| Show DEOCRACYto I A Glorious Event Last Night WILSON ON TARIFF A Telling and Eloquent Speech Loudly Cheered PROTECTION IDEAS PUNCTURED An Informal Banquet Follows at the Hotel Templcton Whore ilr Wilson Again Makes s Decided lilt Everything went with a cheer It was a rousing rally of the Democratic hosts and the enthusiasm was unbounded The men who had been chocking up the fires of Democratic seal and devotion for years burnt out into a great flame of enthusiasm en-thusiasm and the ringing cheers electrified the sodden hearts and repressed feeling with a glorious anthem of freedom as at the birth of a new day The confusion caused by frt announcing that the meeting was to be held at the exposition ex-position building and then changing it t the federal court room and at the last moment mo-ment deciding on the Electric Light hal did not prevent the people who had been famishing for a big draught of Democratic doctrine from finding their way though a I great many of the lukewarm and indifferent indiffer-ent no doubt fell by the wayside owing to the changes The Electric Light hal was none too big and the great audience tnat assembled seemed to be a unit Judging from the way they cheered and shouted the sentiments of the speech The great machinery rumbling rum-bling in the basement was soon drowned by the applause that must have shook the Tribune building and rang in the ears of the editor with an unmistakable meaning Othellos occupation gone ON THE PLATFORM were seated Frank Dyer Hon John T Caine Judge Judd Colonel Merritt Hon Parley L Williams Colonel Lett Prof Holdon Major Wilkes exPostmaster Bar ratt Dr Freeman Thomas Marsha and J L liawlins IK TUB AUDIENCE there were noticed the following prominent Democrats William Burke JYWallace K F Neslen Hon F S Richards C C Richards of Ogden Dr Pike ofProvo J H Moyle Mr Houtz of Provo J H Morten Police Judge Laney W Tan Cot Joseph Toronto City Treasurer Walden Wendell Bencon Mr Brigham Frank H Dyer was applauded as he moved among the audience arranging the preliminaries of the meeting In fact the audience was so surcharged with cheers that they lost no opportunity to open up their lungs and let out their hearts in ap pluuse The general good feeling could not but have impressed the few Republicans present pre-sent as a striking contrast to the bulldozing bulldoz-ing powwow that rent the Liberal garment gar-ment in twain on the previous evening TOE SPEAKER INTRODUCED Parley L Williams in introducing Congressman Con-gressman Wilson said On behalf of the Democratic club of Salt Lake City I wish to say that it is owing to the courtesy of the club that we are permitted to attend this meeting and listen to the eloquent speaker that will address us Utah has been a territory for nearly half of the constitutional con-stitutional existence of our country It is Denuding forward with the strength of a oung giant With an intelligent and resolute reso-lute people their attention Is being turned towards considerations of good government It is but natural that there should bo started in this city a Democratic club and that Democratic principles should secure a firm and abiding footing in Utah We have with us a man of national reputation a man who has taken a large hand in the affair of the government and has handled them in a masterly way I have the pleasure of introducing to you the Hon William L Wilson of West Virginia Congressman Wilson was greeted by prolonged cheering the great audience giving him such a welcome as made him feel that Democracy was already ready triumphant I assure you that I am glad to meet eo many of you here tonight and that I heartily appreciate your hearty welcome wel-come said the speaker with much feeling feel-ing It is encouraging to see such 1 large and enthusiastic gathering in what is an off year in politics A free people will have everywhere a free government It is the constant moulding into the very stamina of a people those great principles of freedom which must always be preserved pre-served When I first started out on this journey to the coast had no idea of speaking speak-ing at Salt Lake and yet I strike It at avery a-very interesting period of its history I am glad to be with you at such a time in your history Great applause ap-plause I look forward to the time when your patriotic and industrious people shall be admitted into the family of states and that Utah shall be admitted with L a full appreciation of free institutions Applause I there is any truth that > stands out uncontcstible it is that a free government is the hardest to maintain and the most complex of all governments to handle You might as well expect that men taken from tie street could handle the intricate machinery in this building as to expect that men taken from the common walks of life without any special training can deal with the great questions of government gov-ernment This great truth should always be kept in mind that the governmentwas made forman for-man and not man for the government Fellow citizens a trip across this country such as I have taken Is in itself a Democratic Demo-cratic education A free government must be made up of a selfgoverninp people and with a groat territory like yours it should be especially tho case What do I who live in Virginia know of the local affairs of the people of Washington or Utah 5 The government which deals with the citizens at long range is the citizens ma ter that g government which goes on immediately im-mediately under his eyes can be made and icpt his servant We say this is a peoples government and say rightly Applause Under our form of government territorial terri-torial government i an anomaly This tendency t concentrate power is a constant con-stant danger and against the idea of a government gov-ernment for and by the people We are a free people