Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 February 1888 — Too Big For His Country—A Sample of the Kind of Men Free-Traders Are. [ARTICLE]

Too Big For His Country—A Sample of the Kind of Men Free-Traders Are.

From CongresHincn McKinley’# Speech at Lincoln. Dimuie, Ncw. York, Feb. IJ. ■— LI Again the agitation comes from the scholars, so-calkd, and the poets, from whom we gladly take our poetry, but whose political economy we must decline to receive; from the dilettanti and the diplomat, the men of fixed incomes, who have no investments except in bonds and mortages, who want Oiverythingcheipbut money, everjr thing eftgy to secure but coin, who prefer the customs and civilizations of' other countries to our own, who find nothing so wholesome as that which ’ is imported, whether manners-or merchandise, and want no obstructions in the «hai>e of a tariff placed upon- the free use of both. A college-bred American who had travelled much in Europe,' whose inherited wealth bad ena- i bled him to gratify every wish of his heart, said to me a few years ago, with a sort of listless satisfae-1 tion, “that he had outgrown his , country.” What a confession I Outgrown his country! Outgrown America 1 Think of it ! I felt at the time that it Would have been: truer had l.e said that his country j Lad outgrown him, but he was in ' no condition of mind to have ap- 1 predated so patent a fact. He had ■ bad no connection with the pro-' gressjve spirit of the country. He I had contributed nothing to its! present proud position, or to the { uplifting and welfare of his fel- i lows; lie had no.part in the march ' of the tiepublic. The busy, pushing American lad of humble origin, ; educated at she public schools, had ! swept by him, as effort and energy J always lead and leave the laggard 1 behind. His inheritance was not invested in productive enterprises, nor was his heart located where it sympathized with the aspirations <«f the people with whoin he was born and reared. His country had got so far ahead of him that he was positively lonesome, put of line 1 and in the rear of the grand pro ' eesffion. He was a free-trader, he told ni'- so, c’i'l < in plained bit- : terly of the tariff as a burden upon ; the progressive men < f the coir -. try, and tfiat it severely lmndii,ar, t i ped him.. When I pushed him z ]>a:iiri;l:ii'ize the trammels whic' the urilf imposed upon him,' ; one of our sixty millions of pecpl;l, he raised his band, which han never been n iled by labor, n---touched by Inn to : ' '‘c’ltly en- ■ <•;?.-••••d in a Er< : h 1- 1 sr' “These gloves coine musiy 1 high.sir, by, reason ci the ■ tariff; ihe duty is actually added to I their cash value, which falls heav- i ily upon us consumers.” What answers could I make to sum an indictment.*? How could? I repel such a blow at our great industrial system? Discussion would have been idle. I could only regard him in speechless silence, and gaze uj on him with a feeling mixed wit,, curiosity, pity and contempt.