THE (,)I ESTICXN'
OF THE TAkiFF
Address of HENRY C. REW, of BUFFALO, N. Y.,
NOVEMBER 17, 1905, before the MASTEN PARK HIGH
SCHOOL SENATE, BUFFALO, in reply to the speech of the
HON. LESLIE M. SHAW, SECRETARY of the TREAS¬
URY, at YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO, OCTOBER 28, 1905
THE FALLACIES OF THE HONORABLE SECRETARY
FULLY EXPOSED
ANTICIPATING AND PROMOTING THE
"NATIONAL
GOOD GOVERNMENT
LEAGUE"
ON THE BASIS OF
"EQUAL RIGHTS FOR ALL, SPECIAL
PRIVILEGES FOR NONE"
INDEPENDENT AND NON-PARTISAN
h 3 o 1 n ^
/C
PREFACE
PON the twenty-eighth of October, 1905, the Hon. Leslie
M. Shaw, Secretary of the Treasury under President
Roosevelt, and a member of his cabinet, delivered an address at
Youngstown, Ohio, on the subject of the tariff.
The Secretary undertook to prove that large importations and
prosperity marked high protective periods, and, on the contrary,
necessarily that small importations, commercial distress, and
adversity followed low protective periods.
To this address Mr. Henry C. Rew, of Buffalo, N. Y., was
invited to reply by the Senate of the Masten Park High School,
and he addressed the Senate November 17, 1905.
The numerous fallacies of the position taken by the Secre¬
tary were fully exposed, and such an interest thereby created to
oppose the further^exploitation of the masses of the people, by
" robbery under forms of law," that the Senate proceeded at
once to lay the foundation for a Good Government League, that
should embrace all the schools of the United States, the busi¬
ness men of the country, and the victims of the tariff everywhere.
It will be for the interest of all who receive this pamphlet to
join in this movement and become identified with the National
Good Government League. By obtaining signatures to the
enclosed blank form and forwarding the same promptly to the
National Good Government League, Buffalo, N, Y., the name
of the person who circulates and forwards this blank form,
when duly signed, will be placed on the address book of the
National Good Government League, and he will be forwarded
literature from time to time as the movement progresses, whereby
he will be kept posted as'to the condition of the work, and can
communicate the same to those whose signatures he obtained.
671308
ADDRESS OF HENRY C. REW,
BEFORE THE SENATE OF THE MASTEN PARK HIGH SCHOOL,
NOVEMBER 17, 1905, IN REPLY TO A SPEECH DELIVERED
BY THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, HON. LESLIE M.
SHAW, UPON THE TARIFF, AT YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO,
OCTOBER 28TH.
Mr. President and Senators of the Masten Park High School.
I feel highly honored in having been invited to address you
in answer to Secretary Shaw's speech, delivered at Youngstown,
Ohio, on the 28th of October last, and furthermore in having
been made an Honorary Member of your honorable and here-
after-to-be distinguished body.
PRAIRIE FIRES
I think that you young men little dream of the conflagration
that you are starting. In the early days of the West, before the
great plains were settled, prairie fires swept over the country
every fall, carrying devastation to the farmers' buildings, hay
stacks, and through their corn fields. These fires were always
started by some careless hunter or wanderer who lighted a match
for some purpose and threw the burning match into the dry
grass. A little blaze resulted, which was not particularly noticed,
but soon a breeze caught it and swept it into the taller dry
grass. The fire thus generated created a wind of itself and drew
the air in from all directions. The flames rapidly spread and
grew until caught by some great gust of wind, they swept all
over the country, leaving behind, for hundreds of miles, a track
of burnt prairie.
You are starting such afire right here. The movement that
you are instrumental in creating will surely spread from here,
first through all the high schools of Buffalo and then to the
schools in neighboring cities, and from there all over the United
States. Very soon every school will possess its Senate and
House of Representatives. They all will take up and debate
the questions now going before the public. Ina very few years
5
all of these young men will have attained the age of citizenship
and have become voters.
NECESSITY OF ORGANIZATION
They can, by thorough organization and their united efforts,
seize the reins of power and control the future policy of the
United States. It is therefore in the highest degree desirable
that you young men should be organized and started right, and
know what is honest, upright, patriotic, and absolutely true and
pure in politics. I have been invited to discuss the speech of
Secretary Shaw at Youngstown, October a 8th last. He says
that " large importations and prosperity mark high protective
tariffs." He thus attributes great prosperity and large importa¬
tions to high and excessive taxation on all foreign products
imported into the United States. You will notice that he says
nothing whatever about the products of the United States.
Now the honest truth is that such prosperity as we have has not
been caused by the burdensome taxation of the people, but, on
the contrary, has occurred in spite of it.
REAL CAUSES OF PROSPERITY
The undoubted prosperity of the nation arises from the
products of the fields and farms, the mines and factories, and from
the intense industry of the people. Then, too, our country is
most admirably located on the map of the globe, to be entitled,
with foregoing conditions, to the highest degree of prosperity.