because we can hold our own elections Applause Democracy not only means the largest amount of local selfgovernment but it also guards against unjust taxation Selfgov ernment then in this country must always local and ways be largely government while no man today refuses to concede to the federal government perfect and uncontrolled uncon-trolled jurisdiction over all those matters that are common to the people of all this country to the people of West Virginia and the people of Utah it is one of the highest missions of the Democratic party today as it has been in all its history to resist first last and all the time the disposition dispo-sition to intermeddle through legislation sitoa Washington with the local affairs of the people In the several states and territories TIn roncn BILL Wo have just escaped in a Republican Congress a piece of legislation which soAr so-Ar nntralzintuower In the hands of the government and takitfg that power from tie people are concerned surpassed all that the old federalists in the heyday of their power ever dreamed of Applause I reler to that scheme which barely escaped being placed on the statute books to take from the people of this country everywhere the right to elect the only men you do elect connected with the federal government members of Congress and electors for President and to put their i election in the hands of the federal judges i You are a free people today because you have free elections because you hold your own elections and because you count your own votes because you commission with your own commission those you send to Washington to represent you in the House of Representatives and those whom you send to the electoral college to choose a President for you But under the pretext that somewhere in this country there might be an occasional I false election or a corrupt election the attempt at-tempt was made persistently and almost successfully t take from the people of the country their fundamental and rights tout p to-ut in the hands of the federal judges the right t appoint men to hold your elections to supervise them and to commission your representatives rm There is another danger to free government govern-ment that is always encroaching and always al-ways necessary to be watched and warded o ffthat is tho danger of taxation It is through the gateway of taxation that freedom or slavery comes to every people We are a free people because generations and centuries ago we learned that truth which seemed to be bidden from all the other people in the world Human history may be summed up almost in a single sentence sen-tence that in every country sooner or later some small portion of the people have got control of the groat power of taxation and used that power to enrich themselves and impoverish tho great masses of the people TIE POWER OF TAXATION I have found that the chief difficulty in getting the people to deal intelligently with the question of federal taxation has been that federal taxes are hidden from them You know how much taxes you pay to the territory and your county and your municipality but there is no man in this audience intelligent as it is that can get down tonight and figure out how much taxes he pays the United States government The Congress which died on the 4th day of last March appropriated during its existence a little more than 1000000000 There are in circulation in this countrygold silver and paper money of every kindabout 51500000000 Here then you have a single Congress that takes up 2 out of every 3 of the circulating medium of this country and expends it by its appropria appropra tions A billion of dollars expended in a single Congress I Where does the United States treasury get that money The United States government gov-ernment IB nothing but the servant of the people It is as much a pauper a that of California or that of your city Like Lit L-it has not a dollar to expend or appropriate except that it gets that dollar in some form of taxation from the people of tho United States The United States Is obliged to resort re-sort t a system of taxation which is infinitely in-finitely more grievous in its burdens and more oppressive in its results than that to which the state of California resorts I take it for granted that here with you as with us in the east you send round first an agent of the government to ascertain how much property a man has before you propose t tax him I he has much prop erty you tax him heavily I ho has little you tax him lightly WHERE THE BURDEN FALLS I You impose your taxes as a rule upon that property which a man has accumu lated stored up and put behind him so to speak and you mercifully spare that battle which every man has to fight every day with hunger and cold for the necessaries of life Into that fight the state mercifully declines to enter It is stte erclfuly declnes exactly ex-actly in that fight on the necessaries of life and labor and on the tools with which you labor that the United States flings the chief burden of taxation while it exempts all the accumulated property which a man has stored up and put behind him When you come to examine the details of our tariff system you will find that the United States throws its lightest burdens where they should be heaviest More than onetenth part of this billion or dollars appropriated ap-propriated by Mr Reeds congress came into tho treasury as the tax imposed by the United States on the single article of wool and the fabrics of clothing made from wool This necessary article of life necesasry to you who live in the equable climate of Utah necessary more t us who live in a solder climate supplies to the treasury of the United States more than onetenth of its ordinary expenditures That is not the worst of it When you come to tax this particular article of consumption con-sumption