C22. \ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS P 'J" ll'li W^^ 'III ill' N 013 789 241 8 • P6iiimlfp6« 6 1st Congress, ) 2d Session. \ SENATE. Document No. 567. IE 672 C22 ICopy 1 SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON. Mr. Crane presented the following- SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON BEFORE THE MIDDLESEX CLUB, BOSTON, MASS., SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 1910, ON "ULYSSES S. GRANT, THE MODEST, COURAGEOUS MAN, THE NORMAL AMERICAN." May 26, 1910.— Ordered to be printed. Mr. Cannon. Mr. Toastmaster and gentlemen of the Middlesex Club, I never read biit one speech in my life and would not undertake to read my remarks to-night to an audience of 3,000 people, but I am reminded as 1 look into your faces of an occurrence out on the Wabash before most of you were born. The place, a little country general store where evor^^thing was sold from mackerel and tar to silk and prints; boy of all work, deputy postmaster. 17 years old, the individual who now addresses you. It was a farming community, before the day of iailwa\'s. Markets were down the Wabasii. down the Ohio, down the Mississippi, on Hatboats. The man or boy who had floated down the Mississippi on a tiatboat. when he returned on the little stern- wheel steamer, was a traveled gentleman, looked up to in the com- munity. One cold winter day a man, not a relative of your Senator Crane, but a man by the name of Crane, came into the little establishment and said, '' Is there any mail for me?" I passed back to the place where the mail was kept. It was before the day of post-ofiice boxes. I gave him three letters and two or three papers. This Mr. Crane lived bv traveling, generalh' walking, altiiough sometimes a farmer would give him a lift, and he would go 10 miles. 20, 60. or 100 miles, to give talks which he called lectui'es, the compensation which he re- ceived being all the way from $.5, and on special occasions, $10. Ttiis being a verj'cold day, he rubbed his hands as he went back to the red- hot box stove around which were live or six farmers, among them Aaron Merris. He opened one letter, and as he rubbed his hands he said. '"Ah!'' '• What's the matter. Craned' said Uncle Merris. "'An invitation from Boston to lecture. I wonder if I had better accept it?" "'Of course you had,'' said Aaron Merris. "Of course vou had. I never did like them Boston men." [Applause.] To-night for the second time in my life I am going to crave the indulgence of my audience while I read. What 1 may do before I sit down I do not know, because 1 have the birthright in Friends' meet- Lo' o o / tO 2 SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON. iiiijs. ynu know, of iK'irii: iiiovril liy the >piiit a^* it is niven. [ Laughter and applause. J One of the wealcnesses of age is the tendeiu y to live in the past; l)ut it is true that the eontests of tho.»e who have gone before, their battles for eorrect j>olicies in war and peace, their efforts to write those policies into legislati»)n, their struggles against the counsels of the vicious, the ignorant, the >elti>h. and the ilemagogue, constitute a glorious history, show the timbre of the people who have preceded us, and furnish examples and experience by which we may profit in solving the problems that confront us to-da^^ Therefore, I make no apology for uniting with the Middlesex Clul), a Kepublican chd), in i-elebi-ating the t)irthday anniversary of Tlysses S. (irant. In Anril, isfil, he was a clerk" in his" fathers store in Galena. In Apiil, 1805, he was the most famous military man in the world. In April, istil, he presided at a I'nion meeting in a small Illinois town, unknown even to the majority of his neighbors; in April, 1865, he presid<'d at that most famous I'nion meeting at Appomattox, when armed resistance to the I'nion ended. He had not come to this success and di.>-tinction through political favoritism or favorable publicity, unless we accei)t ( leneial Bragg's e])igram on (irover Cleveland: " We love him for the enemies he made." All the political generals and all the literary generals were opposed to (iiant. and without friends in \\'a>hington and nothing but his record as he uiade it commending him. he went from one victory to another, compcdling recognition until Lincoln placed bim in command of all the I'nion ai'niies before he had ever met or seen the man. Cieneral Sherman said every other general in the western army had his })res> agent with him, antl while the newspaper accounts were necessa- rily confusing as to who were the real heroes, none of them gave (irant the credit: but the truth coidd not be kept from the Govern- ment and the people. Almost up to the day of Lee's surrender there were severe criti- cisms of (irant and the country at times was compelled to doubt, as they read of him as a "•butchei" needlessly saciiticing life, as a "drunkard" unfit to command troops, as a dull and commonplace man, utterly devoid of military genius: l)ut somehow^ his work and the victories that followed him answered the criticism, and the men in the held and their friends at home waited with hope that he would succeed where others b(>tter ad\ ertised had failed. NO IIY>TKi{I.