twenty millions of it. During the Civil War our customs receipts and
our receipts from internal taxes, which last had brought under tribute
almost every pursuit in life, were inadequate to the great drain
upon our Treasury caused by the Civil War. Our Congress, exercising
one of the powers of the Constitution, levied a direct tax upon the
States. Ohio paid her part of it, Indiana paid hers, and so did the
other loyal States. The Southern States were in rebellion and did
not pay theirs. Now we have come to a time when the Government has
surplus money, and the proposition was made in Congress to return this
tax to the States that had paid it. [Applause.] The State of Indiana
would have received one million dollars, which my fellow-citizens of
this State know would have been a great relief to our taxpayers in
the present depleted condition of our treasury. [Cheers.] I do not
recall the exact amount Ohio would have received, but it was much
larger. If any one asks, Why repay this tax? this illustration will
be a sufficient answer: Suppose five men are associated in a business
corporation. The corporation suffers losses and its capital is
impaired. An assessment becomes necessary, and three members pay their
assessments while two do not. The corporation is again prosperous and
there is a surplus of money in the treasury. What shall be done with
it? Manifestly, justice requires that the two delinquents should pay
up or that there should be returned to the other three the assessment
levied upon them. [Great cheering.] A bill providing for the repayment
of the tax was killed in the House of Representatives, not by voting
it down, but by filibustering, a majority of the House being in favor
of its passage. And those who defeated the bill by those revolutionary
tactics were largely from the States that had not paid the tax.
[Cheers.] I mention these facts to show that twenty millions of the
surplus now lying in the banks, where it draws no interest, might
very righteously be used so as to greatly lighten the real burdens
of taxation now resting on the people--burdens that the people know
to be taxes without any argument from our statesmen. [Applause and
laughter.] I am a lover of silence [laughter], and yet when such
assemblies as these greet me with their kind, earnest faces and their
kinder words, I do not know how I can do less than to say a few words
upon some of these great public questions. I have spoken frankly and
fearlessly my convictions upon these questions. [Cheers and cries of
"Good! Good!"] And now, unappalled by the immensity of this audience,
I will complete the accustomed programme and take by the hand such of
you as desire to meet me personally. [Cheers.]
INDIANAPOLIS, SEPTEMBER 27.
General Harrison's visitors this day came from Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Hancock and Allen counties, Ohio, sent over a thousand, including
the Harrison and Morton Battalion of Lima, commanded by Capt. Martin
Atmer, and the Republican Veteran Club of Findlay, Rev. R. H. Holliday,
President. The Chief Marshal of the combined delegations was Major S. F.
Ellis, of Lima, hero of the forlorn hope storming column which carried
the intrenchments at Port Hudson, La., June 15, 1863. Prominent members
of the Allen County delegation were Hon. Geo. Hall, Geo. P. Waldorf, S.
S. Wheeler, J. F. Price, W. A. Campbell, J. J. Marks, and Burt Hagedorn.
Major S. M. Jones was spokesman for the visitors.
General Harrison, with his usual vigor, replied:
_Gentlemen and my Ohio Friends_--The State of my nativity has again
placed me under obligations by this new evidence of the respect of her
people. I am glad to meet you and to notice in the kind and interested
faces into which I look a confirmation of the cordial remarks which
have been addressed to me on your behalf. You each feel a personal
interest and, I trust, a personal responsibility in this campaign.
The interest which expresses itself only in public demonstrations is
not of the highest value. The citizen who really believes that this
election will either give a fresh impulse to the career of prosperity
and honor in which our Nation has walked since the war, or will clog
and retard that progress, comes far short of his duty if he does not
in his own place as a citizen make his influence felt for the truth
upon those who are near him. [Applause.] You come from a community
that has recently awakened to the fact that beneath the soil which
has long yielded bounteous harvests to your farmers there was stored
by nature a great and new source of wealth. You, in common with
neighboring communities in Ohio and with other communities in our
State, have only partially realized as yet the increase in wealth
that oil and natural gas will bring to them, if it is not checked by
destructive changes in our tariff policy. This fact should quicken and
intensify the interest of these communities in this contest for the
preservation of the American system of protection. [Applause.]
