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I '• ^PROTECTIVE TARIFF LAW.
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THE GRAND OLD PARTY
IT IS TRUE TO THE FLAG.
REPUBLICAN PROMISES PERFORMED.
In Nine Months the Republican Congress has Re-
deemed All Its Pledges.
A record quite unparalleled.
thousands of dollars saved by economical
administration.
and a rise in agricultural values of at least
one thousand millions brought about
by wise legislation.
The national elections about to take place are for mem-
bers of the Fifty-second Congress. This Congress will
not be erected until March 4, 1892, and will assemble in its
first regular session in the succeeding December. The
present Congress has been in session but nine months, and
its Republican majority appeals to the people for a renewal
of their confidence upon a record still incomplete. It
comes before the country, however, with this assurance :
that if the people really want what they demand, and if
they believe in a party that keeps its promises, they must
return the Republican party to power in this election.
Indirectly the Administration which was chosen in 1888
is also before the peonle for a sign of their approval, and
it, too, enjoys a simft,r confidence. President Harrison
has taken the people at their word. He has assumed that
by electing him to the Chief Magistracy they meant to have
him carry out the platform upon which he was presented for
their suffrages. He has acted on this safe assumption.
All the resources of his great office have been employed to
carry out the public will as it was expressed in his election.
In his recommendations to Congress and in the character
and purpose of his executive acts he has been moved by
the spirit of the people as it was displayed in the majorities
cast in November, 1888.
NOTABLE REFORM IN ADMINISTRATION.
Economy, efficiency and good sense have guided the
Administration in all its Departments. The Samoan con-
troversy has been honorably settled in conformity with
American demands ; closer relations have been cultivated
with our South American neighbors ; the Navy is being
rapidly rebuilt with ships than which there are no finer in
the world ; harbor fortifications and coast defences are be-
ing quickly constructed ; numerous military reforms have
been accomplished ; the postal service has been purified of
Democratic abuses and replaced upon its former efficient
standing ; the Indian service has been greatly improved,
and is moving rapidly towards the destruction of the reser-
vation system and towards the introduction of a real civiliza-
tion among the red people ; the crazy and seemingly
malignant policy of the Democracy towards miners and
settlers on the public lands has been overturned, while in
financial administration, reforms of the greatest importance
have been perfected. An increase in internal revenue col-
lections of $7,000,000 a year maybe credited to Republican
honesty and efficiency, and an actual saving of more than
$32,000,000 to the Government has been made by the
Treasury's amazingly low purchases of bonds. But above
and beyond all this, the rise in the values of
Americaa farm crops, resulting from tariff
and silver legislation, is a grand total greatly
in excess of one thousand millions of dollars.
Let Democratic orators explain away these facts if they can.
The Republican party is cheerful in the belief that they are
the kind of facts which the people do not wish explained
away. The Democracy's capital offense is that it did noth-
ing to make them, but everything it could to prevent them.
It can only add to its offense by seeking to explain them
away or to dwarf their vast value.
The National platform upon which this Republican Con-
gress was chosen and which it was therefore commissioned
by the people to execute, declared in favor of these
reforms :
1st. A Federal Election Lavr.
2nd. Tariff Revision in Conformity with
the Policy of Protection.
3rd. The Restoration of Silver to its Money
Uses.
4th. Just Pension !Legislation.
5th. The Revival of the American Mer-
chant Marine.
6th. The Exclusion of Contract Lahor and
all other Forms of Cheap and I>egraded
Labor. *
7th. The Admission of such Territories as
are Fit for the Duties of Statehood.
8th. The Revival of the Navy and Harbor
Fortifications,
9th, Cheap Lictter Postage.
This was the wise and beneficent programme which the
people directed President Harrison and the Republican
Fifty-first Congress to put into effect. Let us see what has
been accomplished in carrying out the people's will.
DEMOCRATIC OBSTRUCTIONS.
Shall Congress be an Orderly, Deliberative Assem-
bly OR A Lawless Mob?
HOW THE DEMOCRATS CONSPIRED TO PREVENT ALL REPUB-
LICAN LEGISLATION, AND HOW THEY WERE DE-
FEATED BY COMMON SENSE AND COURAGE.
At the very beginning of the session the Democrats
announced their unpatriotic intention of preventing any
legislation whatever in the direction of these reforms.
Their purpose and the means they took to accomplish it
were equally shameful. A Republican Congress was on
trial ; it had but a few months of effort before the country
would again be in the throes of a Congressional election,
and the Democrats boldly, openly and with reckless inso-
lence, declared that these few months should be barren of
good works ; that the Republicans should be compelled to
go to the country on an empty record. This, of course,
would involve the people in a direct loss of at least
$5,000,000, and would check or kill legislation most pro-
foundly needed. But such considerations did not interest
the Democratic leaders.
Their scheme was simple. It consisted merely in the
interruption of all business with motions to adjourn ; to
recommit ; to amend, strike out, and insert — all frivolous
in purport and insincere in motive, but most effective in the
consumption of time ; and when these devices failed to
bury a given measure, they proposed to sit in their seats
silently during a roll-call, not responding to their names.
This would almost certainly leave the record apparently
showing that the House was without a quorum.
HOW THE CONSPIRATORS WERE BEATEN.
Speaker Reed had scarcely taken his seat before these
contemptible tactics began, and when the House settled
down to business, they were adopted in full force by the
Democratic side. But they did not dismay the Speaker.
He declined to entertain frivolous and obstructive motions,
and he held that no member could remain within the
Speaker's vision and declare himself present or absent ac-
cording to the partisan ends he wished to serve. In other
words, no member could deny his presence in order to
break a quorum, and then affirm his presence to revive the
quorum, being all the while, as a matter of fact, actually
present in the House. It is for maintaining against Demo-
cratic wails, howls, rage, violence and vituperation, these
simple propositions, so clear in common sense and so just
in common honesty, that the Speaker is denounced by our
friends, the enemy, as a tyrant and a Czar. His only
offense was that he declined to let them lie themselves out
of sight when they wanted to prevent the passage of meas-
ures which they did not have the voting strength to defeat.
Mr. Reed's decisions were finally incorporated into the
Rules of the House, since which time the public business
has gone forward in an orderly manner.
GOOD RULES MUST NOT BE PROSTITUTED TO BAD ENDS.
(From a decision of Speaker Reed refusing to entertain a dilatory-
motion.)
There is no possible way by which the orderly methods of parlia-
mentary procedure can be used to stop legislation. The object of a
parliamentary body is action, and not stoppag-e of action. Hence, if
any member or set of members undertakes to oppose the orderly pro-
cess of business, even by the use of the ordinarily recognized par-
liamentary motions, it is the right of the majority to refuse to have
those motions entertained, and to cause the public business to
proceed.
, LET THE JOURNAL TELL THE TRUTH.
(From the speech of the Hon. Wm. McKinley, Jan. 31.)
Now, Mr. Speaker, what is this question ? We are contending that
members who sit in their seats in this Hall shall be counted cs pres-
ent, because they are present. They want the Journal to declare a lie;
we want the Journal to declare the truth. Let us be honest with
each other and with the country ; let us defeat bills in a constitu-
tional way or not at all ; give freedom of debate, opportunity of
amendment, the yea-and-nay vote, and we will preserve our own
self-respect, give force to the Constitution, and serve the people
whose trusts we hold. The position of the gentlemen on the
other side means that they will either ruin or rule, al-
though they are in the minority. We insist that while
we are in tiie majority they shall do neither.
DOES THE CONSTITUTION COMMIT SUICIDE?
(From a speech of the Hon. Benj. Butterworth.)
After quoting that clause of the Constitution which pro-
vides that each House **may compel the attendance of
absent members," Mr. Butterworth continued :
Compel them to attend — for what? To leave the House in pre-
cisely the same condition as before they were brought in — a condition
which rendered it necessary to bring them in to change and improve
it ? Was this authority conferred only to enable us to go through the
farce of bringing in the absentees and learning after each had been
seated in his place that while under the Constitution he is actually
personally present to make a quorum to do business, yet when an
attempt is made to do the thing which required his presence he at
once, by merely closing his mouth, becomes constructively absent ?
