Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 41, Number 76, 8 February 1916 — Page 8

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THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM AND SUN-TELEGRAM. TUESDAY, FEB. 8, 1916 (ft u U

LOHiT

FOR

M The following address was delivered by John M. Lontz I wish at this first public opportunity to express my thank for the generous support of friends in behalf of my candidacy for the Democratic nomination for Congress in this District It is honorable to crave the confidence of friends. The ambition to bold public station is justifiable and should be encouraged. For some must serve the State. While I have always taken a deep Interest in questions of public welfare, my activities have been confined to commercial pursuits. I am a business man, not a politician. And I think It only fair to state, a fact which many of you know, that I entered this contest only after you had made it appear to me a matter of public duty. Our honored guest of the evening, In a similar way, but at the Instance of a far greater demand, and in connection with a much more exalted station, has been called upon to make a still greater sacrifice. For many years it has been my good fortune to know John Adair. With a full appreciation of his sterling qualities of manhood, of his brilliant career in Congress, his fine mentality and his devotion to the cause of good government, I long ago in common with thousands of other citizens, regarded him as a man fit and safe and worthy to serve aa the chief executive of Indiana. On several occasions I urged him to become a candidate. At last, at the request of one of my good Cambridge City friends, I wrote Mr. Adair the strongest appeal I knew how to make. I told him that for the Inestimable privilege we enjoy under this government we should be ready at all times to lay on the altar of duty whatever sacrifice our countrymen might ask. Use His Arguments. And one day when a deputation of my friends called to urge me to become a candidate for Congress, one of my business associates, knowing about by letter to Mr. Adair, went and got the copy out of the files: and they spread it down on the table before us; and where I had written Mr. Adair's name and address they inserted my name and address; and where I said "Dear Mr. Adair" they changed it to read "Dear Mr. Lontz; and where I wrote "Governor" they wrote "Member of Congress.". And thus they made my letter to Mr. Adair their letter to me and put me in the awkward position of resisting my own appeal. Twenty-six years ago, when Wayne County was Republican three thousand strong you . elected me County Auditor. Retiring from that office, I was invited to membership in the company whose concerns are today my chief occupation. It so happened that all of my business associates at that time were opposed to my political faith and I am inclined to think they regarded my Democracy as a liability rather than an asset. Long ago I succeeded to the full ownership of the business and I am happy to say that from the first day of my relationship with those men who started me in business down to the present day there has existed between us the most cordial relations. Signs of Greatness. Edmund Burke in a defense of the American colonies before the British parliament, said that magnanimity in politics is the surest sign of a nation's greatness. And is it not also the surest sign of Individual greatness? I heard Mr. Adair say in a speech at New Castle several weeks ago that he found people were nearly always in accord, that we all are wanting about the same laws and the same policies, and that the great differences seem to exist only in the minds of politicians. I recall years ago having asked my friend, Jesse Stevens of . Centervllle, how he came to veer from the Repub lican faith of his fathers. He said for many years he was a strong Republi can; that he used to finish up his day's work and go home and get his supper and then he would sit about the fireside and talk of spiritual things and the world to come, and before retiring he would read a few chapters out of the Bible and .wonder how a Democrat could ever enter the king dom of Heaven. But he said you Democrats kept talking so much about the tariff that I sent down to Washington for a copy of the tariff laws as one of the five best pamphlets congressmen distribute to voters just before the primaries, and when I found in those tariff laws where the Republicans had imposed a thirty-five per cent duty on Bibles and put playing cards on the free list I thought it was time for me to be independent. Tariff Is an Issue. The tariff has been an issue in national affairs for forty years, and often a very disturbing one to the business of the country. The extreme protectionist believes in tariff duties so high that foreign made goods cannot be imported. The believer In a tariff for revenue is satisfied with whatever protection such a policy, incidentally affords. In my opinion neither view Is tenable. What is the object of a tariff? To increase prices. Whether levied for protection or revenue it cannot have any other effect It is not intended to have any other effect Let me give you examples in my own experience. In the manufacture of lawn mowers three or four pounds of steel shafting is used In each machine. Nearly all manufacturers of iron and steel products use It . The . two lawn mower factories here probably use, between them, twenty carloads of shafting annually. Several years ago a customary price on this article was a dollar,

.TMES.S1TAHD.

