Bisbee daily review., 1908-09-02
HE SPEECH OF HON. MARK 4. SMITH
 AT LEWIS SPRINGS BARBECUE SUNDAY

~SS~~~~~Ss~~Sss~~~~ ~~~~~~S~~S~sA~re<sS~ know that even now, by a conspiracy already formed. they are putting up
 great painted signs on their idle and silent factories telling the locked out
 men that When Taft is elected this l factory will open with full time and will keep open" In the name of an l the heather gods why are they not
 now open and running on full timee 1 Who closed them down? Is not Roose- welt still president? Has not the re- publican party full possession of every branch of the federal governmentY If | the president is powerless to keen mn prosperity, how is his creature, the
 Roosevelt ready-made successor to his
 throne, going to bring back good
 times with good pay for all willing
 hands? Are the presidents policies
 to be carried out by Taft? If so the panic now destroying the country
 must still rage for it came on the country and is still raging right in the
 zenith of the Big Stick dynasty. IS the creature to be more powerful than the creator? Is it possible that Taft T1s to be an improvement on the all. wise Roosevelt? Away with such her esy! Can you gild fine sold? Would you paint the lilly? Of the three great panics that have struck the country in
 my life time, two came while the re- publicans were in full control of the government, and the one known as
 the Cleveland panic was well on the country at the time of his election and could not have been averted py
 the election of Harrison any more than it was caused by Cleveland's
 election. The cause, of these panIcs
 with all their attendant train of n1is-
 cry and want. lies deeper than the
 question of who is or shall be presl-
 dent of our country, though that uues-
 ton by many is deemed the whole
 cause of business depression.
 In the very height of Roosevelt's great popularity and while the coun-
 try was enjoying the greatest prosper
 ity fL all its wonderful history. the panic struck the country like a bolt of
 lightning and prosperity lay dead at
 the feet of a startled world These things will continue to recur until we have greater equality in the admins tration of the laws and a more eduita-
 ble distribution of wealth. There IS something radically wrong in a sys- tem of government under the opera
 ton of which private fortunes of
 twenty, fifty and one hundred mil
 lions of dollars are acquired in one short lifetime. The great bulk of such
 fortunes are taken from the pockets
 of other people and from those least
 able to stand it. The present high tar
 if is more responsible for this condi-
 ton than all other causes combined.
 It has been justly styled the mother of
 l..
 obnoxious to the victims of it's greed
 that Mir. Taft promises, in the unfor-
 tunate event of his election, to immed-
 lately call an extra session of congress
 to reform it. Why not before cleo
 tion? Why was it not reformed dur
 ing the two terms of the present exc cutive? Is it not fair to conclude that the protected trusts would not con tribute with their usual prodigality Co the campaign fund if laws prohibiting their further piracy on the people yere already passed? If this gang believed
 that the republican party was in fact,
 determined to cut away their right to l rob, they would not give dollar to- | wards the election of any member of
 that party. This great aggregation of
 wealth by such open spoliation is be- | coming dangerous to the public vel i fare. These men have no politics and l no patriotism It is with them a naked | question of dollars, yes millions of | dollars, and they make large campaign 1 contributions to any party guarantee | ing to leave them unshorn of their power to Rillage the people. If the
 Wealth-producing people got any of these gains, if the labor got it's part
 or got anything of good out of this
 it would be very different question | They hire their labor as cheap as they can in an oper free market and they | sell the product of this labor in the | highest protected market in the woPld | and at price outrageously in excess | of the cost of production They want | to buy their labor in a free market | they want to buy their material Tn free competing market, and then sell | this labor and material in a market | protected from all competition and ] the laborer whose industry and skill | produced the product must, if be him | self buys it, p&y four times as mucn | for the article as his labor and the ma Il terial had cost the manufacturer And everything this man buys for himself or his family are burdened with an equal weight of extortion He finds his cost of living growing larger and larger while his wage increases in no such ratio, and the times with him are growing to be an everlasting pan ic. If the proposed Taft congress touches the tariff, the very first thing they strike for will be free raw ma
 terial to work with, and the principal
 thing in this list is wool Our sheep
 growers can bear that in mind. By
 the way, why is the. price of wool so low this year with all its high protec-
 tion2
 Under the operation of this high tariff the present outrageous trusts were inevitable. They are the natural growth from such seed and their har-
 vest has been sure. When taTin du-