The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-03-29
Tariff Talk Worth Hearing.

The gem of the tariff debate thus far
was the speech made day or TWO
ago by Representative DOlliver of Iowa.
1t is not a new thing for this eloquent
and entertaining speaker to punctuate
the dry routine of congressional pro-
ceedings with short OutDurstS of wit
and wisdom that fill the galleries and
elicit spontaneous applause; but to talk
tariff 50 as to make it. more interest
ing than a prize fight is certainly an
achievement worthy of commendation.
Mr.. Dolliver is the Republican Bryan,
plus a clearer thinking outfit and
sense of humor Here are some of his
hrilliants. taken from their obscure set
ting in the Congressional Record. In
dismissal of the silver issue he said:
The farmers of the United States, my
brethren, are eager, not for the Tabled
markets of the world. They are longing
for the music of the old factory pell,
calling back the idle millions to deserted
workshops of the United States. The
noise of furnaces that are now closed,
and of looms that are now silent, Will.
mean good deal to the working people
of the United States. 1t Will mean not
less to the scattered households on dis
tant prairies where for four years IN
dustrious men have seen the fruits of
their toll waste in the fields that pro
duced them. You may talk Of silver and
gold until your friends in an. undertone
begin to express their alarm. You may
argue about bonds and mortgages ana
bands and capital and labor until the
wheels in your head begin to reVoVe like
veocpedes, but you will never get back
prosperity in the United States until you
give back to the American people the
working wages that they lost four years
ago.
In reply to those who criticize the
Dingley bills wool schedule Mr. Dolli-
Yer remarks:
The theory of the Wilson law was that
We We're not only to hold our own, but we
We're to go out with our free wool cloth
and divide with Bradford and KomnltZ
the task of clothing the naked inhabi-
tants of the earth. That was the theory.
What has actually happened may he
stated in a few plain words and figures
10000, 900 sheep driven 10 the slaughter
So 900 600 pounds or American wool dis
placed in our own market, the importa-
tion of cloth multiplied by two, half the
wooden mills idle and locked mp and the
other half on sCant wages and short
time. The treasury OF the United States
S2l 900 900 shy; our choice and select gen
try diSporting themselves in German
English and French clothes and the rest
of us shining around in overcoats pur
chased during Harrson's administration
Finally, in rebuke of the delusion tina
good times are wholly a gift of legisla
ton and not in the main a reward o
personal economy, industry ana thrift
he says:
The American people in ordinary times
look to congress very much as the ship
wrecked mariner looks to Providence il
a storm not particularly because he eN
poets anything, but because everything
else has been washed overheard Nor i
this slim and feeble faith of the peopl
in the world in which we live, whateve
We politicians may say on the stump
the most that Is done for uS-and yo
win pardon the fgure-we have got I
do for ourselves If the American peo
pie ever get their prosperity back, 1t wi
come by their own individual enterpris
and courage; not by edicts and proclama
tions. but by the honest and careful set
tlement of conditions favorable TO in
dustry and investment, If William Nc
Kinley has been described as AN adyanc
agent Fastening to the seat of govern
ment in order to distribute prosperit
from the east portico of the capitol in
few we'll chosen words, the conceptio
belongs to the world of dreams, and nc
to the earth on which we live. No ma
bears any such relation to the prosperit
of a great people. But the man ma
stand. and reverently believe that VII
lam Mckinley does stand, as the chose
instrument of the hand of Providenc,
10 restore to the United States publ
policy which has never yet failed to ell
able the American people, by their ow