\ IN (ih'AN'r. fteneral (irant seem> to have been a |)erfectly normal man. He had neither enthusiasm nor ])assi<»n. aiul no hysteiical development of any kind. I le had no sense of the dramatic, and failed to do those thino-s which instant ly app<'al to the public eye. He was so calm under all circumstaru'cs that he seems to ha\'e conununicated some of his unex- citable nature to those al)out him. even to the horse he rode. Who ever heard of (irant on a piancing. rearing war horsed Why, even the artists who ai-e ever looking for the dramatic and picturesque have always ])ictured (irant sitting (|uietly on a horse standing on four feet, as (piietly as though just unhitched fi'om the ])low. At \'icksl>urg (irant sent Logan into the city to take formal posses- sion when remlterton siiriendered: at Appomattox he wore the ordi- JUN 18 1910 ■■•; : SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON. 3 ^ nar\' service uniform when he accepted Lee'« surrender, and he could -^ : see no dramatic climax in the fall of the Confederacy, to be commem- orated by his entering- Lee's lines, or taking personal possession of Richmond. He hurried to Washington to arrange for disbanding the great armies under his command, and for sending the soldiers home to their families and friends and former occupations. This same indifference to dramatic demonstrations and situations followed him through life. In his tour around the world he met crowned heads, statesmen, and plain people with the same simple manner. He surprised the Ger- mans by walking from his hotel to the palace to call on Prince Bis- marck, and the Prince, we are told, met him at the door instead of waiting to receive him in state. He met the Queen of England, the Czar of Russia, the Emperor of Japan, and the King of Siam in the same way, conforming to the etiquette of the court, but for himself never dropping the role of the plain American gentleman. He might have appeared in the courts of Europe and Asia wearing the four stars of a general, won in saving the Union, and by no man of right worn from Washington to his day, l)ut he refused to appear in the uniform which gave him greatest distinction in the eyes of the world, and appeared ever and alwa3's as an American citizen. THE CRITICS OF GRANT. There is no better illustration of the fickleness and hysteria of critics and the undercurrent of steadfastness in the people than is found in the treatment of General Grant from the time he came on the national stage as a defender of the Union to the day of his death on Mount MacGregor. His critics could find no military genius, no patriotic devotion, and no moral courage in this man while he was fighting great battles, but after each and every victory they were forced to join in the chorus of approval that came from the great heart of the people. The critics condenmed Grant at Paducah, at Corinth, at Donelson, at Vicksburg, at Chatbinooga, in the Wilderness, and they kept the peo- ple who depended upon the public prints for information in a fever of unrest while the armies under Grant were fighting those battles, but the critics were forced to join in the approval " Well done, faithful servant," after the battles were won. The critics were bitter, uncom- promising, and even malicious, while President Grant's administration was woi-king out the policy of reconstruction, but the people approved the work that was accomplished. The critics misrepresented the first citizen as he quietly encircled the globe with the modesty and dignit}^ of an American gentleman, but the people gave Grant such a welcome on his return as had never before nor since been given to any man in America. The critics abused and villified Gi'ant when, without his inspiration, his admirers sought to give him a third nomination, but the pe'ople showed their appreciation of his worth when he took his place in the ranks of the Republican party and gave his services to the election of General Garfield. The critics stripped the verv soul of the mati, robbed him of character even, when a characterless speculator robbed him and his family of their property, but the people cheered the dying soldier back to life as he labored with his pen to pay the debts that had been fi-audulently placed against his name and fame, and when at last death conquered the man who had been invincible 4 SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON. Leforo ill I liuinaii foes there