The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1912-02-02
HIS APPEAL IN Vain.
Campbell Makes Strong
Speech Against Metal Schedule.

allotted to him, but he made a good
.etas4ent Tor the life of two
good misunderstanding mining and
zinc smelting-and for the laborers
employed in these industries He
said:
There are large zinc smelling in
dustries in my district and also large
ore mining industries. Close by, in
the states of Missouri and Oklahoma,
are great ore mining industries. In
1909 we succeeded, after a long Strug-
gle, in getting a small duty placed on
zinc ore. At the time we were urg-
ing that duty the same condition ex-
listed in Missouri and Kansas and Ok
lahoma that has been described by the
gentleman from Wisconsin as exist
ing in his district-idle mines and
men without work.
Il saw in 1908 empty houses miners
had vacated. saw business houses !
mines and mills idle. That was be-
fore the law passed placing a duty on
ore that this bill proposes to remove. |
/ visited the same after the law had |
occupied by busy miners, and the bust |
ness houses were occupied on every |
hand, and there was activity and in |
dustry- But during the time were |
discussing the tariff on zinc ore one
of the most experienced men in zinc |
smelling in this country-A. B. Cot |
trell, then of Missouri, and a Demo- |
crat-told me that the smelling Indus |
try in which he was interested, that of
smelling zinc ore into zinc blocks, |
would be paralyzed if We did not raise |
the duty on zinc blocks and zinc sheets |
from $3.50 to $2.35 He said that zinc |
ore then being mined in old Mexico |
would be sent to Belgium, smelted in |
Belgium, and sent to our market, the |
entire freight from old Mexico around |
to our market being less than the |
freight from Pittburg, Kan, to Pitts |
burg, Pa, and his prophecy has come |
true in a large measure. Zinc blocks |
and sheet zinc nTntqofRd 4 81 |
cents to 1 % cents per pound. This |
proposes to make it seven-tenths cent |
"a reduction that will close every |
smelter in our country. Every smelt- |
ing industry in the state of Kansas will |
be closed if section 81 of this bill is !
agreed to. Every miner, therefore, in |
the Kansas Missouri and Oklahoma
districts will go out of employment, |
and every man engaged as a Iaborer |
in zinc smelling factory in the states |
of Kansas and Oklahoma will go out
of employment.
Gentlemen, are you in favor Of leg
islating men out of JOBS: are you in
favor of adding to the unemployed;
are you in favor of adding children to
the children that are employed in the |
industries of the country in order that |
they may assist their parents in max |
ing q living? Are you going to aggra- |
vate the conditions described by the |
gentlemen from New Jersey (Adr. !
Hughes) by putting the fathers out of
employment? If so, vote for this bill |
If you do not want to do that in the
name of humanity, in the name of in
dustry, in the name of opportunity to
make a living, vote against it. 1 APP
peal to gentlemen from Missouri to
Vate for a Missouri industry. I appeal
in the gentlemen from the Joplin dis
trict to vote against this bill. I am
going to vote against it. I am going
to vote against 1t in the interest of
the men who work for q living in my
district and in other districts of the
United States. I would be unfit to be
a. representative here if I could not
look the men of my district in the face, |
and could not do that if voted them |
out of work. applause on the Repub- !
lican side.)
Il have already said that this bill
would strike down two great indus |
tries in which thousands of men are
employed. For that reason I shall
vote against the bill. I am not like
the gentleman from Iowa-so anxious
to kill a weasel that I will shoot into
the chicken coop with double bar
relied shotgun, with both barrels L
would not get rid of a rat in the barn
by burning the barn. I am not like
the old woman who wanted to get rid
of bedbugs SO badly that she set the
bedtick on fire and burnt the tick, the
bed and the house and everything in
it. You are proposing by this bill to
close industries, throw men out of
business from every kind of business
man; you will paralyze railroads and
throw their employees out of work.
do not propose to help you do this.
If this bill had been considered by this
house or by a tariff board, SO that we
could have given it the consideration
to which the subject matter is en-
titled, have no doubt that we might
have perfected bill that would not
only pass this house but pass another
body and meet the approval of the
president of the United States.
But you gentlemen are resting Sc
cure, because you know that in another
body it will be so amended that you
will not recognize 1t when 1t returns
and because you know that If it con-
tains provisions that are inconsistent
with the policy of protection which
to labor the difference paid
to labor abroad it will meet the veto #
the president of the United States. The
policy of the Republican party, an
nounced by its majority on this side, a
majority of the minority, and as stood
for by the senate and president of the
dustries in this country by protecting
every product in such a way as to keep
labor employed. You howl in behalf
of labor from every stump throughout
the campaigns you make. You come
here and vote to put labor engaged in |
industries affected by this and other
bills out of employment You have
stated in this discussion that this bill
will permit the importation Of millions
Of dollars worth of products from for
sign countries. made by labor employed
IN foreign countries. in industries taxed
N foreign countries maintaining insti- |
buttons in foreign countries.
These countries do not have the
standard of living or wages that we
maintain here. There is not country
n the world that has as many labor
ers we'll employed at good wages as
he United States. 1t is true that some .