Читать книгу Speeches of Benjamin Harrison, Twenty-third President of the United States - Benjamin Harrison - Страница 37

Table of Contents

General Harrison and party, en route home from Middle Bass Island, arrived at Toledo on the evening of Sept. 3, and were again the guests of Wm. Cummings. At night they were tendered a reception by Mr. and Mrs. John Berdan, at their residence.

On the morning of Sept. 4 the party started homeward. The first stop was at Fort Wayne, where several thousand Hoosiers welcomed their leader. Supt. Wall, of the Pittsburg and Fort Wayne Railroad, introduced the general, who spoke as follows:

My Friends—I desire to thank you for this cordial demonstration. I thank you not so much for myself as for the party to which most of us have given the consent of our minds. I am glad to know that the people are moved to a thoughtful consideration of those questions which are this year presented for their determination. Under a popular government like ours it is of the first importance that every man who votes should have some reason for his vote; that every man who attaches himself to this or that political party should intelligently understand both the creed and the purposes of the party to which he belongs. I think it is universally conceded by Democrats as well as by Republicans that the questions involved in this campaign do have a very direct bearing upon the national prosperity, and upon the prosperity and welfare of the individual citizen. I think it is conceded that the result of this election will affect beneficently or injuriously our great manufacturing interests, and will affect for weal or for woe the workingmen and working-women who fill these busy hives of industry. [Applause.] This much is conceded. I do not intend to-day to argue the question in any detail. I want to call your attention to a few general facts and principles, and the first one—the one I never tire of mentioning; the one I deem so important that I do not shun the charge that I am repeating myself—is this: that the condition of the wage-workers of America is better than that of the wage-workers of any other country in the world. [Applause.] Now, if that be true, it is important that you should each find out why it is so; that each one of you should determine for himself what effect a protective tariff has had and is likely to have upon his wages and his prosperity. Does it need to be demonstrated that if we reduce our tariff to a revenue level, if we abolish from it every consideration of protection, more goods will come in from abroad than come in now? And what is the necessary effect? It is the transfer to foreign shops of work that you need here; it is to diminish American production and increase English production.

That is to be the effect of it. It is, not worth while to stand upon nice definitions as to free trade. Some think it enough to say that they are not free-traders because they are not in favor of abolishing all customs duties. Let me remind such that the free-trade countries of Europe, recognized to be such, have not abolished all customs duties. A better distinction is this: The free-trader believes in levying customs duties without any regard to the effect of those duties upon the wages of our working people, or upon the production of our own shops. This, then, is the issue. Take it to your homes. There are many confusing and contradictory statements made in the public press and by public speakers. Ask any of those who assail our protective system whether they do not believe that if their policy is adopted a larger amount of foreign-made goods will come into this country. It is their purpose to increase importation in order to cheapen prices. I think I may safely ask you to consider the question whether this cheapening of prices, which they seem to regard as the highest attainment of statesmanship, is consistent with the rate of wages that our working people enjoy now, whether it will not involve—if we are to have foreign competition without favoring duties—a reduction of American wages to the standard of the wages paid abroad. [Applause.] Do you believe for one moment that two factories making the same product can be maintained in competition when one pays thirty-three per cent. more to its workingmen than the other? Is it not certain that wages must be equalized in those competing establishments or the one paying the higher wages must shut down? [Applause and cries, "That's the thing!"] Here in this city of Fort Wayne, so important and so prosperous, we have a fine illustration of the accruing advantages of a large factory and shop population. It has made your city prosperous as well as populous, and it has made these outlying Allen County farms vastly more valuable than they otherwise would have been. These interests harmonize. But I only want to ask you to think upon these questions; settle them in your own minds, for it is agreed by all that, as they shall be settled one way or the other, your interests and those of your families and of this community, and of every other like community in this country, are to be affected, favorably or unfavorably. May I not appeal to you to review these questions, to throw off the shackles of preconceived notions and of party prejudices, and consider them anew in the light of all the information that is accessible to you? If you shall do that I do not doubt that the working people of this country will this November forever settle the question that American customs duties shall by intention, by forethought, have regard to the wages of our working people. [Applause.]

And now, if you will pardon further speech, I shall be glad to avail myself of the arrangements which the committee have provided to greet personally any of you who may desire to greet me. [Prolonged applause and cheers.]