Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 July 1888 — MILLS ON THE TARIFF. [ARTICLE]

MILLS ON THE TARIFF.

A Clear and Vigorous Exposition of the Principles of the Bill Which Has Made Him Famous. Text of the Speech Delivered by Hon. E. Q. Mills at Tammany’s Blowout on the 4th of July. Fellow-Citizens —On this day, memorable in the history of our country and of your society, it will not be de med inappropriate briefly to recur to some of the fundamental principles upon which our republican form of government was established, to preserve the purity of which your society was organised. Toe declaration which you have heard read in yonr presence today proclaimed the great fundamental troth that all men are created equal, and that governments derive their just powers from the consent of the goverued. it would- have been easy to say that the separate States Were to be go\ erned by all the otners if that was meant. But it was meant that each State should have ael -governmentand what they aptly call n Ire and home rule. What is liberty ? It is the right to do as we please so long as we do not injure another. That includes the >ight to personal, political, civil, and religious .Iberty ; that includes the rijht to go when we please, to come back when we please, and to eat what we please, and todrink what weplease. There were those who wanted to make a government here that was not a free government, but they were defeated, and the government that was established was bound by a constitution that expressed all the power of toe Government and left to the people the exercise of all the powers that were not surrendered by that Constitution. It was the jealous love of liberty in the bosom of Thomas Jefferson that put the Bill of Bights in the Constitution, gnd secured to the people the rights that were theirs and not surrendered. The men who wanted to establish a powerful concentrated government were defeated, and the appearance of the alien and sedition laws within ten years showed how necessary was the precaution of Jefferson. From that day to this the Democra ic party has been the guardian of personal, political, civil, and religious liberty, and has jealously guarded the liberties of the people. Who was it that braved the onslaughts of the Know-Nothing paity and never left the light until the dead body of the foe was stretched upon the field ? The Democratic party depends upon the people. When a member of the Tammany Society, William L. Marcv, was Secretary of State, he boldly defended the right of every man who has declared his intentions to become a citizen to be protected by the flag of our country. It was he who sustained Commodore Ingraham in his demand for the freedom of Martin Kosta. and to give him .the protection of the American flag, and secured his release from the very center of the Austrian fleet. When has the Republican party done an act like that? We’ve got no navy. We’ve got no ships, and the Republican party is responsible for the legislation that prevents us from building the ships. The Republicans persist in reiterating the falsehood that we propose to inaugurate free trade. The fact Is that the Republican party got up a tariff commission to settle the tariff question. They said that the politicians could not sottle it, although they had been doing it for a hundred years. So the Republicans got up a tariff commission, and they were all protectionists. They went over the whole country and took testimony, and they finally proposed a reduction on the average of 20 or 23 per cent. They said that would not ' hurt anybody, but that Buch reduction would be beneficial to manufacturer, laborer, and everybody else. And now they say we are a free-trade party, when we propose even a lesß reduction of the tariff than they did, and they say we must go on and add to this surplus, for which we have no need. It is a surplus which is a perpetual menace and a temptation to extravagance, and the result of it is alreaay seen by the propositions that Republicans are making in Congress for various jobs, and to augment the taxes so that they may get more of what they call “fat.” Under these circumstances President Cleveland wrote a message. His progress to a second triumphant march to Washington was assured without it, but he believed it was his duty to write it, and he did write it In the performance of his duty. He called upon Congress to prepare a bill. He told us to consult every luterest; the interest of the farmers, the laborers, the producers, the manufacturers — the interests of all. Under these directions a bill has been prepared that prop jses to reduce the snrpluß #98,000,000 a year. Of this there will be $22,000,000 taken off of internal revenue taxes. Nobody will object to that on the Repub'ican side. Now, to accomplish this reduction we have put some things on the free list. What are they? Let us see whether this part of the bill will hurt anybody. We began with lumber. We propose to let the people have lumber so m-ch cheaper to build their houses and their barns with and to use in their manufactures. We believe that this will 1 not only not hurt anybody, but that it will benefit the people. It may keep some “boodle” out of the pockets of the men who are interested in taxing all the people in order that they may be made rich; but it will keep down the surplus, which is now inviting corrupt legislation. It will give the poor man cheaper lumber for his house. This is the way that the Democratic party takes the side of the people. We propose to help the people at the expense of the lumber trust. Then there is another thing that we have put on the free list, and that is salt. God makes it for us in the sea and in the earth. Then the Republican syndicate wants to put a tax on it, so that the people will have to pay more. We shall want lots of it in November to salt down these devils. Then we have to put tin plate on the free list. What is the sense of a duty on tin plate to increase the cost of articles that are used in every family?— the great tin-pail brigade that Mr. Cox speaks of. Do we need a duty on this tin plate to collect revenue ? Do we need it to protect any American industry? No; there is not an ounce of tin plate made in this country. On the contrary, we want to let in tin plate free of duty because it is needed as a raw material to keep our workingmen employed. It is for the interest of the American laborer who works on tin plate, as well as of the laborer that uses the product, that tljo tin plate should come here free of duty. Yet the Republicans not only propose to vote against our taking off the duty but they want to increase it, so that instead of collecting $5,OOb.OOO of dutv cn tin plate we shall collect $12,030,000 in duties. The only reason assigned for this is because Henry Jarrett says he would like to go into the business of making tin plate. Well, Mr. Jarrett is a pet Republican orator, and it might be a nice thing for nim to get rich in that way by putting a tax on the whole American people, and he might build himself a castle in Scotland, like Mr. Carnegie. Mr. Jarrett wants to get some of the “fat,” and the Republican party would like to “foster" him and to “develop” him. Mr. Clay used to talk about protecting our infant industries. First he said he would be satisfied with a protective tariff or three years until the in ant industries could get a start. Then he wanted nine years’ protection, and so this sort of business has gone on until even at this late day we still find the alleged infant “mewling and puking in its nurse's arms.” When you come to the wool tariff you wi 1 see that the Republican party thinks more of sheep than it does of men. How is it about the wool business ? We think it is most important to furnish a supply of wool to be used by the manufacturers and weavers of wool, to keep the laborers who work on wool in employment on good wages, and to let the men who wear wool have better clothes. We use, in fact, about 000,001,000 pounds of wool In our manufactories. We raise only 265,000,000 pounds, or less than half, and the Republican party proposes to put the Chinese wall arouud our country to keep out this half that we need for our manufacturers, and all for the benefit of a few wool-growers. Does that benefit the laborer? Not at all. It does not take’much labor to raise wool. It takes a good deal of labor to manufacture 'it. We can use all that we can raise and we must have more. But the Republicans would rather we should use shoddy and make over the same stuff four or five times before we get through with it than let the people have free wool. The woolen men have got the duty on manufactured wool up to 68 per cent, on the average, and on some grades they have got a duty of 218 per cent., and they say that Is not enough and they want more. They want you to keep on wearing out your old clothes. Now, we say the better thing for yon to do will be to wear out the Republican party tn November. We say this in the interest of the American laborer. Let him have the wool to work with and to wear. We do not believe the people of the United States can be longer fooled with the talk of British gold.

