Newspapers / The Carolina Union Farmer … / Sept. 26, 1912, edition 1 / Page 15
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Thursday, September 26,1912.] THE CAROLINA UNION PARMER l^&ge Fifteen ^Portunity to further the cause of reform had been lost. The sh^ii says: “By their fruits ye know them.” The Master com- ^_ended those who did the work of ^kUeousness and not the Pharisee 0 said, ”1 thank Thee, Oh Lord, I like other men.” Pro running my campaign on ^ running it on my ac- ^“nipiishments. ^'ill be Chairman if the Senate is Democratic. last*^ these tariff measures in the lead t was the Democratic ^^Pa^to objection from any Wiipj, j. Carol’ announced in North Congr the last session of Of the retirement ing who was the rank- Conij^*-^°*^*ty member of the Finance liig ^ '''ould become the rank- and j^^P^her of that great committee •ny adV*^ charge of tariff legislation, would never the pj ’ that the Democrats on Committee would never a§etkenf^° leadership in the man- ^Veli tariff legislation, catiie til thing happened! I be- *^ader ^^^‘ter and the undisputed ^ ®acce Pt^imger. The result was Por Jo which nobody in Congress The rgg country had anticipated. these\^- ^‘^t ouly the passage the njjj„ “*tts through the Senate but Ppon the Democratic par- tppt that tiuestion, and to an ex- tPst ojj Pet a Democratic vote was But t>ill. *^'®ci'edit^^^*tc all this, in order to Collet'®’ detractors, who said the commitee would .t^Pse tariff^^.*" t® management of ’t the aew *^***®’ saying that Pot Y, ®®PPt;e is Democratic I i ^ipan ^ appointed chairman of that tif t^^^^^ittee; they are say- t'^t^Ptittee”^^® ''"tio on the o° did~~~^^^ consented thegg ^°t: dispute my leadership ttie last Con ch hie loyally followed and ^’Ppiati ’.''til not vote for me as the jj ^ that committee. the Finance Com- §/ttee. rj,!|*^t appointed by that com- Cff^*^'Pe appointed by the Ch*^*hiteg .^hiittee, and the Steering al^ appointed by the cau- ■^PP Martin the Of .- t>f is the chalr- hg Stee^- and chairman l)nc-"^Pp Committee. Before the'^^'^hs either of these Sail 5r, Been assailed from la”’ ana ‘"“t I om »ow as- Vof Pow the very reason that jug^ ^sailed, because he had Po^ tPake Ocf"^' ^hat ifVi^ prediction here and 'ke?!''’ kksri ®'k“- '‘f «i!^there t. V wrangling Siy^Pate p. * t be no classification bg Phd into progres- tPatg ‘'^tted ^l^r^tlves—but it will fpr^ ‘‘Old f^'hisea of earnest Demo- body -Id °''t the plat- Ppd^ haiiH ^ party and to up- But otir great leader *^6 tho8« ’, Woodrow Wilson, tge^^irina^ t^tjo deny that I will *P I hiw h'inance Commit- ‘‘Pr. tth it denied hot 1^ '^^"t to say Pf v;'^PHion ’ ^ ‘^t I am so sure of hou ^ Palleap-i^ °t the estimate ""L'*"'* knowl!1 ““ "-y Ppd .^PB of iri hpon these ques- ''fill to tj. P> that if I am re- Ppd f^PPd thaM^^f^ ^ ^ *Ppri ^Plievp if is Democratic, Piiu" Phai.I"„‘t 'Vill be. •Uiu ''uairrmr, , “ f am not ^too!^ Pccordin Fklnance Com 1X ‘o t,l,e „„l,roke. I ‘ iviir^at anu “ the tinbroken , •h',. . "within the Senate, ! *Py ..'^''tignUv • ^^'ty-four hours after ^^t in upon me resign kuat body. No Interest Financing His Campaign. i It has been intimated, not charged, . that the lumber people are financing my campaign. The suggestion is a slander, without a circumstance of fact to support it. The truth is my campaign is getting but little financ ing from any source. A few of my friends in North Carolina have sent small contributions to my manager. I do not know how much, nor who has sent these contributions; but the amounts contributed separately and in the aggregate have been small, and 1 want to say, here and now, that personally, I have never received any thing from any lumber association or lumber men by way of campaign con tribution or otherwise, this year or at any other time, and the intimation that I have I brand as utterly untrue and unfounded. Has Never Traded Votes. When my friends, early in this campaign, claimed credit for me on account of the appropriations I had secured from the government to help the people of this State develop* con serve and utilize their great natural resources, my success in this regard was stigmatized as a species of graft. It was characterized as “pulling the leg” of the government. It was de nounced as useless waste and extrav agance of the people’s money, and I was branded as a “pork-barrel” statesman. When the voice of the people speaking through the press re pudiated these suggestions, intima tions and arguments, when they let it be plainly understood that they ap proved—yea, when the press made the