MR. SPRINGER SUSTAINS SPEAKER REED.
In the Forty-sixth Congress Mr. Tucker (Dem.) brought
in a rule precisely similar to the decision of Speaker Reed.
In supporting Mr. Tucker, the Hon. W. M. Springer, who
has been in this Congress the leading Democratic obstruc-
tionist, and the sturdiest assailant of the Speaker, employed
these words :
A majority shall constitute a quorum to do business. That
majority do not vote, but they must be here. If the majority is here
the quorum is here. If we may compel the attendance of absent
members what virtue is there in this provision unless it is to compel
them to be here to constitute a quorum ? What is the constitutional
provision for? What is it worth in the Constitution if, after having
been exercised, it amounts to nothing at last and the man is not here?
I wish to say by our legislative system our fathers understood that
when this power was exercised the man was here, and all we have to
do is to recognize that fact.
ISSUE No. 1.
Do you wish your Congress to be an
orderly, deliberative assembly, or do
you wish it to be a lawless mob ?
THE GRAND OLD PARTY.
IT IS TRUE TO THE FLAG.
FEDERAL ELECTIONS.
What the Situation Is and What the Republican
House has Done to Cure it.
A FAIR, honest LAW, FOR FAIR AND HONEST MEN.
BUT A BAD LAW FOR THUGS, BALLOT-BOX-STUFFERS AND
RASCALS GENERALLY.
AND THAT IS WHY THEY KICK.
In its National Platform, adopted at Chicago, June 21,
1888, the Republican party proclaimed this doctrine :
We reaffirm our unswerving- devotion * * * especially to the
supreme and sovereign right of every lawful citizen, rich or poor,
native or foreign-born, white or black, to cast one free ballot in
public elections, and have that ballot counted. We xiemand effective
legislation to secure tW integrity and purity of elections.
The Republican majority in Congrress set promptly at
work to redeem this pledge, and have passed a bill the
merits of which are an issue in this campaign.
WHERE CONGRESS'S AUTHORITY COMES FROM.
(Section 4, Article i. Constitution of the United States.)
The times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and
Representatives shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature
thereof ; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such
regulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators
HOW THE SUPREME COURT CONSTRUES THIS CLAUSE,
(Ex Parte Siebold, 100 U. S., 371.)
*'Make or alter!" What is the plain meaning of these words?
There is no declaration that the regulations shall be made either
wholly by the State Legislatures or wholly by Congress. If Con-
gress does not interfere, of course they may be made wholly by the
State ; but if it chooses to interfere, there is nothing in the words to
prevent its doing so either wholly or partially. On the contrary,
their necessary implication is that it may do either. It may either
make the regulations or it may alter them. If it only alters,
leaving, as manifest convenience requires, the general organization
of the polls to the State, there results a necessary cooperation of
the two governments in regulating the subject. But no repugnance
in the system of regulations can arise, for the power of Cougress
over the subject is paramount.
THE NATION IN A DREADFUL DILEMMA.
(Ex Parte Yarborough, iioU. S., 651.)
If the Government of the United States has within its constitu-
tional domain no authority to provide against these evils (force and
fraud), if the very sources of power may be poisoned by corruption
or controlled by violence and outrage without legal restraint, then,
indeed, is the country in danger, and its best powers, its highest pur-
poses, the hopes which it inspires, and the love which enshrines it,
are at the mercy of the combinations of those who respect no right
but brute force on the one hand, and unprincipled corruptionists on
the other.
HENRY WATTERSON'S CONFESSION.
He Says There is No Such Thing as an Honest Elec-
tion IN THE Colored Districts.
(From the Louisville Courier-Journal^
I should be entitled to no respect or credit if 1 pretended that
there is either a fair poll or count of the vast overflow of black votes
in States where there is a negro majority, or that in the nature of
things present there can be. —Henry Watterson, Leading Demo-
cratic Editor of the South.
JUDGE CAMPBELL'S CONFESSION.
He says a Resort to Fraud and Murder should be
Avoided *' If Possible."
(From an address recently issued to the people of Mississippi by
Judge J. A. P. Campbell, now a member of the Supreme
Court of that State.J
I know full well we can continue to govern this country. I h.ive
no fears as to that. But if we should have to resort to shotguns and
Winchesters, or to fraud, that would be too undemocratic for me,
and it would be destructive of that liberty, equality and fraternity so
dear to us, and should be avoided if possible.
GENERAL SPINOLA'S CONFESSION.
He Says it is Costly and Bothersome to Elect a
Democrat in the North, but They Have
Things Nicely Fixed Below the Line.
(From a speech in Congress by the Hon. F. B. Spinola, Tammany
Democrat.)
With us it is a struggle to put a man in this House. Below Mason
and Dixon's line it is an easy matter. One gentleman is declared to
be the candidate, his neighbors rally round him, he is put to no ex-
pense, he is called upon to perform no labor in the canvass, the
ballots are printed, and they are deposited and he is elected.
CONGRESSMAN HEMPHILL'S CONFESSION.
He Takes a Solemn and Significant Oath as to the
Thing They Won't Do.
(From a speech in Congress by the Hon. J. J. Hemphill (Dem.), of
South Carolina.)
We know we must either rule the South or leave it. Now, I swear
we will not leave it !
SOUTHERN ELECTION LAWS.
No Such Thing as Home Rule in the South.
IN order to perpetuate democratic rule the >lec
toral machinery is centralized and con-
trolled BY A FEW POLITICIANS.
(From a speech by the Hon. N. P. Haugen.)
In none of the southern tier of States is the choice of election
officers lodged in tha community in which they are to serve. In
Virginia the system is a perfect wheel with the Legislature at the
crank. There never was a more perfect invention for self-perpetua-
tion in office. In Maryland from the very beginning of colonial
government down to the session of the last Legislature, the power of
appointing local election boards was vested in the Sherin of the
county. But some of the counties elected Republican Sheriffs, and
the late Democratic Legislature placed the power of appointing local
election officers in the hands of the Governor. In Mississippi an
electoral commission, consisting of the Governor, Lieutenant-Gov-
ernor and Secretary of State, forms the fountain-head from which
flows all authority to supervise and control elections. In Alabama
this power is vested in certain county officers ; in South Carolina it is
in the State, and likewise in Florida and North Carolina. In short,
you may look all through the Southern States in vain for a discovera-
ble trace of the home, town, or city government inherited from New
England. The tendency is all the time in the opposite direction — to
rob the local community of the privilege of controlling its own affairs.
AND THIS IS WHAT THE SYSTEM PRODUCES.
(From a speech in Congress by the Hon. L. E. McComas.)
Within a short period the treasuries of half the States in the South
have been plundered by defaulting State treasurers : by Vincent, of
Alabama; by Polk, of Tennessee; by Tate, of Kentucky; by Burke,
of Louisiana ; by Nolan, of Missouri ; by Hemmingway, of Missis-
sippi, just convicted, and by Archer, of Maryland. Minority rule is
inevitably corrupt rule.
TAKE A LOOK AT THESE FIGURES.
They Show How the Republican Vote in the South
IS Suppressed.
(From speeches delivered in the present House.)
In 1886 the total vote returned in Georgia for ten Congressmen was
27,520— less than were returned in any one of 164 Northern districts
in that same election. Georgia's voting population is not less than
35o,cx)o. The entire South Carolinian delegation sits here on this
iioor — seven members — with fewer votes behind them than were cast
in the districts represented by Mr. Peters, of Kansas, Mr. Townsend,
of Colorado, Mr. Snider, of Minnesota, or Mr. Dorsey, of Nebraska.
Let us compare Mississippi and New Jersey, both Democratic States,
both having in 1880 almost exactly the same number of inhabitants.
