Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1899-09-21
South Carolina Senator Talks
Plainly to New BngIalders.
DISCUSSED many TOPICS,
And Vas Literally AppIauded by
the Large Crowd That Heard
Him --Said He Represented the
Man With the Hoe.


| tue Bimetallic League last week Sena
lTillman, of South Carolina, rather op
ened the eyes of his audience.
| In language emphatic and sarcasm
most biting, with his index finger
pointed at the audience, he handled
the topics of the day in fashion new
to the experience of New England au-
diences, and for time the people
looked amazed. The audience soon
became accustomed to his manner of
presenting his argument, so that when
be had finished they cried for sMore,
more. Go on" and applauded so long
that the Senator was obliged to bow
his ackno wledgements several times.
Senator Tillman said: 1.-THE warmth
of your welcome leads me to remark
that it has not been SO long ago that a
man from the South and from South
Carolina, who would have come to
New England to discuss national issues
would have met with a very different
treatment. take it. my friends, as
an angury of better days for the Re-
public that the Spanish war, if it has
done nothing else, is worth all that it
cost in the fact that it has proved that
the South will fight for the Star and
Stripes as readily as you will.
'We have been in existence as a ma
tion 1875 years, and we have been boast
ing that we have the greatest nation
on the globe, the frees5 nation, the
land of the free and the home of the
brave the asylum for the oppressed.
But, my friends, tell you that as far
as can see we are approaching cri.
sis when we will have to change the
policies of this government or we will
witness the destruction of the kepub-
lie and the substitution for it OF gov
ernment of the few rich people con-
trolling and depressing and robbing
the masses
GU New EngIanders have some
characteristics which, to my mind, are
most admirable. You have some insti-
-tutloDs among you that are not equal
ed elsewhere in the United States, and
at heart you are as clean and honora-
BILE and high-tone and patriotic
population as l have ever met. But,
my countrymen, want to have you to
recollect this one thing-that south of
the Potomac and west of the Mississippi
there are more people than there are
in New England and all the country
outside of those limits. The people
south of the Ohio and Potomac and
west of the Mississippi can elect a
President without your help and in
spite of you.
Therefore it is we'll for you to have
it recalled to your minds that this is a
great country. and that it has more
interests than centre around New
England CT New York, and that these
interests are now being neglected
that One half of the people OF this
country are being oppressed, and that
it is being done by your consent and
through your votes.
You have seen nothing in your
newspapers except sophistries and
falsehoods, therefore how could you
understand the subject? How could
you be made to know that all this rot
and twaddle that you have read was
being bought by the capitalists who
sought to throw dust in your eyes to
enable them to get your votes in their
schemes to Cypress the rest OF the
country and Cypress you along with US?
81 represent the man with the hoe
I am known as Farmer Tillman in the
United States Senate, and there are
30, 600, 900 of them in this country, and
therefore, as l am the only farmer,
you cannot blame me if I present to
you the aspects of public questions as
they appear to the farmers and as they
affect them.
You people in New England no
longer have the agriculture. You are
segregated ia towns and villages en-
gagged in manufacturing, and there
fore you know nothing about condi-
tions which exist elsewhere, where
men have to toll and sweat from
morning until night in pursuit of those
avocations of the farmer where they
dig out of the soil the support of
themselves and their families-the
s'Man With Hoe who takes 10, ,0O0,-
900 bales of cotton from the ground,
who raises thu wheat, who raises the
corn, the oats, the beef. the pork, the
breadstuffs, the cheese, the butter,
and all the other agricultural pre-
ducts, which constitute $750,0OO.
600 of your exports. Over three
quarters of it is Disseminated against
in Washington, is ignored, and his
rights and interests are no more con-
sidered there than If he did not exist.
Glass legislation for the benefit of the
classes. class legislation for the benefit
of special industries, has wrought an
accumulation of wealth in the Eastern
portion of this country, to the injury
and detriment of the Southern portion
and the Western part. Now l am not
going to find fault with you for hev-
ing been shrewd and sharp enough to
quit farming.
Il tell you, that l know just as
much and as clearly as know that
electric light is burning-tnat the day
when wages in America will fall to the
level of European wages cannot be put
off by any possible combination of pc
liticans of legislation of any kind, and
it is only a question of the near future
!, when you people in Providence and al
over New England, now protected will