was sueh Ji wave of .sorrow and commen- dation from the people of all the world as had come up from humanity hut onee in our nation's historv, when the hand of the assassin struck tiown Lincoln. But h^t u- not he too hard on the critics. They are hut the representatives of and vehicles for the outpourinos of hysteria und the human frailty called "envy."' that has been a part of man's nature since the expulsion from the (iarden of Kden. There is a lci,'end that in the old Thurinjiian forests there used to be strant,^e l)einc,'s. a race of uiants, moie and less than men, who were considered by the Romans as horrible beasts and by the Germans as divine incariiations. and who, according- to the occasion, ran the risk of Iteinir exterminated or worshiped. So it was with this modest, unpretentious, undramatlc soldier and statesman. He was hero to the people wiiom he served, but devil to those who looked on him only with envy. Lincoln had a hundred brilliant oeuiuses criticisino- him and telling- 'hiuj what he out^ht to do, but Lincoln saved the Tnion without fol- lowino: their advice or heediny their criticism, (irant had a thousand men in and out of the army tellino- him how to take Vicksburg-; but he followed his own plan evolved there on the ground and won. So it has been throughout our history, and so it will be to the end. Ours is a repi-esentative government, and the men who administer it must be representative of the people, not of one class or occupation; and while the critic has his place, he does very little to help make the wheels go round, lie may get into the clouds and spread a mist of lia/y talk about pi'ogressive ideas, or down in the mire throwing mud at everybody, but we lu'cd men who will keep on the level and deal with realities to work out detinite i)lans. REFUSKl) TO COMMEMORATE FALL OF CONFEDERACY. (leneral (J rant refused to have the surrender at Appomattox com- memorated in a historic painting representing him as receiving the sword of Lee, as is represented the surrender of Burgoyne to General (iates at Saratoga, in the great painting hung in the Rotunda of the National Capitol. In fact, he never touched the sword of Lee. In that refusal ( iiant not only illustrated his own character as a man whose whole contest had been the I'cstoration of the l^nion, but his action typilied the sentiment of the Republican party, then and now responsi- ble for the condui't of the Government. The Federal (loverinnent has never conunemorated in monument or picture the fall of the confederacy. It never will. [Applause.] It has provided for the preservation of the most historic battlefields and there mingle the monuments to the heroism of both armies, but the policy of the Republican party has l)een for the benefit of the whole Tnion - North and South. Kast and West — and this policy ha- obliter- ated the scars of war more completely than any other policy could have doiu», for it has spread the industries once confined to New P]ng- land f)vei- the South and ^^^^st. and although New England has multi- plied her industiies many, many times, she has now but a minor ])ercet)tage of the great industrial output of this country. One artist, Kmanuel Leutze, foreign-born, like so many of our jK'oph'. has portrayed on canvas the spirit of the American people, jind I am glad the Congress made that picture a conspicuous feature SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON". 6 of the decoration of the Capitol. It is labeled: " Westward the Course of Empire takes its Wa3\" and it hangs over the landing of the main stairway in the House wing of the Capitol at Washington, where ever3'one must see it in going to the galleries of the House of Representati\ es. Some critics have said it is not a great artistic pro- duction, but to me it is the most inspiring picture I have ever seen, because it presents the real spirit that has made this the greatest nation on earth. WESTWARD THE COURSE OF EMPIRE TAKES ITS WAY. In the foreground of this great painting is depicted the struggles and privations of the early wagon train crossing a pass in the Rockj Mountains ; beyond are the towering cliffs in the backbone of the con- tinent, and in the distance are gushing geysers, grand canyons, and the idealization of an Eldorado, stretching like a mirage of hope before the eyes of those in the emigrant train. In that picture is given the most graphic story ot the trials and the perseverance and the unconquer- able spirit of the western pioneers. There in the mountain fastness, gathered about the old '"prairie schooner," is the family circle, the foundation of our civilization; the mother with the babe at her breast, the children at pla}', the father with rifle in hand guarding his little tiock, and the adventurous spirit of youth scaling the cliffs above the pass. There is the