Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1912-10-29
| President in Statement De-
clares 'fFour Years Of De-
preston" Were Due to
Democratic Changes.
RESULTS OF SECOND
TERM OF CLEVELAND
Republican Candidate for
President Tells in Detail
Of Deplorable Conditions
From 1892 to 1897.

IO1Il 1COA w 4CVO.
Washington, D. c., Oct. 2S.-Presi-
dent Taft today made public state
ment In which he declared that the
..four years of depression which fol-
lowed the second election of President
Cleveland "were due to the promise
OF tariff reform and the democratic
changes in the tariff that followed.
The president said that the issue be-
fore the. voters is clear ION the one
hand prosperity and real progress; on
the other, q leap in the dark"
"The American people, he continu-
ed, have more than once surprised
those who thought the people were
being successfully fooled, and be-
lieve that similar surprise awaits
our opponents on the coming fifth of
November"
The statement in full follows:
"In view of erroneous statements
regarding the causes Of the four years
OF depression which followed the sec
ond election of President Cleveland.
II may be well to recall the facts. In
his formal letter OF acceptance, Sept.
26, 1892, Mr.. Cleveland emphasized
the need OF tariff reform and made
It the leading Issue between the
parties. Tariff reform is still our
purpose he said. Though we oppose
the theory that tariff laws may be
passed having for their object the
granting Of discriminating and unfair
gov ernmental aid to private ventures,
we wage no exterminating war against
American interests This has a ia
miliar sound today, save that, instead
Of tariff REFORM the democratic slog-
an now is a tariff for revenue only.
According to the Baltimore platform,
the tariff Is not merely to be reform
ed, but the principle Of protecting
American industry is to be excised,
root and branch. On that platform
Governor Wilson stands.
CIeveIand's "Tariff Reform"
ITO 60 back to Mr.. Cleveland's sec
ond term, the proof from his own
writings and utterances is that he
was elected on the issue of tariff re-
form It is also fact of history that
Immediately upon his election capital
and industry took alarm, enterprise
became paralyzed and business dis
organized. The somewhat puerile
argument has been advanced that
these deplorable conditions could not
have been due to impeding tariff re-
form because they arose nearly two
years before the enactment of the
Wilson tariff bill. 1t should be un.
necessary to say that when there are
signs of cyclone the rational man
does not wait for the storm to hit his
house before getting into the cyclone
cellar. The Wilson bill was in sight
above the horizon on the morning af-
ter the November election of 1892, and
capital and industry began their start
for the cellar, just as, fear, they will
take to shelter again, should the Balti-
more platform Of a tariff for revenue
only be approved by the American
people on November 5.
''Mr. Cleveland was undoubtedly
sincere in HIS belief that the alarm
ing and extraordinary business situa-
tom as he called it in his special
message of August s. 1893, was due to
the Sherman silver purchase act, but
the fact remains that, after the act
had been repealed, Nov. /. 1893, the
business situation became more and
more alarming, and American energy
and enterprise were prostrate
throughout Mr.. Cleveland's term, be-
ing yivified again with the election Of
Mckinley and the consequent assur-
ance that the tariff reform expert
ment would soon give way to protec-
tion.
Cites Wage Statistics.
"The effect Of the tariff reform Of
1S9497 which, as / have indicated,
was actually felt from 1892 to 1891, is
apparent in the statistics of wages
paid in manufacturing industries in the
decade of 1S90-190O. as compared with
the preceding and subsequent periods.
In 1890 wages paid had increased
nearly one thousand millions over
18SO-from $947,973,795 to 1881, ,22S,-
321, whereas in 1900, when the coun.
try was recovering from the blight OF
four years of democracy, showed an
Increase only to $2,008,361, ,000-that is,
about s117,0OO,000 over 1890. In the
subsequent decade Of protection wages
In manufacturing industries increased
to s3,427,03s,OOO. The experience Of
the farmers is equally impressive.
Their losses on the value of farm anil
mails aloue dl,.ag the Cleveland 'tarih