The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-09-25
HIS TARIFF SPEECH
R|DDLED
Pritchard Meets With a Frost
at SmithfieId.
Craig Tries to Make Him Say Whether He
Will Vote For the Richardson ResoIu
ton Against Trusts.
Special to eNws and Observer

Especial to eNws and Observer)
Smithfeld, n. c.. Sept. 23-It frosted
ia Smithfield today.
1t was not exactly a killing frost, but
it was whitening in it's effect, especially
upon some buds of political promise that
have terminated in the minds of Sena-
tor Pritchard and his followers.
The truth of the matter is that Sena-
tor Pritchard has fallen into an error
He has imagined, naturally, perhaps,
that all he had to do was to get togeth-
er crowd of these sturdy thinking white
North Carolinians, eschew the negro and
preach the Republican doctrine of high
protection and convert them in scores.
He forgot that he is treading in the
footsteps yet awhile. perfectly discernible
all over this land, of the immortal Vance
who in tones of thunder taught these
people for twenty years the evils of high
tariff protection. He forgets how this
loved and honored tribune of the masses
spent his life in honest. earnest and able
effort to lift the burden off the people
which had been placed upon them by the
tariff tax harons of the greedy hosts of
Republicanism.
He forgets the great lessons the peo-
pic learned on this question by listening
to the powerful orations of Ransom, Jar
Wis. Waddell, Fowle, Glenn, Steadman
Coke, Holt and other departed and living
opponents of the doctrine of genuine De-
mocraey.
Perhaps the mistake is not entirely OF
the Senator's making. He has perhaps
been misled by few whose memory Of
Vance and these other heroes has been
yelled by newly acquired ideas of politi
cal doctrine. but the Senator is finding
out that the memory of the masses is
more lasting and endurable; that when
they change at all they change slowly
and with cautious deliberation The
North Carolinian, be he from the busy
mart or the rural region, is a thinker
He thinks more than the Senator thinks
he thinks. He may not have the time
or the opportunity to delve deep into de-
tails, but he has time and natural talent
enough. be he lettered or unlettered, to
think for himself and to make up a
healthy, wholesome and safe general
opinion on matters, however intricate
or likely to effect his interest. He knows
in a general way that high tariff taxes,
even though they be levied and collected
indirectly, nave tendency 10 SITlcH the
few and burden the many.
say that Senator Pritchard has fallen
into this error. because in his speech his
whole text is protection. and almost his
entire discourses are vigorous attempts
to incuIcate this protective tariff doc
trine into the minds of the people.
There is some force in few features of
his argument. When he says that he is
against the New England demand for
free raw material and high tariff on the
two propositions together he has the
sympathy of those who study the problem
but that does not disturb the Democratic
doctrine of tariff for revenue it applies
to both the raw material and the manu-
featured product, and these things are
what brought the frost that withered
Senator Pritchards new buds of politi-
cal promise in the grand old rock-ribbcd
county of Johnston.
Mr. Craig opened todays debate; he
cxceIled his yesterdays speech. He
aroused the Johnston Democrats to ex-
ultant enthusiasm. He, in his opening,
riddled the Senator's tariff speech ana
tried again in vain to make the Senator
saw whether or not he would vote for
the Richardson resolution to cut away
the Senator's trust cancer. To the great
amusement of the crowd he termed the
Senator a new cancer doctor. the ldea
being suggested on yesterday when some