Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 October 1888 — DON DICKINSON TALKS. [ARTICLE]

DON DICKINSON TALKS.

RINGING WORDS FOR TARIFF REFORM AND TAX REDACTION. The Postnias'er General Says It's an Issue Between New England Monopoly and the Great West aud He’s with the Datter — Now England Disloyalty. The Washington correspondent of the Chioago Herald recently called on Don M. Dickinson, the Postmaster General, at his privato office, and found him willing to talk on the political issues of the day. The correspondent asked him what he thought the President would do with the Chinese exclusion hill, which had been passed with such hot haste by Congreßs. , "No one,” said Mr. Dickinson, “has any right to speak for the President. He is a mail who makes up his own mind and pursues his auty fearlessly. His only thought is for the honor and diguity of the country. That bill is not an administration measure, and the President will treat it precisely as he does every subject that comes before him. Ever since bis inauguration he nas done all in his power to give real protection to American labor by endeavoring to exclude from the country that cheap labor which competes with it. That is the only way American labor can be protected. Tne President originated tho negotiations of this Chinese treaty by which the question of Chinese immigration was settled. It amply protected the laboring men from further competition with the Chinese, and all the Senate had to do was to ratify it, aud it would have gone at once Into etfeoi. Instead of that, the majority talked on some Insigniflcant amendments, which male it necessary to send the treaty bock to China for ratification of the amendments. Hence this long delay, with the further prospects of serious complications with the Chinese Government.” “What do you think of the action of certain Republican Senators in regard to the retaliation message and bill?” “I think the Republican Senators ore animated by one object only, and that is, as one of them expressed it, to put the President ‘in a holo.' They wish to embarrass the administration, if they can, without respect to the interests of the country. The retaliation law of 1887 was a law that did not retaliate. It would have injured the West far more than it would have injured Canada. Thero would have be n an embargo laid ou all our great lakes aud Western water frontier, and our valuable commercial relations with i anada and the British possessions would have been stopped, to the immense detriment of the West. What would have happened to New England? Nothing. She would have got rich. Her railroads would get an increased carrying trade, and among other roads the Vermont Central, of which Senator Edmunds knows a good deal, would have paid double dividends. Blaine has said that Portland is nothing but a Canadian port, and that railroads leading thence into Canada would have doue an immense business if the President had simply stopped tho traffic of Canadian vessels with this country by ordering a few seizures. But that is all the retaliation law of 1887 contemplated, and if lthad ever been put iu operation it would have immensely benefited New England at the expense of everyother part of tho country, und particularly of the West. “But what do they care? They have always grown rich off the rest of tho country. The West pays tribute aud tax to New England and gets nothing ih return for it. They don't buy a pound of Western produce. They buy neither our flour nor our provisions. Talk about the manufacturing States affording a ‘home market!’ They buy nothing from the West, but only sell their products to us. Tho South buys from us, and takes our flour and provisions. The surplus we sell to England at her prices. "New England controls and has control.od for years the legislation of this country, and has always protected her own selflsh interests at the expense of the remainder of too States. Twelve Senators represent in tho United States Senate a population not as great as the State of New York, and in extent of territory not as great as the State of Illinois. And they talk to us in the great West of the duty of patriotism, and how we must go in for a high protective tariff for the sake of the workingman aud to build up the country. They are glib with their appeals to our generosity and our .patriotism, and yet that political party that controls New England and has twelve Senators in the United S.ates Congress never drew a generous or a patr.oiio breath. This country was never engaged iu a foreign war that the old Federal and Wfiig parties did not oppose, and the present Republican party In inow England is tne lineal descendant of those parties. Tho first secession movement was started iu New England. In ihe war of 1012 every New England State refused to vote men and supplies In aid of tho Government, and when President Madison requested Gov. Strong, of Massachusetts, to Bind forward his quota of troops the Governor positively and insultingly declined. That is the record they have, aud it is notorious that if the war had continued another year they would have welcomed the British fleets to their port 4. They used to bum blue lights along the shore as signals for the British fleet, aud tney wore disloyal through and through. They held the Hanford convention, which was intended as a seep toward secession, and they did everything possible to embjirrass the General Government. They entertained in Boston that man McHenry, who was an emissary of England, and who came to promote dissensions between the States. "The same spirit arose in tho Mexican war, and the Whigs of New England wero opposed to that war and disloyal in all their actions aud measures. The Republicans of New England went Into the war for the Union, not from motives of patriotism, but because they thought they could make money aud injure the South. The State of Missouri sent more troops to the Union armies tuan all of New England, outside of Massachusetts. And yet tiny talk about patiiotism anl try to induce our Western farmers, from whom they never buy a pound of anything, to keep on voting riches into their pockets. They have the money, and have waxed fat and rich off the toil of the,West, and the Western fanners are growing poorer all the time. In 1880 the farming lands and products of the West, the farms, the horses, caiale, sheep, and products were not worth as much by millions of dollars as they were iu 1870, ten years before. Ten years of the highest protection this country has known has mode the Western farmer poorer than he ever was before. And yet he is asked to vote again for this enormous tariff taxation in order that the Eastern manufacturers may receive more tribute and grow still richer. It astonishes me, it dumfounds me, to think our people can be so blind. “The President sent in his retaliation message and asked for power to retaliate to some purpose if it became necessary, to retaliate iu u way that would inflict some injury on Canada with as little injury as possible to the whole people of this country. New England has discovered that if that line were pursued her interests might have to suffer, and now these New England (Senators are not so fierce for retaliation and not so bloodthirsty as they were a short time ago. The President believes in the whole country and in maintaining its dignity and honor, and these Senators only think of their own little narrow neck of land which they represent and of dollars and cents cnly. “The empire of this country belongs to the West, where there is a great, generous, and patriotic people. If our people choose they can throw off this tribute to New England that has been demanded from them so long. But they cannot do it so long as they support all the monstrous features of the present tariff. Low taxation and tariff reform will free the entire Western country, and bring about a time of prosperity such as we have never known before.” The Porftoflice Department, under Democratic administration is making a better showing than it has ever mode before. The deficiency of the deportment yi IBM was #7,001,0.10. This fiscal year it will not he o ver #2,000,000. In connection with this large difference we must bear in mind that 8,000 Kaye been established; also a parcel postal system to foreigu countries. In renewing the equipment of the postal service there has also been an outlay of #5,000,000. The business of the department has largely grown, but t.. ier Democratic supervision it costa lets to transact-it.