TARIFF

MliM and thirty-five cents a hundred pounds. - Suddenly all of the makers of steel shafting began asking just double that price, or 12,70 per hundred. Go wherever you would, the price was the same, always the same. As one of the users of this article; I protested and resisted to the last As all makers asked the same price, could there be anything clearer than that they had formed an association to fix prices? On one occasion a representative of one of these concerns came into my office and practically admitted that fact And I said to him, before I pay that price I will buy my shafting in England. He said, let us make some figures. And then he put down on a piece of paper the price of shafting in England. Next he added the ocean carriage to New York. Then the freight to Richmond Indiana. Finally Adda Tariff. Finally he added the tariff on shafting and the total was just about ten cents a hundred above the association price. And so I surrendered. And my worthy competitors and very good friends, the Dille & McGulre Manufacturing company, also surrendered. What else could we do? Between us we paid almost ten thousand dollars m6re for our steel shafting that year than the year before; paid a price unaffected by the law of suppy and demand, and fixed, no doubt at a conference of the makers In a hotel room in New York, and paid it as our part of the tribute to the doctrine of protection whose advocates are now asking a return to power. My friends, can you justify laws that permit such a thing? Can you wonder that men condemn a law which permits one man to take something which he has not earned from the pockets of another man? But they tell us that a protective tariff fosters enterprise and competition brings aown prices. But associations as described nullify competition. And then they say, "Why there is a law against controlling prices by combinations tlons." So Is there a law against obtaining money under false pretenses, and a klaw against thieving, yet those laws, an laws, are daily violated. In my opinion the so-called protection laws are a menace to the small manufacturer and I do not see why they can not realize it. I do not say the shafting association existed for long. For associations form, break up in quarrels and re-form. But it did exist and it was born under the protective tariff laws, as hundreds of others were, and by virtue of those laws wrung from the pockets of other manufacturers millions which it did not earn. A few years ago the lawn mower manufacturers were invited to a meeting in New York and a gentleman appeared before us suggesting a way to increase our prices. He proposed an increase averaging 25 cents a mower, and he said as you two Richmond manufacturers make between you over 200,000 mowers annually this increase will give you $50,000 to divide each year. It didn't look so bad. Mr. Charles McGulre sat next to me and reminded this gentleman that the Canadians made pretty good mowers, and If we went to Increasing prices they might come in. And right here I want to pay this tribute to Mr. Elwood McGulre. He started in this business long before I did and instead of regarding me as an interloper he has been my friend, and Richmond has him to thank for making this city the largest producer of lawn mowers in the world. Answers McGuire's Question. Well, in answer-to Mr.' McGuire's question this gentleman said he had already looked into the tariff. That it was so high we could safely increase the price still more if we had any use for the money. And then I called the gentleman to one side. And I said, I have always understood that the the tariff laws were for the protection of the American laborers, and if we go into this arrangement don't you think in all honor we ought to divide the rake-off with our factory men? And he looked in my face a moment and, said, "Well, you can do it if you want to pose as the world's biggest fool and greatest curiosity." A few weeks ago I heard a man making a regular speech in a hotel lobby in defense of the protective system. And I couldn't help but call bis attention to these things. I asked him how he could defend them. He studied a while and then said: "Well, the men who get big profits like that will buy a lot of fine things, mansions and furnishings and equipages and diamonds, and labor will get the employment" Ah, my friends, an economic system on such a basis can not long endure, and precious gems so obtained can be nothing less than the crystalized tears of a nation's misery. Why, in the lawn mower industry, by proper salesmanship and the genius of the American workman, we can and do sell lawn mowers to every civilized country on the globe, sell them by thousands, and have done so for years. We pay the freight on them to New York and San Francisco, the ocean carriage to London and Hamburg, to South Africa and Australia, to far off China and Japan, and sell them at the very door of the foreign manufacturers with all their so-called pauper labor. But you ask, can other industries do likewise? Well, without question many of them can and do, and still ask for a protective tariff not needed for any other purpose than to establish unfair prices. But you ask again, would you destroy an Industry that could not sur

