Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 39, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 October 1894 — STANDS TRIUMPHANT. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

STANDS TRIUMPHANT.

BRILLIANT RECORD OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. Living Made Cheaper and Taxes Greatly Reduced—Pernicious Legislation ot Republicans Corrected—Great Speech of Senator Voorhees at Terre Haute. Talked lor Two Hoars. Senator Voorhees opened the Indiana Democratic campaign in Armory Hall at Terre Haute. Nearly 1,500 people wore present The Senator's speech was read from manuscript and required nearly two hours in delivery. Senator Voorhees is billed for twentyfive speeches in Indiana during the campaign. The Senator said: j be theory cf this Government b that the people govern thems'elves thrJugfx th-elr representatives, chosen at short intervals, and at free, untranitneled elections. In framing and adopting the Constitution under which we now live, our great forefathers planted It firmly and squarely on the broad doctrine of s->lf-governmont They proclaimed to the ends of the earth their faith in the virtue, the intelligence and the sovereignty, not only of their own patriotic generation, but of all the generations which were to follow In Hila mighty republic. In this doctrine is con-

tained the full and pure essence of American liberty. There is no power above that which has been glveu to you by the Constitution. A stream can never rise higher than its fountain. From the beginning ot tbe present century, when Jefferson was inaugurated President, down to tbe present hour, tbe Democratic party, through good and through evil report, through sunshine and through storm, in peace and in war, in its times of victory, and in its times of defeat, has never failed to thus assert the power ot the people, and Uius Interpret tbe Constitution. The Democratic party has never recognized any control of the people except tlielr own, nor any master except themselves. There is not an official parsonage In all this broad land, from your township trustee to your President at Washington, who cun add to or take away one jot or tittle of your supremacy. You are the only people on the face of the globe to whom are guaranteed the Inalienable rights ot man in a written constitution. You are dependent on the bounty, grace and favor of no man or set of men, however powerful, for your freedom of speech, for your freedom of the press, your freedom ot religious worship, without let or hindrance from secret and treasonable, oath-bound societies, the habeas corpus, your trial by jury, your civil supremacy over all military power, and your right to equal and exact Justice before the law, whatever may be your state or persuasion, religious or political. In thus pointing out tbe plenitude of your power and your unassailable sovereignty in tbe administration of your government, I have on this occasion a distinct object in view. lam one of your public servants, now many years in your employment, and I fully recognize, as I have always done, the duty I owe in rendering an account on all proper occasions of tbe stewardship with which you have intrusted me. I also stand to-day, as I have stood for more than a third of a century, for the l.|nor, the integrity, the justice, the patriotism, and the triumph of tbe Democratic party. If there are those who think this a dark hour tor the great eld party of Jefferson, Madison. Monroe, Jackson, Seymour, Hendricks, McDonald, Thurman, and Cleveland, I do not agree with ihem on that point I have seen dark hours in the political sky in my day and generation; I know what they look like. I have seen tlie clouds of coming disasters gathering in Inky blackness low down over our heads, but It was only when the government Itself, and all guarantees ot liberty and union, were threatened with the same overthrow and destruction which seamed Impending over the Democratic party. As long as the constitution survives, the party whose charge It has always been to maintain that instrument in all its purity and strength will survive also When the republic Itself shall fall, like a bright exhalation from tbe heavens to rise no more, then, and only then, will the Democratic party fall. Its evocation gone, and the world shrouded In gloom and despair. But the present is not the hour for dismal forebodings; It is an hourrather for rational discussion, and for a wellgrounded faith In the prosperity and glory of tbe future, arising from the sure and steady ascendancy of Democratic principles The victorious legions ot the Indiana Democracy, veterans of more glorious campaigns than the legions of Caesar or Napoleon ever knew, are again in line, firm as in the days of old, and ready to move forward on the enemies' works of usurpation, spollat'on and oppression. And now, citizens of Indiana, let us take n survey of the political situation, and by the solemn Hzht of recorded and undisputed facts fix the responsibility of parties, and vindicate the truth. What a vision rises to our view ns we look backward for the causes which have led up to tbe present condition of the country! A solid mass of Republican legislation from 1861 to 1803 confront us. In all that space of American history, embracing tlie average period of a lifetime, every enactment of whateverkindor description, every law, whether by bl'l or joint resolution, is ot unquestioned E-publican origin, pedigree and adoption From the first inauguration of Abraham Lincoln on the 4th of March. 1861. to the last Inauguration of Grover Cleveland, on the 4th of March. 1893. the Democratic party has never, for a single day or hour, had the power to put a law on the statute books of the nation. During that long period the Democratic party never at any one and the same time li ad possession of both houses of Congress and tbe Presidency, and was, therefore. Incapable of perfecting any proposed measure of legislation. If evil influences have been abroad in the land arising from pernicious legislation, the responsibility and the odluni can alone rest where tbe power to legislate has rested. There Is a brutal and senseless accusation in certain quartets at this time against the Democratic party because It lias not in the first eighteen months of its logislar.ive ascendancy, been able to uproot, tear down and demolish the entire system of vicious legislation whereby the Republican party for more than a generation has practically revolutionized this government, made It a plutocracy Instead :>f a government of the plain people, established privilege and caste in all our public affairs; made the rich richer and the poor poorer, aggrandized the power of capital and oppressed every organization of labor and every branch of industry under the American flag. 1 defy the Ingenuity ot man to show where, and In what instance, the leaders ot tbe Republican party ever devised, framed or enacted a financial measure ot any kind Into a law wnlch was not originated and dictated by organized capital and against labor, whether organized or unorganized. The stability of public credit was also menaced by vicious legislation on the subjectof silver, aswellasaiy the plunder of the the treasury and the destruction of revenue by the doctrine of protection. More than twenty years ago the gre*u and un-