We live in a temperate zone where we have the regular recur¬
rence of the seasons. Spring, summer, autumn, and winter
following each other in regular succession. We owe to the
spring rains and dews, the summer sunshine, the autumn clouds,
the winter frosts and snows, the conditions which enable us to
produce from our wide extent of fertile soils enormous crops of
wheat, corn, rye, barley, oats, hay, cotton, vegetables, and fruits
of every description, so that our people are bountifully and
cheaply fed. These conditions could not be improved, even if
the tariff was doubled or quadrupled, so that it will be seen that
the tariff has nothing whatever to do with the foregoing splen¬
did sources of prosperity. Then, too, our mines yield coal,
iron, copper, silver, and gold in the greatest abundance, which
6
is another source of our surprising prosperity. Our milk and
dairy products amount to several hundred million dollars in
value per year. The wealth derived from eggs and poultry also
aggregates an enormous sum. The revenues of the agricultural
interests that are produced by the raising of horses, cattle, sheep
and hogs also runs into hundreds of millions of dollars per
annum. If now, according to Secretary Shaw, our prosperity
is caused by high and excessive tariff taxation and the per¬
petuation of war taxation, then such prosperity would be doubled
if the Dingley tariff taxes were made twice as high as they are at
present. This, you can see, is absolutely absurd. Secretary Shaw
goes on to say that when the tariff is lower, panic and
distress follows. It follows that if the tariff was swept away
entirely and trade made absolutely free and unrestricted,
as a matter of course, that there would be a tremendous
panic.,
REDUCTION OF TARIFF PRODUCES PANICS
While denying that a doubling of the tariff would produce
a greater prosperity, I admit frankly and freely that a reduction
of the tariff one-half would produce considerable of a panic.
Further, that the abolishing of the Dingley tariff entirely and the
placing of the country on a fair trade basis, would produce the
greatest panic that the country has ever seen. Banks would
break in all directions. Factories would be closed and
thousands of men would be thrown out of employment.
The sheriff would be put in every man's house. Universal
commercial distress would prevail throughout the United
States.
SHOULD BE TWO PANICS
Were your speaker the President of the United States and
Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, there would be two
panics. The second panic would be much quicker, and more
short, sharp, decisive and exciting, by all odds, than the first
panic. I believe that this second panic would be followed by a
jubilation and celebration throughout the country, before which
the greatest fourth of July celebration ever heard of or contem¬
plated would have to pale its ineffectual fires.
7
THE UNIVERSE IS GOVERNED BY FIXED AND
INVARIABLE LAWS
I will give you the reasons for this a little later. In my
speech before the high school, in which I presented the painting
of "Watchman, tell us of the Night," I began as follows : "The
universe in various and constantly-changing forms, and in a
state of intense activity, exists from and to all eternity. The
universe, that is everything, is governed by fixed and invariable
laws." During the middle ages, a man who dared to state even
such incontrovertible truths, would have been imprisoned, tor¬
tured, and perhaps finally burned at the stake. Inasmuch as no
such terrible results followed the making of this previous state¬
ment, I might go further now and say that under the influence
of these laws, nothing ever did in the past, nor does in the pres¬
ent, nor will in the future take place out of the regular order of
nature. There is therefore no such thing as " Chance." Even
what men call " Chance" is perforce governed by fixed and inva¬
riable laws. The comparatively few men who understand the
operation of these laws, that is, the " odds of the game " in favor
of the professionals and against the numerous " lambs " and
amateurs who still pin their undisciplined and ignorant faith to
" Chance " and " Providence," establish and operate great gam¬
bling houses such as those of Saratoga and Monte Carlo, the race
courses, the stock, grain, coffee, and cotton exchanges of the
world, thus creating the great money centers into which the sur¬
plus wealth of the country yearly flows, with as absolute certainty
as the surplus waters which falls upon the land from the clouds
and storms flow through innumerable rills, rivulets, creeks,
streams, and rivers back to the seas.
COMMERCIAL GAMBLING GOVERNED BY FIXED LAWS
Upon some other occasion, if agreeable, to your honorable
body, I would be pleased to explain to you, scientifically, the way
that certain of the fixed and invariable laws that govern the uni¬
verse are applied to these great centers of sporting and commer¬
cial gambling, whereby a few become enormously wealthy and the
great majority are fleeced of all their possessions. Twenty-five
years of active and strenuous life on the New York, Albany,
Buffalo and Chicago Corn Exchanges, and the New York and
8
Chicago Stock Exchanges, has given your speaker an insight
into the laws of the universe as applied to great gambling trans¬
actions in the products of the country and in the stocks and
bonds that represent the railroads, gas companies, street railways,
etc., of the United States, that will be of great interest for you
to know.
NECESSITY OF SHARKS, VULTURES, AND SAVAGE BEASTS
It is therefore our duty to discover the universal laws which
apply to panics, which periodically occur in our country. You
scholars must have observed that there are sharks and devil fish
in the sea, hawks and vultures in the air, lions and tigers in the
jungles. All of these creatures are unfit for food, but they cer¬
tainly have their uses in nature, otherwise they would not exist.
Scientists tell us that the sharks and devil fish in the sea live
upon the smaller fish which they chase in all directions and cap¬
ture, after severe efforts and long pursuits. Hawks, vultures, and
eagles in -the air live upon the smaller animals of the earth, such
as mice, rats, lambs, etc. Lions and tigers in the jungle live upon
the deer and antelopes, for whom they lay in wait and capture.
The wolves and bears which surround the settlements of the
pioneers, live upon the pigs, lambs, and calves of the settlers and
sometimes do not hesitate to pick up and carry off a tender and
toothsome child. Scientists further tell us that if these sharks
did not chase the fish, the fish would never learn to swim, and
would therefore not be fit for human food. Their keenness and
watchfulness for the sharks and their efforts to escape from them,
forces them to their highest efforts in swimming. The hawks,
vultures, and eagles in the air produce watchfulness and alertness
upon the part of the small animals. The lions and tigers in the
jungles compel the deer and antelope to run for their lives.
This produces in them grace of movement, strength and agility,
which they would not possess without these efforts to which they
are compulsorily put. The sharks of the sea, the birds of prey
of the air, and the savage beasts of the forest have their proto¬
types upon the land. Men, with instincts of the shark, the vul¬
ture, and the tiger. It is therefore to be readily understood that
these men have their uses in nature and in the commercial world.
