Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 September 1889 — GOV. GRAY’S SPEECH -AT THETARIFF REFORM MEETING, [ARTICLE]

GOV. GRAY’S SPEECH -AT THE—TARIFF REFORM MEETING,

Scottsburg, Ind, Sept. 21jj1889. Gov. Gray spok * as follows: Fellow Citizens —The assembling of such a large concPurse of citizens here on this occasion, at a time when no political campaign is being waged, at a time when no election is pending, at a time when 1 know the people of Irdiana prefer political quietude, is an evidence that you, my countrymen, do not regard the present as a time, though it be an oil year, that justifies inattention to public questions which deeply concern your welfare. It is no wonder that the peo. le are aroused when it is ap* parent that extravagance is again to mark the administration of nas tional affairs. It is ho wonder that the people are aroused when it is evident that the land grabbers and subsidized corporate s are again in favor with the government. It is no wonder that the people are aroused when they see for the first time in many years a rapid increase of the national debt. It is no wonder that the people are aroused when the president boldly informs them that he is in favor of reviving the old republican policy of subsidizing corporations.

It seems to me that it takes a good deal of assurance to proclaim such a policy in the light of the past history of republican subsidization of railroad corporations with the people’s lands and the nation’s bonds. Let us revive our commerce by reforming the tariff that destroyed it —and then there will exist no necessity to subsidize mail steamship corporations with the people’s money. 1 do not believe that there is a citizen in Indiana to-day, whatev* er his political feoclivities may be, who does not believe and feel, and would say, if he were to give an honest and unprejudiced expression to his thoughts, that the best interests of the country were not conserved by the election of Harrison and the r. turn of the republican party to power. Ask yourselves, my fellow-citizens, in the quiet of your own homes, wh't it was that the democratic administration under Grover Cleveland did during its administration of the government that did not meet your approval and see if you can find an answer that in your honest judgment justifies the re suit of the last election. I feel that I can say without the 'ear of contradiction that the people did not vote to discontinue the democratic administration under Cleveland because it was the first administration to recover back to the people millions upon millions of acres of the public lands that had been given to railroad corporations by republican administrations.

]Sor because it was the first administration since the elos 5 of the war to exercise care and control over the public domain, protecting the rights of the people thereto. Nor because it was the first administration to oppose alien acquirements of our public lands. Nor because it was the first administration since the close of the war to begin the rebuil .ing o* the navy.

Nor because it was the first administration since the close of the war to recogmz that a public office is a public trust And that this is a government of the people and for the people, and should be administered in the interest of the people and the whole people, and not in the interest of special classes, and, therefore, sought to relieve the people of the burden of unnecessary taxation, believing unnecessary taxation to be unjust taxation. No, my eountrymen, the democratic administration under Cleveland was not condemned at the ballot-box on account of any fair and honest objection tlia* could be founa against it. The defeat of

t he democratic partya lid tariff reformwasenco mpassedbydebauch ing the elective franchise and by gross misrepresentations in rela> to the tariff and by promise of good times if tariff reform was defeated and the republican protection policy by the election of Harri on —promises and misrepres »qta iom that have already turned tq. ashes upon the lips of those wWmade them, and will yet, like soi®r grapes, set their teeth on edge aiil cause the people to rise up in 1892 and hurl the republican party from power.—

You were told, m fellow citizens, during the last campaign, by every republican speaker from Harrison d< wn that if you fs>uld elect Harrison and thereby the republican party to power, that the country would -sthen understand that the present war tariff wouh not be disturbed and that as soon as the country was assured that the blessings of our monopolistic prot ctive system of high taxation, which has maie millionaires by the thousand aiM poor men by the millions, wouldnbe continued; that the business of *the country wou’d immediately revive; tint the idle manufactories would again be in motion; that the furnaces would vomit forth their fire nd smoke by day and by night, that their activity wDuld be so great as to make the iron pigs fairly squeal with joy; that the mines would be worked as never before, giving ample employment to the miner at remunerative wages; that all the arteries of trade would puhpte with new life; aud, above ?d#and better than all, would be J&e Harrisonian home market that would be established by his e ection and the undisturbed continuance of the war tariff; a home market that would consume all the products of the American farmer at much higher prices than could be obtained abroad. And so solicitous was Harri. on for the people’s welfare and so fearful that they might by neglect or inattention fail to understand and be informed as to the great benefit that would accrue to their various interests and occupations by the establishment of th<* great home market which wo’a surely spring up on his elevation to the presidency, that he procured the people to be brought before him at university park in the city of Indianapolis, the great Mecca of the[ republican protection monopolist during the campaign. The people were requested to come in delegations, each delegation representing its own particular interest and occupation, that he might fully explain to each the blessings of the monopoly war tariff and the great home market that was soon to come. One day was set apart for the farmer, another for the laboring people, another for the railroad men, another for the commercial travelers aud a special day for the miners. The people came and they were told in eloquent language of the great benefits that would accrue to them and their occupation if they wo’d return the republican party to power and thereby continue the monopoly war tariff.

