The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-06-03

party that has persistently opposed M ~
the benefoent measures which have maae
us indeed Nation commanding consul
GRAFTON at home and respect abreh"'
When the country had fully cornpre-
hended what had been done, oonsterna..
tlon and fear supplanted confidence anc
nope. Business WAS paralyzsd, many
banks broke ana suspended. Mills anu
1aotorles shut down. Labor was unem-
ployod or received largely reduced wages.
Our agricultural, numbering and other
industries We're crippled and injured, py
being brought into direct competition IN
our own markets with the products OF
Canada and other foreig n countries. A
new tariff bill was finally passed, Sec
tional in it's preferences based upon no
well defined or sound economic principle.
which President Cleveland denounced
as "a measure OF dishonor and refused 20
sign-which does not and will not pro-
duce sufficient revenue to pay current ex-
penses. Under it we have increased the
National debt some SIS, 600, 600 and we
are adding to 1t every month. We have
some S246, 600, 600 by disposing Of bonds
under doubtful authority for the ostensi-
BILE purpose of increasing and protecting
the gold reserve which rapidly dissp-
peared when the Democratic party came
into power. Much of the money received
from the sales of these bonds has in fact
been used to make good the constantly
increasing deficit caused by this revenue
reform tariff legislation. When conf
dencs shall again be restored and our
revenues equal and exceed our expendi-
lures the gold reserve will be all right
and take care of itself. We shall no
longer be compelled to mortgage the
country to foreign bankers by selling
bonds. | agree fully with Senator Sher-
m uiayuc fhi, NH T
gard as the greatest fnancier this country
ever produced.
The Republican party believes in sub
stituting for this Democratic sectional
free trade deficiency tariff, a protective
tariff, which shall produce revenue
enough TO pay the necessary expenses of
the government economically admins
tered, leaving small surplus to apply
toward the extinguishment Of our
National debt. A debt that had been
rapidly reduced and paid off under
every Republican administration since
the war. A debt, every dollar Of which
is a Democratic legacy to the people of
this. country. We believe further that
this tariff should be so framed as to
make protection an aim and factor,-not
a mere incident or accident-as to all
things that we can with reasonable effort
produce and manufacture ourselves. The
empty tin cans of the la boring men, pros
perity and enterprise, sitting In saokcloth
and ashes at the outer-gates imperatively
demand a return to this sound protective
policy. And it will surely come. Nearly
four years of Grover Cleveland and Demo
cratic misrule have been great educator
to the average voter. We know that q
Nation to be great, independent and pow
erful, must have diversity of industries
must be able to supply largely within Its
own borders those things essential to Its
Welfare.@ Our, Democratic friends can no
longer deceive by shouting in their plat
forms and by their speakers and press
about the markets of the world, and at
the same time ru thlessly strike down the
Reciprocity Treaties that were given as
preference in many foreign markets
What we desire first Of all, is our own
markets. They are the best markets in
the world. We have population that
consumes more percaplta than any other
on the face of the globe.
They claim to admit, free of duty,
what they call raw materials, unmindful
of the fact that what is one mans raw
material is usually another's finished
produot-and that the line of demaroa-
ton between them is very uncertain, -
and as an illustration, they open our
markets to Australia and Canadasand
place the wool of the farmer and the
rough lumber of the saw mill on the
free list. We insist that the correct
principle is to put, so far as we can,
upon the free list those things, luxnries
excepted, which we cannot produce our
selves and to tax those which come into
competition with us i'll our own market.
We contend that every dollar sent abroad
for what we can easily raise or manu-
facture at home Injuries our workingmen
by depriying them of employment and
tends to impoverish the country. We
believe it is the part of wisdom. and
patriotism to enact such tariff laws as
shall be in the interest of our country
and our own people, rather than foreign
countries and their products.
We advocate an honest dollar that shall
be good overy where. We claim to have
the best government, Our people are
equally entitled to the best money. We
demand and now have q sound currency
based upon gold, the standard recognized
and adopted by every prosperous civilized
limit to the amount of silver currency
that a fiat of the government oan float
and use at a par with gold. We soc con-
yinciDg evidences of this fact in the
many tons of silver piled in the vaults OF
the treasury of the United States, which
no effort can scatter abroad and keep in
circulation. The insane cry for free
coinage of silver at ratio of sixteen to
deprecated currency ana radical change
in all values "a scaling down of all tbs
deposits in our saving banks and trust
companies. 1t would rob every deserving
soldier and soldiers widow OF
near one-half their pensions.
1t means that gold shall &c
into hiding and fee from our land: cease
to be money and a part of our circulating
medium, and become commodity. 1t
means in part at least, both national and
individual reputation. dishonor and
bankruptcy by paying all public and
private obligations in currency worth
some 90 per cent Of its nominal and face
value. A contamination which can only
be beneficial to the impovident debtor
class; which would sacrifice the best in
terests and honor of the whole country
to enrich few sill ver States and silver
mine owners. 1t is a deIusion of the
same genus as the fiat money craze
which was so prevalent in this country
some 10 or 20 years ago, and ia equally
pernioious. To yield to it would be to
cut loose from progressive and highly
civilized nations and adopt the currenoy
system of China, Mexico, and Peru. The
purchasing power of the dollar would be
SO reduced that labor would be insidi-
ously robbed Of large share of it's earn
inFs. and especially would this be true
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