The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1900-09-28
Mr.. SCANLANS SPEECH.
For Two Hours Hundreds Listened
to His Entertaining
Talk

speaker to get and hold a crowd of
between five hundred and thousand
for two hours but that is just exactly
what Hon. j. W. Seaman, the Irish
labor leader and orator, of Chicago,
did at the park Thursday And it
was an interested audience too.
Hardly a man, woman or child left
during the entire speech which lasted
until after 10 o'clock.
Mr.. Scanlan's address was an his
torical one and if there were any
Democrats in the crowd that night
they are certainly studying over his
speech today. Historical facts re-
garding free trade were laid so bare
by Mr.. Scanlon that it is impossible
to see how any American workman
can vote for party which every time
it has been in power has forced free
trade upon us. His address was
principally along the line of the tariff,
and the industrial evolutions growing
out of it. Mr.. Seaman has long been
student of political economy and
has had the opportunity of seeing
many of the principles of that science
worked out in real life.
Mr.. Seaman said that all the finan-
cial panics in the history of the coun-
try were directly traceable to the effect
of the Democratic policy of low tariff
and free trade. They were as follows:
fn al lt.ta IL.
1916 to 1924, revenue tariff 1888 to
1912, Democratic revenue tariff lS4S
to 1860, Walker free trade tariff; 1873
to 1879, reform tariff period 1893 to
1897, Democratic free trade. With
the passage of the Dingley bill the
finances of the country were at once
placed on a firm basis.
The financial history of the country
passed in review before the speaker.
He said that it cost S4j. 900, 900 a year
to maintain the expenses of the gov
eminent during the administration of
President Buchanan and that the gov
eminent was financially impoverished
in order to provide that amount.
When Lincoln came into Office he at
once saw that the country mus. be
placed on firm financial basis, or
the expenses as a result of the civil
war could never be met Accordingly,
he had wise tariff laws framed, which
at once had the effect of increasing
the revenue of the government and
the encouragement of American cap
ital to invest. He then armed twepty-
seven million men and maintained
them in the war with the south. He
caused to be built over 700 ships of
war. During this period the expenses
of the government were over 500. 900, =
600 per year but at the end of the
time the government was richer by far
than it was at the close of the admin
istration of Mr.. Buchanan. Tariff,
the Republican policy, created the
funds with which this was done, said
the speaker.
"Where would the Union have been
today, in the face of these facts, if
the Democratic policy of free trade
had been allowed to continue during
the war ?' asked Mr., Seaman. land
if we had not obtained the money then
for the preservation of the Union, we
would have had to be parcelied among
the nations of the world in the same
manner that China is being divided
now. This money for the preserva-
ton of the Union did not come from
foreign powers, either. We did not
have credit among foreign powers at
that time, with the possible exception
of Russia. This much the Republican
policy of tariff alone has done for the
government"
The civil war with all its enormous
expense cost the people of the country
$1,000. 600, 600 less than the panic of
1893, and the panic of 1893 was di-
rectly traceable to the Democratic
free trade policy, War at any time
was less destructive in every way than
any of the great financial panics.