pertinent inquiry whether by this kind of attack and this kind of litera ture it was meant that, if I was suc ceeded in the Senate by the friend and candidate of my accusers, his weight and influence would be thrown against these appropriations and against government aid in help ing in the development of these na tural resources—the character of these attacks were changed; and it was first hinted, and then openly pro claimed, that I had secured these things by unsavory dickers and un holy trafficking in votes. That sug gestion I likewise brand as not only false, but unworthy' of those who have published it. The vote of a Senator is a sacred thing. It is the only way by which he executes the will of the people. I want to say that as your Senator I have never at any time traded or trafficked in votes. Whatever I have secured for North Carolina in the way of appropriations for rivers and harbors and for public buildings and other things, 1 have secured because North Carolina was entitled to them and by presenting, with energy it is true, but truthfully, her claim to what she has gotten; and I challenge any man to say that I have gotten one single dollar of public money for North Carolina that she is not en titled to, or by any method that was not honorable, open and above board. In the Senate I have fought for the people of North Carolina with all my might, all my heart and all my soul —Just as I fought for them in the State in the trying days of 1908 and 1900; and in the Senate I have fought openly and honorably as I did in the State, I have not there, as 1 have not here, in the past or in the present, resorted to doubtful or de vious methods. Ijunil)er Vote. It has been charged that when 1 voted for a seven per cent duty on lumber I voted for protection. That is false. 1 voted for justice to next to the largest industry of my State against an outrageous sectional dis crimination in favor of New England and the Prairie States. The duty on lumber for which I voted will not more than recoup the lumberman for the heavy tariff charges imposed up on him by the Payne-Aldrich Bill, on the axe and the saw with which he fells the log, on the rails and the en gine with which he hauls it to the mill, on the engine and machinery with which he converts it into boards, and the tin and iron sheet with which which he dries these boards. Upon every principle of justice in tariff taxation, as applied by both parties, he is entitled to this offset against these heavy tariff cost charges against his product. If in voting for seven per cent duty on lumber 1 was voting for protection, then the whole Democratic party—every Dem ocrat in the Senate and in the House—in voting for an average duty of twenty-two per cent on iron and steel and the manufactures there of—ploys, hoes, machinery, cutlery, & etc.,—was also voting for protect ion. The truth is neither of these votes was a vote for protection. Both of them were revenue duties; but the duty I am criticised for vot ing for was a much lower revenue duty than the one we all voted for. My accusers charge that when I voted against putting lumber on the free list, as did practically all of the Southern Democrats in the Senate, I was voting against the platform of 1908. That platform not only de manded the lumber be put on the free list, but it also demanded and in the same section, that trust-controll ed products be put on the free list. If those declarations are to be taken literally, and not as I and other con tend as a part of a general platform tariff program, then the whole Demo cratic party in the House and Senate in voting to put an average duty of twenty-two per cent on steel and iron and its manufacturers products ad mittedly controlled by a trust, chiefly by J. Pierpont Morgan’s great bil lion dollar trust, also voted against the platform. From this conclusion there can be no escape. Neither were votes against the platform. Both were in accord with its proper inter pretation. Iron Ore. I am charged also with voting for protection when I voted for a tariff of less than ten per cent on iron ore. Iron ore is the raw material of the trusts. Has anybody in this vast audience ever bought a pound of iron ore? The trusts and not the people buy iron ore. The things that the people buy are the things that the trusts make out of iron ore, such as cutlery and machinery and various other products of the trust. Upon these products of iron and steel which the people buy, in the Demo cratic metal bill which we have just passed, as I said before, we imposed an average