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Mckinley's Great Speech

Mckinley's Great Speech image
Parent Issue
Day
25
Month
May
Year
1892
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

Maj. McKinley beimg Introduced by Mr. E. P. Johnson, oí tHi.s city, said: "Mr. Preeident ;nul Geatlemen- J aci glad to meet the republican clubs the colleges aaid nnivrrsiiics of the United States assembled in their representative capacity here to-night, This is the Hrst assemblage of the kind ever undertaken and I trust it wfll be but the beginning of successive meetings of the same character to be held annually in sonie college center of the country. This wlU be a memorable occasion íor one thing, If for no other, that it ís the itrtt. I hope it niay be memorable for another and a more important reason, that it WtU be the seed planting of practical politieal thought Avhich shall continue to grow and find root in every educational institutioii in the country. There is no such school for politica! education as the college and the university. What is inculcated here penetrates every corner of the country where the college w„n ,■ and Avhere is there a spot to which the college man does not go ? And wherever he goes, he is a mighty force in niaking and molding public sentiment. 'It was, therefore, a couception worthy oí the college boy and man to organize these clubs, within their own college precincts, ior political discussion and edueation, that they may go forth well grounded in right political principies, prepared to defend their laith and with au increased interest in the welfare of their country. "Parties do not inake issues. Issues niake parties. We must first know what we think and and believe, then those who think and believe as we do will unite with us in party association. A common conviction on public questions leads to the forination of political parties. A common purpose springing from conviction In. spires party unity. "Political parties are necessary to popular government. They have been with us ïrom the begimning, and wili remain while our form of government lasts. Thiy are the agents of popuular will. Party names may change but under some tttle and designation the sanie ideas and contentions appear to divide them. "No student of American politics can have iailed to note the convictions and sentiments which led to the organization oi the earliest political partiies, in a great measure, still eontro'l and domínate their suecessors; ïhey earry the marks of their birth and beginning. They are easily recogjiizable as related to the ancestral parties froni which they sprang. The name spirit and purpose dominate the republican and democrat parties today that shaped and molded their creation and the creation of those froin which they sprang. The same great fundamental differences divide them; the great ideas carne with the creation of the federal government by the convention of 1787. One was the "national" idea; the other was the "states rights" idea, and from then until now they have been fundamental in the creeds of the two great parties. The old leaders are their idols still, and from them they draw inepiration. Jefferson and Calhoun, Jackson au Tilden, are the names moet beloved and cherished by democrats everywhere. Harnilton and Webster, Clay and Lincoln, still inspiro the highest and best sentiments of the republican party, and are the silent tmt powerful leaders ot repuuliean thought to-day. "The whig party sprang irom the federal party, whteh for a dozen years adininistered the general policy of the government, as it is administered now. The republiean party is the lineal descendant of ihe old whig party, and included in its organization the litjerty, the aaitiLslavery and freo soil parties. The demoerat party sprang Irom the ant i-federalist party, and was afterward designated for a while as the "Demoerat Society," then tern&tlng benveen the names republican and democrat, finally adopted its ] present name, whlch has long been aceepted as the national one. "The two great parties of to-day are striving to keep and maintain those public policies and keep in active play those principies as etmnciated by their political predecessors and inaugurated by the party leaders of a fornier generation. Leaders have diffei-ed now and then from party ereeds, but the creeQs have survived the diseenting leaders and the great parties still live. THE DEM AND FOB FKEE MEN. ■The Wilmot proviso of 1840, which forbade the existeuce of slavery in any part of the territory to be purchased by the money appropriated iu the bill then under consideration. brought together the lovers of liberty aawl the opponcnts ol the further extensión of slavery, and was the origiu and beginning oí a pow'ertul iolitical organization. The issue was tniphasized in 1MÖ3 upon the Tjill to organize Kansas and Nebraska into one tei-ritory, when it was pi-oposed that .slavery was not prohibited in these territorios by virttie of the Missouri compromise of 1820. From this moment adjustments and comproiHises were unavailing. Freedom liad subniittcd too long to the encroaehments of slavery, and would do so no longer. Slavery was no longer