East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1912-09-28
GoUern-r Wilson and the Farmers;
Address GiUen by the Democratic
Candidate At Washington Park,

ernment. And my indictment against
the tariff is that il represents special
partnerships and does not represent
the general interest, 1t is long
me since tariffs were made by men
who even supposed that they were
seeking to serve the general inter
est, because tariffs are not made by
the general body of the members of
either house of congress. They have
In the past been made by very small
groups of individuals in certain COM
mittees of those houses who even re-
fused information to their fellow
members as the basis upon which they
had acted In framing the schedules.
One of the gentlemen who have been
most conspicuouSly connected with
this thing has in recent years pru-
IDENTIFY withdrawn from public life.
mean the One-time senior senator
from Rhode Island. Mr.. Aldrich.
at least give Mr.. Aldrich the credit
for having had a large weather eye.
He saw that the weather was chang
Ing in Rhode Island, even in Rhode
Island as well as in the rest of the
union: that men who had long known
that he was imposing upon them felt
that the limit had been reached and
they were not going to be imposed
upon any longer. They saw that he
wasn't even doing what he pretended
to do. namely, to serve the special
interests of Rhode Island, because
he was serving only some of the spe-
cial interests of Rhode Island and not
all of them. You can not go into a
game like that without narrowing
and narrowing and narrowing the cir
Gle of interest, until presently you
VIII not think about anything but
one particular individual interest
The only way you can conduct poll
tics is in widening circles. not in mar
rowing circles, and these gentlemen
have been trying to conduct it in ever
narrowing circles which centered
about particular interests. whose ma
neuvers in politics we are painfully
familiar with. Every time we get on
the platform. therefore we put on our
war paint and say we are going in
this thing to see that everybody is
considered member of the great
lirm of the United States of America
when we transact business.
Now. there are various questions,
which you gentlemen ought to real
ize are pending questions that direct
ly concern the farmer of this coun-
try. The tariff intimately concerns
the farmer of this country. 1t
makes difference to you in the cost
of practically every tool that you use
upon the farm; and it is very signif-
icant, or ought to be very signifi-
cant, to you that a democratic house
of representatives, has just passed the
steel tariff reduction bill over the
presidents vetO-a thing, am in
formed, Unprecedented in the history
of the country: that a house should
have passed two tariff measures, the
wool measure and the steel measure,
over the veto Of the president. Why?
Because these gentlemen know that
they are pushing this thing forward
against some of the most powerful
combined interests of this country
and that they are under bonds to rep
resent the people of the United States
and not the special parties in it.
Tariff measures are not measures
for the merchant merely, and the
manufacturer. The farmer pays just
as big a proportion of the tariff du-
ties as anybody else Indeed, some
times when we are challenged to say
who the consumer is as contrasted
with the producer, so far as the tar
iff is concerned, / am tempted 10