tariff of twenty-two per cent. If the ten per cent duty which 1 voted for, when we were framing a bill under Republican auspices, ap plying- the protective system, is a pro tective duty, then the twent.v-two per cent duty which all we Democrats in Congress have just voted for, on the things which the trusts make and sell to the people, is not only a protective duty, but a protective duty more than twice as high as the one for which I voted. The truth is neither of these duties was a protective duty. There were both revenue duties; but the one for which I voted and for which I am criticised was a lower revenue duty than the one for which we all voted. Goal. It is charged that I voted for a duty of fifteen per cent on coal. Every tariff tyro knows that the price of coal depends almost entirely upon the cost of transportation; that the only coal imported into this country is sold in New England, a little near the Canadian border, and to a small strip of country on the Pacific Coast; that on account of freight charges, were coal absolutely free, no foreign coal could be sold in the South; and that any duty which we may place on coal, whether little or much, would not affect the price of coal in North Carolina.* t I did not see, and do not see now, any reason why the New England manufacturers should have every thing they buy free of duty while what they sell us is protected by the high Payne-Aldrich rates on their products. Voted Only For Revenue Duties. My adversaries cannot contem plate my votes for an average or about ten per cent on lumber, iron ore and coal without getting off their base. They denounce this average rate of about ten per cent as protec tion; and yet they can see nothing but revenue in the average duty of about thirty per cent which all the Senate and House Democrats have just voted for on manufacturers of iron and steel, of wool and woolens, and of cotton goods and chemicals. When denouncing me for casting this vote for a revenue duty on lum ber, only about one.-third as high as the revenue duties all we Democrats have voted for in the Democratic bills just passed, they foam at the mouth and show a disposition to las so me and clothe me in stripes and put me behind the bars prepared four years ago for the trust humans. Wlio Should Be Lassoed? Let me suggest to these enterpris ing tariff reformers that while they are engaged in this work, they make a clean job of it. Let me suggest that they begin down in the first dis trict by throwing their lasso around Congressman Small; let them go to the third district and lasso ex-Con- gressman Thomas; let them go over and lasso Congressman Godwin, and let them come a little further up and lasso Congressman Poii, and then a little higher up and lasso Page, and then a little higher up and lasso Con gressman Webb, and put all of us be hind the bars—we will make a very respectable company, and on this lumber question we are all in the same boat. But they should not stop there if they want to get all of the offenders; they will have to throw their lasso around nearly all of the Democratic Senators from the South who were in Congress. If they go to the South of us they will have the lasso that grand old man of South Carolina, now tottering to the grave but still the idol of his people and animated by a love of country not surpassed by any man—I refer to Ben Tillman. He voted just as I did upon lumber, coal and iron ore; and he has just been triumphantly re-elected to the Senate. Let them go to our neigh boring State of Georgia and throw their lasso around Georgia’s great Senator, who is equal in logical pow er to any man in public life to-day— Senator Bacon—who voted as I did upon both lumber and iron ore—and who has just been re-elected to the Senate by a majority of 40,000. To the north of us they wili have to throw their lasso around the of ficial leader of the Democartic party in the Senate—Virginia’s accomplish ed, astute and sagacious senior Sen ator, who has just been re-elected to the Senate by a majority greater than his opponents received votes—I refer to Senator Martin, who voted as I did upon these questions. And then there is one they cannot get, because he lies in his honored grave, his memory fresh and green in the hearts of his countrymen—Vir ginia’s great orator and illustrious statesman, John D. Daniel, who vot ed just as I did upon all these ques-
The Carolina Union Farmer (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Sept. 26, 1912, edition 1
15
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