Without such men to torture and persecute the human race, men
9
would never learn to study and understand the causes of panics,
and to search out a remedy. A panic is not by any means a
matter of chance. It is a matter of careful calculation. A panic
can be produced in the United States whenever the sharks and
savage beasts of prey of the commercial world are dissatisfied
with what the mass of the people do. The tariff has been estab¬
lished to enrich these commercial beasts of prey. Whenever an
effort is made to remove this unnecessary burden from the
masses of the people, a panic follows, which is intended to be a
severe lesson that the masses of the people must not tinker with
or attempt to shake off the shackles by which they are chained
to the chariot wheels of their lords and masters.
For more than forty years, since the passage of the Morrill
tariff act of 1861, the masses of the people have been heavily
taxed to enrich a comparatively few number of men, to " pro¬
tect " them and help them do business.
UNBALANCED FORCES
You will readily understand that when one end of a teeter-
board goes up the other end goes down to exactly the same
extent. The end that was bolstered up under this plan, which
was started by the Morrill war-tariff of 1861, was the manufac¬
turers' end. The end that was correspondingly depressed was
the commercial marine of the United States, the agricultural
interests of millions of people, and the numerous railroads which
transported the products of the country from the interior to the
seaboard. As a result, after about thirty years of this unbal¬
anced and one-sided state of affairs, by 1893, as shown by the
statistics of the New York Stock Exchange, fully cent.
of the railroads of the country were bankrupt and in the hands
of receivers, appointed by various courts. Our merchant marine
had practically been wiped from all of the seas, which protect our
country from foreign invasion with their "water walls." Thus
the " great prosperity " caused by a continuation of excessive war
taxation in times of profound peace, has been largely absorbed
by the comparatively few who have bought up the railroads of
the country at foreclosure sales, whereby they gathered in the
careful investments made by widows, orphans, and trustees of
innumerable estates at an average cost of not to exceed ten cents
10
on the dollar of the money originally invested. Thus all the
prosperity vouchsafed to widows, orphans, trustees of estates,
and millions of investors throughout the country was transferred
by " Robbery under the forms of Law " to the comparatively few
sharks, vultures, lions, and tigers of our population. Their vast
estates, you will understand, are not the result of days' work, or
high salaries paid them, but are the earnings of other people,
gathered in by these tricks of trade.
79,750,000 TAXED TO ENRICH 250,000
The population of the United States is about eighty millions.
Of this eighty millions, about two hundred and fifty thousand
men have been enormously benefited and enriched by the tariff.
That is, the taxes levied on all foreign goods coming into the
United States. These collections under the Dingley tariff aver¬
age about fifty per cent, of their original cost. Therefore, the
people of the United States are paying all that they ought to
cost and about fifty per cent. more. A small proportion of these
taxes are collected by the Government at the various custom
houses, but the largest proportion is collected by the benefici¬
aries of the tariff, who are by its protection and operation enabled
to get much higher prices for their products than they are justly
entitled to. Thus it will be seen that seventy-nine million seven
hundred and fifty thousand of the population are taxed to enrich
two hundred and fifty thousand men. To make it more easily
understood, I will say that in the same proportion, if there were
three hundred and twenty men in the United States, three hun¬
dred and nineteen men, under the present system, would be
taxed to enrich one man, in order to help this highly favored one
man do business. This system, kept up for more than forty
years, you will see, enables the one man to become exceedingly
wealthy and to seize, under forms of law, a large portion of the
wealth that has been accumulated by, and that honestly belongs
to, the other three hundred and nineteen men. Now suppose
the three hundred and nineteen men finally object to the one
man becoming so tremendously enriched at their expense and
desire to change the conditions. The one wealthy man by lock¬
ing up all his money, can easily produce very hard times and the
11
three hundred and nineteen men who do not seem to compre¬
hend the cause of their troubles, immediately go back to old con¬
ditions and let the one man have his way again, in order to get
his money unlocked and bring on good times. These two hun¬
dred and fifty thousand men are now by all odds the largest pos¬
sessors of the stocks and bonds, mortgages and deeds, which rep¬
resent the landed and corporate wealth of the United States.
These sharks, vultures and tigers of the commercial world are
now coming to be known as "the wealthy criminal classes."
PANICS IN THE MAKING
In ordinary times when things are going to suit their owners,
these securities are all safely locked in safe deposit vaults, draw¬
ing interest and dividends for their possessors. When things
don't go to suit them, they then proceed to act as follows: The
stocks and bonds are sold as fast as the markets will absorb them
and they permit their balances to pile up in the banks, which
represents idle money drawing no interest.
With " easy money," a wave of speculation sweeps over the
country, fanned by employees and tools of the small coterie who
possess all these things for sale, and the stocks and bonds are sold
in the various Stock Exchanges as fast as the markets can dis¬
pose of them. When they are all sold out, they proceed to bor¬
row and sell them several times over, so that what is called a
large "short" interest is made in the market. Under the rules
of the New York Stock Exchange, a brokerage house which
is holding and carrying enormous lots of stocks and bonds,
for various clients throughout the country, is permitted to loan
them to anybody who wishes to borrow them and will secure the
brokerage house for their prompt return when called for.
PERQUISITES OF BROKERAGE HOUSES
The charging of interest upon stocks and bonds ostensibly
carried for country customers which the New York House is
not carrying, but has loaned to the " bears " who have sold them
short, is one of the large and profitable " perquisites " of those
brokerage houses.
Frequently they are charging interest upon stocks and bonds
which they represent they are holding for their clients' account,
I 2
when they do not hold them at all, and on which they are not
paying interest.
TIGHTENING UP OF MONEY
Then the country begins to call for currency to move the
crops, and there is a natural movement from eastern cities all
over the west. This movement is accelerated by shipments oí
currency by the panic makers all over the country into different
States.
PANIC LET LOOSE
When the market is ripe for the springing of the trap,
the large balances to the credit of the conspirators are rapidly
checked out and locked up in safe deposit vaults. A check is
given to speculation. The markets stop advancing. There is
a great deal of newspaper, stock exchange and boards of trade
talk about the enormous demand for currency to move the crops.