.BOARD

SIPEECi vive without the aid of a protective tariff? Certainly not. Our policy should be to fulfill, not to destroy. To establish, not to ruin. To help, not to hinder. Favors Tariff Board. I favor the establishment of a tariff commission, absolutely non-partisan in character, with ample facilities and full power to inquire into the minutest details of every industry of the earth, to recommend the establishment of new enterprises economically consistent with our natural facilities, to protect them and to protect those already established. To fix a tariff which will protect the business of every man from foreign encroachment, allow him a fair profit on his investment and permit a living wage to his employes, and then I would see that his workmen got that wage. Besides, at the close of the European war new conditions will obtain and America should be prepared to face them intelligently and with due regard to the welfare of all our people. Every user of colors is now suffering serious losses because importations have ceased, on account of the war. A proper trade commission would long ago have established and fostered the dye industry in this country so we would not be dependent as now on foreign supply. There is another phase of this question. Is it consistent to ask protection from products of foreign labor and yet admit without restraint all classes of foreign labor to our shores? This country is indebted to the sturdy sons of European countries who have sought and found life's best opportunities here, and who have helped us to build our free institutions. Still Offer Chances. But that we may still be able to offer opportunity to the deserving of other "lands, we must protect our natural born Americans and those of foreign birth who have helped to cre ate our national greatness from the spoiling hand of the vicious who seek our shores. The father or mother or dependent sister of a worthy foreign citizen should be admitted. An educational qualification would, perhaps, have been inadvisable and unfair twenty-five years ago. But now with education so general, the foreigner who, at 16 cannot pass a simple test of reading and writing in his own tongue is not worthy to share in the destines of our country. I now wish to consider briefly the banking and currency law enacted under the Wilson administration. A laboring man said to me a few days ago, "I only have what I earn each day with my hands. What have I to do with the banking, and currency law? My answer is that you have a very great deal. I want you laboring men and laboring women to listen a moment. A nation's currency is its life blood. When it ceases to flow there is commercial death. Do you remember those dark days in the panic of 1907? Who suffered then as laboring people, suffered? And those troubles were wholly due to bad financial laws. Let me again cite the example of my own business. Lawn mowers are seasonable articles. We make five hundred or six hundred a day but get no returns on them until the- spring and summer months. We require twelve hun'dred or fifteen hundred dollars every day to pay for labor and material. But when the panic occurred in October, 1907, just when we needed ' money most, .the banking world was shaken to its foundation. Funds Were Withdrawn. Depositors withdrew their funds and hid them away; banks were compelled to conserve their resources to meet such demands for fear their doors would be closed. In many cities banks refused to honor checks against actual cash - on -deposit.- It you had money in bank you couldn't get it. I had a traveling man in Indianapolis with a New York draft in his pocket for a hundred dollars, which he couldn't get cashed, and I had to mail him a ten dollar bill in an envelope so he could get home. Naturally, under those conditions I couldn't expect to get from the banks my usual requirements. But they did better, far better, than I had any right to expect. And 1 want to pay this tribute to the Richmond bankers, one and all. That they met that darkest hour in American finance with "courage and ability, and with fidelity to the interests of this community, and gained for you an enviable name that is nation wide. Industry was paralyzed. In my own factory I discharged all of the single men. I tried to keep at work all men with families, but only on half time. I shall pever forget an Incident that occurred in my factory at that time. One of the men came to me and asked if the company was going to fail. I said "No." He said, "Haven't you got any orders on your books?" and I said "Yes; plenty of them." He said, "Well then, why don't you run your works and keep us men and our families from suffering?" I said, "I can not run my factory without money to pay my bills, and the banks don't dare to let us have much money in times like these. "They are doing even more than we could ask." "He said: "Is there a mortgage on your factory?" I said, "No." He said, "Do you own all this machinery and this material?" I said, "Yes". He said "Then why doesn't the government see that you get the money to run on so you can give us work?". I said, "The men who are running things in Washington now never give you anything, they are always taking things away from you." j Who were the men In Washington during that panic? Theodore Roose