forgiven and unforgivable crime of silver demonetisation took place at the hands of the Republican party and. although afurwards partially restored, yet from that time to the present hour silver money, instead of being treated in the money world as it is in the constitution, as the constitutional coequal of gold as a standard currency, has been kept in a maimed and crippled condition. spurned, clubbed and stoned at every opportunity bv those Interested in the contraction of the currency to the narrow basis of gold alone. Hpeaklng at the time In my place in the Senate I made the following statement, and from It I never expect to depart: “As a firm, unfaltering believer in bimetallism. and us an undevlutlng supporter of the coinage and use of both gold and slver as the standard money of the country, without discriminating against either matal, I voted against the passage of the Sherman act, and for the same reason 1 shall vote for its repeal. The outcry in certain quarters at this time that those who vote for the repeal of this measure are the enemies of silver as money and in favor of Its demonetization is false, so far as I am concerned, but In thj light,of what has happened in the past, 15 is absurd "

F< r some months past you have often heard the sneering and somewhat Idiotic Inquiry us to what tho Democratic party has done since it came into power. 1 would say in all kindness to our Republican friends, that we have been engaged far, day and night, and to the point of utter exhaustion, both physical and mental at times, iu undoing and reforming the wrefebed and dangerous work you la/t when the people rose in their majesty and turned you out. The author of the Sherman act himself, and every leading Republican newspaper organ in the United States, denounced it as fraught with business ruin, and clamored to Mr. Cleveland's administration tor Its instant repeal. The pas,age of the McKinley act in 18U) was the culmination of that system by which taxes uro levied on one class of people for the benefit of another class, and it was sq shameless, arrogant and insolent iu alb its features, so revolutionary, ui>„ust and oppressive In its exactions on labor and tue fruits of labor, that it became at once a trumpet call to b ittlo tor Its repeal. and for the final overthrow of the hideous principle of legislative piracy on which It was based. Popular resentment arose like a spontaneous flame against a measure so unrighteous. so subversive of tho inhereut rights of man. Ko enactment In American history has over been more odious to the American people than tho McKinley law of tariff taxation. Nbt oven the fugitive slave law of 1850 was held Jn greater al horrence and detestation throughout the North than this measure of wickedness and extortion throughout the whole country. I do not hesitate to declare that the bill which passed both houses of Cdugress, and became a law on tire 28th day of August, 181)4, whatever Its other merits or defects may bp. will do more in the aggregate toward the inevitable reduction of duties, and cquseque^tlyl will make a longer stride In thu direction of fredom In trade and coipnfofte than any Other irtteasure ever 1 enacted into law by tho American Congress While repealing the McKinley act, we proxldeddhat at least $30,000,000 a year should be collected hereafter from people who httye good not Incomes, rather than from people who Ijave nothing but their wants, and their labor with which to meet them. What Is this, but a transfer of taxation for the support of the government from the laboring poor to tho Idle and comfortable rich? What Is It but a relief from high protection, and a direct and powerful blow to the whole protective system? In regard to the general operations of tho now Democratic tariff law It has muds certain the replenishment of tho treasury and removed all risk of a further Increase in the permanent national debt, Again,, It insures the cheapening, to a substantial extent, of the multitude of necessaries and comforts of life, reducing the cost of living for every household, without weakening the resources of the government. Clothing of every description, cloths, dress goods, blankets and carpets will be cheaper and better everywhere for its passage Imported food, wot ds and lumber, china and glassware, pocketknives and table knives, nearly all the completed goods, the use of which Is so large a part of civilized life, together with the materials of which they are made, share In tho largo reductions of duty. These changes alone will certainly, within a few months, make every man’s dally earnings more valuable to him than now. Hut they will do fur more than this. They will do much to revive depressed Industry and to restore general prosperity.