In 1888 Mississippi cast 115,567 votes. New Jersey cast 303,741. Mis-
sissippi's seven Congressmen sit here representing an average of
16,459 votes cast and counted. New Jersey's seven Congressmen
represent an average of 43,335 votes. In Mississippi there were
males of voting age, in 1880, to the number of 108,254 whites and
130,278 colored. These figures tell the story,— Mr. Lodge.
In 1886 there were 27,430 votes cast for members of Congress in
Georgia. There were 283,590 votes cast for members of Congress at
the same election in Wisconsin. The 27,430 votes in Georgia elected
ten Congressmen. The 283,590 votes cast in Wisconsin elected nine
Congressmen. The average vote of a Congressional district in Geor-
gia was 2,743. Ill Wisconsin it was 31,510. One vote cast in Georgia
has the same influence upon national government, upon questions of
taxation, internal improvements, control of corporations, pensions,
etc., as iz% votes cast in Wisconsin. In Georgia 1,604 votes elected
m^ friend Mr. Crisp. The lowest vote cast in any one district in
Wisconsin was in the district of my Democratic colleague, Mr. Brick-
ner, which cast 25,916 votes. Comparing these two districts, the dis-
trict in each State casting the lowest number of votes, we find that
1,604 votes elect a Representative in Georgia, while it takes 25,916 to
accomplish the same thing in Wisconsin. In other words, one vote
in Georgia on this basis is equal to 16 votes in my colleague's Demo-
cratic district in Wisconsin.^-Mr. Haugen. ?:
In 1888 (it was much worse in 1886) a total vote of 595,075 in five
Southern States elected thirty-eight members of the House, while in
the States of New York and Connecticut it required 1,470,873 votes
to elect the same number. The atrocity of this outrage upon the
ballot will appear in a still more vivid light when it is remembered
that the enfranchisement of the colored race brought to the Electoral
College in the South an acquisition of thirty-eight votes, which the
Democracjr have appropriated to swell their Congressional represen-
tation, while the colored Republicans in most sections remain un-
represented.— Mr. Brosius.
WHAT THE NEW LAW IS.
Democratic Lies about its Character Exploded.
IT DOES NOT INTERFERE WITH LOCAL SYSTEMS AT ALL,
BWT MERELY PROVIDES A WAY BY WHICH FRAUDS
CAN BE DETECTED AND PUNISHED.
(From the speech in Congress of the Hon. R. M. LaFollette.)
AVhat are the provisions of this bill ?
It makes false registration a crime.
It makes unlawful interference with registration, by vio-
lence upon, or intimidation, or bribery by any person law-
fully entitled to vote a crime.
It makes wilfully keeping any false poll-list or know-
ingly entering false names or false statements thereon a
crime.
It makes giving or accepting a bribe to induce a person
to vote or refrain from voting a crime.
It requires the ballot-box to be placed in plain sight of
the voters and in such a position as to enable the election
officers, National and State, and the voter when voting, to
see that the ballot is in fact placed in the box.
It makes the wilful rejection of legal votes, knowing
them to be legal, a crime.
It makes the wilful acceptance of illegal votes, knowing
them to be illegal, a crime.
It makes the fraudulent substitution of one ballot for
another for the purpose of having the vote rejected, or for
the purpose of having it counted for a person other than
the voter intended, a crime.
It makes wilfully placing ballots not lawfully cast in any
ballot-box among ballots lawfully cast, for the purpose of
changing the result, a crime.
It makes unlawfully removing ballots from a ballot-box
lawfully cast, for the purpose of aifecting the result of the
election, a crime.
It makes a wilfully false canvass of votes or the false
certification and return of such vote a crime.
It makes it a crime for every officer charged with a duty
under the law to wilfully neglect to perform such duty or
to be guilty of any corrupt or fraudulent conduct or prac-
tice in its execution.
It makes false swearing, in matters pertaining to such
Congressional election, perjury.
It makes stealing the ballot-box or the ballots a felony.
And it provides just punishment, by fine or imprison-
ment, or both, for each of these crimes against a govern-
ment by the people through manhood suffrage.
That is this bill. There is not a section, line, or syllable
in it besides this more than is necessary to enforce with
certainty these provisions.
THE GRAND OLD PARTY.
IT IS TRUE TO THE FLAG.
PROSPERITY ASSURED.
THE Mckinley bill— its motive and effect.
It Surrounds the Farmer with Sure Guarantees of
Better Times.
It Assures the Mechanic of More Work and Higi^
Wages.
AND IT collects THE GREATER PART OF THE NATIONAL
REVENUES FROM FOREIGNERS WHO SEEK AMERICAN
MARKETS FOR THEIR WARES.
In its National Platform of 1888 the Republican party
proclaimed this doctrine :
We are uncompromisingly in favor of the American system of
Protection. Its abandonment has always been followed by general
disaster. The Republican party would effect all needed reduction of
the National Revenue by repealing- the taxes on tobacco and the tax
upon spirits used in the arts and for mechanical purposes, and by
such a revision of the tariff laws as will tend to check imports of
articles produced by our people.
PROTECTION DISTRIBUTES WEALTH.
(From Blaine's reply to Gladstone, January, 1890.)
In no event can the growth of large fortunes be laid to
the charge of the protective policy. Protection has proved
a distributer of great sums of money ; not an agency for
amassing it in the hands of a few. The benefit of Protec-
tion goes first and last to the men who earn their bread in
tke sweat of their faces.
BISMARCK SAYS PROTECTION SECURES PROSPERITY.
(From a speech in the Reichstag, by Prince Bismarck, May 12, 1882.)
The success of the United States in material develop-
ment is the most illustrious of modern time. The Ameri-
can nation has not only successfully borne and suppressed
the most gigantic and expensive war of all history, but im-
mediately afterward disbanded its army, found work for all
its soldiers and marines, paid off most of its debt, given
labor and homes to all the unemployed of Europe as fast as
they could arrive within the territory, and still by a
system of taxation so indirect as not to be
perceived, much less felt. Because it is my
deliberate judgment that the prosperity of
America is mainly due to its system of pro-
tective laTl^S, I urge that Germany has now reached
that point where it is necessary to imitate the tariff system
of the United States.
WHO BELIEVE IN FREE TRADE.
(From a speech in Congress by Thomas B. Reed.)
On the face of the earth to-day there are but two sets of people
who believe in Free Trade — the Democratic party and the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with Ireland suppressed.
Russia, the granary of Europe, has abandoned Free Trade. France,
Austria, Germany, Italy, Mexico, and the Dominion of Canada, that
child of Britain herself, have all joined the army of Protection. It is
the instinct of humanity against the assumptions of the book men.
It is the wisdom of the race against the wisdom of the few.
THE Mckinley bill.
What it is, What it Seeks to Accomplish, and How
IT Will Affect the Revenues.
In accordance with its pledge the Republican party has
passed what is called the McKinley bill, a comparison of
which with the Mills bill reveals at once the economic dif-
ferences between the two parties. The Republican bill
places a duty on wool, the Democratic bill places wool on
the free-list. The Republican bill places a protective duty
on all animals, vegetables, barley, hemp, tobacco, flax and
all products of the soil ; upon cotton goods, woolen goods,
crockery, glassware, iron, steel, hardware and cutlery.
The Democratic bill places vegetables on the free-list,
leaves but a revenue duty on all animals, on barley and
tobacco ; moves toward a revenue duty on cottons, woolens,
crockery, glassware, iron, steel, hardware and cutlery.
The Republican bill places sugar on the free-list ; the
Democratic bill places the duty on sugar at 65 per cent. It
will be seen that these measures are most marvelously
unlike. It is not accident or chance. It is because one
bill favors the protection of American agriculture, manu-
factures and labor, and the other bill opposes this policy.
THE PROTECTIVE THEORY.
It Maintains that the Cheapest Way to Raise
Revenue is to Collect it from Foreigners.
(From a speech in Congress by the Hon. J. H. Walker).
A protective tariff is not an "arbitrary restraint upon trade."