velt was president of the United

States, Charles W. Fairbanks was vice president, James E. Watson was a member of the Ways and Means com' mittee and whip of the house, Boies Penrose was in the senate, and William Barnes of New York was the party boss. And everyone of them is trying to get back into power. My Republican friends and my Progressive friends, for thirty years we had been begging for laws which would make panics Impossible. We Implored these men to give us relief. But though claiming to embody the wisdom of the ages, they failed us. Our bankers gave us the name of "The Panic Proof City," but that pure statesman, whose heart beats for all mankind, has given us a panic proof nation. Under his influence currency laws that were the jest of the world have been replaced by those which are the admiration of the world. We now have a currency based on our assets, not our liabilities based on what we own and not on what we owe. When a business man now goes to a bank it does not matter If all the depositors of the bank are lined up to withdraw their money. If his credit is good the bank can take his note and endorse it to the Reserve bank of which it is a member and the government will Is sue currency in return for it. My laboring friends there will never be any more factory 'shut-downs on account of panics if the concerns you work for are entitled to credit. . Once a New York banker asked me how things were looking in the west. I said "Fine; the crop outlook is splendid." "Well," he said, "I am 6orry." I said, "Sorry crops are good, I can not understand you." He said, "I don't know where we are going to get all the money to move those crops." Think of it, Prays for Bad Crops. Praying for a grass hopper raid so crops would be reduced to a point where the supply of currency would be adequate to move them. Well, you need have no fears now. Under present laws, for which every man, woman and child owe lasting gratitude to the Wilson administration, the currency automatically meets the country's need. As a result interest rates are the lowest in the nation's history. As a business man, I bring you a message of good cheer from the world of commerce. There is not a railroad in the country but is doing a record business. The steel and iron, mills of the country are running to full capacity. December production of pig iron is the greatest in history. The bank clearings for the first week in January were nearly six billions of dollars the greatest of all time. But some people, seem to fear prosperity Just now and ask if all this wonderful volume of business is not due wholly to traffic in war supplies. Why, the Union Pacific is- a purely Western road, doing nothing in war supplies, and December was the biggest month it ever had. The Santa Fe for December bad a gain of a million and a quarter, and the Southern Pacific a million and a half. The Beebe Glove Co., of which I am president, is doing twice the business it did last year, is making six thousand pairs of workman's gloves a day, and i3 far behind with orders. Workmens' gloves are sold only when workmen have jobs. And I will add that the Beebe Glove Co., has never sold a glove to any foreign country and does not intend to do so. A business man said to me today, "It is fine; but do you think it will last? Why, such a man is only half alive. You can not win fortune by doubting her. Think it Will Last? When you were courting your wife did you say, "O Lizzie, this love ot ours is truly divine, but do you think it will last?" You never would have got her if you had. Nor can you succeed unless you believe in fortune with all your soul. Success resists the unhallowed touch of the pessimist. I would bear this message to you young men tonight. Believe in yourselves and in your country. Woo the coy maiden of fortune with all the ardor of youth, and look with hope and confidence to the future. There is a thought uppermost In the minds of all, that of an adequate national defense. A question is being asked,, do you favor a navy to contest for world power on the seas? No, but I favor a navy and an army that will prevent such a contest taking place on American soil. Nobody is contending for Increased preparation for the purpose of waging war against any other nation, but to prevent any other nation waging war against us. My friends, be not deceived. This is not the world's last war. The nations engaged in that mighty conflict across the seas will emerge; from it armed to the teeth and jealouB of our peace and greatness. So long as men thirst for power, so long as the human heart lusts for gold, so long will the strong prey upon the weak. Who knows but our own beloved America may be the next sacrifice to the God of War? The blow in time will be struck. That is sure. Ah, who knows whether on our Eastern or our Western shores? Hudson Maxim, in "Harper's" of January 8th, states that the loss of life and property are not war's greatest horror. Favors Strong Defense. He shows that in every great war the vanquished have been bound in chains while wives and sisters and sweethearts are forced to yield up their all of earthly honor. My friends, I am for an army and a navy so strong that the legions of no king or czar or emperor can ever come within a thousand miles of our shoes. But who will pay for this increased army and navy? Why, I am in favor of letting those pay who have to pay with. And I will oppose to the uttermost any attempt to strap the burden on backs of . the - common people without regard to their ability to pay. Let us pay in proportion to our possessions. We produced in this country last year products of farm and mine worth nearly fifteen billions, a -sum' too vast for any mind to grasp. So we need not despair - of paying our bills. I favor , the budget system. Congressional appropriations in manner and amount are often disgraceful and in Continued On Page Nine.