It is said by some of our opponents that a protective tariff has
no influence upon wages; that labor in the United States has nothing
to fear from the competition from pauper labor; that in the contest
between pauper labor and high priced labor pauper labor was always
driven out. Do such statements as these fall in line with experiences
of these workingmen who are before me? [Cries of "No, no!"] If that
is true, then why the legislative precautions we have wisely taken
against the coming of pauper labor to our shores? It is because
you know, every one of you, that in a contest between two rival
establishments here, or between two rival countries, that that shop
or that country that pays the lowest wages--and so produces most
cheaply--can command the market. If the products of foreign mills
that pay low wages are admitted here without discriminating duties,
you know there is only one way to meet such competition, and that
is by reducing wages in our mills. [Applause.] They seek to entice
you by the suggestion that you can wear cheaper clothing when free
access is given to the products of foreign woollen mills; and yet
they mention also that now, in some of our own cities, the men, and
especially the women, who are manufacturing the garments we wear
are not getting adequate wages, and that among some of them there
is suffering. Do they hope that when the coat is made cheaper the
wages of the man or woman who makes it will be increased? The power
of your labor organizations to secure increased wages is greatest
when there is a large demand for the product you are making at fair
prices. You do not strike for better wages on a falling market. When
the mills are running full time, when there is a full demand at good
prices for the product of your toil, and when warehouses are empty,
then your organization may effectively insist upon increased wages.
Did any of you ever see one of the organized efforts for better wages
succeed when the mill was running on half time, and there was a small
demand at falling prices in the market for the product? [Applause.]
The protective system works with your labor organization to secure
and maintain a just compensation for labor. Whenever it becomes
true--as it is in some other countries--that the workingman spends
to-day what he will earn to-morrow, then your labor organizations
will lose their power. Then the workman becomes in very fact a part
of the machine he operates. He cannot leave it, for he has eaten
to-day bread that he is to earn to-morrow. But when he eats to-day
bread that he earned last week or last year, then he may successfully
resist any unfair exactions. [Applause.] I do not say that we have
here an ideal condition. I do not deny that in connection with some
of our employments the conditions of life are hard. But the practical
question is this: Is not the condition of our working people on the
average comparatively a great deal better than that of any other
country? [Applause and cries of "Good! Good!"]
If it is, then you will carefully scan all these suggestions before
you consent that the work of foreign workmen shall supply our market,
now supplied by the products of the hands of American workmen. I thank
you again. The day is threatening and cool, and I beg you to excuse
further public speech. [Applause.]
At night 200 Pennsylvanians, who came to Indiana to aid in developing
the natural gas industry, called upon General Harrison at his residence,
under the direction of a committee composed of Capt. J. C. Gibney, J.
B. Wheeler, and Geo. A. Richards. Their spokesman was Wm. McElwaine, a
fellow-workman.
General Harrison addressed them and said:
_Gentlemen_--It is very pleasant for me to meet you to-night in
my own home. The more informal my intercourse can be made with my
fellow-citizens the more agreeable it is to me. To you, and all others
who will come informally to my home, I will give a hearty greeting. I
am glad to see these representatives from the State of Pennsylvania
whose business pursuits have called them to make their home with us
in Indiana. The State of Pennsylvania has a special interest for me
in the fact that it was the native State of a mother who, though
nearly forty years dead, still lives affectionately in my memory. I
welcome you here to this State as those who come to settle among us
under new conditions of industrial and domestic life, to bring into
our factories and our homes this new fuel from which we hope so much,
not only in the promotion of domestic comfort and economy, but in
the advancement of our manufacturing institutions. Your calling is
one requiring high skill and intelligence and great fidelity. The
agent with which you deal is an admirable servant but a dangerous
master, and through carelessness may bring a peril instead of a
blessing into our households and into our communities. I am glad that
Indiana, so long drained upon by the States west of the Mississippi,
has at last felt in your coming from that stanch, magnificent
Republican commonwealth some restoration of this drain, which has
made the struggle for Republican success in Indiana doubtful in our
previous elections. It is time some of the States east of us, having
such majorities as Pennsylvania, were contributing not only to our
business enterprise and prosperity, but to the strengthening of the
Republican ranks, which have been depleted by the invitations which
the agricultural States of the West have extended to our enterprising
young men. I welcome your here to-night, and will be glad to have a
personal introduction to each of you. [Applause.]
