The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1897-06-24
HON. B. R. T|LLMARS 5
Speech Before the Senate on
Bounties on Agricultural Exports.
DON'T WANT FARMERS ROBBED.
Everything Consumed by Our People
Should BE Produced by Them
Want an Equal Showing.

speech of Hon. B. r. Tillman in the
United States Senate, June 10th, on
Bounties on Agricultural Exports:
The tariff is not principle unless
it be that it rests on principle. It is
merely a qus.ion of policy as to
how the Government shall derive
its revenue. It has been talked about
so much and so long and SO ably that !
can not expect to present any new phase
| Of 1t; but propose, as one humble
representative of State on this floor,
to give some views that may be mine
only, but which appear to me to be
those which shculd obtain in govern
ing men who come here to frame
tariff.
"What is the true doctrine of tariff
taxation, the American doctrine, the
! patriotic doctrine, the statesman's doc
triAe? l for one stand ready to confess
and announce ms faith in the belief
that it is to the best interests of Ameri-
can people as whole that everything
consumed by our people should be pro
duced by our people, II 1t IS possible.
If that be Republican doctrine, then l
am Republican. If it is not Demo
cratic doctrine, it ought to be Demo
cratic doctrine.
"It is not necessary for me state, be-
cause it is known to all students Of his
! tory, that those nations which confne
all their labors to one product, or to
agriculture only, are pauper nations.
They do not progress; they do not
achieve any place in history that
amounts to anything. They do not
gather wealth; they do not produce cul-
fure; they have not advanced civiliza-
ton. Therefore, L announce as hy-
pothesis that we ought to diversity our
industries as far IS We can and give
employment to as many men Of as
many occupations as can get work at O
profitable figure.
eve do not want all farmers In this
country. We want to have manufac-
txrers. And why do We not want any
more farmers Just now? Because We
are today producing more of the staple
crops of export raised on the farm than
we can get living or decent price for;
and why, in Gods name, should We
undertake by tariff policy to drive
from the factories and from the cities
to the farm more competitors to pro-
duoe cotton and wheat to export at q
loss? We do not want any more far1-
efs. What We want is tariff so levied
that the farmer shall not be robbed for
the benefit of the laborer in the cities
and that he shall have an equal chance
in life to get that for his family and for
his comfort thst the Declaration OF In
dependence declares is the inalienabie
right of every freeman.
There is q reciprocity Of interests
here. The falme. wants market for
that which be produces; the manufac-
tnrer wants market for that which he
produces. There is NO conflict OF inter
est between these two when their inter
ests are weighed in equal balance by
honest legislators. It is only when you
throw into the scale in favor of manu-
faoturers your laws which give them
undue advantage, when You rob the
producing farmer for the benefit OF the
manufacturer, that any man has right
TO complain.
"Now, for the first time in our his
kory. when this protective policy has
borne its fruits and the pauperized far
mer stands here with his skinny, bony
hands begging justice and equality, and
the opportunity is given you, by q
bounty on his exports, to give him some
compensation for the robbery that he
has undergone for century, you SIT in
stony silence, you sneer, you
elevate your eyebrows, you refuse to
discuss the proposition as unworthy OF
debate, and you expect to see this idi-
otto farmer NOS know that you had the
opportunity to give him some need OF
Justice and You refused 1t
"But I pledge you my word and hon
or. gentlemen, you are face to fsce with
an issue that You can not shirk or dodge.
and both parties will have to face it IN
the near future, because the 9,Oo0,V9
men in this country who are engaged
in agriculture and who are face to face
with pauperism and bankruptcy, whose
farms are slipping from beneath them
and are being absorbed by loan and
trust companies that loan them money,
will settle with you at the ballot box as
to whether you shall continue to take
from their pockets their hard-earned
dollars to give 10 the manufacturing IN
dustries and give them nothing In re-
turn.
"How has the tariff policy of protec-
ton, which has been the governing
principle ever since the war, and even
before the war to a limited degree,
worked? It was intended by domestic
competition to reduce prices; but IN
stead it has been the means and IN
strament of building up domestic mo.
nopoly to raise prices, and the wealth
thst has poured into the Golfers OF few
thousand men, or 10000, or 80, 600, or
lOO. 600 engaged in and who own manu-
factures, 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 refuse them re-
dress.
Trusts and nonopolies could not
exist if the products Of those trusts
were admitted free of duty; but when
Won 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 combina-
tions among themselves, to fix the price
that thew choose to charge in the home