The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1899-09-20

the country and Cypress you a1ong
with us? Loud applause.)
"Now you have had eloquent allus-
ion to the poem of Edward Markham,
The Man With the Hoe and to Mil
lais' great painting. I represent the
man with the hoe. I am known as
Farmer Tillman in the United States
Senate (Lsughter), and there are &c.
! 100000 of them in this country, and
therefore, as I am the only farmer,
you can not blame me if present to
you the aspects OF public questions
as they appear to the farmers and as
they affect them.
'You people in New Eogland no
longer have the agriculture. You
are segregated in towns and villages
engaged in manufacturing, and there
fore you know nothing about condl-
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 Man With a Hoe who takes
100000 bales of cotton from the
ground, who raises the wheat, who
raises the corn, the oats, the beef,
the pork, the breadstuffs, the butter,
and all the other agricultural pro-
ducts, which constitute S750,000,O00
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. (Applause.) 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 I am not going
to find fault with you for having
been shrewd and sharp enough to
quit farming. (Laughter)
Il tell you what I know just as
much and as clearly that know that
electric light is burning-tbat the
day when wages in America willfa to
the level of European wages can not
be put eff by any possible combina-
tion of politicians or legislation of
the near future when you people in
Providence and all over New Eng
land, now protected, will have your
wages brought down through the
greed of your employers to the level
of those in France, Germany and
England. (Applause.)
There is another topic that posi-
bly, Southern man can discuss with
more function, with more complac.
ency, with more satisfaction than
anybody else at this time. 1t is the
attitude of the present administra-
ton toward the colored races of the
earth. (Applause.j The slaves were
freed in accordance with the doctrine
that all men are created free and
equal, and that co'o- has nothing to
do with a mans standing.
That war which abolished slavery
cost the Southern people the lives of
25O,000 of its best sons, and cost you
an equal number. But, my friends,
I tell you now, thilty-fve years after
that great struggle, the men who
were leaders in it, who preached the
crusade On the equality of men, are
now sending troops to the Philip
pines to shoot men into submission
who are contending for what We con-
tended for in 1776.
"And it is disgrace to the nation.
(Applause.) We are forcing our rule
upon the people Of Hawaii and the
Philippine islands. On the former
island there ore $4,000 slaves on
sugar plantations, mostly owned by
New Englanders. (Laughter) They
have always contended for the equal:-
ty Of the black man. Well, now, I
have got no love for those colorel
! races. I contend, and have always
contended, and will die bells wing that
the negro is not the equal of the
white man. (Applause.)
God did not make him so. Ap-
! plause. And you can not legislate
it into him, either. Laughter But,
gentlemen, while I say that, and
while I mean it, 1 believe in giving
him his just rights under the law,
barring the political part Of it."
Thst Thrnbh;nn EesSsehe