The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-07-14

| lulIlucI VI Otutuh VI SOhpSllSu " uuy iiOhi
us? There is no yellow pine up North and
when the duty is taken from white pine that
entire section is flooded from Canada. That
is the case now under the Wilson bill, North
ern pine has been largely consumed and
Southern pine is rapidly finding its way in
that direction. These Northern mill owners
have bought an immense tract of pine
stumpage in Canada and only waited for
free lumber to remove their mills there and
send their lumber to the Statse. 1t is esti-
mated that the South has one hundred and
eighty-three million acres of pine forest
which will now be developed. Northern
capital will help to develop our lumber
industry instead Of going to Canada for
that purpose. Some have said that it will
raise the price of lumber l hope it will
and to that extent, Mt least, VIC may be able
to recover SOM of the money taken from US
by the North and East. This duty upon
pine lumber is an act of justice towards the
South and 1 am proud that I was permitted
to take so prominent a part in it.
THE PRINCIPLE INVOLVED.
l am not defending my action upon the
grounds of protection, but as securing a per
cent. of equalization for the plundering you
have suffered. If we are to have free trade
let US have it for all sections. If we are to
have o tariff for revenue let us have it equal
all over the nation. If we are to have pro-
lection make it equal to every industry
throughout the entire length and breadth of
our country. Let our statute books disclose
no s%ectionallsm. Let US have, in fact, as
well as name, equal rights to all, special
privileges to none" This, l am taught, is
the true Democracy. The North has ex-
plored all the possibilities of the West and
there are no more openings in that section
for their capital. The South, which has
lain dormant and neglected under the miser-
able s%ectionalism for the past thirty years,
now looms up as a land of promise and a
location for future possibilities. Every eff
fort is being made by the grasping avarice
of New England to continue to force tribute
from US and make no return. These keen
Yankees see the hand writing on the wall and
realize more than they dare admit that I'M
der anything like equal chances the South
would forge ahead with great rapidity. The
growth in power of New England has been
| obtained in direct contradiction Of the laws
of God aDd nature. It has virtually grown
figs from thistles and at a profit. 1t has
robbed and ~plundered its more generous
~neighbors and its greed and avsrice gives
signs of no abatement. In that cold, bleak
region the hum of the cotton spindle should
never be heard and the whir Of manufactur-
ing should never obtain. Its location, sur
roundings and climate are all against it, and
yet the fair skies of the South have been ig-
nored, its mild climate neglected and the
kindly courtesy of nature left unused. Must
| it ever remain thus? Can we not unite as
one man to demand our proper status among
the material interests of the nation? Let us
try it. Let us start the ball rolling here in
| South Carolina and undertake to do m
thing for the financial prosperity Of our State
and people.
Fellow citizens, my convictions are the re-
suit of observation and careful investigation,
| and my conclusions are unalterable with the
lights that are now before me My position
on the ways and means committee of the
House enabled me to study this matter from
its center to circumference. When saw the
far reaching conspiracy of the North and
East to plumber and despoil the South, /
was amazed at its magnitude and the success
with which it was applied.
But when | discovered that no one from
the South was lifting q hand in her defence
l was absolutely COMPOUNDED. Financially
speaking, the South was on her knees to the
North and East, and submitting without a
protest to the most dastardly system of plum
dering that Yankee shrewdness could devise,
l tried to convince myself that | was wrong,
that these conditions were natural and right,
but utterly failed in the attempt. The more
thought of it, the more firmly | became con-
WINGED of the outrage. Day after day, week
after week, our committee room and the cor
ridors of the Capitol were crowded with Eas-
tern and Northern men seeking Government
favors for their different industries.
They were cunning, bold and threatening,
and they usually carried their point. Was
the South represented? No, indeed, from all
appearances, it had neither part nor lot in
the proposed legislation. After a time Lily
| Southern blood began to assert itself. l
could quietly submit no longer to see my
section and the people l represent plundered
without making a protest? l finally con-
Guided to make q stand for the material in
~terests of the South, to make fight for the
pocketbooks of my constituents.
There are two ways of getting equal
rights, one is to take away from the other
fellow the rights that he ought not to
have, the other is to demand the same
rights yourself. Equality before the law.
Mr.. Chairman, from that day until the
present time l have made the best fight that
I could upon these lines, and so help me
God, if permitted, l shall continue the con-
test until the people of the South are privi-
legged 10 stand upon an equality with the peo-
pie of the other sections uuder the laws of
this nation.
The speech l made last March was the first
speech ever made upon that floor denounc-
ing the sectional features of FOUR tariff legisla-
ton, and demanding equal and exact justice
for the South, That speech has not been
answered, and / predict that it will not be
very soon.
The more I looked into the matter the
more firmly / became convinced that the
material interests of the South were being
NEGLECTED and that her people were being
robbed without objection.
That speech subjected me to severe crit
icisms here in South Carolina. | refused to
answer them, but instead gave out an ad-
dress on "The South and her Opportunities
l could hardly believe my own statements
of the vast possibilities it contained. That
speech has gone throughout the length and
breadth of the land and fully established the
fact that the South had opportunities that
should be considered.
l followed this with a recent speech in
the Senate, the first of its kind ever heard
in that chamber. In the discussion of this
bill in the Senate, the speech of Senator
Bacon was the first real danger signal the
Republican party received from the South.