you place a tax heaviest where it should be lightest and you make your taxes lightest where they ought to be the heaviest Before the McKinley bill went into operation and it is worse sincethe amount which the government of tho United States exacted in taxes on SlO worth of broadcloth was something over So The amount which it exacted on 1 worth of common blue or wool cheviot cloth was 1070 The amount which it exacts in tariff taxes upon the commonest and cheapest all fabrics made from wool a cotton warp reversible stuff that the poor man was obliged to be contort with was over SIS on 10 worth of it The men that come t Washington and dictate the taxes that are to be imposed upon the people peo-ple of this country upon the things they make understand that taking your territory terri-tory through one man in a thousand wears broadcloth and the other 999 wear the cheviot chev-iot or the cotton warp Not more than one man in ten thousand in West Virginia wears it Laughter They are pursuing the 999 and they care not for the thousandth thou-sandth man Wherever you levy taxes with the idea of protecting some people and not under the idea of getting money for the government you are always forced to levy them in such a way a to catch thereat the-reat mass of the people and let the wealthier escape ONE HUNDRED TEARS AGO There was a proposition made 1 the First Congress 102 years ago to impose a tax of S cents on a gallon of molasses Three arguments were made against that that and chiefly from the New England states There were those who said and said truly Why molasses is an article of common consumption With a very large part of the people who labor for their living it is an article ar-ticle of dally diet Impose a tax of 8 cents a gallon on molasses and you throw on these people more than their share ot the burdens tax bur-dens of government I is too heavy a a taxThere There were others who said Why I molasses is the raw material of an important import-ant New England industry in which capital capi-tal finds profitable investment and labor finds constant employment I you lay this heavy tax on that raw material you diminish dimin-ish the opportunities of capital and you diminish the opportunities of labor at the same time There was another set from New England En-gland who said We trade the fish that we catch for molasses Keep out molasses and you keep in our fish and then you strike a blow at another important New England industry which capital and labor both suit find to be profitable for their pur suitIt It seems to me in that single argument was embraced almost the entire subject of this tariff discussion The questions to be considered with reference to every tax are First Is it a burdensome tax J Boca It throw too much of the burdens of supporting support-ing tho government on 0 particular class of people l Secondly Is i a tax on the raw material mate-rial of soma flourishing American industry indus-try and will taxing it diminish the profits of that industry and necessarily curtail its production 1 Thirdly Is i an article for which today to-day wo find a profitable exchange for some other flourishing American industry and will the keeping out of that article overwhelm over-whelm try J and destroy that American Indus TINPLATE FOR EXAMPLE I am going to take as an illustration that common and plebeian article tinplate Tinplate Tin-plate is made by dipping the thin sheets of iron with some cleansing process connected with its manufacture and then dipping them into molten tin For Generations it has been made largely i not chiefly by the people peo-ple of Wales men women and children a business or a trade transmitted from father to son and frommother daughter made I therefore with a skill and knowledge that comes from a long pursuance of one trade or calling The people of Wales havehere tofore boon willing t sell us laid down in Baltimore tinplate of the commonest sort for 3 cents a pound boxed cut and freight paid The government has heretofore arrested ar-rested that tin in the custom house and imposed im-posed a tax of 1 cent per poundon it making mak-ing it cost the first purchaser 4 cents a pound 3 cents worth of tin 1 cents worth of government tax 4 cents to the purchaser and that 1 cent of tax carrying into the treasury of the United States 3000000 Some of our friends who are always looking out for opportunities to tax the people of this country saw i they could get the opportunity of selling tin plate to the American people there would be almost incalculable profit in it BO they came to Washington and and said to Major McKinley and the gentlemen associated with him in the preparation of the last tariff bill We cannot make tin plate at 3 cents pound and sell it to the people of this country We cannotmake profitably at 4 cents but i you will run the price up to 5 cents we will build plants and go into the manufacture of tin plato and supply the American market I a California farmerold man Biggs we will say for instance in-stance had come down there and said to Major McKinley I cannot raise wheat at 75 cents a bushel and I want you to raise the price to 1 a bushel Major McKinley would probably have sent for the chief of police and told him to take Major Biggs to the insane asylum But when the gentle came there and said We want you to raise the price of tin plate to 5 cents he took the tariff bill and wrote into it that after the 1st of July next the tariff upon tin should be 310 cents per pound Supposing Suppos-ing tin continues to come into the country from Wales at 3 cents per pound laid down in New York 2 210 added for taxthe first cost to the consumer will be 5 210 cents per pound Throw off that 210 and I the 2 cents will carry Into the treasury 10000000 annually in the place of tho 3000000 that wont in heretofore THE OBJECT OF TIE