More currency is checked out by the panic makers and locked
up in various cities, so as not to make it evident that there is any
conspiracy on foot to break the market. A further chill results
and a decline in prices. Still more currency is checked out and
locked up by those who have such enormous balances to their
credit. Money becomes very tight. Rates of interest advance.
Still more currency is checked out and locked up. The effect
of locking up the circulating medium of the country is precisely
the same as would be the cutting of several arteries in a man and
drawing the life blood from him. The man becomes pale and
faint. More blood is drawn. He becomes chilly, cold, and shiv¬
ering. Still more blood is drawn. The man falls into a dead
faint and collapses. Unless something is done to restore him
quickly, the man will soon be dead. This is a fair illustration of
the effect on the commercial markets of the country of checking
out and locking up the currency of the country. A panic finally
seizes the market. People who are holding stocks and bonds
are forced to sell. Loans are called by the banks. Rates of
interest advance still further. The conspirators who have pro¬
duced the panic spread the wildest rumors. Commercial failures
result. Banks and factories close. Still more currency is checked
out and locked up and absolute collapse of the market results.
The conspirators, that is, the " bears " proceed to buy in their
13
short sales by settling with the brokerage houses at the market
prices, from whom they have procured the stocks and bonds they
have previously borrowed and sold.
BOTTOM PRICES
When prices are low enough to suit them, and they have
caused devastation enough to accomplish their ends, they begin
to buy back the original stocks and bonds they sold in the first
place and they borrow the money at the banks to pay for them.
This does not make currency any plentier, but simply shifts
loans from one class of men who are on the point of absolute
bankruptcy and failure, to another class of men, who, it is well
known, have sufficient money to pay up their loans whenever
they choose.
They proceed to buy at low prices all the stocks and bonds
they have sold out in the first place at high prices. When they
have swept the market clean of all securities, they proceed to
buy all that new groups of "bears" can be induced to sell,
these stocks and bonds they have bought, meantime being left
in various banks and brokerage houses, who will readily turn
them over to any person who wishes to borrow and sell them
for a further decline, that is, the buyers and new owners do not
take them to their offices and pay for them. Under the influ¬
ence of all this work, the panicky markets are steadied and the
decline is stopped.
GOOD TIMES COMING
The markets now begin to advance. Things begin to look
up. When they have bought all that can be bought in the way
of actual stocks and bonds, and in the shape of sales made by
bears of borrowed stocks and bonds, they commence to pay up
loans with their locked-up currency. The currency comes out
and becomes more plentiful, stocks and bonds disappear and are
locked up where the currency was previously stored. In a few
months, stocks and bonds have all disappeared, and the
securities rapidly advance, but with the ownership and resulting
benefits entirely changed from the public to the few conspirators.
The market is flooded with currency. Good times come on.
Rates of interest decline. The banks have plenty of money to
H
loan at moderate rates and the conspirators count up their gains
by hundreds of millions. They are now in shape to repeat
these gigantic operations whenever it suits their purposes.
PANICS NOT CAUSED BY "CHANCE"
After more than forty years of taxing seventy-nine million
seven hundred and fifty thousand men, to help two hundred
and fifty thousand men do business, and become enormously
wealthy, these two hundred and fifty thousand men readily can,
you see, produce a panic or good times whenever they please
and whenever it suits their interest to do so. Comparatively
few men understand how panics and good times are brought
about. They are not panics of "chance" at all. They are
matters of studied and careful calculation.
PRESIDENT CONTROLS SPEECHES OF SUBORDINATES
It is not to be supposed for an instant that Secretary Shaw
went to Youngstown and delivered such a speech as he made,
unknown to the President.
It is rather to be supposed that he, went with the advice and
consent of the President, and that the President knew perfectly
well what Mr. Shaw, his honorable Secretary of the Treasury,
would say. Such a speech as this is usually meant as a sort of
forerunner of the policy to be advocated by the President and
pursued in the coming Congress, just as the late speeches of
Senators Knox and Foraker, on railroad rates, are supposedly
meant to signify to the country the policy the President intends
to pursue in regard to the control of the railroads. The Presi¬
dent must, therefore, be held responsible for these speeches,
unless he promptly disavows them and says that these people
speak without any authority from him, and simply as represent¬
ing their own personal views. So far the President has not dis¬
avowed the speech of Secretary Shaw. He can do this if he
chooses any time before Congress meets on the first of December
next.
THIS COUNTRY IS NOT RUSSIA
It must be distinctly understood that this country is not
Russia. This is not an autocratic government. The President
is not a Czar. The Cabinet and Senate is not made up of
IS
Grand Dukes. The House of Representatives is not made up
of princes and titled people. This government is established
upon the principle of " equal rights for all, special privileges for
none." The Executive, the heads of the several departments, and
the entire Congress is made up of officials selected by the people,
whose business it is, or should be, to attend to the interests and
business of the entire population of the United States and not
to any one small but wealthy section of it.
OFFICIALS ONLY TEMPORARY HEAD CLERKS
They might fairly be considered the temporary general man¬
agers and head clerks of a large commercial, co-operative estab¬
lishment, and they are paid proportionate salaries to attend to such
business ; but the President and his Cabinet and the Congress of
the United States are peculiary situated.
AN IMAGINARY COLISEUM
Imagine them seated in the center of a Roman Coliseum.
Occupying all the seats piled up tier upon tier and packed in
tightly are two hundred and fifty thousand men. These men
are the beneficiaries of the war " tariff of abominations," holders
of franchises in all the States of the country, owners of State rail¬
road franchises, owners of international franchises, such as the
telegraph and continental railroads, owners of gas franchises,
street railway franchises, telephone, electrical and Niagara water
power franchises. Mixed up with these two hundred and fifty
thousand men, and employed by them at high salaries, are the
brightest, keenest, and sharpest lawyers in the land, lobbyists,
go-betweens, bribe-givers and " grafters."
