The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1896-10-17
HON. E. P. RUCKER TALKS.
He Makes Tariff His Theme
A Fairsized Audience Greets the Man
from Mcdowell.

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A Fairsized Audience Greets the Man
from Mcdowell.
Last Friday night the Mckinley
and Hobart Club were addressed
in the Opera House by Hon. E. P.
Rucker, of Mcdowell county, the
man who defeated Frank Cox for the
nomination for Attorney General.
The meeting had been very well ad-
vertised and there was fairly good
crowd present when the speaking be-
gan. The band was out and parad-
ed the streets for half an hour sue
ceeding in gathering together a mon
ster parade which numbered fifty
six men students and children.
The parade was about the grandest
fizzle with the exception of Judge
Lansing ever seen in Morgantown
1t was almost pathetic in its alb
surdity. 1t paraded for some time
and burned four or five sticks of red
fire and then repaired to the Opera
House.
Mr.. Frank Cox presided as chair
man and introduced Mr.. Rucker in
neat little speech. The gentleman
from Mcdowell is very able cam
paigner and in former years has been
one of the best stump-speakers in
state. But this year his heart is
not in the fight. His vim and en-
thusiasm are gone and his speech
was the poorest he ever delivered.
He first began to make tariff his
theme, an issue as dead as Hector
and one that excites about as much
talk as the Oregon boundary dis
pute. Here he made several state
ments that to say the least are open
to contradiction. For instance, 'In
1892 our laborers were better en-
ployed, more contented and happy
than they had been for life time
before" The facts are that 1892
witnessed nearly 1000 strikes, among
them the celebrated Homestead
riots. Were these men contented,
happy and prosperous? He spoke of
our present free trade tariff. The
/ gentleman is too well informed to
believe we are living under free trade
or even near approach to it. 9th
er tariff arguments used are old ac-
quaintances and do not require any
answer.
The discussion of the silver ques-
ton showed greater lot of fallacies
than the other parts of the speech if
possible. He spoke about there be-
ing only 100000 silver dollars
coined up to '73, but he neglected to
state that 200 millions of subsidiary
coins were minted and that Mexi-
can, Spanish and Trade dollars were
legal tender thus adding materially
to our circulation. He told about
Coin Harvey drawing gold out of a
bank to hoard it. The facts are that
Mr.. Harvey wished few thousand
dollars in gold to use as practical
ILLUSTRATION as to the amount OF gold
in the world. He was unable to OBJ
tain it under our admirable financial
system until he had given his affida-
Wit to return it without delay and
giving personal security for many
times the amount to guaratee that
| he would fulfil his pledge. Sewall's
gold contracts were also spoken of.
All contracts for ocean freights have
been universally and invariably
made in gold.
A very pleasing compliment was
paid to the miners of Mcdowell
by saying that they had been told
that Is to | meant SIG to each per-
son. This the miners had believed
and were now spending four days
out of each week in calculating how
much they would receive, multiply
ing the number in each family by
| Is to find out. What do those mi
ners think of the rating their INTEL
igence gets from Mr.. Rucker? Many
other assertions were made that were
in themselves self evidently without
foundation. The people around here
are too well informed to be misled
| by any such fallacious speeches as
this one was. There was very little
enthusiasm manifested and several
attempts to manufacture it fell pain
| fully fat. This is not Mr.. Fuckers
year and he is not at his best by
any means when trying to talk for a
policy that he denounced two years
ago on the stump in his district.
The meeting was disappointment
to his friends many of whom are
| Democrats and they all hope that
the next time the gentleman talks
here that he will be defending pol
icy which has his endorsement.