Election day came; Harrison got the presidency and $50,000 a year, and every monopolist in the country shouted with joy; but what did the people get? As soon as Harrison was inaugurated Carnes gie and other monopolists notified their workmen that their wages would be reduced 20 per cent., and the very miners of Clay county, who came to hear Harrison at University park, were notified of a re iuction on their already starving wsges of only $5,75 per week. The price of the farmer’s product has gone down and he has not been able to find the home m ,rket t at Harrison promised him, The commercial travelers have experi enced the dullest season that they have known in a dozen years. The manufactories are failing all over the country, and a million of laboring people are out of employ* ment, and fully 50,000 families suffering for the necessaries of life. Up to this time the arteries

of trade have not pulsated with new life instilled, into them by the defeat of tariff reform, but at last the people are awakening to a realizing sense of the situation. They are beginning to understand th * true workings of the war tariff and how it affects the industrial masses, and cannot longer be deceived. The tariff monopolists have exliaus ted their vocabulary of deceptive pleas. It wll take something more in *he futu. e than the promise of a Barrisonian home market — something more than high-sound-ing words and glittering general!, ties, portraying the blessings of high taxes —to uphold a system qf taxation that gluts the market with tge products of protected monopolies, creates and pr tects- combines and trusts to such an extent as to enable them io control the markets end fix their own prices for their commodities, mhny instances, they sell at lower prices in foreign markets tlrtvn 1 hey do t.» the people at home.. — And that is preciselyjhe kind of home market that the present tariff has established for the people of this country, a home market for

the sale of the products of protected monopolies at fixed prices, while the price of the farmer’s product is fixed by the market at Liverpool in competition with with the whole world. We ex ported during the last fiscal year $127,191,687 worth of breadetuffs, which included 65,789,261 bushels of wheat. These exports, my f trmer friends, fixed the price of your grain. When wheat goes up in price at Liverpool, it goes up in price i j New York, in Indianapolis and in every city and town in the country. When the pree goes down in Liverpool, itjgoes down in New York, in Indianapolis and in every city and town in the United States. No person is taxed *.O increase the prices of the farmer’s product. The farmer has to take such prices as the markets of the world give him, but the price of everything that the farmer uses, his farming implements, his household goods, and everything he wears, from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet, is enhanced in price by the tariff, but does not enhance the price of A single article that the farmer produces for sale. The injustice of the present war tariff toward the farming interest is made apparent by the gov*, ernment statistics, which show that prior to its enactment over halt

the nation’s vealtfcrwas in the hands of the farmer’s, while to day they do not own one-sixth the wealth oflthe country. And when we consider that man derives his sustenance from the tillage of the soil; that without its cultivation he could not exist; that the prosperity of every business and occupation in the country dep nds uton the prosperity of the farmer, not only justice but the welfare of all classes demands that the burden placed on the agricultural classes by the wir tariff should be removed.— Neither will the scarecrow of free tr tde, set up by the protectionist, any longer deceive the people.— Tariff reform does not mean free trade. It means a just and equitable systemjof taxation, reduced in amount to the requirments and nec< ssities of the government.— Such a svstem of taxation would be protection, for tha reason that it would be just to all classes.

But the present tariff that taxes common pine lumber, that is used in the construction of humble homes, $2 per thousand feet, and does not tax satin-wood, rose-wood and other fine woods imported and used in decorating the homes of the rich; that taxes common window glass 66 pent.; tinware, 45 per cent.; knives and forks,so per cent; common dress goods, 52 per cent.; elothing, 56 per cent; furniture, 35 per cent; carpets, 47 per cent.; flannel, 69 per cent.; knit goodc, 61 per cent.; sugar, 79 per cent.; rice, 12 per cent., and the wagon and farming implement of the farmer, and does not tax the income on the securities of corporations, nor the income of the rich; that taxes those

who are the least able to pay taxes and does not tax those who are the most able to pay; that taxes the poverty of the country and not its wealth, thereby protecting capital and oppressing labor, is not entitled to the name of protection and can not long exist before the scrutiny of a just and enlightened public ODinion. A quarter of a century has elapse ed since the close of the war and yet it is insisted that the present war tariff, which was enacted during the war under the pretense of raising revenue to help defray the greatest war expenditure which the world ev?r witnessed, shall be continued indefinitely. No person in or out of eongress pretended at the time of its enactment that it was for any other purpose than to raise revenue, and all agreed that it was intended only as a temporary measure, which is so expressed in the title of the acts, and had not the war come upon us, no political party or politician wo’d have dat ed to propose such an increase of the tariff.—