INDIANAPOLIS, SEPTEMBER 29.
Ohio and Illinois did honor this day again to the Republican nominee.
From Cleveland came 800 voters; their organizations were the Harrison
Boys in Blue--200 veterans of the Civil War--commanded by Gen. James
Barnett; the Garfield Club, led by Thomas R. Whitehead and Albert M.
Long; the Logan Club, headed by Capt. W. R. Isham, and the German
Central Club. Prominent in the delegation were Hon. Amos Townsend, John
Gibson, and Major Palmer, the blind orator. Gen. E. Myers spoke for the
Buckeyes. The city of Normal, McLean County, Illinois, sent a delegation
of 200 teachers and students of the State Normal School, including 70
ladies. Student William Galbraith spoke for his associates.
General Harrison, in response, said:
_Gentlemen and Friends_--The organizations represented here this
morning have for me each an individual interest. Each is suggestive of
a line of thought which _I_ should be glad to follow, but I cannot, in
the few moments that I can speak to you in this chilly atmosphere, say
all that the names and character of your respective clubs suggest as
appropriate. I welcome those comrades in the Union army in the Civil
War. [Cheers.]
Death wrought its work in ghastly form in those years when,
patiently, fearlessly, and hopefully, you carried the flag to the
front and brought it at last in triumph to the Nation's capital.
[Cheers.] Death, since, in its gentler forms, has been coming into
the households where the veterans that were spared from shot and
shell abide. The muster-roll of the living is growing shorter. The
larger company is being rapidly recruited. You live not alone in the
memories of the war. Your presence here attests that, as citizens, you
feel the importance of these civil strifes. You recall the incidents
of the great war, not in malice, not to stir or revive sectional
divisions, or to re-mark sectional lines, but because you believe
that it is good for the Nation that loyalty to the flag and heroism
in its defence should be remembered and honored. [Cheers.] There is
not a veteran here, in this Republican Club of veterans, who does not
desire that the streams of prosperity in the Southern States should
run bank-full. [Cheers.]
There is not one who does not sympathize with her plague-stricken
communities, and rejoice in every new evidence of her industrial
development. The Union veterans have never sought to impose hard
conditions upon the brave men they vanquished. The generous terms of
surrender given by General Grant were not alone expressions of his
own brave, magnanimous nature. The hearts of soldiers who carried
the gun and the knapsack in his victorious army were as generous as
his. You were glad to accept the renewal of the Confederate soldier's
allegiance to the flag as the happy end of all strife; willing that he
should possess the equal protection and power of a citizenship that
you had preserved for yourselves and secured to him. [Cheers.] You
have only asked--and you may confidently submit to the judgment of
every brave Confederate soldier whether the terms are not fair--that
the veteran of the Union army shall have, as a voter, an equal
influence in the affairs of the country that was saved by him for
both with the man who fought against the flag, and that soldiers of
neither army shall abridge the rights of others under the law. [Great
cheering.] Less than that you cannot accept with honor; less than that
a generous foe would not consent to offer.
To the gentlemen of the John A. Logan Club let me say: You have
chosen a worthy name for your organization. Patriot, soldier, and
statesman, Logan's memory will live in the affectionate admiration of
his comrades and in the respect of all his opponents. His home State
was Illinois, but his achievements were national.
To these German-American Republicans I give a most cordial welcome.
You have been known in our politics as a people well informed upon all
the great economic questions that have arisen for settlement. You have
always been faithful to an honest currency. [Cheers.] The enticements
of depreciated money did not win you from sound principle. You bravely
stood for a paper currency that should be the true equivalent of coin.
[Cries of "Good! Good!"] Those who, like your people, have learned
the lessons of thrift and economy in your old-country homes, and
have brought them here with you, realized that above all things the
laborer needed honest money that would not shrink in his hands when
it had paid him for an honest day's toil. And now, when another great
economic question is pressing for determination, I do not doubt that
you will as wisely and as resolutely help to settle that also.
