The Texas Miner, Volume 1, Number 7, March 3, 1894 Page: 4

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4
THE TEXAS MINER.
THE TEXAS MINER.
Thurber, Teaxs, Saturday, March 3, 1894.
THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL.
Democrats, read this article, read every word of it---and think it over.
President Ingalls is one of the old-time Democrats—-not the
Grover Cleveland stripe. He spoke as follows at the Jackson
banquet at Columbus, Ohio, on January 8.
It is pleasant to meet so many Democrats to-night and join in
paying tribute to tho hero of New Orleans; a Democrat who
loved his party, who believed in it, who never thought himself
above it. and who did all he could for its success; a Democrat
who believed that in the end the people would always be right;
and they in turn trusted him as they have no other leader be-
fore or since. In these troubled times it is well for us to get to-
gether and recall the history of him who in the hour of distress
of his country and his party spared no effort to help them both.
May we immitate his example in diese dark days that are upon
us.
Your committee requested me to respond to the sentiment of
the Chicago platform of 1892 That platform contains much
matter. Much more than I would want to take up in an after-
dinner speech. So I propose to confine myself to the following
words from the third section of that platform: 'We declare it
to be a fundamental principle of the Domocratic party that the
Federal Government has no constitutional power to impose and
collect tariff duties except for the purpose of revenue only."
This is the mea', of what is known as the "tariff resolution."
This was passed in the summer of 1892, when business was
good, everybody prespercus and the government had plenty of
revenue. Whether on account of the disturbance of business
affairs and the depression that has arisen since the meeting of
that convention it would have passed the same resolutions now
is a question. This is for our leaders to consider. It may be
well for them, also, to draw some lessons from the elections last
fall, and consider whether they do not show indications of a
change of the senthnent of the people.
The President should have said to them: ' The people have
turned the Republicans out and put us in; I find they have left
an empty treasury and an enormous unpaid obligation; the credit
of the government is being questioned; we must at once provide
means to pay our bills, to keep our gold reserve good and stop
expenditures or else there will be a business panic and all the dire
results that come from such a situation." Instead of this course
matters were allowed to drift along until we were in the midst of
a terrible financial storm. Then an extra session was called, and
the President recommended the repeal of the Sherman law as the
one panacea that would bring relief.
Understand me, any criticism that I may make here to-night
I make as a Democrat, and one who voted for Cleveland in
three successive Presidential elections, and have been his earnest
and faithful supporter all through. I have the warmest admira-
tion for his honesty and courage, as I have for the wisdom and
faithfulness of the Democratic Congressmen. But they must
understand, and ths people must give them to understand, that
all wisdom does not lie in one body, but it is the combination of
the whole, and in the future it must be no one man's opinion,
but the concensus of all. We are in the midst of evil times.
Mills have stopped, industries are paralyzed, and everywhere idle
men are filling the streets and asking for work, and there is
none. No such calamity has ever before befallen this commu-
nity in its history.
The committee on ways an j means has sent to Congress a
tariff bill, which, in addition to the deficit of $50 000,000, will
produce $75,000,000 more, leaving the government at the end
of the fiscal year short $125,000 000 unless it can be made up
in other ways. How do they expect to make up this $125,000,-
000? Cover your heads in shame, my fellow Democrats, for
your party in these days of peace proposes to go back and en-
act the war taxes of the past; and why ? In order that they may
make a tariff framed according to the theories of a few men
familiar only with the books, and reduce the duties on certain
articles which do not demand it, and make certain articles free
which are not called for.
Instead of obeying the mandate of the people, they propose
to try a little experiment of their own—and immitate McKinley.
Was there ever such a folly? The gentleman who fathers this
measure, whose name is given to it. is a distinguished member
of Congress, <oming frc 111 a little village up in the mountains of
the state of West Virginia. He has had experience as a college
professor and as a country lawyer, and as a member of Con-
