Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1897-03-24


Commissioner a Roasting.
Washington, March 24.-Although sew
eral sharp controversies somewhat. en-
livened the tariff debate in the house
yesterday the brilliant speech Of DolIi-
yer of Iowa was distinctly the over
shadowing feature of the day. It shone
out through the weary, monotonous
gloom which had pervaded the debate
like locomotive headlight in fog
Dolliver is q finished orator ard his
speech was a masterpiece of forensic
eloquence. Replete with wit ard glow
ing periods, it alternately aroused his
Republican colleagues to unbounded en-
thusiasm and convulsed the house with
laughter. Dolliver is quick and adroit
in the use of retort and the Democrats
refrained from interrupting him. To
ward the end CT his speech he said:
The theory of the present law was that
we were not only TO hold our own but
we were to go cut with our free wool
cloth and divide with Bradford and
Konnitz the task of clothing the naked
inhabitants CT the earth. [Laughterl
How It Worked in Practice.
nat was theory. w nat mas act
ually happened may be stated in few
plain words and figures; 100000 sheep
driven to the slaughter $4,000, 600 pounds
Of American wool displaced in our own
market, the importation of cloth multi
Piled by two, half the wooden mills idle
and locked up and the other half on
scant wages and short time The treas
ury of the United States 100000 shy
Ilaughterl; our choice and select gentry
disporting themselves in German, Eng
lish and French clothes, and the rest OF
US shining around in overcoats pur-
chased during Iiarrison's administra-
ton. Applause and great laughter
What Is Expected of Congress.
TIE Wilson law still stands, and has
for three years stood, On the statute
hooks Of the United States without a
friend and without name, stealing the
revenues from the treasury, wasting the
resources OF the government, stealing
away the earnings of American labor,
taking from the American farms the
| market places of the United States and
Of the world. That law stands on the
statute book today and brings this con-
Sress together in extraordinary session.
Now, ordinarily, sessions of congress do
not attract any public interest, except
cheerful expression of relief sometimes
when the session is at an end The
American people III ordinary times look
TO congress very much as the ship
wrecked mariner looks to Providence in
Il storm, not particularly because he
expects anything, but because every
thing else has been washed overheard
ILaughter.1
Prosperity Comes by Hard Work.
IF the American people ever get their
prosperity back it will come by their
own individual enterprise and courage;
| not by edicts and proclamations, but by
the honest and careful settlement of
conditions favorable to industry and in
vestment. If William Mckinley has
been described as an advance agent
fastening to the seat of government in
order to distribute prosperity from the
east pCrtico of the Capitol in few well
chosen words, the conception belongs to
| the world of dreams, and not to the
earth on which we live. No man bears
| any such relation to the prosperity of a
| great people; but the man may stand
and / reverently believe that William
| Mckinley does stand-as the chosen in
| strument in the hand Of Providence to
restore to the United States a public
I policy which has never yet failed to en-
| able the American people, by their own
| honest hard work, to secure out of their
| own resources a fair level of prosper
| ity.'