to be natiQnal and freedom sectional. Thercafter freedom was to be national and limitations set upon slavery. The demanid for f ree men, free thought, f ree (speech and free homes, rajig througlt the nation and stirred the consciences of the people from slumber and indifferenee to activity and aggression The issue was no louter bUaded or comceated, and theretore equalized the politica! struKKlea wMch tollowed. n was still turther emphauized in 185960. when in the semite of the Dnited Stateo the question was presented whether the tomestead bill of the house should be eoneidered, or the sánete bilí tor the purehase of Cuba. Here was presented the question of ácquirlng more territory lor the exexteneion of elavery, or more free homes for the Ameriean people; and the seaiate, domiiiated by the demoerat party, voted for slavery and againet freedoin. llie extensión oí slavery was to them more to be deeired than the dedicatkm oí the public dómala to freedom and free men. Liberty, justiee amd equality aro the sardinal principies of the repúblicas party, and represent its hlgtt purpose as distinctively as in 185G, when ïn the city of Philadelphia they were the bugle-call and drum-beat of lts birth and beginning. Infernal improvemente on land and water are as surely a part oi our politieal handbook as in the days when Hamilton and Olay announced and enforced theiu as the true national poliey dictated nntriotism and enlightened interest. National autuority wltfain the constitution and oppression to the enpremeey of the states over the federal government- national as con tra dist inguiehed from states' rightsstand forth as great landmarks of republican doctrine and poliey; and at last triumphed, triumphed at a,n avful sacrifice, seated by the lives oí patrio ts. DEMOCRATS AS OBSTRUCTIONISTS. "Protection to American industry and American labor against all the world without is as esseoitial and fundamental in the code of republican principies as it erer was in that of the old whig party. Hamilton and Olay on this great question still aniniate the republican party, direct lts conflicts and share in lts victories. Oppoeition to all these constitute the armor amd arsenal of the democratie party. They have no other. Their postéis orne of resistence and opposition. They have no line on the frontier of adva-nced thought. They are behiiKl their battered and much-woru emtrenchments, and have not been out of the-m but once for more than thirty years. They stanu in tne wojr. They obstruct the progress and well bewig and unification of the country. They were against the homestead lav; they were agatast any lfanitation upön slavery in the new terriitories; they were against the admtesion of Kansas as a free state. Freedom asserted Iteell in that great commonwealth whem assailed and triumphed in Wooc!. The attitude of the democrat party in the last war as a national orsanlzation was for peace at any price, but eóuntless thousands of their own nuraber JoiTicd the mishty cause to preserve the umton. They were against' the recomstruction measures- the thirtcenth, fourteejith and fifteenth amendments to the eonstitution; they were against the greenback, the bond'j the resumption of specie payments; against a protective tariff. If you laow anything which they have not been againet which the republicaiw have advocated- you have observed what has escaped me. They have been against an honeet ballot and a fair count; against civil service reform; against clean city and municipal government. "They are now for tariff reform aaid against the protective tariff of the republican party. -What is tariff reform, so-called ? What does it, in fact, mean? Can anybody teil us ? What part of the extetlng tariff is to be reformed, and liow ? Is there a voter m tins eouutry who knovs? Ivet us bc frank with eaeh other and deal no longer wit li meaningless phrases. Has Mi Cleveland fashioned it into form ? Xo.' You may study all he has said upon the subject froin hls earliest published expression in Albany, vhen he he said that he dld mot know anything aibcrat the tariff, to hiB latest effort tn Rhode Island, and you are absolutely untaiiormed and unenlightened as to its meaning. You turn away from all he has said or written ignorant of the thing called tariif reform. Is Mr. Mills more lucid ? Yes,, amd. more oourageous, but we are still in darkness and confusión because lln Springer, who is temporarily at the head of the tariff reform party in the house, difiere totally and radically irom hüm. XO PLACE TO GO FOR LIOHT. "Where will you go for light ? Wil] you go to the present democrat majority In the house oí representatives, which it is said was elected distinetively upon the issue and to execute the principies of tariff reform ? Wtaat does it preseat ? Wbat is its plan V Here it is: Tin plate tree, and si cel sheets, from which it is made, tariffed. That is, the raw material tariffed, and the finished product free. Fret ■wool to the manulacturer and i:ruvd goode to the comeumex. Free eottim ties to the cotton states and tariiï'cd hoop iron to the rest of the states. is their symbol oí tariff reform. That beüig all, what do you think of it V IIow do you