The record-union., 1896-08-19
Elected an Honorary Member Of Their
Company.
He Congratulates Them on the Prog
ress of Their Race,

as Valuable as Gold Dollars They
Will be Just as Hard to Get-He
Will Not Speak Upon the Stump.
CANTON (O), Aug. 1S.-The Lover
ture Rifles, handsomely uniformed
well-drilled military company, COM
posed of colored men, came on a special
train from Cleveland with a large num-
Der of their friends to call on Major Nc
kinley early this afternoon. They
marched behind their own band from
the station to the Mckinley residence
and were freely cheered by the specta-
tors on the sidewalks and compliment
ed upon their handsome appearance.
II. &. Smith, a cOlored member of the
Ohio Legislature, addressed Major Nc
kinley in behalf of the visitors and
presented him with a certificate of hon
orary membership in the Rifles, the
first one ever issued. Mr.. Smith is
speaker of force and eloquence, and his
pertinent, vigorous remarks called from
Major Mckinley a spirited response,
which was momentarily punctured with
lusty cheers and long continued ap-
plause. Major Mckinley was in excel
lent form. Replying to Mr. Smith and
acknowledging the compliment of hon
orary membership in the Rifles, he
said:
Mr.. Smith and my Fellow Citizens:
1t gives me extreme pleasure to meet
and greet this company of rifles and my
colored fellow-citizens of the city of
Cleveland and Northern Ohio, and I
rejoice to learn from your eloquent
spokesman that you are ready this year
as in all the years of the past, to stand
faithfully by the Republican party
which, 1 believe, is the cause of our
country. l do not forget-no man can
forget-that, whether in war or in
peace, the race which you represent
never turned it's back on the glorious
old stars and stripes. Great applause
and cries of "Hurrah for McKinleyi")
When the great civil war commenced
no man could say what it's outcome
would be in regard to its effect on your
race. There were those who believed
that it must result in the abolition of
human slavery; there We're those who
believed otherwise.
The result was the immortal procla-
nation of emancipation by the best
friend you ever had, Abraham Lincoln
tremendous cheers), whose name YOU
Will cherish and revere forever and for
ever more. James G.. Blaine once said
that the first instinct of an American
was equality-equality of right, equal
ity of privilege, equality of political
power. That sentiment long ago found
expression in the Constitution of the
United States, and the principle placed
in that great instrument where it had
never been before, and where. under
God, it shall remain, civil and political
equality to every citizen everywhere
beneath the flag. (Applause)
| congratulate you, gentlemen upon
the splendid progress that your race
has made since emancipation You
have done better, you have advanced
more rapidly, than it was believed pos
sible at that time; you have improved
greatly the educational advantages
which you have had Your people
everywhere, North and South, are ac-
cumulating property, and to-day you
stand as among the most conservative
Great applause) / congratulate YOU
from the bottom of my heart on the ad-
vancement you have already made
We are now engaged in a political
contest, and your presence in such vast
numbers here to-day evinces the inter-
est which you have in the public ques-
tions that are now engaging the atten-
tion of the American people. We have
a great country and we must keep it
great. The position the United States
must occupy, both in wages and in
dustry and in the integrity of it's
finances, must be at the top To that
place of honor the people of the country
must restore it. They have the oppor-
tunity that they have wished for since
1892 Will they meet it in the year 1896?
(Cries of "They will.')
We want in the United States neither
cheap money nor cheap labor. Great
cheering) We will have neither the one
nor the other. (Applause) We must
not forget that nothing is cheap to the
American people which comes from
abroad when it entails idleness upon our
own laborers. tremendous applause)
We are opposed to any policy which in
creases the number of unemployed in
the United States, even if it does give us
cheaper foreign goods, and we are op-
posed to any policy which degrades
cheaper products made either at home
or abroad Great applause)
Having reduced the pay of labor it is
now proposed to reduce the value of the
money in which labor is paid. Gaugh-
teri This money question presents it
self to me in this homely fashion: If
free coinage of silver means a fifty
three-cent dollar then it is not an honest
dollar. (Applause) If free coinage
means a one hundred-cent dollar equal
to gold dollar, as some of those advo-
Gates assert, we will not then have
cheap dollars, but dollars just like those
we now have and which will be as hard
to get (applause), in which case free
coinage will not help the debtor or make
it easier for him to pay his debts.
My countrymen the most unameri-
can of all appeals observable in this
campaign is the one which seeks to ar
ray labor against capital; employees
against employer. 1t is most unpatri-
otic and is fraught with the greatest
peril to all concerned. We are political
equals here-equal in privilege and op-
portunity. dependent upon each other,
and the prosperity of the one is the
prosperity of the other. (Great cheer
ing.) 1t is as Mr.. Lincoln said to the