We want the wool to come from all the world to keep our wage-workers at work making it *P into goods to be sold In the markets of the world, aa well as for home-wear. How it it with soap? Yon remember a famous dinner here in which Mr. Dorsey was complimented for his liberal nse of soap in Indiana. Well, we have put soap on the free list, and grease with which to make soap on the free list. Thjy may use all the soap th y like in Indiana, but the old red bandana will carry Indiana. That is the free list that we have made, and we believe it won’t hurt anybody. Now, let us look at the dutiable list.. How do we propose to leave it? The present tariff puts on an average of $47.10 on every SIOO worth of goods imported. What do we propose to do? They say that we propose free trade. Let us see how low we propose to leave the duty on the socalled free-trade tariff of ours. Is it at 5 per cent, or 12 per cent., < r 25 per cent. ? That would be low. No; it is higher than that; higher than the average of the tariff of 1846. It is above the so-called protective tariff, for we leave it at an average of 40 per cent. Our tariff bill, that they say is a free-trade bill, only reduces the duty from 47 per cent, down to 40. The Republican party is c mmitted tn a reduet ion of 25 per cent, by tho Tariff Commission, and yet wuen we propose to make a reduction of less than 7 per cent, they call us free traders. Now, take some of the articles and see what we propose. There is glassware. The gresent tariff is 59.55; we propose to make it 46.10. Does that look lik3 free trade? A good deal of this outcry about fre * trade comes from Philadelphia and l ittsburg. Now we come to the steel rail steal. What reduction do we propose? The present t iriff is 40.4 ; we propose to reduce it to 38.08. That takes off only $.'.65 on every SIOO of duty. How is it with sugar? We reduce that from 78.15 to 62.92. How is it with cotton goods, iron and steel, three of our greatest industries ? In cotton goods we propose to reduce the tariff from 39.69 to 39.07, or areduction of 92 cents duty on every SIOO worth of cotton goods imported, and they tell ub that is free trade. Out of sll,0)0,000 collected on ootton goods we propose to make a reduction of $29/,COI in the tariff collected. If that is free trade, I aßk in the name of all Iha Republican sinners at Chicago, what is protection? How is it with woolen and woolen goods? We propose to reduce the tariff about S2O a hundred—from $58.81 to $38.46. The great reduction comes by placing the raw material on the free list, and I have a le ter from a wellknown woolen manufacturer to prove that this change will be beneficial to our American laborers. The fact is that we propose to leave a .duty of about 40 per cent, on manufactured woolen goods, and yet they tell us this is free trade. All that we have put on the free list is the raw materials with which our laborers must bs employed, and all the change we propose is t j benefit the workingmen of this country.

Now, in every tariff they put what is called a drag net to catch all the things that have not been specially mentioned. Look over the tariffs that have been passed and you will see that on the manufacture of iron we have cut off only about 5 per cent., leaving It 40 per cent., which is above the war rate, and yet they call it free trade. And so it is with other things in the list. We have left a duty to be collected which is now higher than that levied during the war, and yet they tell us it is free trade. It is not the men who are looking after the interests of the people who are making the outcry. The men whom our bill will injure will not be the workingmen, but the men of combinations, pools and trusts which the Democratic party proposes to destroy. How is it with carpets? We propose to leave the duty higher than it was during the war, and they call it free trade! How about coffee? We propose to attack the coffee trusts for the benefit of the manufacturing interests of the country, and they call it free trade. We tell you, workingmen, that the way to get good wages is to let in the raw materials with which you have to work; to look to the markets of the world; to stand by the administration that is your friend; to stand by the political party that tells you the truth; to sustain the party that has reduced the burdens of taxation. How can you expect to have a market for your ~ goods unless you are enabled to make them so as to compete with other manufacturers, and how can you do that better than by taking off the cost of the raw materials ? Then you will find that manufactures will Increase and wages will increase, and that is the legitimate way to increase wages, not by an attempt to put a Chinese wall about the country to shut out the markets of the world. The way to prosperity is to exchange our commodities for the commodities of the world. Unless we buy we cannot sell, and the plan that we propose enables you to make commodities to sell as well as It permits others to come and give you others in exchange. Stand by the old flag! Stand by the party that is for liberty and justice; the party that proposes to lift the burden of taxation and throw open to you the markets of the world! Stand by the men who would give you raw materials with which to work, and, under the grand old party's rule, our land shall continue to be the land of the free and the home of the brave.