Thore was great hurry after the close ©f the war to relieve the corporations and incomes of the rich of all war taxes and it was done. Now, my countrymen, do you not think it is about time that the farmers and laboring people were being relieved at least of a portion of the sajn.e war tax? You will remember, my countrymen, that during the last campaign, when the tariff reformers advocated a reduction of the average tax from 47 to 42 per cent., (a reduction of only 5 per cent.,) what a torrent of opposition was aroused by the protectionists all over the country, and they poured their money out like water to carry the election and defeat the reduction. The protectionist and monopolist tell you, my farmer friends, that this war tax is a good thing for you and a good thing for the business of the country. Then whv not put the tax back again on the corporations and incomes of the rich? Thay tell you that high taxes arc a good thing for you but not for c rporations and the wealth of country. The truth of history is that the capita ists took advantage of the excitement of the war times and the exigencies of the war to procure the enactment of a tariff that would enrich them at the expense of the people. Its enactment was not dictated by patriotic impulses, but by avaric\ Had the motive for its enactment been solely to raise revenue to support the government during the war, a much lower tariff would have been adopted. The present tariff was enacted to prevent competition and not to rais -! revenue, as the rate of duty fixed by the tariff that exis ed prior to the war would have produced more revenue during the war and the revenue would have gone into the treasury. The difference between a democratic tariff for revenue and a republican monopoly tariff for protection is, that under a democratic tariff for revenue the tax is levied and collected at the custom-house and paid into the treasury, while under the present republican monopoly tariff the principal part of the tax is levied and collectod at the ships and storehouses of the monopolists

and goes into their pockets. A democratic tariff for revenue is a tariff to support the government. A republican protective tariff is a tariff to support and build up private interests. Every citizen sho’d be willing to be taxed to purport the government. No citizen slio’d be willing to be taxed to support private interests to budd ud private for+unes. The peple have been taxed ever since the war to project and support private ests, and the result of such a system has bee . to rapidly aggregate the wealth of the country in the hands of the few. PrUr to the enactment of the present war tarifl there were r.ot twenty men m the United States who could be called millionaires, and onlv one man worth over two millions, and lie had accumulated his fortune without the aid of protective legislation. Now it is alleged by learned economists, who have taken great pains to collect statistics! in relation to the wealth of the country, that there are over twenty-five thousand individuals in the country worth over a million of dollars each, and some of them worth as ftiuch as tw,o hundred millions, and that these 25,000 individuals

I own ozer half of the private wealth of the nation. Estimating ous present population at only 60,000,000, one-twenty-.four -hundredth of -he population own halt of the private v. ealth of the whole country.

Now let us contrast the present distribution of wealth with* that which existed up tc the time of the enactment of the present war tariff. Our present form of government may be said to have commenced when the constitution went into force, or when the first president was inaugurated, A pril 30, 1789, and from that d'-te to the enactment of the present var tariff was seventy-five years—three quarters of a century, During all that time there were not twenty individuals in the co-ntry worth over a million of dollars each, the wealth of the country being diffused among the people. During the past twenty-five years— one fourth of a century—under the pr sent tariff, therejhave been created millionaires by the thousands, the wealth of the country has been concentrated in the hands of th» few, monopolies, combines and trusts have been built up, which comtrol the markets and dictates the wages of labor.

This rapid accumulation of great wealth by the few, through special privileges granted bythe goyernment, has created an inordinate desire for riches. It is rapidly taking possession of the public mind and threatens to become the ruling passion of the nation. All history shows that when avarice becomes the ruling passion of a n d;ion, its davs of usefulness to mankind are numbered. Daniel Webster said in one of his great speeches that “liberty can not long endure in any country when the tendency of legislation is to concentrate wealth in the, hands of a few.”

The question of tariff reform should receive the immediate and continuned attention of the people. Neither party ties nor religious creed should prevent the people from giving it that serious consideration that its importance demands. The present tariff should not be allowed to exist until the reaction against it may bee ome so "iolent as to demand legislation tbat will embarrass capital. Capital should not be wrongfully assailed nor unjustly legislated against, but capital can take eare of itself without special legislation in its favor. It is the masses of the people—the poor—who need the fostering care of the government.

Abraham Lincoln said in one of his messages to congress: “ There is one point to which I ask attention. It is the effort to placn capital on an equal footing with if not above labor in the structure of the government. I bid the laboring people beware of surrendering a power which they already possess and which, when surrendered, will surely be used to close the door of advancement to such as they and flx new disabilities and burdens upon th.m ti'l all ofjtheir libtrtv shall be lo t 1 ’ Againhesavs: “Labarisprier to and independent of capital Capi> is Only the fruit of labor and naver could have existed if labor had not flrst existed Labor is much the superior and deserves much the htrher consideration”

The republican * arty of to-day is as radically wrong, and its position as indefensible on the question of taxation aa was that •! the proslavery ad vocato during th<? days of slavery The pr j-slaveav advocate contended that slavery was the normal condition or and that it was right for capitalists to own slaves snd to appropriate the fruits of the slaves’ toil to his own use

The republican of to-day contends that it is tight te tax the laboring aud producing classes for the benefit of capital In o her words, that it is rigat to tax one m n tor the benefit of another mat: lhe priacipl in each case is the same; bo s h are founded In injustice ind oppression, and the people will ere lomr burs by their ballots the presen' svstem of unjust and oppressive taxation as deep as they bunted the oppression of human slavery

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