Year: 1877

SPEECH OF SENATOR CONKLINa A


GRAPHIC VIEW OF THE LABORING


CLASSES ABROAD-COMPARIS WITH


THE CONDITION OF THINGS IN AMER


ICA. -t


UTICA, N. ", August 14-Senator
Conkling, who has just returned from
his solourn in Europe, was greeted with
public reception here tonight. He
was introduced in friendly and flatter-
ing terms by Senator Herman. He re-
sponded in similar spirit, referring to
his friends and adversaries in both par
ties during his political career in kindly
terms. Then touching on his recent
tour abroad he said:


mo American can realize the progress
America has made till heg goes and COM
pares it with other lands. Without see
ing other countries it is hard to realize
how bounteous nature and Providence
have been to us. We suffer just now
from hard times and depressed indus
tries. You see all this and more abroad.
We think England rich in the ocean
carrying trade. So she is, but many of
her best ships are idle. Steamship lines,
in some instances, alternate with each
other, running only half the time
Manufactures are depressed everywhere.
Workingmen here are dissatisfied with
wages, and unwise and lamentable coun-
sells here recently led to lawless acts
from which, in,the end, no one will
suffer so much as their authors and
abettors and those they assume to rep
resent. I wish they would all go to
France and England and see what the
workmen and women do there, and
hear of the wages they receive. Eng
land, excluding the twelve counties of
Wales, is not larger than the State of
New York. It contains 100000 Of
people. One or two hundred men own
half of England. Their estates are
pEincely reservations for game and
pleasure and opulence. One man may
ride thirteen miles in one direction and
nearly Us 1ar in the other on his own es-
takes it all. The State of New York
has less than 5000, 900 people.


Suppose there were five times as
many, and then half of the State was
given up to the monopoly and pleasure
of one hundred and fifty noblemen.-
Suppose, in addition, that men and
women labored in fields and mines, and
that the wages were only those paid in
England. Suppose only one man in
three had a vote or voice in public af-
fairs or in making laws, and that the
great body of workingmen were wholly
excluded from all part in choosing MEM
bers Of the house of Parliament in which
seats are not hereditary. Then suppose
taxation to maiutain a standing army
in which commissions are sold for mo-
ney or given to sons and relatives, and
tithes are taken to maintain an estab-
lished church in which livings are sold
to the highest bidder or bestowed as
patronage. What would the working
men CT Pennsylvania or Ohio think Of
such conditions?


1--WE are all workingmen in America.
No class has monopoly Of the right to
call itself working class here. I have
always worked and always been COM
PEELED to work, and my sympathies are
all with honest labor. I believe in its
dignity and all it's rights. But when
tidings of the strike reached me in Paris
under my eyes was a spectacle which
seemed to heighten the madness of what
men in America were doing. The gov
ernment OF France was borrowing
money, and on the curbstone in the
street sat men all night to get each his
turn in the morning to invest in the





as workman do not and need not live
here, and working for wages which
American wOrkmen would scorn, had
by hook or by crook saved fifty francs
each. Fifty francs makes ten American
dollars, and the all.night watche ers
were there to buy ten dollar bond on
which they were to get per cent. inter-
est. There sat the wOrkingman of
France amid the luxury of the more
fortunate, contented with what fate had
sent him. Can it be that liberty and
prosperity have spoiled any portion of
the American people till they cannot
endure their share in season of COM
mon adversity?


"Another advantage of every class in
America impressed me-the fact that
we have no near and dangerous neigh
bors. On the banks of the Danube
Russians and Turks are killing each
other. This does not endanger or effect
us, except that it creates more market
for the things we have to sell. How is
it with the old world where nations ad-
join each other? Every people is in
danger. Every taxpayer and every
workingman and every working wo-
man is involved. Great Britain must
have road to India where she governs
180, ,000, 900 human beings with the bay
onet. Russia, Turkey, Austria, Germa-
ny, France and others are interested also
in these same things, or in what they
call the balance of power, and on the
judgment or caprice of kings and
rulers depends the question whether
men must fight and die, and women
must toll and reap in half the Kingdoms
of the earth. Our country stands apart
by herself in the amplitude of her own
dominions.


ut is said the American flag is not to
be seen as often as other flags floating
from mastheads in foreign ports. This
is true. 1t ought to be otherwise. 1t
must be otherwise. But without meet
ing 1t often on the sea you know and
! feel that the starry flag is at home, and
that from home it makes its influence
and power felt around the world. You
see and feel that it shelters and protects
more liberty more individual prosperity
more Of human right and more bright
promises for the future than any thai
caa be found in any other land. King.
ship, monarchy, nobility, aristocracy
may be good things-good for the few
within the charmed circle-but give me
a land of equal rights, a land where
there is no law making few and where
no man is ever called on to obey any
law which he has not his full share ir