gress. He is a student of the doctrine of free trade, and well
educated as a theorist By some chance he is made chairman
of the committee of ways and means, and is put astride of the
commerce of this country, and proposes to demonstrate his theo-
ries, although in so doing he may wreck the country and his
party.
I have not time to to tro through all the vagaries of this bill.
I might ask why the wool which competes with the farmer is
made free and the tax upon the brandy and champagne which
the rich man drinks is reduced; why is the duty left off sugar
and other revenue-producing articles if this is a tariff for revenue ?
The honest truth is that it is another edition of the McKinley
bill, dressed up in Democratic clothes to give it respectability.
The great fad of this committee is - free raw material, iron ore,
coal, lumber," etc. You will hear it said that I am interested in
coal, and hence that is one of my reasons for objecting to the
tariff. I am interested in coal, but only as the president of sev-
eral railroad corporations, a large part of whose business is in
the transportption of this article.
They had upon their pay rolls 25 000 names, and each and
every one of these are interested to know why, when the Govern-
ment needs revenue, coal, wlfich has paid a large amount and
with injury to no one, should be free, while the goods which the
coal producers use are still taxed. 1 say we had 25 000 names.
The depressed business has forced us to discharge one-fifth of
them and they have gone to swell the great army of cold and
hungry unomployed that fills our streets—the saddest sight there
is 111 the world—hungry and willing to work for bread, but no
work to be found. 1 am interested. I repeat it for if this bill
paes^s, with its tree coal and free ore. more ot these faithful em-
ployes will have to go.
Politically. I am against it, for just as sure as you place coal
and iron ore on the free list, so sure will Virginia and West Vir-
ginia leave the Democratic columns at the next election. Tell
me where you are to get the electoral vote to fill their places.
Can you placate mugwumps enough in New England to give
you the votes there that you lose in the South? What justifica-
tion is there for free coal i None, except that the books say-
that raw material should be free, and this committee, with no
business experience, but wedded to their theories, have classed
coal as raw material, when every ton at the mouth of the pit
represents 90 per cent, of labor and 10 per cent, of material,
and when it comes in competition with foreign coal in New En-
gland it represents 96 per cent, of labor and 4 per cent, of raw
material.
It would seem to me that if you wished protection for labor
here was a better chance for it than anywhere else.- Who asked
for tree coal ? The people ( No, no one except a few New En-
gland and New York speculators who rushed over into Nova
Scotia the week atter election, when they thought they could es-
tablish free trade, and bought everything that could be brought
in here if the duties could be taken off, from a coal mine to a
lime kiln. While this committee of ours graciously allows the
the coal of her Majesty, Queen Victoria, to come in here and
displace our own and break down a half million of our laborers,
the thrifty Canuck smiles and still charges us 60 cents a ton for
all that we sell in his western dominions. Verily, this committee
on ways and means are great and patriotic gentlemen.
I might go through the list and point out a great many other
inconsistencies, but it is idle to take up your time in doing so.
It is better to speak to you briefly as to the advasibility of push-
ing such a tariff bill at this time. The convention in Chicago
declared, as I have said, for a tariff for revenue. If the people
voted for anything they voted for that. Is the bill proposed a
tariff for revenue ? On the other hand, as I have stated, it re-
duced revenue derived from the McKinley bill $75,000,000, and
leaves the government with a deficiency of $125,000,000. The
first thing Congress ought to do is to reduce expenses, then it
should take the McKinley bill and go through it, cut out its
worst features, raise the duty on some things and reduce on
others, and then-put a duty on sugar, and they would get reve-
nue enough to run the government.
Tell me, my fellow-Democrats, why should not sugar pay
duty ? It is the easiest duty to collect of all, and probably the

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McAdams, Walter B. The Texas Miner, Volume 1, Number 7, March 3, 1894, newspaper, January 27, 1894; Thurber, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth200454/m1/4/ocr/: accessed March 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Tarleton State University.

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