As well say a bit and bridle, by which we guide, control, and de-
velop to our use the power of the horse, is an arbitrary restriction on
travel.
Protection compels every European manufacturer to pay into the
Treasury of the United States the money he has saved by not paying
his workmen as much as American workman receive, before he is
allowed to sell his goods in this country.
THE CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER SAYS THE THEORY WORKS
ALL RIGHT.
(From a speech in the Canadian Parliament by Sir John A.
Macdonald, Premier).
Suppose the man has 100 acres on the Canadian side of the line and
100 acres of land on the American side of the line. Suppose he grows
1000 bushels of barley on each of his farms. He takes his locxi
American bushels to the American market and gets $1 a bushel for it.
He takes his 1000 bushels of Canadian barley to the American mar-
ket and gets but 85 cts. per bushel, because he has to pay 15 cts. duty
for taking it across the line. How can it, in this case, be said that
the consumer pays the duty ? It comes out of the pockets of the
Canadian farmers.
THE FARMER AND THE TARIFF.
Where and How his Advantage is Secured by the
Protective Policy.
THE CAUSES of PRESENT DEPRESSION IN AGRICULTURAL
INTERESTS LEND THE MEANS TAKEN IN THE
MCKINLEY BILL TO REMOVE THEM.
(From a speech in Congress by Mr. LaFoUette.)
The farmer is not suffering to-day, as gentlemen upon the other
side contend, "because the tariff has greatly enhanced the cost of
what he buys." All that he buys is cheaper to-day than it has ever
been. Since 1880 barb wire has dropped from 10 to 4 cents a pound,
wire nails from $6 per keg to I2.20, chains from 22 cents a pound to 12,
zinc from 15 cents a pound to 10, tin-ware 50 per cent, window-glass
25 per cent, kerosene 25 cents a gallon to 13, salt from $2.25 per barrel
to $1.25, crockery 25 per cent, calico from 7 cents to 5, worsted dress
goods 25 per cent, ready-made clothing 30 to 50 per cent, boots and
shoes 33^ per cent, and furniture 40 to 50 per cent.
Tlie farmer, I repeat, is not in distress to-day because
of tlie liigli price of what he buys, but because of the
low price of what he sells.
AN ERA OF LOW PRICES.
That this statement is undeniably true is proved by these
facts:
First. — A dollar will go further for a farmer to-day than at any
other time since the war. Examine this table. It shows compara-
tively the prices of farmers' implements since i860, and illustrates
the operation of protection :
Articles.
One-horse steel plow, wood beam. .
Two-horse steel plow, wood beam. .
One-horse iron plow, wood beam. . .
Two-horse iron plow, wood beam. .
Two-horse side hill orrev'sible plow
One potato digger
Old-fashioned tooth-harrow
One-horse cultivator
Two-horse corn cultivator
One-horse mowing machine
Two-horse mowing machine
Horse-rake, sulky
Common hand-rake, horse
Common iron garden rakes, lo-tooth
steel, per dozen
One-horse horse-power
Two-horse horse-power
Reaper
Binder
Thrasher
B^agger
Corn-sheller, one hole
Fanning-mill
Common hoes, cast-steel socket, per
dozen
Common rakes, wood, per dozen
American grass scythes, per dozen,,
American grain scythes, per dozen. .
Patent scythes, sneaths, per dozen..
Ames' shovels, per dozen
Ames' spades, per dozen
Crow-bars, steel
Crow-bars, iron
^2.75
12.00
2.00
8.00
10.00
7-SO
6.50
3-50
15.00
45.00
50.00
20.00
3.50
37.50
25.00
35 -oo
75.00
135.00
400.00
25.00
6.00
15.00
3-50
2.00
7-50
9-50
4-50
9.50
10.00
.06
•05
1880
I3-50
15.00
3.00
10.50
12.00
12.00
10.00
5.00
25 .00
70.00
75.00
25.00
5.00
5-75
35- 00
50.00
85.00
300.00
475.00
25.00
8.50
20,00
S.75
2.75
12.00
16.50
9.50
15.00
16.00
.08
.06
1873
|6.oo
20.00
5.00
13.00
18.00
20.00
15.00
7.00
28.00
85.00
90.00
30.00
6.50
12.00
45.00
65.00
95.00
25.00
475.00
T1.50
25.00
6.50
3.00
16.00
21 .00
11.00
18.00
18.50
:86 =
fa.oo
26.00
20.00
25.00
20.00
10.00
35- 00
105.00
110.00
35 -oo
8.00
16.00
60.00
80.00
120.00
(*)
15.00
30.00
8.00
4.00
21 .00
26.00
16.00
20.50
21 .00
15
[860
5120.00
125.00
40.00
10.00
140.00
(*)
CHEAPER GOODS HERE THAN IN FREE TRADE COUNTRIES.
Second. — A dollar will go further for a farmer in Protective America
than it will in Free Trade England, as this table witnesses :
Prices of Agricultural Implements in America and England.
Articles.
One-horse steel plow
Two-horse steel plow
Potato digger
Two-horse mowing machine
Horse rake
Reaper
Reaper and binder
Hay tedder
American
Prices
(Chicago).
$10.00
20.00
11.00
60.00
25.00
130.00
45- 00
Prices in Ensfland.
John G.
Rollins.
$14.85
25.29
12.45
75.00
39.49
119.55
64.00
J. &F.
Howard.
$15.60
13.20
76.64
38.40
124.80
249.60
60.00
Samuel-
son & Co.
$72.80
Consequently, the trouble is NOT that Protection increases the
American farmer's expenses.
BUT THE TROUBLE IS RIGHT HERE.
The Farmer Cannot Obtain Living Prices for His
Own Products under Existing Conditions.
Third. — But the American farmer's market is being
nsurped by foreign farm products. Importations of food
have grown enormously under the tariff of 1883. Last year tbcy
amounted to more than $65,000,000, as this table shows :
Importations of Farfn Products into the United States during 1889.
Horses, sheep and cattle $3,917, 031
Barley ' 7,691,763
Other grains 169,199
Potato-starch and dextri ne 230,000
Eggs 2,419,004
Flax 2,060,664
Hemp 2,047,927
Hay 1 ,082,685
Hops 1,100,408
Meats and dairy products 1,769,892
Flaxseed and seeds 4,557,198
Tobacco 8,603,163
Potatoes, vegetables and beans 2,295,499
Lumber 9,768,644
Wool 17,432.758
Total 165,132,519
THE REMEDY.
How THE McKinley Bill has Met this Situation,
and has Assured the Farmer of Better Things.
Republican legislation has provided three efficacious
remedies for this state of things :
First.— It has increased the duties on foreign
farm products so as to shut off importations.
Second.— It has opened the way for reciprocal
trade relations with South American coun-
tries.
Third.— It has restored Silver to its money
uses.
THE FARMER'S SCHEDULE.
Various organizations representing the farmers of the
country have been in communication with the Republican
leaders in this Congress. They have understood them-
selves very well and have fully appreciated the situation.
They have submitted drafts of the legislation in their judg-
ment necessary to secure a revival of husbandry, and their
just demands have been fully recogmzed. This table
shows what the McKiiiley bill has done for
the better protection ot the farmer. It shows
comparatively the importations of 1889, the late duties, and
the duties under the McKinley bill :
Article.
Horses and mules.
Cattle
Hogs..... • •>>•
Sheep
Barley
Buckwheat
Oats
Oatmeal »
Butter
Cheese
Milk
Beans
Beans, peas, and mushrooms pre-
pared Qr preserved
Green or dried
Split
In papers, cartons, or packages.
Cabbages
Eggs
Hay
Hops
Onions
Plants, trees, shrubs, etc
Potatoes
Garden seeds, agricultural seeds,
etc
Vegetables :
Prepared or preserved
Pickles and sauces
In their natural state
Straw
Apples :
Green or ripe
Dried or prepared in any
manner.. .