UNORGANIZED MASSES UNSEEN
These people cluster so closely around the President and the
Congress and are in such close and constant touch with him, and
them, that the President and the Congress seem to be quite
unable to see or hear the seventy-nine million, seven hundred
and fifty thousand men outside of the Coliseum.
"CATTLE," "GEESE," "SHEEP," AND "HOGS"
In fact, the occupiers of the Coliseum seats and their em¬
ployees, look upon the outside mass of the people as " cattle "
i6
to be skinned, and their hides strung on the fences for their
benefit ; " geese " to be plucked ; " sheep," to be sheared ; and
" hogs," to be packed and salted down for their personal use.
Such is the result of the present management of the politics in
these so-called grand and free United States.
COMMERCIAL SHARKS AND BEASTS OF PREY NECESSARY
However, one who looks at the universe and everything as
being governed by fixed and invariable laws, must come to the
conclusion that all this is for the best. That the sharks, vultures,
and savage beasts of prey of the human race are simply doing
their duty, and, by their methods of operation, compelling the
" cattle," the " geese," the " sheep," and " hogs," to discover and
hunt down the persecutors of the race. But the sharks and
savage beasts do something more than think, they act, and there¬
fore in time will compel the "cattle," the "geese," the "sheep,"
and the " hogs" not only to think but act.
CATTLE FORCED TO THINK
I have been in India and seen the cattle persecuted by flies
and curiously watched their movements to see what they would
do. At first they would pay but little attention, except to lash
their tails, stamp their feet, and shake their heads, but go on
feeding and fattening up.
As the persecution increased, and blood was drawn more
freely, their movements would become more energetic. Finally
when the persecution became intolerable, they would toss up
their heads and seem to have an idea. They must do something
to shake off their persecutors. They would therefore run for
the river and wade in until they were buried in the water, with
no part of the body left above water except their horns,
noses, eyes, and ears. This was a most effectual remedy,
and the flies were driven off, only to seek some fresh unthinking
victim.
MORE PERSECUTION OF MASSES NECESSARY
It is quite plain to one who looks upon all this as a curious
mathematical problem that the American people have not yet
been sufficiently persecuted, robbed, skinned, plucked, drawn and
17
quartered, to think what to do about it all. That is, how to stop
these periodical panics in the market, how to drive off the blood¬
suckers and persecutors of the race.
CHEAP GOODS IN UNITED STATES WOULD CAUSE PANIC
I am wearing a suit of clothes made for me in Geneva,
Switzerland, last fall, which cost me $2j, made of the best English
cloth. In this country the same suit would have cost me $^o
to 155. According to Secretary Shaw, if the Dingley tariff was
reduced so that I could buy this suit for, say, ^40, there would be
quite a panic and depression in the market, which I readily
admit. On the other hand, if the tariff was entirely swept away
and I could buy it here for what I paid for it in Geneva, $27,
there would certainly be a tremendous panic for the reasons
before stated.
NO PANICS IN SWITZERLAND
But I saw no panic in Geneva, or anywhere in Switzerland.
I rode on street railways there paying two cents fare where I
here pay five cents, but it produced no commercial depression.
I sent telegrams that cost me ten cents which would cost twenty-
five cents here, but I saw no runs on the banks resulting there¬
from. I sent express packages through the post-office there at
a cost of from eight to fifteen cents that here would cost me from
twenty-five to seventy-five cents, but it caused no financial dis¬
tress anywhere. My sister bought beautiful dresses in Geneva
at a cost of sixty to seventy-five dollars that in this country
would cost from two hundred and fifty to three hundred dollars,
but all of these things produced no panic or depression there,
and the sheriff seemed to be out of business.
SWITZERLAND PROSPEROUS
On the contrary, the country was highly prosperous. Every¬
body was happy and contented, busy and industrious. The same
conditions can prevail in this country, whenever our people wake
up to the fact that this is no longer a government of the people,
by the people and for the people, but is, on the contrary, a gov¬
ernment of trusts, by trusts and for trusts, and proceed to correct
those conditions.
18
A GOVERNMENT OF SHARKS, VULTURES, ANÖ'FEAStS OF FRËY
For commercial sharks, vultures, and beasts of to caxr.y
on this government in this way requires just the system now
prevailing. It requires that every city council, every state legis¬
lature, every congress, shall be made up of weak men who are
picked by the beasts of prey, nominated, elected, and put there
by their money ; and, when in office, are the property of those
who put them there and subject entirely to their will. It requires
an army of bribe-givers, bribe-takers, of grafters, and an era of
corruption and rotten politics. The system is certainly bound
to break down of its own dead weight, for the reason that the
bribe-receivers in our state councils, legislatures, and congresses
are becoming exceedingly clamorous, shrewd, and expert in
demanding and striking for bribes to be given them by the cor¬
porations whom they are placed there to serve.
STRIKE, HOLD-UP AND "SLEEPER" BILLS
A legislature or a congress no sooner meets, than bills are
entered, taxing the corporations, which are merely an invitation
for the corporations to send their representatives to bribe those
who endorse the bills. These bills are finally "pigeon-holed,"
for a consideration. The corporations are largely responsible for
this condition of affairs, because they have educated the various
city councils, legislatures, and congresses in passing bills for their
benefit, for bribes and considerations, ever since the founding of
the government, and especially during and since the Civil War
of 1861-1865.
