The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1910-11-03
TELLS WHAT
TARIFF DOES
SEN. JEFF DAVIS SPEECH
He Declares Taylor is a Man OF
Courage and Will be Elected
by People Who Love Him

Senator jeff Davis addressed ca
pacity audience at the court house in
this city Saturday afternoon at one
O'Clock, Notwithstanding the fact that
only few hours notice had been
given that the distinguished speaker
wonld visit Johnson City. Senator
Davis is one of the strongest speakers
in the democratic ranks today and
more than interested the large crowd
that heard him. He was introduced
by Cy H. Lyle and spoke for nearly
two hours, but held the closest atten-
tion of his crowd throughout. His
sreech was forceful and logical and,
best of all, it convinced many indie
pendent democrats of the error of their
way and they openly returned to the
fold.
When Senator Davis arose he was
given an ovation, and spoke in part as
follows:
Ladies and gentlemen: am not here
to disturb, far from it, but to aid in
peace in the democratic party in my
humble way. Just subsequent to the
terrible civil war the people of this
country were happier by far than they
are at the present time. The Confed-
crates returned to find their homes
and fortunes gone, but these brave and
honest men, God bless them, they are
the most honest on earth, took up the
work of rebuilding their homes and
fortunes against great odds.
They had an unequal chance then
and condition has arisen in this coun-
try of late which has brought about an
unequal chance and this latter condi-
tion was brought about by laws passed
by republican congress and the result
is that the ownership of property is in
no wise equal. want to say to you
that it is an astounding fact that there
are So men IN the United States who
own 35 per cent of the entire wealth of
the country and 1900 other men who
are worth from one million to ten mill
ion dollars, and taken together these
4,052 men own and control more than
So per cent of the combined wealth of
this great nation. Following the civil
war there were two fields of labor,
namely: Human endeavor and those
who work in the field of legislation.
View the two crowds, the laborer who
works in the different vocations of life
and the gang that works in legislative
fields for unearned gain. The former
creates something which the latter
class neither spin nor toll, but sit in all
the glory of modern Solomons. The
republicans have challenged on the
floor of congress and none have yet de-
MED that this small number of men
own more than 81 per cent of the
wealth. These menopolies said to the
of congress, we want to
make money and by sliding bills
that body are doing it. Why
did they want this power of money?
Because they knew that to weld such
a power ultimately meant the control
of the government. They were not
satisfied and said to the government
we want these little state banks put
ont <>f h,,c;pacS for sa-a ora doc; ro,,c Of |
canning the money of the country.
This was done for Them as you all
know. They were still not satisfied
and come again saying: "We find
greenback dollars in the laborers jpock-
IT" and they demanded that these
greenbncks be withdrawn. This was
done as you all remember but still they
were not satisfied and came forth again
closer corner on the money
Of the country. They said: "We find
silver dollars in the laborers' pocket
and we want that slaughtered.
In 1878 the act was passed and no
Dne knows to this good day who per-
petrated that national outrage which
was slipped through like a thief in the
night. The secretary of the treasury
at that time construed the word 'scoin"
to mean gold and only gold. DO you
wonder that they now own more than
81 per cent of the nations wealth.
This crowd wanted to tax everything
and the government said "We cant do
that the people won't stand it will
have 10 revolution and yet they did