Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1896-10-01
MKINLEY And MINERS.
Fine Record Of the Next PreSi-
dent of the United States.
REPRESENTS THE TOILERS
In the Great Cause of Protection
to American Industries.
COMPARED WITH BRYAN.

tion rs the Defender of the Coal Miners.
While Mr.. Bryan Won His First Public
Recognition In a Speech I'm Favor of Free
Trade and Equal Opportunity for Euro
pean Industries in American Markets.
Voters Take Your Choicei
The Democratic managers are seeking
to represent Mr.. Bryan as the especial rep
resentativs of the toiling masses. But
Major Mckinley is, in fact, q better repre-
sentative of the men who toll on the farms
and in the shops than is Mr.. Bryan. He
represents the cause Of protection to Amer
lean industries, while Mr.. Bryan repre-
sents the cause Of free trade in labor on
American soil. But outside of the eco
nomic politics represented by these presi-
Dental candidates, Mckinley won his
public recognition as the defender OF the
coal miners, while Mr. Bryan won his first
public recognition in a speech in favor of
free trade and equal opportunity for Euro
pean industries in American markets.
Major Mckinley came by his present
position not only through brilliancy of
intellectual achievement but through
fidelity to a fixed principle. His recon-
mendation to public Office was defense
Of laboring men who were on trial for
burning the works of q coal mining COM
pany at Massillon, o. The miners were
on strike, and during the strike some one
fred the works. More than a score OF
miners were indicted and placed on trial,
charged with incendiarism. Major Nc
Kinley was a young attorney at Canton
He had never been thought of for public
Office and had no ambition for any other
success than that of n lawyer. He was
friend Of the miners on trial and he was
engaged to defend them. Public opinion
condemned tho men without trial, but
William Mckinley took up their cause
with such earnestness and made such
defense that the majority of the men were
acquitted and those who were found
guilty escaped with very slight punish
ment.
Old lawyers in Ohio who heard McKin-
ley's defense of these men predicted bril-
liant future for him at the bar, and the
mine owners who had the men arrested
felt that this young man was more dan
gerous to their interests as the champion
of labor than was the miners organiza-
ton that had brought about the strike
Tho miners of that part of Ohio looked
upon Mckinley as their champion, and
that speech made him the Republican can
didate for prosecuting attorney of Stark
county. There was n large Democratic
majority in the county, but Mckinney
defense of the miners broke down the op-
position and gave him the election by
good majority.
As the public prosecutor Mckinley was
the friend of the laboring men, not in pre-
tense, but in the honest and fearless judg-
ment he used in refusing to allow his
Office to be used to intimidato men in the
free exercise of their rights as citizens.
When he became a candidate to con
gress the laboring men looked upon him
as their true friend and hundreds who had
voted the Democratic ticket helped elect
Mckinley to congress and for many years
helped him there in spite of the Demo
cratic gerrymanders of his district.
Mckinley became the champion Of pro-
lection to American industry, not because
he was tariff expert, but because he was
interested in tho cause Of labor, and he
represented district which had mary in
dustries where wages were dependent on
the protection given them in our tariff
laws. One of his first arguments in favor
of protection was that 'the right Of labor
and of labor's best reward is not only IN
alienable, for in it lies the power to pur
sue happiness, but it is n right protected
in terms by the constitution" In con-
gress he devoted himself to study Of the
tariff that he might lift the scale of wages
for the men in the factories at his own
home, and help the wool growers on the
hillside farms Of his own district. He
framed the Mckinley law with the one
purpose of protecting American labor and
to build up new industries for the en-
ployment Of more labor at home. He is
the best champion of American labor, be-
cause he has devoted his life to the cause
of protecting American industries.
AS governor of Ohio Mckinley was the
friend of the laboring men. When the
Trades Labor union sent to Governor
Mckinley an appeal for immediate relief
for the destitute miners in the Hooking
Valley district the telegram reached him
at midnight. He did not wait until the
next day, but dispatched messengers to a
wholesale grocer n dealer in -four, another
In meat, transfer company and the
officers of the Hooking Valley Railroad
company These gentlemen came to his
rooms In tho hotel after midnight, and
the result was a special car loaded with
supplies started for the destitute miners
at s o'clock the next morning. Governor
Mckinley paid for those supplies out OF
his own private purse, and the next day
he presented the cause of the miners to
the legislature and TO the public in
message and n prociama ton to secure
more ample relief for the suffering miners.
Tho miners of Ohio have never forgotten
that Mckinley is their friend, and tho
miners Of Illinois also know why they
call Mckinley the champion OF labor.
What has w. j. Bryan done to entitle
him to stand rs the protector Of labor, to
lift the crown OF thorns from his head?
The prospect for Bryan in Pennsylvania
must be still worse than it is generally
supposed to be, when even Tillman ut last
confesses that the Democrats have no
chance to carry 1t.