liko it ? Is this the total sum of taritf reform effort ? Is this the best the rer. ■foi-iuers can offer ? If so, then tariff reform is a sham and a dclusion. The propositions of the democrat niaJorlty in the house are illogical and inilclensible, írom whátever standpoint we view the tarifl. Tliey preeemt th enost odioua fornis of elass tegislatton. Tliey are narrow and sihtional and embody no principie worthj to be termed a natkmal policy. "If the thing ealled tarifi reform has any meaning or mission, the people of tlie country are entitled to"knov4 it. I have been asking for inany years of the tariff reformers that they. Shiall taOteate to the country wliat tfoey propose to do. The proteetiontets Ware emboöted in public luw tlieir design and purpoee. II la not coie eealed under meaningless phrases. Tne world knowe it. It esteta as a tact. Whv wiïl ïiot the opponente oi thffl svsu'.n deal as !atrly witl the public aiul announce exaetly th-nr scheduiï of tariíl ratea upon the thousands of foreigm products Wüleh are mported totoThe rnitea States. What wili they mak efree and what wü they make dutiable and what will be the rate of duty whteh they wül imposo nnder their so-called system, upon imported goodfl ? The tmsttog people are e.ntitled to know and nobody wül teil them because nobody kaows. AM ASSAULT WITH POPGUNS. We have liad, siace the close of the war three general tariff measures proposed by a democrat majority uj the house. All of them as unlike as the A.merican tariff law is unlike the Bngllf tai-iff law, none of them framed upan th esame principie; none of them with the eame rates of duty on imported goods; none of them eenstructed by tariff reformers. The preseait house was unwillingpreoeding the presidential election, whk-U everybody confesses to be waged upooi the tariif teeues-to disclose to its eonstituents and the voters oí the country its real purpose. It was afraid of iteelf and liad confessed its Mifirmity by declining to present to the house a full scheine for tariff revieion and tariff reform. It has conteoted itself with a stray shot here and there. It has been firing at random. It has been an assault wlth popguns, the effort being to make a great deal of noise and hit and hurt notliing, and it has succeeded. lts warfare has neither been pleasing tq its frieaids nor dangerous to its enemies. Inflrmity has not only characterized its assault upon the tariff,. but the party has shown that it is incapable and insineere in its dealmg with the silver question. With a two-thirds majorifty in the house, witü a party committed by the platforms of the states to the free and unlimited coinage of silver, it was unable to carry its purpose mbo law, although a majority of the democrat members voted that way. The democrat party is a niighty force in negation; it Sb weak and trifling in practical legislatioai. It is brave- no, not brave; only blustering-aíter a victory, but looses all of its courage in the presence of a great national contest. It has the statesmaaiship oí destrucüon, but lacks uvery element essential to eonstructlve legislation. lts ity in the house, after five months oftrial, is eonvieted before the American people as weak and vacillating, as cowawlly and cringing, as wanting both the capacity and courage to carry into practical legislation, what they liave professed before the people and upon which they allege they won the victory of 1890. They are the party of yesterday and the day before; not of to-day and to-morrow. "It is said that the tariff law of 1890 Ib a burden upon the consumer. I have before me the Bermuda ColoniBt, a paper published in Hamiilton, Bermuda, dated April 28, 1892, (gratainlng the preceedings of the colonial parliament, which had under consideration at that date, the American tariff and how its burdens were to be removed from the inhabitants of that island. You will observe that the producers of Bermuda believe they pay the increased tarifi under the new law, notwithstanding the tariff reformer's claim is otherwtee. And they have appotated a .■ommission to come to the United States to secure a reduction of the tarilf upon their producís. Thie is the language oí the message to the ' goveroor: FIGURES OF GREAT FORCK. " 'We ar edirected by the house oí assembly to bring to the notice of youi exeellency, the serious loss that the people of Bermuda have suffered, aud wliicli they are likely in the future to sustai.n, by the high rata of tarifi that, by the present laws of the United States, is oharsed on Bermuda products sliipped to that country and to especially request that your excellencyï vi-ül be pleased to take intO consideration the following statement whicli is submi'ttert with a view of endeavi4 ing to obtain- witlï the sanetion oi' the imperial government and the govermment at Washington- a reductiou i,n the tariiff ahove referred to. The amount of liermuda products shipped to the Toiited States from January to June inclusive, in 1890, amounted in value to $509,755.12. On thi.s amount, under the old tariff ratee, tlio duttea amounted to not less than 8."i.",324.O8. In January, 1891, the the quant ity of produce shipped ta the United States from