Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1906-06-08
THE LANGUAGE OF PROPHECY.
Founded Upon the Laws Of lmmutabe Princi-
pe-now Truly Was Told -Four Score Years
Ago the Trend Of Protective Tariff to Subor-
dinate All the Powers OF the Government.
YELM, June 2, 1906.

| have just been reading sketch Of
the life of George McDuffie, and among
other things find speech made by
him in Congress in the year 1924,
which shows up the damnable tariff
system about as we'll as anything |
have ever read. But who was George
McDuffie? He was poor lad, born in
the State OF Georgia; lived on a small
ranch and performed manual labor for
living. 1t is related of him, that,
one morning, when he was holding
calf while his mother was milking the
COW, a traveller drove up in buggy
and stopped. Seeing the boy and not
realizing the absorbing character OF the
boys job, the man called out: "Come
here. hubby, and hold my horse" To
which the lad replied: "If you'll
come here and hold my calf, I'll 60
there and hold your horse" The
traveller was go pleased with his ready
wit. that he secured for him a place as
clerk in store in the city of Augusta.
But he was too fond of reading for q
clerk, and this fondness for books at.
tracted the attention OF brother OF
John c. Calhoun, who placed him in
school to be educated, and he became
one of the greatest legal advisers and
political orators this country has ever
known. Here is an extract from his
famous speech:
"Sir: When considcrthat by a single
bill like the present (the tariff bill), mil.
lions of dollars may be transferred an
nually from one part of the community
to another; when consider the disguise
of disinterested patriotism under which
the basest and most prohigate ambition
may perpetrate such an act of injustice
and political prostitution, cannot hesi-
tate for moment to pronounce this sys-
TEN the most stupendOus instrument of
corruption ever placed in the hands of
public functionaries. 1t brings ambition
and ardrice aud redlth into a combination
chich is fearful to contemplate, because it
IS almost impossible to resist"
Do We not perceive, at this very mo.
ment, the extraordinary and melan.
choly spectacle of less than one hum
dred thousand capitalists, by means OF
this unhallowed combination, exercis.
ing an absolute and despotic control
over the opinions Of eighty millions OF
free citizens and the fortunes and des-
TIMES OF ten millions?
"Sir: will not anticipate or forbode
evil. 1 wW not permit myself to beliere
that the Presidency of the United States
uiU cUer be bought and sold. But must
say that there are certain quarters of
this Union in which, if the candidate for
the presidency should come forward with
this Harrisburg tariff in his hand, MOTH
ing could resist his pretensions, if his
adversary were opposed to this unjust
system of oppression.
Indeed, sir, when contemplate the
extraordinary infatuatiOn which com.
bination of capitalists and politicians
have the heart to diffuse over more than
half of this Union: when see the very
victims who are about to be offered up
to satiate the voracious appetite of this
devouring Moloch, paying their ardent
and sincere devOtions at his bloody
shrine, confess have been tempted to
donbt whether mankind was not doomed,
even in its most enlightened state, to be
the dupe of some form of imposture and
the victim of some form of tyranny.
Sir in pQotipO NV QvQo nvQr the hIa.
tory of human idolatry, can find moth
ing, even in the darkest ages OF ignor-
ance and superstition, which surpasses
the infatuatiOn by which confederated
priesthood of politicians and manufac.
turers have bound the great body OF the
people of the farming States of this
Union as if by SPELL to this mighty
scheme of fraud and delusion
Bear in mind that this speech was
made in 1924. Look around and see
how prophetically McDuffie pictured
the future. Is not the Presidency
bought and sold? Is not Congress
bought and soldf DO not the conied-
Grated priesthood Of politicians and
manufacturers dominate an infatuated
people whom it deludes and plunderss
Are the trusts anything but the legiti-
mate children OF Privilege and Protec-
tionf Campaign Doodle funds are
nothing 10 the world but the sop which
the corrupt combination Of capitalists
Day to renew the lease which they bold
on the government.
But the most astounding feature Of
the whole diabolical system is the
completeness with which the politi.
clans and the privileged can dupe the
victims into the belief that privilege
benefits the unprivileged. With the
doors OF immigration standing wide
open vomiting into our industrial
world all the cheap white labor of the
Universe, our protected capitalists are
still able to convince our wage.earners
that American capital protects Amer
ican labor from the competition of for.
eign pauper labor! Having ground
down the price OF factory labor to such
q low point that they can undersell
foreigners in a foreign market, our
privileged and protected capitalists
can nevertheless convince American
laborers that the motive for high tar
ifs is to enable the capitalists to pay
big wagesl And they swallow the
dose meekly, blindly, trustfully. The
factory hands, who At Fall River lived
off the soup OF the Salvation Army, de-
voutly believed that If it hadn't been
for the protective system they woul ldn't