Bacon and hams
Beef, mutton and pork
Poultry ;
Live )
Dressed. .[
F?ax seed or linseed, poppy-seed
and other oil seeds
Leaf tobacco for cigar wrappers r
Not stemmed )
Stemmed i
An other tobacco in leaf :
i^ot stemmed
Stemmed
Cigars, Cigarettes, cheroot of all
kinds.
Imported
1889.
12,146,514.50 20 per cent.
542,764.71 20 per cent.
4,770.80
1,189,192.38
7,678,763.58
25,469.85
10,178.19
55,995.00
17,689.41
1,132,143 28
5,684.87
759,802. 28
No data.
Included
with beans.
52,738.00
No data
2,419,004 37
1,082,685.50
1,100,408.00
No data.
823,762.82
321,120.26
187,448.69
389,512.42
334,9^-0.71
437,377.37
28,921.00
No data.
No data.
45,899. .'5 1
14,393.09
164,866.26
3,969,640.00
1,417,302.40
8,126,091.34
475,679.25
3,657.316 02
Late duty.
McKinley bill.
percent.. ..
per cent
cts. per bush,
per cent.
cts. per bush.
}4 cent per lb
4 cts. per lb..
4 cts. per lb. .
10 per cent..
10 per cent...
35 per cent.
10 per cent.
$30 per head.*
Over one year,
$10 per head.
Under one year,
$2 per head.
$1.50 per head.
$1.50 per head.
30 cts. per bush.
15 cts. per bush.
15 cts. per bush.
1 cent per lb.
6 cts. per lb.
6 cts. per lb.
5 cts. per gal.
40 cts. per bush.
40 per cent.
40 cts. per bush.
' 50 cts. per bush.
; 1 ct. per lb.
3 cts. each.
j 5 cts. per dozen.
$4 per ton.
15 cts. per lb.
1 40 cts. per bush.
20 per cent.
25 cts. per bush.
40 per cent.
45 per cent.
45 per cent.
25 per cent.
30 per cent.
Free 25 cts. per bush.
20 per cent
Notprovid'dfor
10 per cent
Free
$2 per ton
Sets, per lb
10 per cent
Free
15 cts. per bush.
20 per cent — . .
30 per cent.
35 per cent
10 per cent.
Free
Free
2 cts. per lb —
1 ct. per lb
f 10 cts. per lb..
{ 10 cts. per lb..
cts. per lb
( 75 cts. per lb..
i $1 per lb.
35 cts per lb
40 cts. per lb
$2 50 per lb. and
V T per cent
2 cts. per lb.
5 Cts. per lb.
2 Cts. per lb.
3 cts. per lb.
5 cts. per lb.
30 cts. per bush.
$2 per lb.
$2.75 per lb.
3* cts. per lb.
50 cts. per lb.
4.50 per lb. and
25 per cent.
* Provided that horses valued at over $150 shall pay an ad valorem duty of
30 per cent.
IT IS A MECHANIC'S BILL, TOO.
Its Scope is National, its Effect Will be Felt in
Every Industry.
LABOR IS everywhere CONCERNED IN THE PROTECTIVE
SYSTEM. — HOW IT IS OPERATING TO KEEP THE
AMERICAN mechanic's WAGES AT
DECENT FIGURES.
While guarding by every wise and lawful means the
interests of the American farmer^ the McKinley bill has
skilfully maintained the conditions which have contributed
so marvelously to the prosperity of the American mechanic
13
in the past twenty years. Every industry in which for-
eigners are enabled to compete with Americans in the
American market by reason of their lower scales of wages
has received that sort of attention which aims at equalizing
the situation. The industrial question becomes every year
more and more a question of labor. So soon as the work-
men of this country are desirous of reducing their wages
to the British level, American manufactures can be in all
cases as cheap as British manufactures. The reason of the
McKinley bill is found in the following figures. It is a
bill which enables American manufacturers to do a profit-
able business notwithstanding the dreadful disparity in the
price of labor which is witnessed here. The figures are
from official sources, and they are both true and typical :
Trade.
America.
England.
France.
Carpenters ;
Man
$700.00
300.00
$1000.00
216.00
$784.00
$383.00
153.20
$310.00
124.00
Woman. . . .
$434 00
206 00
Supplies
206.00
$330.20
Possible savings
$228.00
Laborers, common :
Man
$300.00
200. CO
$500.00
216.00
$284.00
$235.00
94.00
Mnnn i\f\
$188.00
75 50
Woman ... .
$263.90
206.00
Supplies
206.00
$123.00
Possible savings
$57.90
Dlackmiths :
Man ...
$650.00
300.00
$368.50
147.40
$290.00
116.20
Woman
$406.20
206.00
Supplies ..
216 00
206.00
$309.90
Possible savings
$734.00
$200.20
Locomotive engineers :
Man
$1250.00
300.00
$456.00
182.40
$516.00
206.40
Woman
$722.40
206.00
Supplies
216.00
206.00
$432.40
Possible savings
$1334.00
$516.40
Locomotive firemen :
Man
$750.00
300.00
$255.00
102.00
$342.00
136.80
Woman
$478.80
206.00
Supplies
216.00
$834.00
206.00
$151.00
Possible savings
$272.80
Tinsmiths :
Man
$550.00
300.00
dbo en l\f\
$325.00
130.00
$455.00
206.00
$249.00
$273.00
109.20
Woman.
$382 20
206.00
Sunnlies....
216." 00
$634.00
Possible savings
$176.20
Tanners :
Man
$450.00
300 00
$750.00
216.00
$350.00
140.00
$490.00
206.00
$263.00
$347.00
138.80
Woman
$485.80
206.00
Supplies
Possible savings
$534.00
$279. fO
Weavers :
Man
$500.00
300.00
$800.00
216.00
$584.00
$350.00
140.00
$490.00
206.00
$284.00
$250.00
100.00
W Oman
Supplies
$350.00
206.00
Possible savings
$144.00
OTHER PROTECTION MEASURES.
Laws to Prevent Revenue Frauds and to Correct
Tariff Inequalities.
In perfecting their revenue system the Republicans have
enacted a customs law to prevent undervaluations, to
secure just and uniform appraisals on imported merchan-
dise, and to assure the honest collection of the revenues.
Under a construction given by the courts to the law of
1883, worsteds have been admitted hitherto at lower rates
of duty than other woolens. Other decisions had the same
effect upon ribbons imported as trimmings. These in-
equalities have been corrected. All woolens in the present
law are woolens, and all ribbons are ribbons, and they all
pay an equitable duty.
TAXATION GREATLY REDUCED.
The McKinley bill makes many changes in our tariff
schedules. The free-list is greatly enlarged. Many duties
are lowered, many raised. The effort has been in each
case to do what is fair and right, according to the present
condition of the trade. No man can tell precisely the
degree in which its operation will affect the revenues.
There can be no doubt that it will materially reduce them,
probably in the sum of $65,000,000. Relatively the reduc-
tion is ten per cent. Imports are placed on the free-list
which last year paid a duty of $60,936,536. The question
involved in the other changes is how far reduced duties
will stimulate importation, and how far increased duties
will restrain importation. This question can be deter-
mined only by a test, but if experience is a good teacher,
Government revenues will fall off under the McKinley bill
about $65,000,000.
ISSUE No. 3.
This Bill preserves in operation,
adapting" it to the present state of
trade, that revenue system which the
greatest statesman of Europe de-
clares himself constrained to imi-
tate ; a system which has given us a
material development ''the most il-
lustrious of modern time^' ; a system
which first creates the finest market
in the world and then controls it for
our own principal enjoyment ; a sys-
tem which has raised the American
farmer to a dignity enjoyed by no
other tiller of the soil, and the Ameri-
can mechanic to a place in society
and in affairs ivhich is the envy of his
brethren in every land. Are you
ready to abandon this system? Do
you want to open your doors to the
cheap, serf-wrought goods of other
countries? Do you want to create
here the very conditions that all our
millions of foreign-born citizens have
fled from ? IF NOT, YOU MUST RE-
TURN A REPUBLICAN CONGRESS.
