The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1897-06-22

sIrument Vi DullulnR up uOIneStlt
monopoly to raise prices, and tn,
wealth that has poured into the Golfer,
Of u few thousand mcn, or 10000. o,
1000, or 100, 900 engaged in and who
own manufactures, has been taker
from the hard earnings Of the masse,
OF the people, and you have got tt
settle with these farmers If you now
refuse them redress.
Trusts and mouopolies could moi
exist If the products of those trusts
were admitted free of duty but wher
you erect barriers between us and the
foreign market and allow no oppor,
tunity for the import OF these things
you put it in the power Of The domestic
manufacturers, by forming conbina
tions among themselves, to fix the
price that they choose to charge In the
home market, and the farmers nust
pay bounty to these men and can
not help themselves.
You Republicans proclaim the
docrine cardinal one of America
for the Americans" To that l say
amen, for | am an American. But |
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, as / never had any
other occupation and never had any
/ other means Of income but from the
farm, | can stand here with more pro-
prlety, possibly, than any other man
and demand equality and justice. |
can not hope to do more than supple
ment the able, masterly, unanswera Dle
argument presented yesterday by the
Senator from Utah Mr.. Cannonl but |
am prepared to advance some argu-
ments that will stagger some OF you to
| 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 level
Of your European competitors"
Who competes 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 competes with him !?
The people OF Egypt and India. You
are driving the producers of those
staple crops, which are largely ex-
ported, to the level OF the paupers who
work in Egypt, in India, in Argentina,
and in Russia. You can not deny the
proposition.
As long as we had monetary system
which gave us fair prices for our ex
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 u point, since the repeal Of the
sherman law and the final annihilia-
ton of silver as money, where we are
face to face with crisis in agricul-
tural affairs in this country and you
gentlemen who are pl ossing 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
bounty and can not compensate him,
will find when this question is present.
cd to him, as it will be presented in
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 fayoritism involved in
the refusal to vote this bounty then he
will deserve his fate, and will be fit
"mudsill to serve as basis OF the
plutOoracy which now controls in this
country.
| have too much respect for the de-
scendants of the New Eng anders and
citizens of the Middle States, who
have moved to the West and who are
to-day producing wheat at loss, to
believe that you can hold them in your
party II you refuse to do them Justice.
And as for my friends on this side who
elevate their brows and speer at the
idea o a bounty as not being Demo-
cratic | will, before | get through,
show to you that you are clinging to
the letter and not the spirit OF Demo
Justice TO your own fellow-citizens by
your votes here, they will hold you to
q strict accountability.
| / said moment ago that the Ameri-
can farmers furnishes the exports with
which you pay your foreign exchanges.
give the exact figures. All the ex.
ports sent abroad by this country in
1896 amounted to 1868, 900, 900. OF that
sum, the farmers dug out Of the ground
and shipped, because the home mark ct
would would not take it. $593 900 600
worth, or nearly three-fourths. You
are not able to consume his surplus,
and he Is forced to sell wherever he
can find buyer. You force him to
buy at home in a market the prices OF
which have been raised from "20 per
Conu az VdlOT6ulJ WHICH ID Ln6 True
Democratic proposition, l believe, to
somewhere between 100 and $50 per
cent on many articles and an average
Of over so per cent on all.
Then you turn around and In this
tar II you offer him all the protection
possible" by giving him 25 cents q
bushel on wheat, Is cents bushel on
corn, 80 cents bushel on barley, and &C
on through the agricultural schedule
and while the taxgatherer comes
around yearly and while the mortgage
eats and gnaws day and night upon his
home, the one that this Government
} may have given him, feeling that it /,
slipping from beneath HE feet by these
! just conditions, you expect him u
vote the Republican ticket because
forsOoth, you have given him "protec
, tion" in this scheme by tariff OF
! tn ese articles.
r 1t Is an insult TO his intelligence, ant
} II the man who framed It'll do no
} know who did it-has an agricultara
} constituency thatis worth FLIP, h,
Q would never see the light Of this Cham
: ber any more after they got chano
q TO vote upon 1t. You knowait is On In
l suit to proclaim that the farmer get
q any benefit from these tariff duties.
t But, Mr.. President, who and wha
| are some OF these men who are thu
8 disseminated agsinstp Let us con
. sider for moment, II we please, tw
o brothers born In Germany. who. fee