AIR Ml IV The following address was delivered by J. A. M. Adair: "We are . about to enter into the most important campaign in the history of our nation; a campaign that means more to the American people than any political contest duriag the past 30 years. We are to determine next November whether the people are to continue to rule or whether we will go back to the day of special privilege and be led and controlled by the favored few who look upon government as a means of acquiring great wealth through the enactment of legislation which enables them to practice extortion upon the American people. These interests will make a desperate fight to regain their lost power. They will place at the command of our opposition powerful newspapers and funds without limit, to carry on their campaign for a retention of the special privileges they once enjoyed at the hands of the Republican party. They will cover up their real motive by making a pretended plea for patriotism and the rights of the people. My friends, be not deceived. It has cost us much effort and many sacrifices to restore this government to the people. Let us see that the ground we have gained is not lost Party Has Made Good. "The Democratic party has been tried under the most unfavorable circumstances and has made good in both state and nation. Our state administration .under Governor Ralston is a credit to our party. It has been a debt-paying and not a debt-making administration. The indebtedness of our state piled upon us by the Republican party has been paid off and the first time for 83 years our state Is out of dept. Thanks to a Democratic administration. Our state officials are all able, efficient, courteous and accommodating. They are handling the affairs of state in a way that reflects credit upon them, credit upon our party and credit upon our state. It will be a genuine pleasure to go over Indiana in the coming campaign indorsing the work of the Ralston administration. Tho splendid reforms promised by Governor . Ralston have been carried out to the letter and nobody, will dare criticise the work of the present state administration. The facts are, practically every great reform given to the people of ur state came from a Democratic legislature. Our party in the future will continue to pass such progressive legislation as will be demanded by the people. The entire citizenship of Indiana have confidence in the Democratic party, and that confidence will ripen and grow as our party continues to give to the people good and wholesome legislation. Proud of Wilson. "We are not only proud of our state administration, but we are likewise proud of the work of the national administration, Woodrow Wilson will go down in history as one of the greatest of Presidents. During his ad ministration more constructive legislation has been passed than had been enacted into law during the past 20 years. When the Democratic party came Into power it faced - great responsibilities and these responsibilities were met promptly and successfully. For many years the Democratic party was misunderstood. Our Republican friends had led the country to believe that Democratic success meant the destruction of business, all of which was absolutely untrue. "They had always been led to believe that the Democratic party was the enemy of wealth. For many years the wealth of the country' has been arrayed against us. This charge was also untrue. The Democratic party never was the enemy of wealth. Our party wants every man to have the same right and the same opportunities under the law, but we are opposed, and always have been opposed to legislating a few men rich at the expense of the balance of the people. Our party has always been fair to business and you may rest assured that we will never pass a single law that will hinder, hamper or destroy a single legitimate business industry In the United States. On the contrary this administration has done more to help business than was done by any other administration in the years gone by. We have given the country a currency law which makes it possible for business men to secure all the funds necessary in carrying on legitimate business; something that could not be done prior to this Democratic administration. For many years our currency system had been the laughing stock of the world. Party Keeps Pledge. "All parties conceded it was bad and time and again pledges were made in party platforms to revise this system so that it would meet the demands of the country. When I first came to Congress and was serving under a Republican administration we appropriated $750,000 to pay a commission to make .investigations with the view of enacting currency legislation. The commission was appointed, with Senator Aldrich at its head. An investigation was made, the $750,000 was expended, a report made, but no action taken by the party in power. While It was conceded by the Republicans that the system should be revised yet nothing was done. This was due to the fact that the old currency system suited the big banks of Wall Street They were enjoying a special privilege which they did not care to give up. Under the old system the reserves of the country banks throughout the United States found their way Into the. Wall Street banks and these immense deposits were the source of great profit to the New York banks. They also had the great

