Speech #530051146

Democracy has come to the front and asserted itself. and we propose to give in reality what the Republican party promised to do and pretenddd to have done. but never have doneto give free sugar to the American people. The gentleman from Maine mentioned that also. if my recollection serves me right. I am not entirely satisfied with the system of drawbacks incorporated into this bill. or rather that are permitted to stand as a feature of this bill. and I trust that before the committee have got through with their labors those drawbacks will be so adjusted that the pauper laborers of Europe shall not obtain the products of American farms in free tin. while the laborers engaged in the industries of the United States are compelled to pay the full amount of the tariff. But. sir. notwithstanding my dissatisfaction with certain provisions of the bill. when I reflect that for thirty years the trend of Republican legislation has been in the direction of an education of the American people to the belief that there was no prosperity other than that obtained through Federal legislation. when I further remember that the result of that legislation has been to array section against section. interest against interest. locality against locality. whenI remember. sir. that after thirty years. or ndarly thirty years. of Republican rule supplemented by four years of Democratic Administration. that in 1889 we left the Treasury bursting with the plenty of $125.000.000 of surplus. filched. it is true. from the pockets of the people through the odious methods of protection. when I remember further. sir. that after four years further of Republican maladministration. when we returned to control with a Democratic Congress and Democratic Executive for the first time since 1860. wefound that surplus dissipated. and that. true to their promise. there was no surplus in sight to threaten us. but adeficit was staring us in the face. and when I further recollect that we are under bond upon our honor to the American people to eliminate from the tariff system of this country those features by which a class is enriched at the expense of the masses. then. sir. I am satisfied that the committee. laboring under all these difficulties that surround them. have reported perchance as good a bill as human ingenuity under the circumstance could devise.