of the plantation. The Republican party is of necessity, as it ever has been, the instrument by which the millions of wage-earners and of business men have defended and promoted their interests. The North tests every question of money by the needs of the wage-earners and the business men. For more than thirty years they have been perpetually assailed and often imperilled by the theories and crazy notions of the Democratic party, never more unreasoning or more dangerous than now, when it has gone mad over free coinage of silver. To intrust power to such a party was the height of folly in 1892, when its destructive capacity had not been tested. To-day it would be for wage-earners and business men an act of impossible madness.

CHAPTER XIV.

SOME VIEWS ON PUBLIC QUESTIONS.

Humorous speeches-The feeder of Great Britain-A leap in the dark-Give the officials scope-Importance of agriculture— Arbitration-Respect and retrospect-Let England take care of herself.

IT

T will be interesting to quote a few paragraphs from the humorous speeches made by Governor McKinley. In support of the tariff commission in 1882 he aroused the attention of the country, and indicated to old politicians that a new force was arising in national politics, and that it was well to watch the career of William McKinley. In the House he said then :

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'Who has demanded a tariff for revenue only, such as is advocated by our friends on the other side? What portion of our citizens? What part of our population? Not the agriculturist; not the laborer; not the mechanic; not the manufacturer; not a petition before us, to my knowledge, asking for an adjustment of tariff rates to a revenue basis. England wants it, demands it-not for our good, but hers; for she is more anxious to main

tain her old position of supremacy than she is to promote the interests and welfare of the people of this republic, and a great party in this country voices her interests. Our tariffs interfere with her profits. They keep at home what she wants. We are independent of her; not she of us. She would have America the feeder of Great Britain, or, as Lord Sheffield put it, she would be 'the monopoly of our consumption and the carriage of our produce.' She would manufacture for us, and permit us to raise wheat and corn for her. We are satisfied to do the latter, but unwilling to concede to her the monopoly of the former.

"Manufacturers, farmers, laboring men, indeed all the industrial classes in the United States, are severally and jointly interested in the maintenance of the present or a better tariff law which shall recognize in all its force the protection of American producers and American productions. Our first duty is to our own citizens.

"Free trade may be suitable to Great Britain and its peculiar social and political structure, but it has no place in this republic, where classes are unknown, and where caste has long since been banished; where equality is a rule; where labor is dignified and honorable; where education and improvement are the individual striving of every citizen, no matter what may be the accident of his birth, or the poverty of his early surroundings. Here the mechanic of to-day is the manufacturer of a few years hence. Under

such conditions, free trade can have no abiding place here. We are doing very well; no other nation has done better, or makes a better showing in the world's balance sheet. We ought to be satisfied with the progress thus far made, and contented with our outlook for the future. We know what we have done and what we can do under the policy of protection. We have had some experience with a revenue tariff, which neither inspires hope, nor courage, nor confidence. Our own history condemns the policy we oppose, and it is the best vindication of the policy which we advocate. It needs no other. It furnished us in part the money to prosecute the war for the Union to a successful termination; it has assisted largely in furnishing the revenue to meet our great public expenditures and diminish with unparalleled rapidity our great national debt; it has contributed in securing to us an unexampled credit; it has developed the resources of the country and quickened the energies of our people; it has made us what the nation should be, independent and self-reliant; it has made us industrious in peace, and secured us independence in war; and we find ourselves in the beginning of the second century of the republic without a superior in industrial arts, without an equal in commercial prosperity, with a sound financial system, with an overflowing treasury, blest at home and at peace with all mankind. Shall we reverse the policy which has rewarded us with such magnificent results? Shall we abandon the policy which pursued for twenty

years, has produced such unparalleled growth and prosperity ?"

The Morrison tariff bill, which proposed a horizontal reduction of the Act of 1883, was under discussion in the House on April 30th, 1884, and in closing his speech in opposition, Representative McKinley said in conclusion:

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'Every one of the leading industries of this country will be injuriously affected by this proposed change, and no man can predict the extent of it. The producers of cottons and woolens, of iron, steel, and glass, must suffer disastrously if this bill is enacted into law; and the proprietors of these establishments are neither robbers nor highwaymen, as the freetraders love to characterize them. They have been real benefactors, and while some of them have grown opulent, in the main they do not represent the rich classes of the country. Their entire capital is in active employment. Many of them are large borYour proposed action will affect the values of their plants, unless except for the purposes employed, will diminish the value of their invested capital, will decrease their sales and the ability of their customers to buy, and in many cases result in total overthrow and bankruptcy. You can do this,

rowers.

if

you will. You have the power in this House to accomplish this great wrong; but let me beg you to pause before you commence the work of destroying a great economic system under which the country has grown and prospered far in advance of every