broken wagon and even the grave of one who has died in the struggle to reach the promised land. But the trials and discourage- ments have not l)roken the spirit of these pioneers, contesting with nature in their effort to scale the mountains, which your ow n Daniel Webster said should mark the limitations of this nation, and there was to have been planted the statue of the God Terminus, to remind the people, '' Thus far and no farther."' It is such a picture as comparatively few now living can appreciate, for it is not merely the artist's fane}', but real history placed on canvas; the most romantic history of the West, worthy a place beside that of the Pilgrim's Landing, portraying incidents which brought out in best foi'm the indomitiible spirit of the American people. And the hope which then seemed to be but a mirage has become the most real, the most glorious part of our development. Those pioneers who went into the West created Commonwealths which are the most progressive and exhibit the most remarkable development under a people's gov- ernment. To-day the great Middle West is the industrial center of the country, producing in manufactured product more than all of New England and New York and Pennsylvania combined, while the Pacific coast has developed into an empire of production such as was never dreamed of b}' the pioneers who crossed the continent in search of gold. And now I want to see some artist, with a broad conception of this phenomenal development, paint another picture, gathering upon the canvas an allegorical presentation of this realization of the dreams and the hopes which inspired the pioneers portraj^ed by Leutze, the German- born painter, in that remarkable picture of Westward the Course of Empire Takes its W^ay. 6 SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON. THE LIBERAL MOVEMENT. The adiniiiistration of Grant was opposed by the most remarkable coalition that was ever known in American politics. A body of men who were disapiminted in the administration met in convention at Cin- cinnati and called themselves Liberal Republicans. O men of the ^liddlesex Club, the Repul)lican party, consisting- of a majority of the people of the Republic, tighting the battles of the Repul)lic under the leadership of that great party, contributed money by taxation to pay the expenses of constructing a navy such as made useless all the navies of the world. [Applause.] Beginning with Lin- *-oln. and lasting from that time to this day, the policy of protection and all the policies of the Republican party have been in continuous operation for the prosperity and development of this country, except for a very short period which most men of my age and your age do not recall with pleasure. [Laughter.] Our great party has been glorious in history, magnificent in accomplishment, from its birth to the present time." [Applause.] It is still virile, still true to the coun- try, to a government of the people; still helping to develop the re>iources of the counti-y and to continue those policies under which was fought the greatest civil war that ever was waged in the tide of time. We have substantially paid the war debt, and we ever hold in grateful remembrance the men who wore the blue and had the highest post of honor in that great contest, constituting as they did one-third of the battle force of the Northland, while the other two-thirds were maintaining the Government and supporting the army. Since the close of that great war we have paid to the heroes who fought in the field and to their widows and orphans four thousand million dollars in pen- sions, thank God, and we will continue to I'emember their service and bravei-y until the last of them has answered to the final roll call. [Aj)[)lause.] The Republican party I It was good enough for a majority of the people, when certain men, on their own motion, got together at Cin- cinnati and named themselves Lil)eral Re])ublicans: and in these days, when we have '* ])rogressive"' Repu])licans, and "independent" Repub- licans, () men of the Middlesex Club, let us wipe the word " Republican'' ort' our baiHieis. and forget oui' paity's glorious achievements in the past. l)('foie w(^ atld an adjec-tive to the name Republican. [Prolonged ajjplause. 