The Republican journal., 1900-08-30
SENATOR FRYE IN BELFAST.
He Delivers Characteristic, COnvincin,
and Eloquent Address.

He Delivers a Characteristic. Convincing
and Eloquent Address.
The Senator from Maine, Hon. William
P. FRYE, addressed large audience in the
Belfast Opera House last Friday afternoon,
on the political issues of the day It was
the opening political rally of the campaign
in Belfast and no more acceptable speaker
could have been assigned to this important
duty. Mayor Clarence 0. Poor presided and
introduced Mr.. Frye in few well chosen
words. The Senator expressed his gratiti-
cation at the audience assembled, which was
larger than he had expected to see at an
afternoon meeting, and said he was pleased
to see SO many ladies present. He did not
propose to discuss State issues, extol the
Republican candidates for State offices or
decry their Democratic opponents. He
wouldn't say anything against the Demo-
Gratis because lots of good Democrats are
going to vote the Republican ticket this
year He proposed to talk about whether
we should continue in power the Republican
party, which knows how to govern this
country, and which has the courage, the
intelligence and the experience to do it, or
whether the Democratic party shall rule,
without experience excepting for one single
Dolly Warden piece of legislation, the Will
son bill. The Republicans, if continued
in power, propose to retain the protec-
tive tariff which has brought great pros
perity to the country, and to see that every
dollar that is minted is as good as any
other dollar in the world and equal in value
to the very best dollar in the world 1t says
that it will legislate in the interest of the
American commerce, that it will restore to
the oceans of the world the American flag
and the American merchant marine. 1t tells
| you that it will not surrender any country
| which it has honestly acquired and that it
| will not haul down any flag which it has
deliberately raised over any island of the
sea. The Democratic party has a platform,
too, and it is the wickedest platform l ever
saw or read. 1t reaches out with its fingers
in every possible bad direction to secure
votes, and for no other purpose. This plat
form is completely filled up with "isms'-
socialism. anarchsm, pOpuliSm, and if YOU
can think of any more iSms add them to the
list. 1t appeals to all the bad passions of
men and finishes off by saying that eff you
d
dollar worth fifty cents on the dollar with
which you can pay off your debts to your
nelghbors." A bribe to vote the Democratic
ticket, that just what it is. 1t says to you
that it will lay this great country down
alongside Patagonia and other miserable
little free silver countries. How do YOU like
that?
The Senator then took up Bryan's plan
for withdrawing the troops from the Philip
pines and establishing a protectorate over
the islands with Aguinaldo at the head of a
government, and showed its utter abSurdity
and the evil consequences that would result
| should an attempt be made to carry out such
a policy. DO you suppose Europe is going to
sit by and see these islands in insurrection,
the people declmated, their own subjects in
danger: he asked. No. IN less than ninety
days after we get out of these islands and
Withdraw our troops the nations of Europe
Will have their armies and their fleets there
to protect their own people. or for that pre-
tense, and they would seize these islands for
themselves and divide them up or try to do
so. And that would very likely mean a war
| among these nations. Wha "a miserable set
of sneakS Europe would regard us if to-day
we should take down our flag over the Phil
ippines and order our troops home.
| After pleasant reference to kindergarten
methods Mr.. Frye proposed organizing Il
! kindergarten for a few minutes while he
drew three or four pictures.
The first picture is the year 1892, a year of
| blessed memory. 1t was the year of the
| Mckinley act, the most prosperous year up
to that time that the country has ever known.
| Our export trade was one billion of dollars
| and the balance of trade stood two hundred
and two millions of dollars in our favor.
There wasn't a silent mill in all this broad
| land. The furnaces We're all blazing, the
spindles were all singing. There wasn't Il
| man who wanted work who could not find
it. Wages were higher than they had ever
been before and the working man could buy
more with his money than ever before. The
deposits in the savings banks continued to
increase. In both the State and the national
banks the deposits We're multiplying. The
bank clearances showed that we were doing
| business in this country to the amount of
sixty millions of dollars year
| How about 1882 1t was the worst year
any of you ever saw. One-thrd of the rail
roads were in the hands of the receivers,
| half the mills were shut down, the furnace
fires were out, thousands of men were out
OF work and could not find any the army of
, trampS grew larger every day. Women and
children went hungry and actually starved
to death right here in this country. Five
hundred and fifteen State banks closed their
doors; national banks lost over 200 millions
of dollars in deposits. Almost every savings
bank in the country took advantage of the
law and compelled depositors to give sixty
days notice before withdrawing $40 in de
positS; the streets were blocked with men
and women who were waiting to line to get
at these banks to get out their pittance be-
fore the doors were closed. Your export
trade fell OFF two hundred millions in that
year.
What had happened? The sun shone
the same in 1893 as it had in 1892; it rose
and set in the same old way. The rains fell
in 1893 as they had in 1892. We had the
same sagacious business men, the same in
telligent and industrious working men, the
same steam power, the same electricity
What had happened? The Republican
party wasn't in power. 1t was the Demo-
cratic party. That is all that had happened.
In 1892 the Democratic party met in con-
ventiOn. They declared that the Mckinley
tariff law was unconstitutional. They said,
you give US chance and we will repeal it,
we will give you free trade or a tariff for
revenue only, which is practically in its
effect the same thing. They said that any
congressman who votes for protection alone
commits perjury. There was resolution
offered in the Democratic convention like
this: Resolved, that in adjusting customs
duties we will see to it that the wages of the
American labOring man are not put on par
with the wages of the labOrer i'm Europe
That resolution was defeated by two-thirds
vote in that convention. There was another
resolution to the effect that the tariff would
not be removed from any article which
would tend to destroy an American
J industry. That was also voted down by IA
two-thirds vote. In the face of this it was
said that fully 50 per cent. of the organized
| Ia hnr in thic country yntad tho =,