Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-09-12

briefly what followed You renlenl-
DER that during that campaign, they
sung to us: Grover, Grover, four years
more of Grover, and then We'll be in
Clover. The Democratic party then
mad not only the presidential Office. but
pE the aid of the greenbacker, The free
silver man and the free trade man,
they controlled the House and tile Sen
ate as well.
In the House Professor Wilson was
delegated as leader Of his party to
draft low tariff, free trade measure.
1t passed Congress by the aid of the
party whip and became a law What
followed? Can it be that you have
forgotten! Farming became unre-
munerative, and land values reached
low water mark. Mills, factories and
all hives of industry closed down; la
bOrers of all kinds and conditions were
thrown out OF employment; they
walked the streets of our large cities
with nothing to do, in hunger, sorrow
and despair
An army OF tramps was roaming over
the land; soup houses were popular
and we'll patronized; home industry
was paralyZed or destroyed and yet
they sought to answer us by claiming
that there had been an average reduc-
ton in the tariff of only about twenty
per cent, and that this surely had not
caused hard times. sPresident Clevc-
land said the bill did not go far
enough on free trade lines, and that
the Democratic leaders had been
guilty of party pertidy and party dis
honor. Wool and many other products
of the farm were put upon the free
list and every thing was scaled down
to a cheap basis; stave bolts, pulp
wood and other timber products We're
shipped into American and sold in our
markets for less money than we could
afford to cut the timber and make, the
bolts here. Now, let me illustrate:
Suppose a poor wretch in the form of
Il man comes along tonight when you
are in bed enjoying peaceful slumber,
sleeping the sleep of the just, and he
sets fire to your home; it is burned,
destroyed and lest to the world for
ever. On the morrow. you are able
by the aid of your friends and neigh
bors to find the poor. misguided
wretch who was the author of your
ruin, and you say to him-Sir, why
did you burn my house. destroy my
home and turn my family and myself
into the streets? Pray, tell me why
did YOU do this? And he answers
YOU by saying-the heat that con-
sumed your house is but twenty per
cent. greater than that of the sun
which gives light and health and hap
piness What matters it to you what
the degree of heat may have been that
caused you this irrcparaDlc loss and
damage; your home IS Destroyed
your family turned into the street.
this is precisely what the Wilson
Tariff bill accomplished for nearly
| every prominent industry IN thc
| United States. 1t paralyzed the steel
| and iron Industries; il slaughtered MIL
| lions of American sheep, ard Canada
| and the Provinces could send into the
United States the products Of the
farm. produced by their then cheap
| labor. and undersclI you in your own
| market 1t mattercd not that
produce was cheap; the lahcr2r had
no money with which to buy, and the
| price cut no figure with him.
1t is said that in China you can get
your hair cut. get a shave, have your
nails mancured and your feet washed
|
who impaired this information to me,
said that he had found, to his cost
that it was very necessary to get your
penny before You went there. And
the reason is plain. In China, with
out money. YOU are put upon The OASIS
of those poor wretchcd creatures who
are compelled to perform this work
for penny.
4 t.. Ipcs. ,fry1n n
| their teachings and instincts, tell Us
that the tariff is Il robber tariff, that
it is the mother of the trusts 1t is
true that we have trusts in this country
Ii is true thai they have not always
conducted their business affairs with
fairness and honesty. We, likewise
have large corporations who have
| sought to monopolize and control trade
and to smother out competition. Bu1
let us be honest and fair. We know
# We know anything, that these Sigan-
tic trusts and large corporations flour
ish and fattcn in free trade England
and that they have done so for hun
drcdS of years. We say they mus
and shall be regulated.
When Mr.. Bryan returned from his
trip around the world, and after care
full investigation ana COIlSiucTdtioH -
matters abroad, landed on the shores
of his native land, he made a well con
sitcrcd and carefully prepared speech
to Il large meeting. of Democrats ant
! others in the city of New York, ailt
| he said, among other things, IN sun
stance. that it was his deliberate con
| clusion that this government shoui'
own and operate public service corpor
ations This immediately raised sucl
a storm among old line Democrats
espe cially in the South, that ne wa
forced by the instinct of self prescrVa
ton, to promptly abandon this soclalls
| tic doctrine. NOW.-aS we look Dacl
over the last 10 years, and behold VIVA
the American policy of protection ma
done for this nation, should we no
| consider well before turning the ma
chncry of government over to the par
ty uf opposition? Both parties con
| code that the tariff schedule should b.
revised. The only question now IS
whether it shall be done by the lrlend
of the protective tariff who made, nur
tured and brought forth this splend'
measure. or whether it shall be mu
|