1 The history of the Republican party in all its contests in the past proves to us that when somebody would attempt to improve the name ""Republican," he has it in mind to delude geimine Republicans without having the courage to march over and join the Democratic party, as he ought. [Ayiplause.] That is what one of your distin- guished citizens has done. I honor him for his business ability and nis cori-ect habits of life. Once he answei'ed to the name of Repub- lican, but within the last two weeks has i)roclaimed in New York, as well as here, tiiat he has found rest in the ))osom of the Democracy, and he turned and exhorted those who were like unto him to follow his exam- pl<' and enlist under the Hag which would tell the story of their policies. In bsT'i the Liberal Republicans nominated for President the most radical Reput)lican the country had ever known, the high priest of Republicanism and protection, Horace (ireeley, and for Vice-President, B. (iratz Brown. The Democratic convention became an echo, ac- cepted candidates and platform of the Liberals, suppressing the iden- SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON. 7 tity of the Democratic party. Greeley was a radical protectionist, those who nominated him were free traders; (ireeley had complained that Lincoln did not go fast enough in prosecuting the war and eman- cipating the slaves; they had declared the war was a failure. It was yoking the lion and the "ass, with a platform that relegated to the peo- ple the one great economic issue on which the parties had always divided — the tariff. That platform said: Recognizing that there are in our midst honest but irreconcilable differences of opinion with regard to the respective systems of protection and free trade, we remit the discussion of the subject to the people in their congressional districts and to the decision of the Congress thereon, wholly free from executive interference or dictation. My God! suppose they had succeeded. What a revision that would have been. The convention was not a union of men thinking alike on political questions, l)ut a coalition of men who had nothing in common except personal grievances and disappointments. There were great men in that movement, but they did not have great aspirations or great inspirations. They forgot" the very first precept of a govern- ment of the people, a union on principles of government. They were opposing men. not advancing ideas. Greeley was most generous in accepting the promise of Democratic support. In his letter he spoke of "a new departure from jealousies, strifes, and hates into an atmos- phere of peace, fraternity, and nuitual good will," and he assured his allies that he regarded them as even l>etter Democrats than before, while he was no less a Republican than he ever had been. How history repeats itself. [Laughter. ] Where was the conversion^ We were not permitted to know. Neither party to the coalition followed the example of Saul of Tarsus and acknowledged its conversion and changed its name. They did not see the light from heaven, but apparently from the Treasury. It was a coalition without any progressive principle, though it was heralded as a progressive movement. Its purpose in (effect was to arrest prog- ress, to check the reconstruction of the South, to stop the march toward resumption of specie payment, to halt the settlement of the war debt, to leave principles of government stagnant, and bicker over the trivial things in administration, with slander as the mainspring and scandal mongers for the leaders in a great national campaign. History repeats itself again. [Applause.] THE PEOPLE WERE NOT FOOLED. It would have l)een a serious retlection upon the sober sense and the intelligence of the American people if such a campaign had suc- ceeded. It failed, moreignominiously than any other national political campaign ever befoi-e or since failed, and its failure taught a lasting lesson. Virile manhood does not form coalitions of radicalism and liberalism, of vitriol and soothing sirup, of Republicanism and De- mocracy. Men may change their political convictions, but they will not attempt to yoke up protection and free trade, sound money and fiat money, or sacrifice all principles .of political government for a mere temporary victory and the occupation of oflice, or for petty reveno-e. Such coalitions have failed ever and should fail always. There is no political purgatory, no halfway house between political integrity and benevolent pretense. Any attempt of that kind is set down as demagogv. b SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON. Eniery A. Stoiivs. a brillianl liiwvtr in C"liicao-o, tittingly character- ized the coalition in these words; I think tliat tlit- counsel <>l a class of men who are unal>k' tu agree on anything except their antipathies, and have no harmony except in tlieir dislikes, who agree upon nothing hut opi)osition and are unahle to agree ui)on any affirmative line of ptjiicy, is not likely to intlnence a great party. And they were not. The candidates of this coalition were both editors and the inspiration seems to have been a hope of securing control of the oi'gans of pub- licity. In that hope and design they were very sticcessful. Through Greeley, a strong protectionist, the New York Tribune, then the most powerful Kepul»lican paper in the rnited States, was Itrought to the support of the coalition, and its e.