January to June amounted to $531,113.12. On this amount, undor the new or McKimley taxtif, duties were páid amounting to not less than $134,876.28. Thus ivliile the value of the producto shipped to the United States tai the year 1891 was $18,400 loss im valué tlian m 1890, the nmount pald as duties was $79.42.20 in excess of dutlea paid in the formei year, making a direct loss to the growera m eaeh case of a large percpintaKC of the ninount. as the market value of our products im the United States wBl not allow of any advancc in jivice coramensurate with so hteavy a tariff." "Tliat being so, who pays the tax? They assert they cannot add the tariff to the prk-o, to the American consumer, so lie gets it at the old price, notwithstanding the increased tarift; tliat is, the consumer pays no more for Bermuda products thau he did previous to the new law; the Bermuda producer gets less and the' American treasury more money. Who contributes that revenue to the treasury, Ihe foreigm producer or the American consumer ? "Tliis will indícate to you how the forein countries regard this tariff. Tliey hold it to be burdensome upou them- a tax upon them which they must yieM up to our treasury if they want to enter this market. Similar discussioms are going on in Canada, in Franco, in England and in other coxuntries. MR. CLEVELAND'S UNTKUTH. "We imcreaeed the tarlfl in the new law opon a number of foreign proaucts wlikii compete with home proiii -is: Uut iai no single instance, exposslbly im the ca.se of peári buttons, has there been any advance in prfcee to the actual consumer. ïet Mr. Cleveland lm his latest speech in Rfcode Istend said: 'The consumer lias foiind lile harder siaioe the passage oi the mew tariif law than before.' Thai is not true. The eonsumer has not foumd liie harder, for the commoditie.s whU-h enter into ate daily Ufe, are, in a great majority of cases, lower thaa before the new law went into effect. He has liad cheaper sugar, cheaper clothhig, cheaper boots and shoes, and cheaper nails than before. A carelul investiation of prices of woolen and cottom goods made in the city of New York, and embracing over 2,000 quotations of articles for a comparative period umder the new and old tariffs, and this made by an expert who had reported prices for forty years, shows that in about 9S per cent. of all these quotatiems and articles, there has been an actual decrease in price since the mew tariff went into effect, as rompared with the same prices o Koods mider the old tariff. Furthermóre, old industries have been stimuila_ted and very many industries start ed, which are mow estimated to have given employment to from 200,000 to 250,000 employés, and it is a fact well established by reports from all countries. that at this time, white depression and anxiety exist in the industries of other countries, there ie proeperity in the United States alone. . "When the tariff has been increased upon a foreign article and it does mot increase th eprice to the American coinsujner. how does the American consumer suffer ? He gets the commodity at as low a price as he got it under tlie old tariff, notwithstanuing the inerease, so he loses nothing; but labor im America gains everything Take the case of carpets - ome of the most marked tacreases under the ncw law. We advameed the tariff on wool, which lies at the foundation of the carpet imdustry, to protect the wooi growers oi the country. We advaneed th etariff on carpets, the finished product, to compénsate the manufacture!! for the imcreased duty on wool, and yet to-day tbe prices .are no highep than thej' were befare the-enactmenö of the ikw law. It is true prices went up on carpets immediately nftr the passage of the law, but these prices are speculative rather than real. But to-day there is no line of carpets that you cannot buy as cheaply as you cooild prior to Oct. 6, 1S90; and as to ingrain and other lower grades of carpets, they are even cheap er now than then. So that the increased protectron that er giive to the wool grower, amd which he rerequired as a defense against ruinousi competition f rom abroad, has cost the Americaji consuiiier nothing, and to th wool grower and farmer has bee.n a positi've benefit. WHO PAYS THE TARIPF TAX ? " They say ' the tariff is a tax.' That is a captivatingcrj'. So it is a tax; but whether it is burdensome upon the American fjeople depende upon who pays it. If we pay it, why should the foreigner's object? Why all these objections in England, France, Germany, Canada aud Bermuda against the tariff law of 1890 if the American consumer bears the burdens, and if the tarifï is oniy added to the foreiga cost which the Amercan consumer pays? If they pay it, then we do not pay it, and if the increased tariff has not iucreased the price of commodities upon which the tarifï has been advanced, then we know we do not pay it. "The price of wire nails in Pittsburg is 1.65c. per pound ; the tariff is 2c. per pound. Who p&ys the tax? " It is urged against the protective system that it keeps our producís out of a foreign market. It would be sufticient to say that this objectiou is not sustaiued by our own experience. It is historically true that our