As the great German chancellor, that student of human government
and affairs, turning his thoughtful study toward the history of
our country since the war, has declared that in his judgment our
protective tariff system was the source of our strength, that by
reason of it we were able to deal with a war debt that seemed to be
appalling and insurmountable, I do not doubt that you, too, men who
believe in work and in thrift, and so many of whom are everywhere
sheltered under a roof of their own, will unite with us in this
struggle to preserve our American market for our own workingmen, and
to maintain here a living standard of wages. [Cheers.]
To these students who come fresh from the class-room to give me a
greeting this morning I also return my sincere thanks. I suggest to
them that they be not only students of books and maxims, but also of
men and markets; that in the study of the tariff question they do not
forget, as so many do, that they are Americans.
I thank you all again for your visit. I regret that I am not able
to give you, in my own home, a personal and more cordial greeting. My
house is not large enough to receive you. [A voice, "Your heart is!"]
Yes, I have room enough in my heart for all. [Great cheering.] I am
very sincerely grateful for these evidences of your personal regard.
Out of them all; out of the coming of these frequent and enthusiastic
crowds of my fellow-citizens; out of all these kind words; out of
these kind faces of men and women; out of the hearty "God-speeds" you
give me, I hope to bring an inspiration and an endowment for whatever
may be before me in life, whether I shall walk in private or public
paths. [Great cheering.]
The largest delegation of the day, numbering over a thousand business
men, arrived from Chicago, after stopping _en route_ at several
important points, where their orators, Gen. H. H. Thomas, George
Drigg, and Judge John W. Green, made speeches. Their notable political
organizations were the First Tippecanoe Club of Chicago, 100 veterans
of 1840, led by Dr. D. S. Smith; the Logan Club, and the Twelfth Ward
Republican Club, led by Charles Catlin, E. S. Taylor, Wm. Wilkes, and
Joseph Dixon. Judge Green and Dr. Smith delivered addresses.
General Harrison, responding, said:
_My Illinois Friends_--It is a source of great regret to me that
we are not able to make your reception more comfortable. The chill
of this September evening and of this open grove is not suggestive
of the hospitable and cordial welcome that our people would have
been glad to extend to you. Our excuse for this time may be found
in the vastness of this assemblage. I am pleased to have this fresh
and imposing evidence of the enthusiasm and interest of the Illinois
Republicans. [Cheers.] There is nothing in the great history of
the Republican party that need make any man blush to own himself a
Republican. [Cheers.] There is much to kindle the enthusiasm of all
lovers of their country. We do not rest in the past, but we rejoice in
it. [Cheers.] The Republican party has so consistently followed the
teachings of those great Americans whose names the world reveres that
we may appropriately hold a Republican convention on the birthday of
any one of them. [Cheers.] The calendar of our political saints does
not omit one name that was conspicuous in peace or war. [Cheers.] We
can celebrate Jackson's birthday or the anniversary of the battle of
New Orleans because he stood for the unity of the Nation, and his
victory confirmed it in the respect of the world. [Great cheering.]
There is no song of patriotism that we do not sing in our meetings.
There is no marble that has been builded to perpetuate the glory
of our soldiers about which we may not appropriately assemble and
proclaim the principles that we advocate. [Cheers.] We believe in our
country, and give it our love and first care. We have always advocated
that policy in legislation which was promotive of the interests and
honor of our country. [Cheers.] I will not discuss any particular
public topic to-day, as the conditions are so unfavorable for out-door
speaking. Let me thank you again for this cordial evidence of your
interest and for the personal respect which you have shown to me.
I hope you will believe that my heart is deeply touched in these
manifestations of the friendliness of my fellow-citizens. If in
anything I shall come short of the high expectations and hopes they
have formed, it will not be because I do not feel myself put under
the highest obligations by these evidences of their friendly regard
to do my utmost to continue in their respect and confidence. [Great
cheering.]
INDIANAPOLIS, OCTOBER 2.
The fourteenth week of General Harrison's public receptions opened
this date with the arrival of an enthusiastic Republican club from
the distant city of Tower, Minn., most of whose members were engaged
in the iron industry. They left a huge specimen of Vermilion range
iron ore--weighing over 500 pounds--in the front yard of the Harrison
residence. Prominent in the delegation were Dr. Fred Barnett, Capt.
