Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1901-02-01
MARK HANNA CRATES.
WHAT HE WOULD HAVE SAID
ON SUBSIDY BILL
II He Had Given the Senate "a Piece of
His Mind"-The Open Door for Cheap
Labor Pendant and Purpose of the
Proposed Steal.

Mark Hanna has blossomed out as a
great orator and statesman. His first
set speech since his advent in the sem
ate was made in advocacy of the ship
subsidy bill. He spoke with great au-
| lthority-the authority Of a million
majority and patronage galore. OF
course the senators flocked around him
with congratulations. He painted with
artistic hand rosy pictures. Of material
prosperity that would flow from the
adoption of his pet measure. AS to the
principle involved, or the power Of
money in this fashion, he was dumb.
Nature did not build him that way. He
is the representative and type. of the
gross, materialistic statesmen, who ride
rough-shod over sentiments of public
morality.
His theme was the coming greatness
and glory of our commerce. We are TO
capture the markets of the world and
hold our domestic markets immune
from foreign competition behind tariff
walls. We will start up such immense
production at home that every man
and every dollar will be constantly en-
ployed, and the full dinner pail will
swing high. 80
But his great argument was incom-
plete, or not fully reported. If it had
been, assume that it would have been
about as follows: There Is another
industry, senators, which will receive
encouragement and impetus from this
measure, to which l will now allude.
1t Is well known to all the great cap
tains of industry in the United States
that the country is furnishing from a
lack of cheap labor. We will have
created by this measure such an in
creased demand for it that it will be-
come imperative that we break into
the great cheap labor markets Of the
world to get it. We must go to Asia,
Japan, to the shores Of the Mediterra
mean, and to Eastern Europe for it. Our
subsidized steamships, tramps and 9TH
ers will pour into our exhausted fields
vi ihouotiy IuC QOCllc llC
lively Jap, and the degenerates from
the effete civilizations of the old world.
We must throw the doors wide open to
them all.
"Mr Bacon. Of Georgia-What kind
of citizens will they make?
Mr. Hanna of Ohio-You wander
from the question.
"You know, senators, what injuries
have been inflicted upon us by the an
'archistic conduct Of our naughty Am
erican workingmen. They not only
want voice in the terms on which
they will work for us, but they are IL
able to take away from us all political
power. The subsidized steamships and
,tramps will aid us materially in sub
DUNG the spirit of independence and
characterization of these men. No
freight is so profitable as this live
freight especially when they can load
their ships down to the guards with
it, They will not need any subsidies,
but we must maintain the system, be-
SauoC VIC Will " put luC DOAuS
into our own pockets.
Il will say to the gentleman from
Georgia that we propose to make citi-
zens of our importations and work
them against our labor unions, and
vote them against your Democratic
lparty. Business Is business, and it
goes before sentiment. The better sort
of white men thus thrown out of en-
'ployment will be made superintendent
and foremen, and the others will be
made regular soldiers to defend our
power and privileges"
: Hanna is too shrewd a man to blurt
out all this in open senate, but he has,
no doubt, sounded something very like
1t in the ears of the faithful party men
who cannot be easily shocked by any
proposition, however startling. It was
well said by Senator Jones, of Nevada,
when antiChihese measures were be-
fore the senate: II have observed that
our lordly manufacturers are clamor-
GUS for protection against the compe
tition, of the lordly capitalists Of Eu-
rope, but when 1t comes to protection
Of American workingmen by exclud-
ing foreign cheap labor-the only real
protection you can give them--that is
q horse of another color" And so
say that it is part and parcel, end and
aim of our new-fapgled policies to re-
sumo in wholesale way the importa-
tion of cheap labor into the United
States. What do these plutocrats care
about the welfare Of American work
ingmen or the preservation of our AM
erican institutions?
When the eyes of the American
workingmen are fully opened to the
dangers that are threatening them, the
duration of the Republican party in
power will be brief.-Clitus Barbour.