The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1897-05-22
AN ABLE SPEECH.
A Protectionist Who Voted for the Ding

ley Bill But Does Not Endorse 1t.
The house being in committee of the
whole on the state or the union, and
having under consideration the bill
IN. R.. 379) to provide revenue for the
government and to encourage the il.
dustries of the United States.
Mr.. Howard oil Alabama said:
Mr.. Chairman: | shall vote for the
ish as to balieve that we can make the
people rich and prosperous by taxing
them, but because l believe in the
broad, patriotic principle of protection
TO American industry and American
labor.
l shall vote for this bill. not because
believe that it is a panacea for the
ills from which we suffer. but because
it, in some measure, protects Amer
lean labor against the pauper labor of
other countries.
My greatest regret, Mr.. Chairman, =,
however, is that the republican party
proposes such slight relief to the peo-
| pie who need so much; that the clam or
| of the idle men, the means of starving
women and walls of helpless children
are to be answered alone by this tariff
bill, which at best can scarcely afford
them surcease of sorrow even for q
brief period. The entire nation is ter
ribly afflicted.
In biblical language, "the whole
head is dead, and the whole heart is
faint" And yet we, the doctors called
in by the people to prescribe for the
patient, have so poorly diagnosed the
case that instead of prescribing a rem
edy which will drive disease out of the
body and heal every member, have
discovered only pimple on the face of
the patient and are busily engaged ap-
plying our patent nostrums to this
| pimple, while disease, like terrible
canker worm, gnaws into the vitals of
the body.
We may be able to heal the light
| pimple which we are doctoring, but if
we fail to go to the root of the trouble
and eradicate the germs of disease the
patient will die.
grant you that this bill will afford
modicum of relief to the manufactur-
ers OF this country-a breaking spell,
so to speak, before they are compelled
to take the final plunge into bank
ruptcy and ruin.
We may protect them for season
against the manufactured products of
the pauper labor of other countries
but if we do no more than to enact this
measure into law, the time will speedily
come when the foundation of the struc-
ture which we are building will crum-
BILE away and the whole fabric will fall.
No truer words were ever uttered
than those spoken by the great and
patriotic Lincoln, when he said:
Labor is above capital. 1t is prior
to and independent of capital, for cap
ital could not exist were it not first
created by labor"
But we are endeavoring to protect
and build up capital, losing sight of
labor, hoping that when capital pros
pers, when the millionaires grow fat
off the labor of the masses, when they
have piled few more millions into
their already bursting Golfers, that
some good spirit will prompt them to
unclap their greedy Shylock handsa
allow some of their prosperity to drop
down on the common herd below.
We have reversed the natural order
of things and placed capital above
labor.
Labor sits at the gate of Dives, gaunt |
and hunery clothed in sackcloth and
ashes, licking its sores, watching for
the crumbs to fall from Shy locks table,
which the very dogs refuse to eat.
Labor crawls in the dust and squirms |
like the blind worm beneath the iron
heel of capital, but it says in its rage,
"beware my fangs are not yet drawn,
and I will turn and sting those who
trample upon me-"
You may protect the manufacturer
all you please, but unless you give US
proper financial legislation, destroy
the trusts and monopolies, and curb
the arrongant power of the railroads,
the day is not far distant when the
looms in your cotton mills will be ST.
lent, and the cotton of the world will
be manufactured in China and Japan,
and your factories and furnaces will
become the dwelling places of bats and
unclean birds.
In these countries we have danger
Gus rivals along manufacturing lines.
for labor can be obtained at a nominal
cost, and goods can be transported
through the Seuz canal and landed in
New York at Sc per ton of 40 cubic
feet. This is less than our generous,
patriotic railroads would charge for
hauling the same quantity of freight
across any one of the larger states.
You may attempt to protect the
wheat grower against the wheat grown
in India, Siberia and other countries,
out when you consider the fact that in
Western Siberia, for instance. superior
wheat is grown by labor costing 10 ,
,ents day in seedtime and % cents a
lay in harvest time, on land rented
rom the government of Russia, which
osts 1925 per annum for 40 acres, you
nay we'll feel appalled, at the task
which you have undertaken.
Against this wheat and these cotton
nd other manufactures of these coun- ;
ries we must compete in the markets
f the world, and that, too. when most !
+ these wages can be paid in silver at
ouble the price of its bullion value
nth us, thus practically affording our r
ivals a bounty of so per cent over us. II
You seek to protect the manufacture e
r, but what are you doing for the cot Ii
IN farmer Of the South and the wheat 8
rover of the West? Neglecting them;
lowing them to languish ana die, This a
i'll is intended to protect the manufac- q
lrer; but I tell you that we can not a
ing compete in the marts of the world
ith China. Japan, India, Russia and n
gypt. tell you that our home mar u
ct must languish unless our people o.
'e able to purchase the manufactured W
.oducts of our mills and factories, and g