\ami)le was followed b}' other Republican papers, such as the Springfield Kcpublieaii, the Chicago Tribiuie, the Cincinnati Commercial, tlien the most forceful Republi- can paper in Ohio. They made common cause for the coalitions with the New York ^^'ol•ld. the Evening Post, the Chicago Times, and sub- stantially all the metropolitan papers in the West, save alone the (ilobe- Democrat of St. Louis, before the war, during the war, after the war. and from that time to this the one shining great exception which has been true to the policies of the Ke])ubliean party in dark days and bright days. All honor to the Clobe- Democrat. [Applause.] A POWERFUL COMBINATION It was a most formidable combination, these great papers hjiving access to millions of readers, and their efforts were supplemented by those of such men as Senator Lyman Trumbull, Stanley Matthews, George Hoadley, David Dudley Field, Carl Schurz, Joseph Pulitzer, Horace White, Cassius M. Clay, (ieorge W. Julian. Edward Atkinson, David A. Wells, Theodore Tilton, and many others. It was a combi- nation of those who controlled the Democratic party on the one hand with some of those who had been able and forceful in the Republican party on the other hand to deliver the Democi'atic party over solidly to (Jreeley and to disrupt the Republican j)arty. Perhaps it was the most powerful combination of the leaders of the respective parties that has ever been formed in the history of the country. In May, ls72, th(> metropolitan press of the country announced the dissolution of the Republican party and began to ])repare its obituary. But the Republican part}', organized by Lincoln, under whose leader- ship the Uni(jn had been preserved and the amendments to the Consti- tution adopted, beli(ning in the policy of protection, and having written that policy into law, could not be controlled ])y leaders or by the press. The men who formed the combination reckoned without the great body of th(> peo])Ie: they were not representing the people, ))ut their own selfish ambitions. Those who made up the rank and file of the R(>publican pai'ty did not attempt to compromise with the ene- mies of the polici(vs of their party, but, turning their faces to the foe, proclaimed anew their devotion to the economic pi'inciples of the Repul)lican party. The great body of the people treated these newspapers and other ))ublications that undertook to deliver their readers o\'er to the coalition as just so many individuals. They remained true to their convictions and true to the Republican party, and in November, 1872, Grant was SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON. 9 elected by the greatest popular vote and the greatest proportion of the electoral vote ever given to a President. The people gave a fitting and lasting illustration of the fact that the publisher of a great news- paper may have thousands of readers, but he can not destroy their political convictions or deliver their votes in the ballot-box. The American people did tlieir own thinking at that time and will continue to do their own thinking in the future. (Applause.) USURPERS CHARGED USURPATION, After nearly forty years have passed, it is curious reading to turn back to the platform of that coalition and see such terms as " usurpa- tion" and '"treacherv" hurled at the President, and then note that the so-called Liberal Kepublican convention was entireh^ self-consti- tuted and represented nobody but the self-appointed delegates usurping the name of the party they were trying to destroy and the functions of a national convention, while the Democratic convention betrayed the Democratic party by surrendering to the so-called Liberal party, accepting its candidates and platform without the change of a word or a letter. The whole combination of Republican bolters, Democrats, and publishers, showed how blind men may become when the}^ forget the representative character of our Government in its party conven- tions, as well as in the Congress and in the executive departments. But when we turn to the election returns and see how that coalition was repudiated by the voters at the polls, we are reminded of Lincoln's remark, that — You can fool some of the people all the time; all the people some of the time; but you can't fool all the people all the time. (Applause.) There were faults in (i rant's administration, as there would have 'been in any administration following that of President Johnson, which divided and demoralized the party in power, and these faults might have been pointed out and assailed by the properly constituted party convention that represented nearly one-half of the American people; but when the prosecutors of Grant demonstrated that they had no client the farce became so apparent that the campaign ended in ridicule. In his memoirs