TAX But the object of this tax is not t get 16000000 into the treasury but to raise the price of foreign tin plate and keep it out of the market for the benefit of those i who will manufacture the plate in this I country and to put the 10000000 into their pockets Cheers What are the arguments by which my friends McKinley and McKenna attempt to support that tax They say I we establish estab-lish a tinplate plant in this country wo will give employment to 20000 or 30000 laborers Have wo in this now fresh country yet in tin making reached that point whore the government is obliged t atep in to make work for the people Louis Napoleon standing above that volcano that finally burst and drove the empire into fragments used to make work in Paris to put down the discontent of the Paris commune Let the government of the United States takeoff take-off its heavy foot of taxation and industries will spring up everywhere Cheers Every American laborer who wants work can find work and that without begging for it Suppose by building up this tinplate tin-plate industry you make work for 30000 You are taking those 30000 from work in which they are supporting themselves and L putting them into a work that is going to cost the consumers of tinplate an extra 16000000 to support them You had better bet-ter bring thorn here and board them at the ther Hotel Templeton and other hotels and buy your tin plate at three cents a pound I will not give employment t as many men as they suggest TO BENEFIT MACHINERY ALONE And you are not going to get it One of the very first things that we do in this country especially in the protected industries indus-tries is to invent a machine to take the place of tho man Tho man is a little trou blesome He demands higher wages than they are willing to give and when they have beaten him down they for cry a machine ma-chine to take his placo and labor for them Go through the protected industries and in a great measure you will find not American can labor not flesh and blood but iron steam and electricity So true is this that believe that tho remark made by Senator Turpie of In of diana in debating the McKinley billnearly represents the condition in this country to day You talk of levying these taxes to protect American labor the labor you are really protecting is the labor of the piston rod and the drivingwheel and the sweat you are protecting is the sweat of the tubu lar boiler and the steam guage Another argument was We will es tablish the tinplato plant by these heavy protective taxes we will get it fairly on its feet and then you can depend upon American L can genius and enterprise to bring down the price and through competition the prco compettion people peo-ple will get the tinplate as cheaply from Pittsburgh and Wheeling as they get it i from Wales There was 110 much truth in that argument that five or six years ago I should have been compelled to admit that it had somu force and that when the tinplate factories were established in this country the people would get the benefit of ail economies in a reduction of price THE INEVITABLE TRUST For the last four or five years those who have gone into those industries have learned something that entirely disposes of that argument The manufacture of tin plate i it is ever started in this country will not be made by a man and his family or by the master and his workmen but it will be made just as steel rails are made today by five or six great corporations by five or six great plants The very moment that those people find that they have commenced com-menced to manufacture tin plate cheaper than 5 cents a pound and are beating against each other for tho custom of tho people they will meet around a little table in Pittsburgh or Wheeling and there will be something on that table containing something different from the liquid in this I pitcher they will say to each other Why should cut each we others throats by competing com-peting againit each other Let us form a tin trust loud applause and between two successive draughts of champagne by a little piece of writing not longer than my hand they can vest the capital stock of those five six or seven corporations in a board of trustees which instantly becomes in law the owner of all the tin establish in the ments country They will say to this one Shut down and discharge your hands lt that Cone Run disehargo timo and there will be one manufacturer of tinplate tin-plate in the country freed by the government govern-ment from foreign competition and freed by combinations from all home competition AVHAT EXCHANGE MEANS Then they say We send abroad thirty five millions of dollars Let us keep that money at home I you look atthe reports of the United States treasury YOU will find that ordinarily unless there i some great financial disturbance over someugreat little bit of money trickles out of tho country and trickles into the country and striking the average of ten years it about balances itself How do we pay for the tinplate tin-plate that we get Not in money nor in gold nor in silver but in the surplus pro ducts of the farmers of Utah and elsewhere Great applause We have a population of 63000000 of people and we produce wheat for 100000000 dairy products for over 70 000000 and meat for over 80000000 So with all the great staple products Unless we can find the extra millions outside the country to consume our meats and farm products they come backward on the farmers farm-ers hands the price of wheat goes down and the mortgage goes on the farms of Utah of UtahWhere Where you keep out of this country twentyfive millions worth of tin you keep back in this country twentyfive millions worth of tie farmers products and while you are providing employment for 20000 or 30000 people in tho manufacture of tinplate tn plato you are throwing out of employment