THE ONLY POSSIBLE WAY
There is only one possible cure for this disgraceful state of
affairs. That is, the public ownership of all public utilities, such
as prevails in Switzerland. There bribery is unknown. There
is no occasion for it. In that country the people who would be
under conditions prevailing in this country, financial sharks, birds
of prey, and savage beasts, are running the government for the
benefit of all the people instead of for the benefit of their own
personal and selfish ends. Naturally, however, these financial
sharks must prey upon somebody. They are doing this in a
very beautiful way by making Switzerland so attractive and
interesting and such an excellent place to purchase everything
19
âf *tHé 'îbw^st- possible cost, that thousands of people are drawn
•^yi-th'ese J jntoy; advantages to travel and spend their money in
that country. The same conditions should prevail in the
United States.
REMEDY EASILY APPLIED
Evidently in this country we have the means of producing a
peaceful revolution of this kind whenever the victims of the tariff
and of all these corrupt systems become intelligent enough to
understand the source of all their troubles and how to cure them.
Seventy-nine million seven hundred and fifty thousand men
can easily outvote two hundred and fifty thousand ; but, on the
other hand, a skilled army of two hundred and fifty thousand
men well trained and drilled, well armed and fortified, can
readily scatter to the four winds an unreasoning, unthinking, and
unintelligent mass of seventy-nine million seven hundred and fifty
thousand "cattle." It devolves, therefore, upon this enormous
mass of the population who are victims of the tariff, victims of the
corporations, victims of our present system of government, to
organize thoroughly and prepare for the coming conflict. That
good, intelligent, and patriotic men are aware of the conditions
now prevailing was clearly and distinctly shown in President
McKinley's last address at the Pan-American Exposition on the
5th of September, 1901. He said as follows :
PRESIDENT McKINLEY'S PAN-AMERICAN ADDRESS
" Our capacity to produce has developed so enormously and
our products have so multiplied, that the problem of more mar¬
kets require our urgent and immediate attention. Only a broad
and enlightened policy will keep what we have. No other pol¬
icy will get more. In these times of marvelous business energy
and gain we ought to be looking to the future, strengthening the
weak places in our industrial and commercial system, that we
may be ready for any storm or strain.
" By sensible trade arrangements which will not interrupt our
home production, we shall extend the outlet for increasing sur¬
plus. A system which provides a mutual exchange of commod¬
ities is manifestly essential to the continued and healthful growth
of our export trade. We must not repose in fancied security
20
that we can forever sell everything and buy little or nothing. If
such a thing were possible, it would not be best for us, for those
with whom we deal. We should take from our customers such
of their products as we can use without harm to our industries
and labor. Reciprocity is the natural outgrowth of our wonder¬
ful industrial development, under the domestic policy now firmly
established.
"What we produce beyond our domestic consumption must
have a vent abroad. The excess must be relieved through for¬
eign outlet, and we should sell everything we can and buy
wherever the buying will enlarge our sales and productions and
thereby make a greater demand for home labor.
" The period of exclusiveness is past. The expansion of
our trade and commerce is the pressing problem. Commercial
wars are unprofitable. A policy of good will and friendly trade
relations will prevent reprisals. Reciprocity treaties are in har¬
mony with the spirit of the times ; measures of retaliation are
not.
" If perchance some of our tariffs are no longer needed for
revenue or to encourage and protect our industries at home,
why should they not be employed to promote the markets
abroad ? Then, too, we have inadequate steamship service.
New lines of steamers have already been put in commission
between the Pacific coast ports of the United States and those
on the western coasts of Mexico and Central and South Amer¬
ica. These should be followed up with direct steamship lines
between the eastern coast of the United States and South Amer¬
ican ports. One of the needs of the times is direct commercial
lines from our vast fields of production to the fields of consump¬
tion that we have but barely touched ; next in advantage to hav¬
ing the thing to sell is to have the conveyance to carry it to the
buyer.
"We must encourage our merchant marine. We must have
more ships. They must be under the American flag, built and
manned and owned by Americans. These will not only be
profitable in a commercial sense, they will be messengers of peace
and amity wherever they go. We must build the Isthmian
Canal, which will unite the two oceans and give a straight line
2 I
of water communication with the western coasts of Central and.
South America, and Mexico. The construction of a Pacific
cable can no longer be postponed,"
DEATH OF PRESIDENT McKINLEY
At the time that President McKinley made this magnificent
and prophetic address he stood upon the highest pinnacle of his
military and political career. From this high vantage point he
fell, struck down by the hand of a base assassin, whereby the
sharpest attention was directed to his last words.
A merchant marine would spring up like magic, provided
that our merchants and manufacturers, importers and exporters,
were permitted to purchase vessels in any part of the globe,
where they could buy the best vessels for the least money, and
register them under the American flag, and at the same time
were allowed to import into the United States, free of duty, all
materials that enter into the creation of great shipyards and the
building of ships. People engaged in these lines of business
are no more entitled to bounties than builders of automobiles,
agricultural machinery, cradles and baby carriages. The bounty
system, to be honestly conducted, should first tax everybody and
then give everybody suitable bounties. Something of that sort
would be what President Roosevelt calls a "square deal." Any¬
thing short of it is robbery of the masses to enrich the classes.
PROMISES OF ROOSEVELT
President Roosevelt, when he took the oath of office, earn¬
estly promised to carry out President McKinley's declared pol¬
icy. As he has done comparatively little to promote it so far, it
follows, of course, that he intends to prosecute the work strenu¬
ously in the coming congress.
OPPOSITION OF SENATE CERTAIN
He will certainly encounter there the most violent opposi¬
tion, especially in the Senate of the United States. Every sen¬
ator there, it would seem, has been carefully selected for his
devotion to the interests of the corporations.
Every one of their acts for a long time has shown they
are the property of, and completely controlled by, the two hun-
22
dred and fifty thousand men previously spoken of, and devoted
to their interests, and that the seventy-nine million seven hun¬
dred and fifty thousand outside of the Coliseum are not to be
considered in their legislation.
The only possible cure for this state of affairs is the election
of our United States Senators by the direct vote of the people,
instead of by corporation-controlled legislatures.
