IF ENGLAND HAD HAD A POLITICAL PARTY MANUFACTURED TO ORDER BY THE MOST
SKILLED ARTISANS OF THE EARTH, SHE COULD NOT HAVE HAD ONE MADE THAT
WOULD MORE FAITHFULLY SERVE HER COMMERCIAL PURPOSES THAN HAS THE PRESENT
ADMINISTRATION.
Let us briefly inquire into the cause. Take, for instance, the sheep and
wool industry, which a few years ago was a prominent one in your state.
Under the stimulus of protection, we had in this country in 1884,
50,500,000 sheep. Then Grover Cleveland was elected president, and this
was followed by the democratic free wool indictment of 1885, known
as the Mills bill. The wool growers of America became alarmed, they
fattened and sold their sheep to the butchers by the millions. This
slaughter continued for four years, or until Gen. Harrison was elected
to the presidency in 1888. The authentic statement shows that the number
of sheep had been reduced in this country from 50,500,000 in 1884 to
41,300,000 in 1888. President Harrison's election stopped the slaughter,
and under the stimulus of the McKinley law the industry gained rapidly
and at the close of Mr. Harrison's administration the total number
of sheep in the United States was 47,800,000. (Applause.) In 1892 Mr.
Cleveland was again elected president. This was followed by the repeal
of the McKinley law and the enactment of legislation hostile to the wool
industry. During the last three and a half years the number of sheep in
this country has been reduced from 47,800,000 to 38,500,000, or fewer
sheep than there was in this country in 1873, or at any time since
the so-called crime of that year. So much fellow citizens, for the
democratic free wool joke on the American people.