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er part of the deposits of government funds for which they paid to the United States not a penny of Interest, Out of these two deposits they made millions of profit and they did not care to give up this tremendous Income. These Wall Street banks had been, putting up a large part of the Republican campaign fund to perpet uate that party in power, and then the Republican administration paid them back by giving them these de posits of government money without charging them any Interest No cur rency legislation could be had , while the Republicans were in , control of the government, because these Wall Street banks wouid not give their consent. When we Democrats came into power we took up the question of revising our currency system and no sooner had we done so than we met with the opposition of the Wall Street banks. They sent their repre sentatives to Washington to try in every conceivable way to prevent a revision of our currency system. We knew the motive back of their action was purely selfish and that the inter ests of the people should be made paramount to the interest of a few banks. Under the old currency sys tem a few men in New York City brought on the panic of 1907 which was a money panic, and it cost the American people a loss of millions of dollars by reason of closed factor ies, idle men and low prices for farm products. "For the first time in the history of the country we were unable to get our money out . of the banks. Notwith standing the opposition we Democrats proceeded at once to revise the old system and gave to the country a currency law that has stimulated business, aided the manufacturer and farmer and made money panics in the future an impossibility. No longer will Wall street banks fix interest rates, control the money of the country and decrease the value of both farm and factory products. The new currency law is the greatest piece of constructive legislation passed in one hundred years and means more to the general welfare of the country than any other legislation. If this democratic administration had accomplished nothing else it would deserve the everlasting gratitude of the American people for having passed this law. Discusses the Tariff. "For many years a system of tariff taxation had prevailed which was an outrage and a burden upon the people. We Democrats had denounced it for many years, and 'when we did so we were charged with being disturbers of business. They said we were trying to array labor against capital and that if we were given the power to remove the foundation stone of American pro gress. The system went on and on for many years until it distorted the functions of what God intended to be a free government Into tools of greed and vehicles of oppression. Under this system great trusts and combinations were formed which enabled a few men to control the output and fix the price of the commodities of life. We saw the woolen trust wrongfully taking from the people over $100,000,000 a year more than should hae been taken out of the pockets of the people; $90,OoO.OOO more than what would have been a fair profit on cotton goods and a vast amount of this money was coming out of the pockets of workingmen and much of it from women and girls employed, in our factories and behind the counters In our store rooms. The steel trust built up such a colossal fortune that one of the beneficiaries of the system has been unable to give away even a small part of his earnings by building libraries, all over the country. During the administrations of Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft more than a 1,000 trusts were formed representing nearly $30,000,000, and all of these trusts were extorting from the American people. The system of high protective tariff fastened upon us by the Republican party had enabled these combinations to keep out foreign competition and at the same time exacted from the American consumer the highest possible price for the things he was compelled to buy. In 1908 every party in existence promised if given the power to revise the tariff downward. The country took the Republicans at their word and elected Mr. Taft President, but instead of reducing the burdens by revising the tariff downward they increased the burdens by revising the duties upward. Following the passage of the Payne law. President. Taft went before the country telling the people it was the best tariff bill ever enacted Into law and the people answered President Taft at the ballot box by changing a Republican House, with nearly 100 majority, to a Democratic House with more than 100 majority. Then the eyes of the country were turned upon us Democrats to see if we would keep our word. We immediately passed tariff bills revising the tariff downward and sent out bills over to a Republican senate and they were accepted by that body, but when they reached President Taft he vetoed them. Then the following year we again passed these bills and again a Republican senate accepted them and again Mr. Taft vetoed them. Then we went to the country on our record and as you will remeriber Mr. Taft only carried the two small states of Vermont and Utah. If the Republican party this year . promises a reenactment of the Payne tariff law, they will not carry a single state in the Union; not even Vermont and Utah. Just as soon as we came into possession of all three branches of government we passed the Underwood tariff law which revised the tariff downward in accordance with our pledges, and it has been a success

