896, in all our history; and the
government has shared little better, be-
cause the treasury reports have recorded
monthly deficiencies and additions to the
public debt-and the deficiency still con-
tinues. Will any one say, in the pres
ence of such facts. that the revenue
legislation of the country must remain
unchanged; that it is not the plain duty
of the government to provide adequate
revenue for the public treasury and pro-
tect American labor against the cheaper
labor of the old world! Government
expenditures must not exceed govern
ment receipts. The creation of public
debt in Il time of peace is only justifiabe
in sustaining the credit of the govern
ment and the public honor, but it should
not be continued longer than the con-
gress, whose duty it is to raise the reve-
nues. shall make provision to supply it.
No one has suffered more under these
conditions than the farmer. They have
lost much by. diminished home market
and have suffered in the foreign market
by the repeal of the reciprocity pro-
visions of the tariff law of 1890
The foreign market opened by reci-
procity during the administration of
President Harrison must be reopened.
and the home market must be improved
and preserved for the American farmer.
while the American workshop must be
opened to the American workingman. No
patriotic citizens should object to regain
ing and then holding our proud rank of
the greatest manufacturing. mining and
farming nation of the world. With he
the necessity of the restoration of judi
cious and wise American tariff policy is
a firm conviction, second to nothing in i'm
portance except the preservation of law
and order, which we must have, of justice
and domestic tranquility. and the pre-
servation of our credit and currency and j
our national honor. (Applause)
''My fellow citizens, we must defeat by
decisive majorites. every scheme for the
debasement of our currency, whether it |
be free silver or irredeemable paper mon !
ey: but while we do this we must also |
refute the destructive and dangerous
menace of free trade. We have lost !,
enough already in the reduced wages of i
our labor, and we do not propose to be |
cheated further by being paid in debased |
dollars Let us effectually dispose of !
both and restore to our country the great |
business prosperity which is naturally and |
properly ours to possess and enjoy.
Il am glad, my fellow citizens, TO meet |
all of you today. | am glad to meet my |
friends from Pennsylvania, and my old |
friends from Athens county. What you |
want they want, and what all of us want |
in this country is the restoration of pub |
lie confidence and tariff law that will |
set the wheels of industry in motion and |
give employment to every man in the |
land. Great cheering and cries of 'hur-
rah for Mckinley
Maj. Mckinley made an address just |
after II o'clock to the employees of the
StrattOn Plate Glass company and McIn-
tosh. Hemphil & Co. of Pittsburg. The |
party was introduced by Workman L. VI.
Jackson.
Another speech was delivered to rail
road men in the employ Of the Pittsburg
and Western. introduced by Robert X.
Kuhn Next came the farmers, miners.
laborers, tn-makers and wool growers of