The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1897-06-24
THE NEW EvANGEL OF DEMOCRACY.
:" The Equality of Burdens and the Equality
of Benefits"
TILLMAN'S TARIFF SPEECH-
Delivered in the United States Senate on the 10Th of
June 1897.
! AtSiF + SPEECH.

an Issue that you can cot shirk ul
dodge, and both parties will have t,
lace 1T In the near future, because the
1900, 600 men in this country, who are
engaged in agriculture and who are
lace to face with pauperism and bank.
ruptcy, whose farms are slipping from
beneath them and are being alb :orbed
| by loan and trust companies that loan
them money, will settle with you at
the rallot box as to whether you shall
continue to take from their pockets
their hard-earned dollars to give t,
the manufacturing industries and give
them nothing in return.
How has the tariff policy of protec-
tion, which has been the governing
principle ever since the war, and oven
before the war to a limited degree,
worked? 1t was intended by domestic
competition to reduce prices but in
stead it has been the means and in
strument of building up domestic
monopoly to raise prices, and the
wealth that has poured into the Golfers
or a few thousand mon, or 10000, or
$4,000, or 100000 engaged in and who
own manufactures, has been taken
from the hard earnings of the masses
OF the people, and you have got to
settle with these farmers If YOU now
Trusts and monopolies could not
exist If the products Of those trusts
were admitted free Of duty /; but W hen
you erect barriers between us and the
foreign market and allow no oppor.
tunlty for the import of these things,
you put 1t In the power Of The domestic
manufacturers, by forming combina-
tions among themselves, to fix the
price that they choose to charge In the
nome market, and the farmers must
pay bounty to these men and can
not help themselves.
You Republicans proclaim the
docrine a cardinal one Of America
for the Americans" TO that l say
amen, for L am an American. But l
want you to include in that charmed
circle of America for Americans ,he
farmer along with the rest, and give
us an equal showing. AS | am farm.
er pure and simple, rs | never had any
other occupation and never had any
other means of income but from the
farm, can stand here with more pi O.
priety, possibly, than any other man
and demand equality and Justice.
can not hope to do more than supple
ment the able, masterly, unansw era BILE
argument presented yesterday by the
Senator from Utah Mr.. Cannonb but
am prepared to advance some argu
ments that will stagger some OF you tc
answer.
The cry is, protect American
labor against the pauper labor OF
Europe" 1t is your sole reliance in
appealing to the voters to say, We
do not want the prices which we pay
you for your work to sink to the levcl
OF your European competitors"
Who completes with the American
farmer? Where are you driving him?
Take the producer Of wheat. VINO are
his competitors The people of India,
Argentina, and Russia. Take the cot
ton grower. Who completes with him ?
The people OF Egypt and India. You
are driving the producers Of those
staple crops, which are largely ex-
work in Egypt, in India, in Argentina,
and in Russia. You can not deny the
proposition.
AS long as we had a monetary system
which gave us fair prices for our OK,
ports, we could stand the competition
by reason Of our rich virgin soil and
our improved machinery and the
superior industry and intelligence OF
the American farmer. But we have
got to a point, since the repeal Of the
Sherman law and the final annihilia.
| tiOn Of silver as money, where we are
face to face with crisis in agricul.
tural affairs in this country and you
gentlemen who are pressing madly on
ward, imagining that you can hold
your farmer vote. that you can hold
the wheat grower to your standard by
pretending that he will be benefited
indirectly while you can not give him
q bounty and can not compensate him
will find when this question is present
ed to him, as 1t will be presented ia
! the next two years, that you must ex.
plain why you refuse to give the farm
er equality and justice in this scheme
! OF protection. If you can hold his vote
after he shall be made to clearly under
stand the class favoritism involved in
! the refusal to vote this bounty then he
will deserve his fate, and will be d fit
"mudsill" to serve as basis Of the
! plutocracy which now controls in this
country.
! | have too much respect for the de-
scendants of the New Englanders and
citizens Of the Middle States, who
have moved to the West and who are
to-day producing wheat at loss, tc
believe that you can hold them in yOul
party If you refuse to do them justice
And as for my friends on this side who
| clcVAIo Gnolr DrOWS dnu SnCcF AL Glt
idea of q bounty as not being Demo
cratic, | will, before | get through
show to you that you are clinging tt
the letter and not the spirit of Demo
cracy, and that if you refuse to d'
justice to your own fellow-citiZens b.
your votes here, they will hold you II
q strict accountability.
| said moment ago that the Ameri
can farmers furnishes the exports will
which you pay your foreign exchanges
give the exact figures. All the OK
ports sent abroad by this country ii
1896 amounted to 1868, 100000 Of tina
sum, the farmers dug out Of the groun
and shipped, because the home marke
would would not take it, $593, 900. 90
worth, or nearly three-fourths. Yo
are not able to consume his surplus
and he is forced to sell wherever h
can find q buyer. You force him
buy at homo In a market the prices {
which have been raised from ''2O pc
cent ad valorem," which Is the tru