Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1889 — THE TALL SYCAMORE. [ARTICLE]

THE TALL SYCAMORE.

SENATOR VOORHEES. OF INDIANA, INTERVIEWED. His Views on Protection—A Parable and a Fable Applied—Who Profits by Monopolies The Tariff Plunderers Denounced. “The best successes of my political life,” said Senator D. W. Voorhees to a Chicago Herald reporter who interviewed him at Terre Haute, “have been at times when papers and men defending national evils have said their worst things about me. I am now charged with using harsh terms toward the millionaire monopolists of the country in a speech at Bloomfield the other day. That reminds me of a story. You remember the case of the boy found stealing apples in an old man’s orchard. Well, while the owner used soft -words and tufts of grass to dislodge the plunderer, the boy only laughed and taunted the owner. When, however, the old man exercised a little of his real force and strength, the robber -was driven away. Now, that boy was an infant industry in another man’s orchard. He and his kind would have soon monopolized the whole crop. If there had been a high protective tariff to keep the rightful owner away, what a high old time that young robber could have had! And when the old man put in an appearance this sturdy, dishonest infant industry had no idea of abandoning either perch or plunder. How dreadfully abused and wronged he must have felt when the rightful owner was restored to possession! No doubt he called the old man an anarchist and denounced him as an enemy to the Government; or, failing in all else; he may even have made faces at man. That is what protectionists do nowadays. “The moral is, that tariff plunderers now do not intend to give up their clutch on the fruits of labor. They are appealed to and argued with in vain. They tighten their grip and increase their clutch on every necessary of life, from salt to sugar, from lumber to woolen clothing. If I have been conservative in the past it does not imply inconsistency that now, having exhausted mild measures, I use harsher words and counsel sterner measures to secure justice for the people. The time for gentle means with public plunderers has gone by. The question now is whether the laboring people of the United States shall govern themselves or be governed by the power of money wrenched from them by privileged classes under unjust laws. That is the question from now on, and hard words will be given as well as received.” “Has the character of tariff doctrine undergone a change in recent years?” he -was asked.

“Yes. The ideas of Henry Clay on the tariff are no more in harmony with Republican policy to-day than are the ten commandment with robbing stage coaches. Henry Clay’s tariff was to be temporary, and in no case over 50 per cent. The Republican tariff is permanent, and often exceeds 100 per cent. It does not depend on the needs of revenue, but is for the sole protection of the manufacturer. This bold claim to a right to enrich one class at the expense of another is wrong, and will be met at all times with the aggressive courage oi men who know their cause is just. This later idea of protection legalizes plunderers like Carnegie to grind the faces of the poor, to oppress the helpless, to reduce wages and increase prices of necessaries. They devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers and build music halls for the poor. Of such the Savior of mankind has said: ‘They shall receive greater damnation.’ Carnegie’s income is estimated at $4,120 a day, $71.66 an hour, $2.86 a minute. He gets more money for every breath he draws than thousands of his men receive for a whole long day’s labor. Here is a picture from a locality near Pittsburg, where labor lives that was to have been protected: “The houses'are filled with pallid humanity. black with age, naintless. carpetless, and uncomfortable. In summer they are dreadful places to live in. The bare hills tower on each side, making a sort of urn in which the hot sun turns the dense air foetid. The sewage runs through onen gutters. A walk through the streets tells all. There are no disguises. The bare, brown doorsteps, the tables seen through the open doorway, the frowsy bed standing by the open window, all bear their testimony of a comfortless life in plain view of the passerby. You may know how much or how little the families have to eat. Courtship and marriage, sickness and sorrow, deaths and births all go on in the purview of men, for poverty can afford no secrets. “There is protection for you. Not enough to keep children from being born in full view of the street, nor from dying in the same way. Carnegie’s income from the labor of these men—not from his own—leaves them so poor that a mother can find no hour in all the day in which to suffer the pangs of childbirth in privacy. “Suppose the Savior were on earth again, and would relate the story of Dives. Every Carnegie in the land would say that Christ meant him. If our merciful Lord thought hell a proper place for Dives and those like him, I have no reason to change the localitv. At Bloomfield, Carnegie ordered a reduction of wages, and when a strike was threatened he forced the men,with Pinkerton guards, to submit in silence, and now they bend their heads to heavy tasks, and take such pay as he sees fit to give them.”