Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 October 1884 — WORKINGMEN, READ. [ARTICLE]

WORKINGMEN, READ.

An Eloquent Plea for Protection to American Labor. Text of Mr. Blaine’s Address at South Bend, Ind. Men of Indiana: The struggle in all human society fs first for bread. There is no use of propoundingfine theories to a man who is hungry, 'lhere is no use in commending a political principle to one who is in need of shelter ; there is no use in talking philosophy to one who is naked. Food and clothing are the primary requirements of human society, the primary elements of human progress, and to secure this you must put the people in the way of earning good wages. [Shouts of “That’s right'’ and cheers.! 1 never saw any man moved to enthusiasm by silently contemplating the prosperity of another [laughter! while he liimself was in need. To move him you want to make him feel his own jkosperity. [Cheers.] The beginning, therefore, and the. end of wise legislation is to give every man a fair and equal chance, and to leave the race of life open and iree for all. [Cheering. What agency will best accomplish that? What legislation will most tend to that end? Certainly it will not tend to that end to throw open our ports and say. Send ye all here your fabrics, made by the cheapest and mest depressed labor of Europe to compete with our own people who are just opening their shops and building their factories, for if you do that you can not spin a wheel or turn a lathe in these factories at home, unless you can get your labor at the European prices. [Cries, "That’s so.”J We begin right there. From these considerations we deduce the conclusion thait the protective tiriff is primarily for the benefit of the laboring man, because if you take in your hand any manufactured article, or cast your eye upon anything which can not be taken in the hand, you find that the chief constituent element in its cost is labor. In manycases the material is but 1 per cent, and the labor is 99 per cent, in the cost of the article. Therefore all legisla ibn of a protective character is and must be mainly tor the lien -fit of labor, because labor is the principal element in the cost of the fabric; hence, if there be any man who is pre-eminently and above allothers interested in the tariff it is the laboring man. i Cheers.] If you compare the tw'o great political parties in relation to this question you find teat the Republican party lives, moves, breathes, and has its being In protection. [Great cheering.] A protective tariff was one of the first fruits of the election of Mr. Lincoln. We have had it for twenty years on the statute books, with various amendments, which have been added from time to time, to make it more protective, and the result is that ail history, ancient, modern, and mediaeval, may be challenged tor a national like unto that which we have made

• .since 1861. (Renewed cheers.! 11 am merely rej citing the facts and figures of your assessor’s books and of the United States census tables when I say that in the last tw nty-three years of the history of this country we have added more wealth, double over, than we had acquired from the discovery of the continent by Columbus down to the election of Abraham Lincoln. (Prolonged cheering. I There must haVe lieen Some peculiar and potent agent at work to produce this great result. That agent was the protective tariff, otcratiiig to lit rve the arm of labor and reward it fairly' and liberally. (Cheers.! Whether that policy shall be continued or whether it shall tie abandoned is the controlling issue tn this campaign. All other questions ,are laid aside for the time. There are many which are worthy ot consideration, but two weeks troin Tuesday ne.tt we shall have an election in every State tn the Union to determine with reference to this question, the character of the next Congress, and the future policy of the Government. You have before you the Republican party, pledged to sustain the protective tariff, and illustrating that pledge by a consistent example extending through twenty-three years. Yon have, on the other hand, the Democratic ’party which in fifty-one years, since 1833, has never in a single instance voted for pw>tection, and never controlled a Congress that it did not oppose protection. (“That’s so."] I say, therefore, to the laboring men and to the mechanics, some of whom may do me the honor to listen to me. your unions, your leagues, all those associations which you have formed for your own advantage and your own advancement, are well and proper in their way; it is your right to have them, and to administer them as you choose, but they are not as strong as a rope of sand against the ill-paid labor of Europe, if you take away, the protective tariff, which is now your background and support (cheers]; so do not be deluded by the idea that yon can dispense with the protective tariff and substitute for it your labor unions. [Renewed cheering.] Ido not distract your attention wdth anv other question. I do not stop to dwt 11 upon the great issues that have been made and settled by the Republicans within the last twenty-three years. That party has. made a deeper and more glorious imprint in history than any other political organization that ever was charged with a great responsibility, and it is the pride of every man who has belonged to it, and has shared Its labors, its responsibilities, its triumphs, its honors. [Great cheers.]