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Show WILLIAM'S SPEECH. H A careful reading which is pretty hard work WM of the speech of the Hon J S Williams, in no- M tifying Mr Davis of his nomination, shows H that it was, after all, but an attempt, fl in irony, to expose the falacies of a fl protective tariff and to denounce the methods WM of Republican leaders, the more especially, the M President. The Constitution of the dead Confed- . H eracy was once more uplifted from the mould 19 of its sepulchre, fumigated, polished and die- H played as a real thing of beauty and a joy to ' ; H the Democratic heart forever. The brilliant speaker did not, evidently, express all he felt; t jH he failed to fasten upon his speech the charm H m H i i which he felt in preparing it and It fell well-nigh SLl i still born. And justly bo, because while attempt- Hp ! ing to prr . aim a pure Democracy, he but re- WBi vealed his own innate or hereditary prejudices Hgj I and gave away the fact that he would rather pay H I l 20 per cent more to ail Englishman for an article Hfi than a Yankee would sell it to khn for. He made Hi clear, too, the truth that he does not yet under- B 1 1 ' i stand the real functions of real money and its of- Bj i fects upon values and people. Ho was formerly Hi a good silver man and explained that silver must B) , be restored in order to Increase the volume of E: ,' ' money and in that way stop falling prices, but B ji ' when a tariff is proposed, or a ship subsidy which Bj ' Is but a tariff In another form, though it is clear B , that the effect would be the retaining in this B country of vast amounts of money which other- B wise would go abroad, his first thought is: "The B monied men of the North would take advantage B of this and start industries out of which they B might clear 10 per cent per annum." And after B that ho ceases to reason. He has not yet brought B any part of the Republic north of the Ohio Bj river within the field of his vision. He takes B i great pride in the thought that free trade is gon- Hjjji i eral throughout this Republic, that there are no IK ' custom houses on the borders of states, and for- B gets that it was that hated Federalist, Alexander B Hamilton, who brought that about, that his B thought was to discriminate between the great B family of Americans and the outside world; the fl reason being that what was good for one mem- B ber of the family was good for all, especially when IB the burden of supporting and defending the fam- B ily was assessed equally upon all. He tells how B when the states were colonies they flourished un- B der free trade. They did not flourish, they moro- B ly lived and were exceedingly poor, and Great Wtm Britain kent all her colonies on the verge of banlc- flBifJ'f ruptcy until tlioy one by one levied a tariff BIm against outside wares. H ,! Mr. Williams remembers the fight that he and H his party made against the tariff on tin plate. H That was only fourteen years ago At that time B we were receiving nearly 400,0000 tons of tin H plate from Wales. That has been reduced to 60,- H 000 tons, our own factories are turning out 700,000 H tons, giving 100,000 working men remunerative H employment and saving to our country $20,000,000 H per annum which was formerly sent away, and H still the nrico has not been advanced. H Mr. Williams' covert assault upon the Presl- H dent will not greatly disturb either the President H or the country. His attempt to picture him as a H would-be war lord, always anxious for war, al- HB ways thirsting for military renown, has no baclc- HB ing in the record of Theodore Roosevelt since he H became President. That he has shown that he m would maintain the Monroe Doctrine, that he K would enforce the manifest rights of his country m and countrymen in Morocco, in Turkey, In China m all around the big world, does not lessen the B respect of the American people for him. As for m his usurpations and meddling, he certainly has B ; never called Congress In extraordinary session B and demanded that they make of no account one B j plank in the platform on which he was elected. B i The whole tenor of the speech of Mr. Williams WM ' was that of a man knawing a file. The only symp- Bf torn of warm feeling in the speech in where he B melts in sympathy over the woes, of the alien B murderers in Colorado who have made a hell of a B part of that state for a year past. He must have B been vexed at the spectacle of the venerable, but B hale old man whom he was addressing, who stood B , before him the Hying image of what a man trained B i , to labor and to think can accomplish in this free BB ,' land of ours' |