IS
THE GRAND OLD PARTY,
IT IS TRUE TO THE FLAG.
SILVEK AT $1.20.
Its Money Uses are Fully Rfstored by Republican
Action.
THE UNITED STATES TREASURY RICHER BY $90,238,000
BY silver's rise.
ALL AMERICAN CEREALS HAVE GROWN IN VALUE, TOO.
AND, AS USUAL, THE DEMOCRACY OBSTRUCTED.
In its last National Platform the Republican party-
declared this doctrine :
The Republican party is in favor of the use of both gold and silver
as money, and condemns the policy of the Democratic Administration
in its efforts to demonetize silver.
In conformity with this pledge, the Republican Congress
has passed, against the unanimous opposition of Demo-
cratic members, a silver bill, than which there has been no
more useful and inspiring act since the resumption of specie
payments. It provides, in brief, that the Secretary of the
Treasury shall purchase 4,500,000 ounces of silver per
month, at the market price, and issue in payment therefor
legal tender Treasury notes, redeemable in coin. This
afTords an annual increase in money of over $60,000,000.
The Democratic Bland Act, under which the value of silver
fell to the lowest figure it has ever reached, and the value
of farm products to figures shockingly disastrous, afforded
an annual increase of $24,000,000. But this money was of
doubtful reputation. It was money that was good to-day
and bad to-morrow. The money provided by the present
Republican Congress is as good, and must in all circum-
stances remain as good, as any money the world has ever
seen.
Happily, the country has not had to wait for the benifi-
cent results of this legislation. They came as quickly and
as surely as blossoms under a May-day sun. Indeed, the
very presence of a Republican President in the White
House and a Republican Congress in the Capitol, exercised
an inspiring influence upon values and upon all commerce.
In the wake of Democratic rule had followed a prostration
of industry and an accumulation of farm mortgages, but
the election of 1888 was received by the country as the
sure promise of better days. That these better days are
now arrived is unerringly revealed in the figures shown in
this table :
16
Changes in the Value of Silver.
Dates.
Feb. 28,
Mar. I,
Mar. 22,
Mar. I,
May 19,
Mar. 4,
Dec. I,
July 14,
July 15,
Aug. 13,
Aug-. 30,
1878
1878
1878
1879
1888
1889
1889
1890
1890
1890
i8qo
Significance.
Date of passage of the
Bland act
Day after passage of the
Bland act
Three weeks after passage
of the Bland act...
One year after passage of
the Bland act
Lowest price reached
Inauguration of President
Harrison
Republican Congress met
Passage of the new silver
law
Day after passage of new
silver law
"^ew silver law went into
effect
About three weeks after
the silver law went into
effect
Price of Silver
in London.—
Pence.
Equivalent
value in
U. S. Money.
0^ •-"
55-
$1.20^
$1.19^
54li
x.-zo^
1 .20
54l-
i.iS^
1 .20
491
41-1
1. 035
.91=^^
1.035
.9x1
::r
.933?
.93^
.964
49i
i.o7»6
1.08
S3-
1 .09^
I .TO
51-i
I.IO^'^
^•13
54i
1.194^
I.I9I
> V.
>
$0.9325
.93^^
.91^8
.83^=*
.72*"
.75"
.834
.84'^
.85^^
.92*
RESULTS OF INCALCULABLE VALUE.
The significance of this table is tremendous. The Demo-
cratic Bland Act found silver at $1.20//^. On the very next
day it fell, and it kept falling steadily. Grover Cleveland,
who could not even wait until he was inaugurated before he
gave silver a blow, pounded it until he and his party forced
it down to 9i>^ and the silver dollar to ^of^-^. The day
after President Harrison was elected, silver began to re-
vive, and when the Fifty-first Congress met it had climbed
up to 96X. To-day it is worth $1 20, and its monetary uses
are fully restored. Was ever a clearer, sharper
contrast drawn by hard fact between Repub-
lican w^isdom and competency and Demo-
cratic folly and incapacity than is shown in
these uncompromising figures !
Why, the value of our silver coin since Harrison's in-
auguration has increased $90,238,000.
But this is not all. Wheat, barley, oats, rye — all the
products of the farm, have similarly grown in value. The
wheat crop of 1889 amounted to 490,560,000 bushels, and
its value was $342,491,707, an average of a little less than
seventy cents a bushel. That same crop would
sell at to-day's prices, w^hich have increased
to $1.02>^ a bushel, for $154,526,400 more
than was actually realized. This table shows the
facts :
17
Prices of American Cereals in Qhicago ^er bushel.
Date.
Significance.
Price
No. 2
Spring
Wheat
Price
No. 2
Yellow
Corn.
Price
No. 2
White
Choice
Oats.
^0.23
•34
*.4i
•37M
Price No. 2
Rye.
Dec. 2, 1889..
July 14, 1890. .
Aug. 13,1890..
Aug. 30,1890..
Date of meeting of
Republican Congr's
Date of passage of the
new silver law
Date new silver law
went into effect
Date of present sta-
tistics
$0.79
J-.88
•99
i.oiK
So.3iX
.38
*.5oK
•483/<
^0.45
i No sales
\ 48K bid.
*.63
•63
* The exceptional advance, during the month, was partially due
to the material lowering in the condition of the crops. Rye is a
cereal not extensively cultivated in the United States ; the figures
given under that heading are, consequently, only important as show-
ing the general rapid advance in prices of farm products from De-
cember 2d, 1889, to the present date.
In the presence of such facts as these the Democracy
must stand dumb or argue itself an ass. Its representa-
tives in Congress voted bodily against the silver bill. They
have been occupied ever since cursing themselves and their
blind leaders !
ISSUE No. 4.
Do you \¥ant good money and plen-
ty of it, or bad money and not even
enough of that to go around ?
18
THE GRAND OLD PARTY.
IT IS TRUE TO THE FLAG.
LAWS TO HELP LABOR.
Not Class Legislation Merely, but Measures of
National Value.
What Has Been Done in Aid of Industrial Reform
BY this Congress.
a striking review of facts showing how carefully
THE interests OF THE POORER PEOPLE HAVE
BEEN GUARDED AGAINST ENCROACH-
MENTS OF ALL KINDS.
This was among the declarations which the Republican
National Convention of 1888 submitted to the people for
their approval :
We declare our hostility to the introduction into this country of
foreign contract labor and of Chinese labor, and favor such imme-
diate legislation as will exclude such labor from our shores.
It may fairly be said that the only direct assurance of
legislation in accordance with what may be called "labor's
demands" which the Republican party has given, which it
became the duty of this Congress to pass, related to the
prohibition of cheap and degraded labor. But in perform-
ance the Grand Old Party has far exceeded its promises.
It does not recognize the existence of sections and classes
among the people, each to be coddled and wooed for elec-
tion purposes. The Republican party regards the people
as a mass, itself of that mass, inspired by that mass, and
moved by the will of its intelligent and patriotic majority.
It has not passed labor bills as class bills, but as measures
vitally affecting the interests of the whole people.
Every important piece of legislation passed by this House
has been a ** labor bill." The Elections law is immensely
a labcr bill, for if the will of the poor and lowly voter — he
who constitutes four-fifths of the people — can be thwarted
by an arrogant aristocracy or an unscrupulous company of
political bandits, free government is on a gallop to its
grave ! The Tariff bill and the Silver bill, the Bankruptcy
Act, the Land-grant forfeitures, the Shipping bills — all
these, as we have seen, are moving toward the develop-
ment of trade with the r»3sistless force of so many Corliss
engines. They are all "labor bills."
LABOR REFORMS ACCOMPLISHED.
But it is also true to say that no House of Representa-
tives that has assembled in the National Capitol since
19
Washington first set the machinery of government in motion
has done so much as this House in response to the appeals
of labor organizations for measures directly aifecting the
social and industrial reforms they have at heart. Demo-
cratic Congresses have set year after year, all heedless of
the cries of the workingmen, deaf, dumb and blind to any-
thing else than their pet sophistry — Free Trade ! Their
every effort has been to spread mortgages all over Ameri-
can farming lands and to fasten chains upon American
factories !
