The Caldwell tribune., 1900-04-21

>oal miners, now employed at
splendid prices for their labor.
Their wages have advanced under
he Mckinley administration from
As cents ton to 30 cents ton, and
their working time is every day in
the week, if the desire to work, as
against the half weeks heretofore.
That district lies right across the
Ohio River from the great body of
the coal mining industry of the
State Of West Virginia; magnificent
industry, making happy homes and
well fed and well clothed and well
educated possibilities for host of
1aboring men. It would seem that
the gentlemen in the House and in
the Senate who represent these
great bodies of 1aboring men do not
understand the situation as well as
I do. Those 1aboring men are on
the alert and this is what is on their
minds. -.5 "t>a ss..
The Democratic propositions Of
Free Trade in Puerto Rico, because
Puerto Rico is part of the United
States, teaches those men that as
surely as the sun rises and sets If
this Free Trade measure shall pass,
then the Congress of the United
States and the people of the United
States are committed irrevocably to
the same doctrine in its application
to the Philippine Islands. That is
where you stand, gentlemen of the
House of Representatives; that is
where you stand, representative
gentlemen, in any and all bodies OF
men in this country. You owe a
a duty to the labor of this country
and you must perform that duty.
You owe the duty to the labor o1
this country that not only shall
there be adequate Protective Tariff
laws upon the statute books, bu
that there shall be protection pol
icy that shall give Congress thu
right to exclude from the labo
markets the millions upon million
of men in the islands of the Pacific
Your votes for Free-Trade, you
votes for the phantom politics G
the flag following the Constitution
: and the Constitution tagging afte
the flag, is but a declaration tha
| the Sulus, the Tagals, the Filipino
: and all the enormous horde of fo1
: eigners in Asia that have come
us as a possession under our treat
II with Spain shall come to the Unite
II States and move i'll solid, indefel
e sib1e, overwhelming columns
:, cheap-oh, how cheap!--low, d
is graded labor into the mines of We
Ie Virginia, into the labor districts
lie Minnesota, all along the great lur
+ Der region Of that magnihce
State, right into the very heart
t. the labor districts along the gre
Ia lakes. That is what it NEAR
y. How are you going to keep the
IN out? If this dogma is true, til
Id are citizens of the United Stat
endowed with all the rights I ha'
1e Mr.. Chairman, I may go to [
es 1uth; no power can stop me but
er- Almighty. I can bid upon
a labor that is being done in Min
ar sofa; I can put my muscle in &C
ms petition with the muscle of the n
on- at work in the mines of West Y
lth ginia. I can even invade
Mt; marble quarries Of Vermont
md attack the prices that are be
ar paid there. Is it any wonder
/ from New England comes rel
ich to the highest authority in Wa
.ars ington that the labor organfzati
ler- in that section of the country
o a alert in this matter?
our Oh, Mr.. Chairman, there will
it day of judgment. Men can l
1ere about the Constitution and chi
ten about the flag and send in t
ess, manifestos from political con
ii it tions, but the men of this ,cou
who are doing the work, the