export trade has been greatest during the periods of protection and smallest during the periods of revenue tariff. The recent statistics of our exports thoroughly disposes of the claim that the protective tariff exeludes us from a foreign raarket. Take the item of farm products. For the ten months endino April 30, 1891, we sent abroad 41,118,404 bushels of wueat, valued $36.610,867. For the ten months ending April 30, 1892, we sentabroad 133,410.877 bushels of wheat, valued at $130,781,334. The total value of breadstuffs sent out of the country for the ten mouths ending April 30, 1891. wás {97426,753. The total value of breadstuffs for the ten months endiug April 30, 1892, were $265,629,000 nearly 100,01)0,000 of excess over the ten months in 1891, and all uuder the new tarifï law. The value of the entire expqrts of this country for the twelve months endiug March 31, 1892, was $1,006,24,506, the largest export by far ofany like period in our history. For 1891 the total valué of exports was $872,008.286. "It is afact which I would like to impress upon you aud all of yon that our exports durng the last twelve months have iuereníed 15.41 per cent over the preceding twelve months,.while BritHh exports uuder free trade decreased for the calendar year 1891 5.6 per cent. 11 One of the surest tests of the prosperity of the people is their savings, what they are aWi to ' put by ' af ter they have paid their expenses. Trled by 'this test the United States holds first rank. " In Great Britain, with a population of 3S.000,000, where free trade prevails, there are $5;;6 .000,000 deposited in savings banks. or $14 per capita. " In New York, with protected industries and a population of 0,000,000. there are $550,000,000 depositedin savings banks,or$'J0 per capitu. "In Khode Island the savings are $175 per capita. "In Massachusetts over $150. " In the whole United States the whole savings deposits amountediu 1890 to $1,524,841. 50i. But this only represeuts apart of the savings of American workingmen. Millions of dollars are now pvit in building and loan associations, Insurance compauies. numerous benefit associations aud many other places for future safety and uses. " And yet with all this the laborers of this country, because of the high wages assured them by our protective tarifl live far better tban the workmen of other countries. MAQNIPICENT PLEA FOR PKOTECTION'. " We are getting on better than we ever got ou duriug the revenue tariff periods of ourhistory. We are getting ou better than auy of our sister uatious. We have made matchless progress iu the thirty-oue years of protection, and no siugle year has been more satisfactory thau the one just passed. Are we to abandon the policy uuder which we have advanced to the tirst rank in development aud prosperity? I bid my countrymen pause aud ponder beiore taking the fatal step. Why should we? Let the theorists aud doctrinarles answer. What do they offer iu exchange; what assurance do they give us of the future well being of our country under their system? Experieuce, which Is ordinarlly the best teacher, they discard altogether, for tliat experience in the history of our own country is a conclusivo condemnation of their principies and policy wlien carried into actual administratiou. "Bngland is the ouly free trnde country in the world. Is there anytning in her progresa and civilization.great as they are, in the condition of her raasses, in her opportunities and possibilities, to invite us to turn away from our aucieut policy? No American citizen would exchange what we have and enjoy for what Eugland offers. Does this revenue tariff policy offer more ivork and better wagea, more opportunities for labor and skill aud effort, more possibilities to the plain people, more savings, inore comfort, more independerías, LeVthe men who have tried both systems anwer. Let those lio have wjtnessed witli tbeiv own eyes the coudition ot the I inted States and Europe. answer. Let those oí our own countrymen who have feit the pinch of the revenue tanfE from '46 to '61 upon tlieir income and tlieir wases, upon theii earnings and inveetments, answer. U-t those who are : too youog too have ohserved the conditiou ot our eountrv during the low tariff period, read its historv. If thev will 110 young iintn win associate himself with that political orgnmzation whlch is pledged to tasten that policy upou us ""ïiieed notsay to you what the world knows, that this couutry, after uearly oiie-third of a centurv of .protêction. has reaeh the proud positiou f beïng the flrst In manufactures, nrst in ininiuf.' and tirst in auriculture. and in invention and educatioual advantnges for the masses, of all the uations of the world that labor is better rewarded ; that Bkill and geuius command hlgher returns, and the great body of the people have wider and hetter opportuaities lor advancement than can be found auywhere in the wide, wide world. 1 1" Protêction builds up; a revenue tariff tears down. Protêction briugs hope and courage to heart and home; f ree trade drives them from both. l'ree trade levéis down; protêction levéis up.

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Old News
Ann Arbor Courier