The Climax-Madisonian. (Richmond, Madison County, Ky.) 1914-1917, 1914-10-28

~ BRYAN.
-=1-.t ac.ressed nImseIr wa - -
question. 1t is an old question, so old
that none of US can remember when
this fight began. 1 began making
stump speeches when 1 was twenty
years of age, and 1 have been at it now
thirty-four years This is my eigh-
teenth campaign, Congressional or
Presidential. 1 began fighting for a re-
duction of the tariff thirty-four years
ago, and Kentucky began long before
I began. You have been a pioneer in
the war OF tariff reform, and your
great men have stood in the forefront
of this great conflict.
Tariff Law the Best.
The President, by cooperation with
the Senate and House, has produced
the best tariff law the country has had
since the Civil War. 1 speak advised
ly, for l was on the committee that pre-
pared the only other tariff reduction
law that we have ever had in fifty
years, the law OF 1894. And this law
is better than that law was. That was
the best law that we could get under
those conditions, but we have better
conditions now and we have a better
rates than I thought it was possible to
get, and it not only gave the people
relief-the consumers of the country
relief from the high tariff of the for
mer laws, but it set a nation free. AS
look back over the campaigns in
which l have participated l do not re-
call another campaign until this one
when they did not bring out the threat
of panic to terroriZe the nation. The
beneficiaries of protection who had
their hands in the pockets of the ma,
ton, who had been making the laws
that determined the amount that they
should collect from the people-these
people had at every campaign used a
part of the money they had collected
by unjust laws to deceive those who
could be deceived, to purchase those
that could be purchased, and to intim-
idate those who could be inundated
Calamity Threats Failed.
They had told the farmer that he
would lose his home markets if he re-
duced the tariff. They had told the
laboring men if they dared to vote for
tariff reduction their bread and but
ter would be taken from them, and
they had warned business men that
the wheels of industry and of COM
merce would stop if they dared to lay
a hostile hand on these sacred tariff
schedules, and in some of the cam
paigns they had posted up notices in
the shops that the laborers need not
come back on Wednesday unless the
Republican party was successful. This
is what they have done, and they had
deceived and misled many honest,
well-minded persons, and 1 suppose
some of the more timid ones were al
most afraid to wake up the morning
after that law went into effect, for fear
darkness would cover the land. But
when they awoke they found the sun
rose as usual, they found the soil had
lost none of its fertility, they found
that the energies of the nation had not
been impaired, and then they saw that
they had been fooled, and then the
pretended partnership between the AL
mighty and the Republican party was
dissolved by retirement of the senior
member.
If President Wilson had done moth
ing more, he has emancipated the ma
ton from thraldom to the benef-
Charles of protection, and now every
citizen of this country can walk up to
the polls and vote as he pleases with
out fear of being run out of business.
The Income Tax.
But had another surprise They made
the tariff rates lower than 1 expected mem In
to be. l have been in favor OF an incoIne
tax ever since j have been in politics
believed in the tax we had twenty years
ago. and when 1 think how we who had
advocated IL were denounced as dema,
gogues and disturbers of the peace, and
called everything down to anarchists pc
cause we favored a 2 per cent tax on in
comes, and then when l see tax to-day,
ranging from 1 per cent to per cent, ana
the whole country accepting IT, am
aul7a cd Of rl.av-u Hon CharaR-
terized our earlier years. Yes, an in
come tax of from 1 per cent to q per cent,
extent the burden to be borne by the
struggling masses Of the country. MOI
one man in ten will pay an income tax:
$4,000, and those whose incomes are less
are entirely free from this burden But
under the other taxes they bear more
than their share, while under the other
taxes the men now taxed with the IN
come tax bear less than their share.
Therefore, at least nine out OF every ten
are benefited by the income tax, having
who now pay the income tax are only
bearing burdens that heretofore they nave
in ten OF all the people. 1t is better than
that Why, not even one Republican In
ten Will pay an income tax, and the otner
nine Republicans ought to thank the
Democratic party for making the one
come up and bear his share. Among the
Democrats not one in thirty will pay an
income tax OF course the Republicans
viii pay more income tax than the Dem
oerats. Why should they not? They
that is pretty good test Of what man
has been getting out of the government.
These Republicans have been holding the
national offices all these years and draw
ing the national salaries all these years,
and they fixed the salaries themselves,
and they have been generous to them
selves. Not only that but having the
government, they MIXED 1t dry. They
have been voting favors and privileges to
themselves Now, having for genera
ton taken from the peonle money that