Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-10-28
OFFERS A POOR FIELD
No Hopes for Democracy in
Connecticut Today.
ON NATIONAL POLICIES
PRACTICAL RESULTS OF PRoTEC-
TIVE TARIFF ON EVERY HAND.
Busy Workmen Will Not Listen to
Theories - Getting Better Wages
Than Foreign Employees.

\ is normally a strong democratic sentiment
| in this state. Cleveland carried Connecticut
| three times. Many of the big manufactur-
| ing towns have democratic administrations.
| The Connecticut democracy in the past has
been an old-fashioned, father -to-son democ-
racy, where men moved along in political
rut year after year because they were con-
servative and cautious in everything and
would not change from the faith of their
fathers.
1t is not that way now A careful esti-
mate of the crop of first voters this year
commits four-fifths of them to Roosevelt.
Democratic towns have in recent years been
giving pluralities to republican candidates
| for Congress.
The venerable Nehemiah Sperry, who rep
resents the New Haven district in the
House, knows that the protective tariff
keeps his district in line for the republican
| party when there are probably more dem
ocrats than republicans in it. Connecticut
has no democratic members of the House.
In the past thirty-siX hours l have been
able to understand why Connecticut offers
a poor field for democratic hopes on ma
tional policies. 1 have been around in the
| industrial district. have been through the
shops, rubbed elbows with the folks who
work for living and talked with the busi-
ness men.
Protective Tariff Results.
| The city of Waterbury furnishes a good
| type of industrial growth and of the prac-
teal results of the protective tariff. There
| is city of 10000 inhabitants, and every
| body who is old enough, or not too old,
works. The town has grown immoderately
within ten years-that is to say, since the
Dingley tariff act has given these working
folks an opportunity to put their products
in competition with the products of Europ-
can laborers.
1t is a beautiful little city and busy as
/ a bee. Last night the brilliantly lighted
streets were jammed with mass of shop
pers all evening. Broadway could look no
buster, and such a crowd in Washington
| would suggest inauguration times. But 1t was
| an ordinary shopping crowd-mill workers
! who were indoors all day and out in the
evening to shop or on a lark. They all
seemed to have a little money to spend.
| The stores were well patronized, and there
was a general hum of industry, life and
| prosperity. Some of the big factories were
working overtime, and did not knock off
until o'clock, and the sirens sounded in
| half dozen different directions.
The next morning we went through some
of the factories. There is a brass works,
| employing 5000 hands; a watch factory
| that keeps 1000 busy In moderate times.
| 1 was shown factory after factory, big and
small, making all kinds and descriptions
of merchandise for sale here and abroad.
Remember Cleveland's Administration
| Now, these factories under a low or in
sufficient tariff would first curtail their
| forces of laborers and later shut
! down. The working people know that
| thousands of them remember what hap
pened in the last Cleveland administration.
| You can't talk theories to them. They
know they are getting better wages than
| the foreign workingmen and know that If
| the tariff were taken off they would either
| have to work for lower wages or the fac
| tory would shut down, and that if they
did work for less pay the foreign goods
would still be in competition.
On the streets of Waterbury I observed
great quantities of California fruits, for
sale to these working people. These fruits
are protected by the same tariff and the
Dingley bill enables them to have employ
| ment and buy the fruits saw In the
windows the products of Ohio and Wyom-
| ing WOOL protected; the hides of cattle on
| the western ranges made into shoes, the
hides and the shoes protected
The air was redolent-in this region they
would say fragrant-with hConnecticut-tobac-
co-wrapped cigars. Everywhere, on all
hands there was on sale some article or
American manufacture made possible oy
| the protective tariff. And the same tarlH
made it possible for somebody to have
money with which to purchase
A Congressional Incident.
i
minded of an incident that occurred during
| the last session of Congress. John Dalzell
| of Pittsburg had made a strong speech
| in the House on protection. There was
man whose clothes fguratively speaking,
reeked with the coal smoke of industry.
He knew the practical workings Of the
tariff The next day l was riding up to
| the Capitol with one of the great demo-
cratic leaders Of the House. who was go
| ing to reply to Dalzell. He had bundle
| of books from the Congressional Library,
which he said he had been looking over
| ito post up on the tariff And the books
were John Stuart Mill published, I think.
some time about 1854, in free-trade Eng
| land. This orator was going to get his IN
spiration from that theory to deal with
| question of practical everyday sweat and
CRIME America in 1904.
You cannot feed the Connecticut workers
upon any such pabulum. There is dear old
Yale. which has always been hot-bed of
free-trade teachings. Her historic walls
are there, but she is hedged around and
about with a forest OF smoke stacks. every
one built up under the protective tariff
and daily belching forth sooty evidence in
refutation of her teachings.
When Speaker Cannon, who is encourag-
ing these workingmen to stand pat against
the insidious encroachment of the demo-
Gratis, came to Waterbury he received
great ovation. The opera house was crowd
ed with a representative audience of the
people of Waterbury who benefit by the
Industrial prosperity of the place. He made
them a plain talk about business and tariff,
pointed out the growth of the state under
the protective tariff, telling them in gross
what they knew as detail. He told them
they would be foolish to vote for the free
trade party of the south, which sends 126
low-tarin votes to the House, on voting
population Insignificant as compared with
New England and the industries of whose
states would not aggregate half of New
England's.
The Speaker had an appreciative and in
L fallfpaut audience. They cheered him time
and again.
Many Scenes Of Industrial Activity.
Then we loped along down the Nauga-
tuck valley to Bridgeport. We passed
through scene after scene of Industrial ac-
| tiyity. Everywhere mills were going, turn
| ing out all kinds of stuff, from seacoast
defense artillery to campaign buttons Men
were at work, and Eext Saturday night will
draw wages. The Naugatuck valley in the