SPLENDID OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUNG MEN
These tremendous problems must be settled by the young
men now going to the front : Those who believe in the
ultimate triumph of right need have no fear or doubt as to what
the outcome will be. The Government could, by calling upon
the army, navy and volunteers, dam the Mississippi River ;
but the water would pile up above the dam, and compel contin¬
ual strengthening, widening, lengthening, and raising of the dam.
Yet the waters would continue to pile up and the dam would
require still more laborious work to hold the waters back.
Any child could foretell the certain result, namely, that
the time would come when the dam could no longer hold the
water.
It would break over somewhere and finally sweep the entire
structure away, and the water would again flow peacefully and
unvexed to the sea, and so it is with any system of wrong, injus¬
tice, or corruption that is started and operated upon unsound
principles. The laws of nature are more powerful than the
crooked laws of pigmy man. Right and justice are as certain
to triumph as that the sun is to rise in the morning. Upon you
young men, therefore, and upon your future government of the
United States will devolve the magnificent work of correcting the
evils and frauds that now afflict our beloved country. The
President of the United States, happily, is a man who will quickly
catch the drift of public sentiment, outside of the comparatively
small and compact ring by which he is surrounded. I believe
that you can confidently look to him to be your leader in the
coming conflict. Should he prove to be a weakling and fail,
others of still greater strength of character and determination will
seize his opportunities.
23
ADVICE OF CARDINAL GIBBONS
The Buffalo Commercial of Saturday evening, November
11 th, contains extracts from an address of Cardinal Gibbons on
" Financial distress by adverse circumstances that one cannot
foresee." He says as follows :
" But it may happen that without any fault of yours, you
may suffer financial disaster by the failure of those with whom
you have business relations, or by adverse circumstances which
you could not foresee, and over which you had no control. In
that event, do not yield to despair. Take courage. Begin over
again at the first rung of the ladder. God will aid you to
ascend."
Following the advice of the cardinal, you will see that one
who had a horse stolen from him or taken by force, or trickery,
should not hunt up the one who had taken his property, and
proceed to replevin and recover him, but should, on the contrary,
go to work and earn the money and buy another horse. It follows,
therefore, that those who lose their property by the machinations
and manipulations of the sharks and birds of prey and savage
beasts of the human race should not hunt up that property and
seek to recover, but should let it go, let those who had seized it
by trickery possess it, and begin over again at the bottom of the
ladder. Thus it is that even well-intentioned men sometimes
labor in the interest of the wealthy, unscrupulous, and unprinci¬
pled, just as before the war all the churches in the South upheld
the institution and interests of slavery.
CARDINAL'S ADVICE QUESTIONABLE
It may be possible the cardinal is on the wrong track and
that his philosophy will not satisfy either the Senate of the
Masten Park High School or the young men throughout the
United States who are beginning to think, and who will certainly,
in time, begin to act.
A GREAT POPULAR PANIC
Referring again to that second panic that would certainly
occur, were your speaker the President of the United States and
Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, that panic would
particularly strike those who had produced the first panic, for
24
your speaker would proceed to arrest them as conspirators, try
them for high crimes and misdemeanors, seize and confiscate
their hoards of currency, thus trimming their claws and pulling
their savage commercial teeth, for the benefit of all the people,
and put their currency immediately into circulation, thus quickly
restoring the markets to their normal condition again. This I
will admit would be somewhat illegal and high-handed, but would
be acting on the principle of pioneers and settlers, who, when
attacked by wolves, bears, and savage beasts, organize, buckle on
their armor, take their guns and dogs, and on a concerted day
sally out in search of, and exterminate them. One may never
fear that all the sharks, vultures, and lions will be killed oif or
tamed. There will always be enough left for seed, for the human
race will continually need stimulants of this kind, to compel them
to think and act.
PRECAUTIONS NECESSARY
Whenever they are ignorant or slack and neglect the protec¬
tion of their interests and properties, they will be immediately
attacked by the watching beasts of prey on the outside. Commer¬
cial settlements will be raided, and the widow's chicken coops,
orphan's pig pens, trustees' farm yards, and laboring man's store¬
houses will be rifled of their surplus contents.
AN AWAKENING NECESSARY
There is not the slightest reason for anger, revenge, and
hatred for the persecutors of the commercial world. They are
simply doing their duty, their universal mission and business
being to persecute the race until it is compelled to think and act.
We can, therefore, go mildly and pleasantly about the business of
correcting the present unbalanced conditions, first becoming
intelligent enough to understand the law of the universe which
governs the case, and then to correct the conditions that produce
the unsatisfactory and disgraceful results we now see :
" Marking — behind all modes, above all spheres.
Beyond the burning impulse of each orb —
That fixed decree at silent work, which wills
Evolve the dark to light, the dead to life.
To fulness void, to form, the yet unformed.
Good unto better, better unto best.
By wordless edict ; having none to bid.
25
None to forbid ; for this is past all gods
Immutable, unspeakable, supreme ;
A Power which builds, unbuilds, and builds again.
Ruling all things accordant to the rule
Of virtue, which is beauty, truth, and use.
So that all things do well which serve the Power
And ill which hinder ; nay, the worm does well
Obedient to its kind ; the hawk does well
Which carries bleeding quarries to its young ;
The dewdrop and the star shine sisterly.
Globing together in the common work;
And man who lives to die, dies to live well
So if he guides his ways by blamelessness.
An earnest vñll to hinder not, but help
All things both great and small which suffer lite."
Edwin Arnold's "Light of Asia."
THE ORGANIZATION
The two hundred and fifty thousand men I have mentioned
are splendidly organized. Everywhere you go you will hear of
" the organization."
They have their headquarters in Washington, with branches
and representatives in every city, town, and village in the
country.