But now. as my remark) are drawing to a close, perhaps some one hi my audience, some kind friend, Democrat or Republican, no matter which, here to-night, wants to inquire again, and something more in detail, what the flTty-thlrd Democratic Congress has done thus far. Let me unswer In the splendid language of Speaker Crisp: “We have not done nil we hoped to do; we have done more In the past your to redress the wrongs of the people; we have done more for their relief than was ever done by any party In the same length of time In any country under the sun. These are bold words, yet 1 hold myself at all times ready to defend them. Coming into power at a time of panic, when business was at a standstill, when labor was unemployed. when our treasury was empty, with courage and fidelity we entered upon a struggle with the enemies of the people. We emerged from tho struggle victorious in this:

“We have repealed the McKinley law. “We have greatly reduced taxation. “We have made living cheaper. “We have made all money taxable. “We have taxed surplus incomes “We have restored freedom of elections. “We have reduced public expenditures and we have declared undying hostility to all trusts and monopolies organized for the oppression of the people. On these foundations we ‘build our house;’ on these issues we go before the people. For them we have ‘fought the good fight,' to them we have kept the faith and we have no fear."

Turning from national affairs, however, at this point to the affairs of our own great and beloved State, I urn ready to make answer us to what tho Democratic party has also done for the people of Indiana. During the lust ten years Democratic Legislatures in Indiana have enacted the following laws for the benefit and protection of wage workers and employed laborers 1. The law protecting labor organizations. 2. The law giving laborers a Hen upon the product of their labor for wages and material furnished. 3. The Jaw creating a mechanic’s Hen. 4. The law making a day's work in public employment consist of eight hours. 5. The law piovldlng for tho ventilation of mines and the safety of mlnera B. The law prohibiting the blacklisting of employes. r . I. The law protecting workmen'from being cheated and Imposed upon In what are Known us “pluck-me" stores. ,l:> -. 8. The law regulating- the lljkblllty' of employes. ■ r 0. The law against the Importation of alien or foralgn4aborers. 10. The law repealing the so-called conspiracy act of 1881. 11. The law requiring employers to provide seats for female employes in stores and factories. 12. The law protecting labor union labels 13. The law providing for a standard coal screen tor the protection of miners. 14. The law providing for the payment of wages every two weeks 15. The great and just law making it a penal offense to bring into this State armed men, whether Pinkerton detectives or any organized force, for the purpose of shooting down laboring i eople. * Amendments in the future will here and there be made where experience points out their wisdom, and the lines of Democratic legislation will be pushed up at certain points on raw materials, a little closer to an absolute freedom of trade, but It is due to the reviving business Interests of the whole land to say that there Is no reserved purpose in any pariy to recast the tariff schedules again or to rfp uo by general legislation the present law unless,, after a fair, practical test, it should be found necessary to do so. But of the future workings of the law we have so recently made I have neither fear nor doubt. Although boru amid the bitter scenes of party strife and fierce, avaricious contentions, yet it contains the spirit of liberty, equality and justice—liberty for the commerce of nations. equality for American citizens—without protection for any which is not given to all. and justice to American labor, I which upholds everything and pays for all. I

SENATOR VORHEKS.