from every standpoint As a revenue producer it was a greater success than either the Payne law or the Dingley Law. The first year under the Under-' wood tariff law it produced a large surplus and had it not been for the breaking out of the European war it would still be producing more revenue than would be needed to run the government When the European war broke out and Imports ceased to come in, as a matter of course, it was necessary for us to levy some other tax to take its place until the war ended and imports reaches a normal basis. Had the Payne law been in effect when the war broke out it would have been necessary for us to have levied a stamp tax of $200,000,000 instead of $100,000,000 as the Underwood bill provided an income tax which raised nearly $100,000,000 more in such an emergency than the Payne law would have done. As everyone knows, it makes no diference whether the tariff is high, medium or low, If Imports do not come in we do not get any revenue. Just as soon as the war is over the Underwood tariff law will produce plenty of revenue to run the government, and no stamp tax will be necessary. Republican Predictions. "Our Republican friends had said that if we revised the tariff downward our mills and factories would close and laboring men would be thrown out of employment Their prediction has not come true. In fact they knew it was not true when they made It. The Underwood tariff law has not closed a single factory nor thrown a single laboring man out of employment anywhere in the United States. On the contrary our manufacturers made more goods in 1915 than was ever made in any one year; more men were employed at better wags in 1915 than ever before, and even now in the month of January when usually we have bread lines in all the great cities, our eastern mills are advertising for more help. The balance of trade has been- running from $15,000,000 to $45,000,000 a week in favor of the United States; there kl more money deposited now in the banks of the country than ever before and more real, genuine prosperity than our nation ever experienced. The holiday trade was the largest it has ever been and if you will inquire at your local post office or the express company you will find that more packages were transported during the holiday week than ever before. In fact universal prosperity is sweeping over this county from one end to another. Now comes some of our Republican office seekers who say that business is good now but that it will be disturbed when the war is over; that Europe will dump a lot of cheap goods upon us to the 'detriment of the American manufacturer. All this talk is so silly and so absolutely ridiculous that it seems to me It will be given no consideration. For many "years we' have successfully competed with Europe when it was at its best We have been shipping abroad for many years about $3,0uo,000,000 worth of manufactured goods annually and now to say. when this awful war is over, when mills and factories of Europe have been dismantled and destroyed; when a debt of more than $20,000,000,000 has been piled upon them; when 15,000.000 of their best men have .been killed or wounded; ' when " every door-step in Europe is covered with blood; when there Is no one left to compete with except old men and boys; then to say that we will be at their mercy is the plea of the demagogue. In fact it is an Insult to the intelligence of the American people. We now have the markets of the world and when this war is over we will hold them, and our trade will grow larger each year. The Underwood tariff law is not a free trade measure. It Is a protective tariff measure as it now stands. There is plenty of protection In it for all our Industries. In fact the rates could be made still lower without working an injury to any one engaged in that business. It will also be remembered that our Republican friends told the American farmer that if we took protection off of his products that he would not be able to get much for his corn, wheat, oats, rye, hogs, sheep, wool, cattle, etc. They even went so far as to say that if we put wool on the free list we would be ashamed to look a sheep in the face. The facts are, our farmers never did have a square deal so far as tariff legislation was concerned until we passed the Underwood tariff bill. Prior to the passage of this law the farmer sold his products on a free trade market in competition with the world and then bought the things he had to have on a protected market and paid the price fixed by the trusts and combinations. The tariff on his farm products had never added anything at all to the price of anything he produced because our farmers produced a surplus, and the prices of these products were fixed by the price the surplus brought In the markets of the world. We Democrats said let us give the farmer a square deal, so we placed on the free list agricultural Implements, farm machinery, boots and shoes, harness, wire fencing and many other things the farmer is compelled to buy, so that be now buys on a free trade market as well as sells on a free trade market, and it is the first time the farmer ever had a square deal so far as tariff legislation is concerned. The average price of the products of the farm have been higher under the Underwood bill than it was under the Payne law. Sheep and wool have been selling at a much higher nrlce than

they had sold for many Tears. The farmer Is well satisfied with our tariff law and will vote to sustain it when

Continued On Page Nine. ;