In one week of this session the Republican majority —
of course against Democratic objection and obstruction,
has passed no less than five labor bills, pure and simple —
measures asked for by the labor societies of the land.
Look at the list.
1. An effective prohibition of alien contract labor.
2. An effective eight-hour law, constituting eight hours a
full day's work for all Government employes.
3. An adjustment law, enabling claimants under the old
eight-hour law to submit their cases to judicial arbitrament,
4. A law prohibiting the employment of convict labor on
Government works.
5. A law prohibiting the use of the product of convict
labor by the Government in any of its Departments.
THE AMERICAN HOG.
Congress Has Vindicated His Honor and Opened
Foreign Ports to His Triumphal Entry.
In addition to these measures, several others have been
enacted dealing directly with the welfare of the farmer and
the mechanic. The enumeration of them affords a striking
proof of the Republican party's broad and general solicitude
for the advantage of the whole countr}^
1. The Meat Inspection bill, providing for the inspection of all
meats intended to be sent abroad, and prohibiting the exportation of
all adulterated articles of food or drink, and enabling the President
to prevent by proclamation the importation into this country of
impure food products. This bill is intended to bring about, as it
inevitably must, a better treatment of the American ho^ by the foreign
nations that are now holding their ports hard against it, to their own
injury and to ours.
2. The Compound Lard bill, defining lard to be the article com-
monly known as lard, made exclusively from the fresh fat of slaugh-
tered swine, and defining compound lard to be any imitation of pure
lard, and imposing upon it a tax sufficient to secure a proper regula-
tion of its manufacture.
3 A Bankruptcy law, providing, at the urgent request of both
debtor and creditor, a uniform system of bankruptcy. This measure,
in its relation to commerce, great and small, is almost as valuable as
the Republican system of uniform banking.
4. A law providing for the forfeiture of unearned land-grants.
5. A law endowing agricultural colleges.
ISSUE No. 5.
Will the workiiigiiien and their or-
ganizations stand by the party which
keeps its promises and performs its
duties to them, or will they prefer
the party which violates its promises
and doesn't see its duties?
THE GRAND OLD PARTY
IT IS TRUE TO THE FLAG.
LET'S HAVE OUR • OWN SHIPS.
Republican Measures to Revive the American Mer-
chant Marine.
Why Waste $150,000,000 a Year on Foreigners when
we can just as well Keep it Ourselves ?
WHY contribute THESE MILLIONS TO THE BUILDING UP
OF FOREIGN SHIPPING AND POSSIBLY HOSTILE
NAVIES, WHEN WE CAN JUST AS WELL
USE THEM TO BUILD UP
OUR OWN?
Pending in the House, having already passed the Senate,
are the two important measures known as the shipping
bills. Of their final passage by the House, probably at
this session, certainly in the next, there can be no doubt.
Their effect upon the revival of the American merchant
marine, in the establishment of new lines of travel between
our ports and those of SoLth America, will assuredly be to
build up a large and important trade that has too long
been neglected.
The first of these bills provides for the payment to
American built and American-owned vessels of more than
500 tons register, engaged in the foreign trade, of certain
small bounties according to the distances sailed, and under
certain conditions. It is estimated that the amount paid
to vessels complying with the act would be about one-half
the sum of their annual interest, insurance and depreciation
accounts. Probably $3,000,000 will be required to meet
the bounty demands in the first year after the bill becomes
a law and possibly as much as $8,000,000 when its stimulat-
ing influences have had their full effect. This bill has been
asked for by the chambers of commerce of more than 500
cities and by at least 1800 other commercial societies.
ENGLAND'S ENORMOUS SUBSIDIES.
The second bill is in the interest of the foreign postal
service, and provides a liberal rate of payment to American
steamships carrying our foreign mails in case they shall be
built according to certain naval specifications, in case they
shall make at least 20 miles an hour, shall carry certain
naval forces, and be subject to the call of the Government
for naval service.
Congress has been forcibly impressed with the fact that
public sentiment is overwhelmingly in favor of these bills.
They take the only means possible for the protection of an
American carrying fleet against the subsidy laws of other
nations. Many denials, inexplicable and foolish, have been
made of the fact that England, Germany and France are
to-day subsidizing their merchant marine. These denials
are based on the principle that the character of a transac-
tion can be changed merely by changing its name. The
cold fact, that can only be denied by a cold lie, is that in the
last sixty years England has paid no less than $275,000,000
in postal subsidies and bounties and that she now pays an
average of $3,750,000 per year. The United States pays to
its vessels less than $100,000 — not enough to defray the
expense of mail transportation.
HONOR AND SAFETY AT STAKE.
No nation can hold a truly great position among its con-
temporaries without a foreign commerce, without flying its
flag on every sea and landing its products in every port.
National pride, national interest, every prompting of
patriotic sentiment, every dictate of commercial selfishness
requires that we should re-assume the place we once held
among the maritime countries of the world. That place
was acquired by protection. It was lost by free trade.
The duration of our supremacy was coincident with the
operation of our protective laws. The duration of our
inferiority has been coincident v/ith the operation of our
present careless system. We found a thousand advantages
in supremacy when we held it. We are losing in national
prestige and in money every day, and must lose so long as
as we leave our shipping to compete unaided with the sub-
sidized shipping of other nations.
LET'S BRACE UP AND DO BETTER.
(From President Harrison's last Annual Message.)
There is nothing- more justly humiliating to the national pride, and
nothing more hurtful to the national prosperity than the inferiority
of our merchant marine compared with that of other nations whose
general resources, wealth, and sea-coast lines do not sugg-est any
reason for their supremacy on the sea. It was not always so, and
our people are agreed, I think, that it shall not continue to be so.
A DRAIN UPON NATIONAL RESOURCES.
(From a special message of President Grant, March, 1870.)
It is a national humiliation that we are now compelled to pay from
twenty to thirty million dollars annually (exclusive of passage
money, which we should share with other nations) to foreig^ners for
doing the work which should be done by American vessels, American
built, American owned, and American manned.
WHY BE HELPLESS WHEN WE MIGHT BE STRONG ?
(From a speech in Congress by Senator Frye.)
Why should we fear to resort to bounties and subsidies ? Why
should we pay $150,000,000 a year to foreign ships for carrying our
carg^oes ? Why should we carry our mails under a foreign flag ?
Why should every passenger who desires to sail from America
abroad be compelled to sail under a foreign flag ? Why should we,
with our immense wealth and our great power, our ship-yards and
mechanics, our enormous coast line, depend upon foreign nations to
do all of our foreign carrying business for us ? Why should we per-
mit them to pay subsidies, as England has for fifty years, and quietly
surrender the possession of all this business ? Why yield to Spain
and Germany and Italy and Holland and the Argentine Republic ?
ISSUE No. 6.
Are you in favor of a merchant
marine, do you wish to see the Stars
and Stripes restored to their old
place on the high seas, or are you
Avilling to have America remain
dependent on foreign ships for a
foreign trade ?
-3
THE GRAND OLD PARTY
IT IS TRUE TO THE FLAG.
MORE PENSIONS.
Thirty-Five Millions a Year Added t® the Pen-
sions Account.
Republican Pledges to Veterans Redeemed.
©¥T OF every five DOLLARS COLLECTED AS NATIONAL
REVENUE, TWO DOLLARS GO TO THE SOLDIERS
AND SAILORS WHO SAVED THE UNION
AND TO THEIR DEPENDENT
FAMILIES.
The Republican party in its last National Platform pro-
claimed this doctrine :
The leg-islation of Congress should conform to the pledges made
hy a loyal people, and be so enlarged and extended as to provide
against the possibilty that any man who honorably wore the Federal
Uniform shall become the inmate of an alms-house or dependent
upon private charity.
