The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-10-12
A MASTERLY SPEECH. SENATOR
SIMMONS EXPOSES PROTEC>
TON SOPHISTRY.

Hill by Senator Simmons. 1t is COM
plete, full, perfect answer of Senator
Pritchard's tariff argument made at the
Republican State Convention. 1t is not
too much to say that no ADLER speech on
the tariff has been made in North Car
DINA since the death of Senator Vance.
lit shows that our new Senator has given
to the question his days and nights. and
that he has been sitting at the feet of the
masters of the subjects that relate to
taxation.
Senator Pritchard has made his appeal
to the voters of North Carolina upon
one issue and only one issue. to-wit;
that the policy of protection has brought
all the prosperity the people enjoy, and
that its permanency is essential to the
prosperity Of the State. Senator Sim
mons denies the premise and shows that
the conclusion is unwarranted. He does
not oppose Pritchard's empty assertion
with counter assertion. He does not
reply in any such manner to the unsup-
ported assertions of Mr.. Pritchard. He
appeals to history, to experience. to tar
if schedules, to logic. He shows that
instead OF being helped by protection.
the States two greatest industries-cot-
ton growing and cotton manufacturing
have been injured by it. And he gives
the records of the United States De-
partment of Agriculture and the sworn
testimony of forty cotton mill owners as
proof If protection has brought disaster
to these two great industries, the claims
With reference to Pritchard's assertion
as to the blessings protection has con-
ferred on the lumber interests, the Sen
ator goes into the matter at length and
meets and fully answers every asser-
Ition and proves that protection is not
responsible for the prosperity among the
lumber men, but that it is due to the
diminishing supply and the greatly in
creased demand due to the world
wide prosperity that is as marked in free
trade England as in the United States.
Other claims made with great gusto by
Mr.. Pritchard are answered in detail. If
the people OF North Carolina had to vote
on only one issue this year and that one
issue the one selected by Senator Pritch-
ard, they would give 100000 majority
against Senator Pritchard and the pro-
teetive tariff after reading Senator
Pritchards speech and the reply of Sen
ator Simmons.
There is one proposition of Senator
Pritchard which has made some impress
sion that Senator Simmons utterly de-
molishes. In his Greensboro speech, Mr.
Pritchard said:
For some reason or other, as soon as
it became known that Mr.. Cleveland had
been elected President, ard that our
Democratic friends had been entrusted
with the control of both branches OF
Congress, matters began to go wrong
throughout the country
He said that "our protective policy
had enabled the country to grow and
prosper aud that as a result of the
Wilson German tariff every branch of
human industry was more or less injur-
ed and he declared that the Demo-
cratic party was directly responsible for
the condition pt the country at that time
no one can deny"
In answer TO these charges MIR Sim
mons shows by facts and figures that
the depression that came in the Clevc
land administration was world wide, be-
fore it had begun here it had begun in
Europe by the failure of Barring Broth
ers and the financial collapse In Aus
tralia He showed also that it begun
even before Mr.. Cleveland was nominal
ed and while the country was under Re-
publican administration. Upon that
point his argument and his illustration
will convince every North Carolinian
familiar with conditions in 1S9O'96 We
quote: ,
THE business depression which exist
ed during the middle OF MIR. Cleveland's
administration did not begin with his
administration. 1t began under Prcsi-
dent Harrison, long before Cleveland was
elected or the Wilson tariff bill passed.
During the year 1891 there began a /
scramble among the nations of the earth
for gold. The circulating medium here
and everywhere was rapidly contracted.
During that year this country lost sixty
eight millions of its gold supply. By the
beginning of the year 1892 there was a
general condition of financial stringency
and business depression. The election
of Mr.. Cleveland was due chiefly to the
unsatisfactory business condition and
hard times which existed at the time of
the election in November 1892.
1T was the hard times we had during
the latter part of Harrison's administra-
ton which brought the Populist party in
to being That party was organized in this
State in the spring Of 1892 while Harri-
son was yet president, and I'm the cleo
tion of that year it pollcd in this State
forty-seven thousand votes. From one