Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 November 1892 — CLEVELAND'S RECORD [ARTICLE]

CLEVELAND'S RECORD

He Has Written Himself the Relentless Enemy of all l Labor Reforms, —— A FULL AND CORRECT UST OF BIS LABOR VETOES. ♦ They lactate the Antl-Cftnyiet Labor Bill, the Mechanics’ Lien Law, the Life and Limb Bill, the Tenement House Cigar Bill, the Fire Cent Fare Bill, and the Child's Labor Bill. Cleveland, the Convict Labor Candidate. In the Democratic platform, adopted at Chicago, occurs the following: “We denounce the McKinley tariff law, enacted by the 51«ib congress . . . and we promismterepsal os one of the beneficent ryuftetjaStVill follow the action of thi people entrusting power to Jne Democratic party.’ 1 The McKinley Bill Prevents the Product of Convict Labor From Sintering This Country. The 51st section of the present Republican Tariff, known as the McKiMey law, provides as follows: “Sec. 51. That all goods, wares, articles of merchandise, manufactured wholly or in part in any foreign country by convict labor shall not be entitled to entry at any of the ports of the United States, and the importation thereof is hereby prohibited and the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to prescribe such regulations os may be necessary for the enforcement of this provision. Under the direction o? this statute no article is admitted into this country without a sworn statement from the shipper and the importer that it is not the product of convict labor. This is a part of the law which the Democratic platform declares will be repealed j,n case power is entrusted to the Democratic party.

Cleveland, the Convict Labor Candidate, If it is argueoxthat the Democratic attack upontbe McKinley law is not aimed at this particular section, the answer is that l Mr. Cleveland, as President of the Uunitcd States, has already committed himself to the policy of employing convicts in Government works, and of deriving Government revenue from their labor in direct competition with free labor. Not only would Mr. Cleveland admit the product of foreign convict labor, but le would employ all the convict 3 in Federal prisons in industrial pursuits and would have the Government make money out of their work. | In his annual message, dated Dec. 6th, 1886, Mr. Cleveland, referring to the construction of penitentiaries for the confinement of all prisoners convicted and sentenced in the United States courts, says. | “Upon consideration of this subject it might be wise to erect more than one of these institutions located at such places as would best subserve the purposes of business and economy in transportation. The considerable cost of maintaining these convicts, as at present in State institutions, would be saved by the adoption of the plan proposed, and by employing them in the manufacture of such articles as were needed for use by the Government-, quite a large peouniary benefit would be realized in partial return for our outlay.

Clevelane’a Persistent Hostility to Labor Reforms. Not only by this ugly recommendation but by actually twice preventing the full enactment of anti-con-vict labor laws has Mr. Cleveland demonstrated his desire to utilize firison labor in competition with the abor of freemen. In 1886, and again in 1888, he killed by “pocket vetos,” acts of Congress, forbidding the use, bv the Government, of the product of convict labor. This law became operative only when Cleveland was defeated, and General Harrison became President. Then it was promptly signed. The following is an itemized record of Cleveland’s acts in opposition to labor reforms. While Governor of New York: He vetoed the bill establishing a department of labor and making the secretary of said department a Cabinet officer. He vetoed the mechanics lien law bill, making the wages of workingmen engaged in the construction of buildings a first mortgage on property. Ho vetoed the life and limb bill, making employers responsible for accidents happening from imperfect machinery or inferior construction of buildings. He vetoed the tenement house cigar bill, forbidding the manufacture of cigars in tenement houses. He vetoed the bill compelling the elevated roads of New York City to charge only 5 cent fare. w He vetoed the printers’ bill, re-’ 3 airing all the State printing to be one by union workingmen. He vetoed the bill making ten hours a legal day's work for all street car employees. He vetoed the bill abolishing convict labor in prisons, although this proposition when submitted to the popular people was carried by a majority of 60,000. He vetoed the child-labor bill providing for the inspection of factories where children were employed, ami He signed a bilf compelling the

bill benefited only the foreign stem, •bip monopolies. While president of the halted States: He killed by a “pocket veto” the Arbitration bill, compelling the reference to impartial arbiters of labor controversies in certain contingencies. He killed/ by a “pocket veto” the Anti-Convict Labor bill of 1886, and also that of 1888, forbidding the use by Government officials of any merchandise the product of convict labor. 4= • And, in his Message of December 6, 1886, be recommended the employment of all Federal convicts in manufacturing pursuit* in Federal prisons and the use by the government of the product of their labor. Will Honest Workmen Vote to Bring Their JL*bor Into Competition With That of Convicts? Grover Cleveland has thus written himself, the Convict Labor Candidate There ia no mistaking his intention or tjiat of his party. The Democrats will repeal the McKinley bin if it is intrusted with The product of foreign convicrteßor will thengome into our ports freely, and prisons will be built by the Federal government while convicts willy be employed in the manufacturing industries, thegovernment realizing the profits of their labor. Do the workingmen of the United States desire to have this program carried out? If they do, they will vote for Cleveland and Stevenson, the convict labor candidate on a convict labor platform. If they do nol they will vote for Harrison and Reid, and they will sustain the Republican law which forbids the entry of the products of convict labor to competition with the . production of American citizens.