The daily morning journal and courier., 1896-07-17
MASSACHUSETTSMUGWUMPS
RENOUNOE THEIR FEALTY TO THE
 DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

The Honor of the Country, They Say, Must
 Remain Inviolate-Crisis the Gravest
 Since 1S61-Stability of Our Institutions
 Threatened--A Large Fund to be Appro-
 priated to stem the Tide of Fanaticism.
 Boston, July 16.-Nearly one hundred members of the Massachusetts Reform club met and dined at the Parker house this afternoon. The main object of the gathering was to consider the present political situation. Colonel D. B. Has, kell of the Boston Herald presided. Among those present were Edward At kinson, Collector Warren, Henry w. Lamb, president of the New England Free Trade league; Archibald Howe, R. H. Dana, Robert Treat Paine, Rep resentative J. J. Meyers, Jabez Fox, Gamaliel Bradford, Dana Estes and Andrew Fiske.
 Colonel Haskell opened the speaking and struck the keynote of the gather ing. He said:
 This country has reached a crisis graver than any other it has known since 1861. Cloud Applause.) Without questioning the sincerity of anybody it seems to be fair to say that various causes have brought together or are likely to bring into dangerous unani- mity about all the popular delusions, vagaries and quackeries which have in all ages threatened the stability of free institutions. The country is to-day se riously threatened with the debasement of the currency which involves the par tial repudiation of all private and pub lie financial obligations.
 "It is not only proposed to change the standard of value, but to adopt a standard liable to constant fluctuations. This is true at any rate while the great commercial countries of the world with which we exchange our commodities adhere to the gold standard Some of us believe that one of the efficient causes of this state of things has been the policy of extreme protection which has prevailed in this country for over a generation. (Renewed applause.)
 This policy has taught the country mischievous lesson-that the power of the, government can be used to make and maintain artificial prices for the products of the country Who can question the logic of the silver miners when they demanded that the much wanted principle of protection should be extended to their product. If iron and copper, why not silver?
 Tt is a fact that protection has un- naturally stimulated manufacturers at the expense of other great interests, notably the agricultural and shipping It is condition and not theory, with which we now have to deal At the foundation of all popular discomfort, now so menacingly arrayed against all the lessons of science and history is the unhappy condition of the American farmers.
 They have seen the prices of their products-prices made abroad under sharp competition-go steadily down. ward, while their mortgages remained undiminished. They blindly struggle for relief, unable or unwilling to look beyond their own necessities Their desperation finds expression in populs- tic vagaries, promptly recommended by charaltans and demagogues, to which the false reasoning of the apos. ties of protection give color-and final ly one of the great political parties is carried off its feet in the devils dance of the Chicago convention. Daughter and applause)
 T have sympathy for the farmers, but the quack remedy they demand would leave them worse than to-day. The distrust they have created holds back from the west and south the capi- tai of the east, repels from the whole country the hundreds of millions seek ing investment in Europe at low rate,, bound to be withheld from a people threatening repudiation. It Is this dis trust to-day which depresses business and keeps up the rate of interest on the farmers mortgages. And what would be the effect of the remedy proposed? It might not diminish the profits of the merchant or the manufacturer. Logic ally, the extreme protectionists should favor the silver standard. It would be the most effective protective measure that could be devised.
 "All foreign commodities would have to beNpaid for in gold and wages would still be governed by the law of supply and demand, as they always have been and will always be. The farmer might get larger prices for his products, but the purchasing power of his money would be lessened. All who work for wages, all who have invested their sav- ings, all who have insured their lives, the whole army of pensioners, would suffer Capital would be able to take care of itself It would simply com mand more of the cheaper money. The severest pressure would come upon the workers for wages.
 ITO prevent such national disaster and dishonor I am willing to set aside all the other questions in this cam paign. (Applause.) As firmly as I be- lieve in free trade, and the nearest at tainable approach to free trade, I am willing to hold this question in abey- ance Foolish and unjust as I believe protection to be. I recognize the fact that this country can adjust itself to almost any tariff. But it cannot ad- just itself to a debased and fiuctuating currency. A protective tariff only places an unnecessary burden on the back of labor. A debased currency poisons it's life-blood and destroys its strength.
 T do not exactly know what are the requirements of membership of the Re- form club I shall be astonished if any man can remain a member in good s+apdine while he eOIInSelS national