quite as many in the profitable production of the farm supplies that we exchange for the tin plate TINS INDUSTRIAL USES Moreover tin plate is today as you know one of the commonest articles of use I is the raw material of many kinds of American industries In the east east whero timber is scarce we cover our houses with tin plate The kitchens are provided with tin plate Wo have had an idea over there that you use nothing but silver and gold in Utah but we In West Virginia use tin plates In a thousand industrial uses it is employed em-ployed I is a wrapper in which a large and increasing part of the food of the peo pie of this country Is brought t them We enjoy the fruits and the vegetables of every part of the United States We enjoy en-joy in winter the luxuries of summer and I in summer the products of winter brought to us in wrappers made ot tin plate J have learned by careful inquiry that in inquir the little state of Maryland there are today to-day 70000 people who find employment in connection with the great canning industries indus-tries The corn of geat cornfields the peaches of her eastern shores and other fruits and the incomparable oysters and fish of Chesapeake bay are canned and sent all over this country and the world When you put into that product an additional addi-tional tax of 22lOc per pound you are narrowing the market both home and abroad for the great canning industry of the country and you are laying the foundation foun-dation for a great tin trust that with its capital of 130000000 or 40000000 will enter the political arena of this country ple and make another great force for the peo J GLANCE AT ENGLAND We have tried this protective system and the scheme of the government of taking a certain part of the people into partnership with it tolevy taxes upon the great masses of the people I take it for granted that I am addressing people who work with their hands and in this audience there are many who belong to the great labor organizations of the country I ask all of you to look over > this United States and if you are sat sfied with the result of twentyfive years of protection you ought to rally to the standard of that organization that stands organizaton for the maintenance of this system of taxation tax-ation But i your eyes nee as I think my eyes see wealth accumulating and massing steadily from you to the hands of a small number of people while the great mass of the people are engaged in a struggle for the necessaries of life I say you ought to rally I to the opposition to this system that pro duces these Inequalities The report of the English chancellor of the exchequerMr Goschenshows that the great incomes of England have not increased in-creased in number or amount that there has been a moderate increase of moderate incomes while down at the bottom the incomes in-comes that represent comfortable living I have been increasing under the operation of the great forces of science and invention In other words these great forces have been put beneath society to lift it up I am tempted to agree with Henry George applause that in the United States this great industrial revolution is not for the purpose of the general elevation of mankind man-kind but is as wedce driven in near the top of society to raise the favored few and people beat down the great mass of the American EVILS OF CLASS GOVERNMENT When they come to talk to you in defense de-fense of this system of enriching the few by taxing ourselves they say Look at England with her pauper labor and Germany Ger-many and France If wo do not maintain this system of tariff taxation we shall sink to the level of pauper England pauper Germany and France What are these countries with which they compare us I said a ride across this continent was a good education I donot know the sizo of Utah but it is about as big as England TiE LAND OF OPPORTUNITIES With our democratic institutions no child can be born so humble so beset with difficulties but i desired to go upwards the ladder of opportunity reached to him and he could rise to be just what he desired de-sired to be under free government Andrew An-drew Jackson one time worked at the saddlers sad-dlers bench I he had done so in Eng land France or Germany his children i he had any and his grandchildren and his groat grandchildren might have worked at the saddlers bench for all timo to come Fillmore worked at the weavers loom Andrew An-drew Johnson worked at the tailors bench Garfield drove the mules on the canal boat and in one of the humblest cabins of Kentucky Ken-tucky with its battened windows was born Abraham Lincoln Every ono of these men in other countries would havo remained in the condition of life in which they were born No talent virtue ambition or effort would have lifted tem to high position in other countries of the world but with us under democratic institutions the pathway was open and they were bid go forward and be just what they deserved to be I fight against the system of tariff taxation taxa-tion because it is massing the money of this country in the hands of a small part of its citizens but I fight against it with infinite more enthusiasm zest and determination because it is massing the opportunities of this great free country into the hands of a few and a favored class because it is taking from the boys that cluster around every fireside their opportunities in life that the Democralcfatbers kept for Jackson Johnson John-son Fillmore Lincoln and for me The speaker closed his eloquent address by appealing to tho Democrats to stand for local selfgovernment and as he concluded the applause was bewildering The Democratic club was cheered the Democratic party came in for a rousing sendoff send-off and the audience lingered at the hal for some time shaking hands and partaking in a general love feast |