The political " leader " and " boss " is everywhere. Some¬
times branches of the "organization" get severe jolts, as in the
last elections in the State of Ohio and at Bufïâlo, but the " organ¬
ization " never sleeps. Skillfully do they arrange plans again to
carry the next elections.
THE NATIONAL GOOD GOVERNMENT LEAGUE
There is only one way to oppose such political machinery,
and that is by a larger, stronger, and more patriotic national
organization, having better objects in view, and devoted to the
interests of the entire population of the United States.
Therefore let me close this address by urging you to Organ¬
ize, Organize, ORGANIZE.
z6
REPLY OF CHAS. A. DREFS, Jr.,
PRESIDENT OF THE MASTEN PARK HIGH SCHOOL SENATE,
TO THE ADDRESS OF HENRY C. REW, DELIVERED NO¬
VEMBER 17, 1905, IN ANSWER TO THE SPEECH OF THE
HON. LESLIE M. SHAW, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, ON
THE TARIFF, AT YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO, OCTOBER 28, 1905.
Members of Masten Park:
I have listened to the speech of Mr. Rew with the greatest
interest. Never have we had explained to us so clearly the
causes of the panics that sweep the whole country at times,
causing so many bankruptcies and failures, and carrying distress
into so many commercial houses and homes. If Mr. Rew's
presentation of the reasons is true, if the statements made by
an expert business man of long experience and very high stand¬
ing can be relied upon, then this is no longer a free country, but
in name. We have the shadow, but the substance has fled.
The comparatively small number of people within Mr. Rew's
imaginary coliseum govern us and manipulate all of our earn¬
ings and resources according to their own sweet will. We belong
to the vast number of people outside of the famous structure.
Let us not be " cattle," " geese," " sheep," or " hogs," but let us
assert our manhood and strike for freedom.
Masten Park leads in athletics, debating, literature, and in
the intelligence of her pupils. It leads in having that splendid
painting, "Watchman, Tell us of the Night," the gift of our
speaker to-day. It leads in standing on a lofty eminence, from
which the light of the rising star depicted in that glorious
painting may shed its inspiring rays all over the United States.
Mr. Rew has shown us the absolute necessity of a thorough
organization, without which the bravest men are but a rope of
flimsy sand.
Let us therefore lead in organization. Let us organize, first,
Masten Park High School, then all the schools of Buffalo, then
the schools of all of our neighboring cities, then, in short, let us
lead in organizing all the scholars of all the schools in our great
27
country into one solid mass, with one clear end in view, namely,
the honest government of the United States, on the only sound
basis of "equal rights for all, special privileges for none." To
every movement there must be a leader. Let the glory and
honor of leadership in this patriotic and concerted movement be
claimed by, and belong to, Masten Park. Mr. Rew has pointed
out a career for us young men who are soon to go out into the
world, either as leaders or followers. Let us be leaders, fully
entitled to that position by the purity of our motives, and the
energy with which we pursue the ends we have in view, not for
ourselves only and for selfish ends, but for the good and help of
the entire population of the United States.
Therefore, let us organize, organize, organize.
GOOD GOVERNMENT LEAGUE WILL FORM CHARTER
ORGANIZATION IN MASTEN PARK
HIGH SCHOOL SENATE
Upon the conclusion of President Drefs' reply to the address
of Henry C. Rew, Senator Grobe, while the applause was still
echoing in the ears of the senators, made the following motion:
Resolved, That the president of Masten Park's Senate ap¬
point a committee to look into the proposition advocated by Mr.
Rew to call a meeting of the Masten Park Senators and organ¬
ize a "National Good Government League." This motion was
carried by an enthusiastic and unanimous vote.
Mr. Rew will heartily support the movement, and furnish
to the Masten Park High School Senate, in stamped envelopes,
for circulation throughout the city of Buffalo, among the
schools and business men, five thousand copies of his address,
President Drefs reply, and the resolution as adopted.
The Senate will employ experts to scatter by mail the
document to all the schools in Buffalo, and among the promi¬
nent business men of the city, for the purpose of creating an
organization with the Senate of the Masten Park High School at
the front (as leadership is absolutely necessary in all move¬
ments of this character), that shall embrace in its ranks, first, all
the schools of Buffalo, second, all the schools throughout the
Empire State, then, as the movement grows and increases in
volume, all the schools throughout the United States.
z8
There is no doubt whatever ot the ultimate outcome.
Within five years a force will have been created that will be
simply irresistible in its demand for the good government of
every city, State and the whole nation, based upon the principle
of " equal rights for all, special privileges for none."
Postscript, December 6, 1905.
THE PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.
The message of President Roosevelt to the Congress just
delivered does not touch upon the momentous question of the
tariff. Two inferences can be drawn from his strange silence
upon this grave subject, viz :
(First) Either he has been won over to the side of the
" Stand-patters " in some mysterious way, or else
(Second) He intends to send a special and outspoken
message to the Congress advocating and insisting upon the
immediate making of treaties of reciprocity with all foreign
nations as advocated by President McKinley and heretofore
approved by him. What course he will eventually take remains
to be seen.
29
"NATIONAL GOOD GOVERNMENT LEAGUE"
INDEPENDENT AND NON-PARTISAN
190
To the National Good Government League, Buffalo, N. T.
We, the undersigned, heartily approve of the interest you are creating and
the movement you are starting for the better government of our beloved country.
We therefore desire to enroll our names as members of the NATIONAL
GOOD GOVERNMENT LEAGUE, and hereby agree to aid to the best of
our ability in the advancing and strengthening of the movement.
NAMES
ADDRESS
When signatures are affixed, please tear this sheet out and forward to '♦ The
National Good Government League, Buffalo, N. Y."
NAMES
When signatures are affixed, please tear this sheet out and forward to
National Good Government League, Buffalo, N. Y.''
'The
337.0973
R454q