Elisha Marcom, S. F. White, Chas. R. Haines, John Owens, W. N. Shepard,
N. H. Bassett, S. J. Noble, J. E. Bacon, J. B. Noble, Frank Burke, W. H.
Wickes, Chas. L. White, A. Nichaud, D. McKinley, and Page Norris; also
Geo. M. Smith and W. H. Cruikshank, of Duluth.
Immediately following the reception of the Minnesota visitors came two
large delegations from Fulton and Marshall counties, Indiana. The Fulton
leaders were J. H. Bibler, Dr. W. S. Shafer, Dr. E. Z. Capell, Arthur
Howard, Samuel Heftly, Henry Mow, C. D. Sisson, Arch Stinson, J. F.
Collins, A. F. Bowers, W. J. Howard, and T. M. Bitters, of Rochester.
M. L. Essick was their spokesman. Among the prominent members of the
Marshall County delegation were M. W. Simons, John W. Parks, J. W.
Siders, Edward McCoy, M. S. Smith, John V. Astley, Enoch Baker, I.
H. Watson, and Abram Shafer, of Plymouth. H. G. Thayer delivered the
address.
General Harrison said:
_My Indiana Friends_--This is a home company to-day. Usually our
Indiana visitors have met here delegations from other States. I am
sure you will understand that I place a special value upon these
evidences of the interest Indiana Republicans are taking in the
campaign. Whatever the fate of the battle may be elsewhere, it is
always a source of pride to the soldier and to his leader that the
part of the line confided to their care held fast. [Applause.] I feel
that I ought also to acknowledge the friendliness and co-operation
which has been already extended to us in this campaign by many who
have differed with us heretofore. [Applause.] It is encouraging to
hear that the prosperous and intelligent farmers of Marshall and
Fulton counties have not been misled by the attempt to separate the
agricultural vote from the vote of the shop. It has seemed to me
that the Mills bill was framed for the purpose of driving from the
protection column the agricultural voters, not by showing them favor,
but the reverse--by placing agricultural products on the free list,
thus withdrawing from the farmer the direct benefits he is receiving
from our tariff laws as affecting the products of his labor, hoping
that the farmers might then be relied upon to pull down the rest
of the structure. I am glad to believe that we have in Indiana a
class of farmers too intelligent to be caught by these unfriendly
and fallacious propositions. [Applause.] I had to-day a visit from
twenty or more gentlemen who came from the town of Tower, in the
most northern part of Minnesota, where, within the last four years,
there has been discovered and developed a great deposit of iron ore
especially adapted to the manufacture of steel. Within the four years
since these mines were opened they tell me that about a million tons
of ore have been mined and sent to the furnaces. They also mentioned
the fact that arrangements are already being made to bring block coal
of Indiana to the mouth of these iron mines, that the work of smelting
may be done there. This is a good illustration of the interlocking of
interests between widely separated States of the Union [applause]--a
new market and a larger demand for Indiana coal.
The attempt is often made to create the impression that only
particular classes of workingmen are benefited by a protective tariff.
There can be nothing more untrue. The wages of all labor--labor upon
the farm, labor upon our streets--has a direct and essential relation
to the scale of wages that is paid to skilled labor. [Applause.] One
might as well say that you could bring down the price of a higher
grade of cotton cloth without affecting the price of lower grades
as to say that you can degrade the price of skilled labor without
dragging down the wages of unskilled labor. [Applause.] This attempt
to classify and schedule the men who are benefited by a protective
tariff is utterly deceptive. [Applause.] The benefits are felt by all
classes of our people--by the farmer as well as by the workmen in
our mills; by the man who works on the street as well as the skilled
laborer who works in the mill; by the women in the household, and by
the children who are now in the schools and might otherwise be in the
mills. [Applause.] It is a policy broad enough to embrace within the
scope of its beneficent influence all our population. [Applause.]
I thank you for your visit, and will be glad to meet any of you
personally who desire to speak to me. [Applause.]
INDIANAPOLIS, OCTOBER 3.
The Porter-Columbian Club, a local organization named in honor of
Governor Porter, with a membership of 700 workingmen, paid their
respects to General Harrison on this night, commanded by their President
and founder, Marshall C. Woods, who delivered an address.