In harmony with this recommendation, which the people
indorsed, the Republican Congress and the Republican
President have placed an additional annual sum of
$35,000,000 to the credit of the pension fund for the benefit
of 250,000 just claimants whose names have until now been
absent from the rolls. The pensions of 50,006 men already
there are increased from $2 per month to $6. The pension
list is enlarged to include a total of 750,000 beneficiaries,
and a total of $150,000,000 per year is applied for their
relief. For the coming' year the iiovernment
will pay two dollars out of every five col-
lected for the maintenance of the infirm,
maimed and dependent heroes who off*ered
their lives in its defence. History contains no
instance of such a practical demonstration of gratitude on
the part of a nation to its soldiers and sailors ! This was
accomplished at every stage, as perhaps was only natural,
in the face of a violent, bitter, relentless Democratic oppo-
sition. The party which, in the eloquent words of George
William Curtis, the orator who now prostitutes his eloquence
to its service, * ' fell from power in a conspiracy against
human rights and now sneaks back into power in a con-
spiracy for plunder and spoil," — that party would naturally
starve the heroes who escaped its bullets. That it has failed
to do so is not the fault of its Congresses or its President.
24
ISSUE No. 7.
Do yovi wish the nation to keep its
promises to the men who kept its
flag aloft, or would you have it leave
them to the tender mercies of poor-
houses and private charity?
MORE NEW STATES.
The Dakotas, Montana and Washington Added to
THE Union.
Idaho and Wyoming Well Along on their Way.
Among the promises made by the Republicans in their
National council was one in favor of the prompt admission
of such Territories as were plainly ready to enter upon the
duties and obligations of statehood. This promise was
made at a time when the Dakotas, Montana and Washing-
ton were knocking at the door of a Democratic Congress,
and knocking in vain. The Republican Senate had voted
to admit them, but the Democratic House, for no reason in
the world but the utterly mean one that they were Repub-
lican communities, had shown a plain intention to keep
them and their lively, thriving affairs in the embarrass-
ments of territorial government. The conduct of the
Democratic Administration toward the far western terri-
tories afforded a most reckless and indecent exhibition of
partisanship. Everything that rulers could do to hinder
and oppress the ruled was done in these territories.
Settlers were robbed outright in many cases of the lands
they had earned, and in many others they were subjected
to big and little annoyances, the sum of which amounted
to a national outrage.
When the election of 1888 had occurred and a Republi-
can President and House had been chosen, some of the
Democratic members were wise enough to see that the
time had come to stop this sort of business unless they
wished to turn the entire West more than ever against their
party. A few of them then reversed their positions and
voted with the Republicans to admit the four new States.
President Harrison took office in time to extend his wel-
coming hand to the new States, and they are now admitted
** on equal terms with the original thirteen."
Two other Territories have been brought in by the pres-
ent Congress — Wyoming and Idaho, of course, against a
united Democratic opposition. Untaught by their earlier
lesson and unmoved by treaty pledges and considerations
of public duty, the Democracy stood stubbornly against
their admission, this time pretending that the conditions
imposed in their Constitutions upon Mormons were harsh.
The Republican party does not consider the
perpetuation of polygramy to be one of its
missions, and it fully endorsed the constitutional laws
under which their disfranchisement was accomplished.
Wyoming and Idaho came into the Union with masterful
resources and a sterling population. The Nation is to be
congratulated on their acquisition.
as
MORE SHIPS FOR THE NAVY.
The Republican Party Continues its Work of
National Defense.
The Republican party promised the people in 1888 that
it would proceed rapidly towards the rebuilding of the
Navy and the construction of works for the protection of
our harbors and great cities. Important steps have been
taken in the redemption of this pledge. Among the naval
appropriations passed by this Congress is one providing
$23,000,000 for the construction of three large battle ships,
one large cruiser, one small cruiser and one torpedo boat,
adding six fine ships to the new navy.
The sum of $4,232,935 has been appropriated for harbor
defences and fortifications ; for the purchase of torpedoes,
marine guns, mortar batteries and armaments ; for the
establishment of an American gun factory and for the
building and repairing of important fortifications.
These acts make a considerable progress in the line of
national safety.
SOME GENERAL LAWS.
Relieving Pressure in the Supreme Court. — A Blow
at the Lottery.
The act relieving the Supreme Court from the congestion
which has almost paralyzed it, by the establishment of an
intermediate court, is one of the most useful features of
Republican legislation. The difficulties under which the
Supreme Court have labored have amounted to a denial of
justice. It is now able to proceed with its business in a
rapid and orderly way.
Important too, for the honor, not less than the welfare of
the country, are the anti-lottery bills, which successfully
take the United States Post-Office out of the service of that
infamous institution known as the Louisiana State Lottery.
I
THE GRAND OLD PARTY.
IT IS TRUE TO THE FLAG.
THE RECORD MADE UR
And There Never Was a Better One Since Con-
gress First Began to Make History.
Briefly, and all too briefly, this is the record of the Re-
publican party in the House of Representatives during
nine months of the two years in which it must perform its
work. The history of this country, splendid as it is in the
passage of safe, wise and helpful legislation, contains no
example in times of peace of a session of Congress so re-
markable for good. Its work has been done quickly,
quietly, resolutely, and in the face of an opposition which
has been bitter and unscrupulous in an equal degree.
A hundred issues might be presented as a result of the
differences between the two parties developed during this
session of Congress. These are the paramount ones :
Shall Congress be a deliberative assembly
wherein public measures may be properly considered,
duly debated, and then, without waste of time, actually
voted upon ; and wherein the American principle of
" majority rule " shall be respected, or sliall it be a
mob, incompetent to act, powerless to carry out the pub-
lic v/ill, with a majority so overcome by its own rules that
it is dependent upon the minority for its authority and
power ?
Shall we allow the Capitol to be filled up
with men who obtain seats in Congress not as the re-
sult of a free ballot and a fair count, but by the forci-
ble suppression of franchise rights, by whole-
sale frauds, by murder, arson, brutality and other crimes ?
Shall we abandon the policy of Protection,
after all it has done for us, to enter upon a policy which
we have tested many times to our immediate, unfailing and
tremendous loss ?
Shall we again rob ourselves of the rewards
which have so richly come from the restoration of
silver, and once more play into the hands of foreigners
who have been for years buying our silver at low prices
and using it against us in the grain markets of the world ?
Shall w^e pay our money, $150,000,000 a year, to
build up the merchant marine of England, to increase her
strength upon the sea and her hold upon the foreign mar-
kets of the world, when we might as well as not be paying
it for our own advantage iu all of these re-
spects ?
27
Shall we keep our plighted faith to the loyal
men who offered their lives in defense of freedom and
union and to the protection of whose families from waiiiC
and misery we gave our word as a nation ?
These are the chief and the most sharply defined issues
upon which the country is asked to cast a deciding ballot
this fall. Every effort is being made to side-track them,
to envelope them in clouds and to carry the people away
from them here and there on false pretenses. The Demo-
crats start off in the next Congress, as usual, with thirty-
one stolen seats. They have that number of seats to
their credit without a campaign. By infamous gerry-
manders, especially in Ohio, Maryland, Kentucky and
Indiana, they expect to steal twenty -one oilier
seats. This gives them an immense advantage. To the
Republicans it is an awful handicap. But if the
intelligent, thoughtful and patriotic people
of the land will do their duty as citizens, if
they will stand sturdily by their guns, if
they will vote as they wish and think, the
result will be a glorious Kepublican victory
and a prompt and happy completion of the
work which President Harrison and this
Congress have carried forward so wisely and
so well.
September, 1890.
t28
^
lL^oo'),oi4.olU^^
^^
No man is good enough to
govern another without his
consent.
-ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
There is not a single elec-
tion precinct in all this broad
land where a Democrat may
not cast his vote in peace
and safety and have it count-
ed as cast. But there are
hundreds of precincts in
which it is as much as a
man's life is worth to appear
at the polls with a Repub-
lican ballot in his hands. If
this evil is not soon cured
what will become of free
government ?
-U. S. G-EANT.
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