Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1900-10-24
WHY He FLOppED.
Why Hon. Joseph c. Sibley
Supports Mckinley.
CONGRESSMAN FROM ERIE, Pa,

Flnpper-ReasOns 1hnt Aphehi to the
Intelligence aud patri"tism of All
Voters.
Hon. Joseph Crocker sibley, elected
rs Democrat to congress from the
Erie, Pa, district, now is supporting
Mckinley. In recent speech at
Bradford, Pa, he gave his reasons as
follows:
You charge me with changed opin-
ions. this is true. Each day of life
differs from any day preceding. The
man who stands still or harks back to
the dead past will be left in the rear.
You charge me with being a Hopper.
Yes, guess that is SO. If topper
may properly be defined as one who
did not know it all yesterday, is wiser
today and aims for progress tomor-
row, then / am fiopper. If a topper
is one who finds a position Of yester-
day untenable today, positively wrong
tomorrow, then If seeking to leave the
untenable position, the occupation of
which would stultify my intelligence,
warp my conscience, and work an in
jury to my fellows, then you may de-
fine me as topper If looking at the
present and trusting for a grander fu-
ture, rather than facing backward to
fan the smouldering embers of the
past, constitutes one as Hopper,
please enumerate me as such.
| Whenever | see men who have been
working for 81 a day able to earn 81
when the man who earned 81 can have
the opportunity to earn So, | will flop
as often as it may be necessary to help
that condition, for that man to con-
tinue.
When from 1898 to 1896 AZ per cent.
of the wage earners of this country
were unemployed or working on short
hours, and today only three -eighths Of
/ per cent. of the wagc-earners are un-
employed, l will flop to help these men
employed, whenever and wherever it
is demanded.
When under free trade tariff bill
we saw our nation largely importing
its manufactured necessities and when
under this administration we are man
ufacturing not only for ourselves but
are supplying the other nations of the
world with the products fabricated by
American hands in American work
shops you can make a fair guess that
l will flop to help that cause along.
Last year we sent from our Ameri-
can workshops to foreign nations $780,
000 900 of manufactured products; and
with the assured certainty that, with
the presidents policy maintained,
those exports will within six years
reach more than one thousand mil
lions OF dollars annually, thereby re-
quiring double the workshops of the
present, and affording double the pre-
sent opportunity for honest labor and
honest capital to meet with substan-
tial recompense, l will flop, and flop
until / can be right side up in line
with that policy.
When a pound of wool brings the
farmer 80 cents today instead of II
cents, and when his sheep, that were
only salable at 81 a head in 1896, are
worth today SO to 81 per head, | will
flop whenever it is required for me to
do so to help maintain that condition
for the woolgrower.
When cotton that sold for four cents
per pound under the last administra-
tion, brings from 8 to 10 cents per
pound under the Mckinley admins
tration, will flop to help the cotton
grower.
When we see an advance in the price
of all farm products ranging from 25
to 125 per cent and my Hopping from
one attitude to another will help that
farmer, will try to be the first man
to flop.
When we see furnaces blazing,
forgss glowing, looms weaving; when
we hear shuttles clicking and spindles
humming; when Drawn and brain each
finds fair recompense. whether in fac
tory or in field, | WILL as a man who
aims to be loyal to his fellow, his
country and his Creator, try my level
best to maintain that condition, call
me what you will.
When wages have been increased
from 10 to 80 per cent. in nearly all
industries; when in 1899 we paid
$765,000,0 900 more to wage earners of
this land than we did in 1885, with the
assured certainty that they will still
further increase if we will only let our
partisanship shrivel and our patriot
ism expand, are you justified in doubt
ing, If my attitude of yesterday him
ders that increase | will flop, if my
position Of today shall be on that
higher ground, standing upon which,
humanity, from the heights of the de-
lectable mountains, caa see grand Wis
ions of more glorious future?
When for two years the New York
Central railroad had 80 miles of
freight cars standing continuously idle
upon its side tracks, and when the
same effect was proportionately true
on every great railway in America,
when train crews were laid off and
runs had to be divided so as to give
each man an occasional chance to earn
pittance. and today, with hundreds
of thousands of new cars and thous-
ands of additional locomotives, we find
every wheel turning, every crew en-
] IL