Grant tells of an incident in his campaign in Texas, where one night the camp was disturbed by an unearthly noise that had a panicky effect on the soldiers and caused some uneasiness among the officers. A squad was detailed to make a reconnoissance. The}'' stealthily moved in the direction from which the sounds came, and as the men rounded a butte they discovered two coyotes on little hillocks engaged in a serenade. The noise made by the Liberal and Democratic press against Grant was a fitting parallel to that episode in his early life. It did not frighten him nor the Republican rank and tile who marched to the polls with the same determination they had four 3' ears before, and 600,0()0 more of them dropped Republican ballots into the boxes, many of these being Demoi-rats, who took that method of repudiating the attempted betraval of their leaders who had sought to deliver them to the pretense of a party that represented nothing but sound and fury. [Applause.] The presumptious attempt to destroy the Republican party did destroy the coalition, and the i^an who had done so much to build up the Republican part}^ and make its policies 10 SPEECH OP HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON. dominant in the coiintrv, died of u broken heart before the electoral college met to tubulate the result. A COALITION FOR FREE TRADE. The real purpose of the coalition aoainst (jrant in 1872 was the over- throw of the protectiv e policy. The Democrats in their convention of 1868, had declared for a tariff for revenue only, just as they have done ever since. The men who were most conspicuous in the Liberal con- vention were what were called " free traders," and were in harmony with the Democratic policy touching the tariff, and while both Liber- als and Democrats in 1872 relegated the tariff' question to the people in their congressional districts, in 1870 they were all for the old Demo- cratic policy of free trade, as they have been from that time to the present, and as they are now. [Applause.] When the Democratic party, through the aid of the mugwump ele- ment, came into control of the House of Representatives and the presi- dency in 1885, the Mills tariff' bill was passed; but it failed of enact- ment because of the Republican Senate. When tbe}^ secured full power in 1898, they enacted the Wilson law, repudiated by their Presi- dent because it was not sufficiently radical, and yet it was sufficiently radical to cripple the industries of the country, close the factories, throw out of employment 3,()00,(»()0 laborers, and fail in producing revenue enough to carry on the ( Jovernment, rendering it necessary for the (xovernment to borrow $2(55, U(>0, 000 for ordinary expenses. Here was the culmination of the long tight through the years against the protective policy, and its success was the greatest disaster that has ever come to the industries of the United States. [Applause. J DINGLEY LAW BRINGS PROSPERITY. The country, having had this object lesson, reversed itself, and in 1896 elected McKinley President and gave the Republican party full power in the House and Senate. Promptly that party wrote into the statutes of the United States the policy of protection, under which the countr}' entered upon an era of unexampled progress and development, which has continued substantially to the present time. In this pros- perity the wages of labor are increasing, and I have no doubt, in proper degree, will continue to increase. [Applause.] The tariff act of 190!) is not perfect any more than were the numer- ous tariff acts that ])re('eded it, and probably no better adapted to the conditions to-day than they were to the conditions which they were designed to meet. But the worth of the new law is to be measured by the conditions of industry and business since its enactment. We had unemployed men, we had idle freight cars, we had much uncer- tainty in n)any lines of busint>ss. and we had a large deticit in the Federal Treasury. Within eight month-, after the enactment of the Payne law this had all changed. We now have full employment, no idle cars, and the revenues are again ample to meet the expenditures of the (Government. This is in marked contrast to the effects which followed the enactment of the Wilson tariff act of 1891, and so like those that followed the enactment of the Dingley Act of 1897, that it seems as good a justification, as good a promise for the future as we could have expected fioin any legislation that touches the whole busi- SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON. 11 ness of the countrv, which is one-third the business of the entire civilized world. THE HIGH COST OF LIVING. A good man}' people complain of the high cost of living, and 1 will not say that it is exactly described by James J. Hill in his epigram of the cost of high living, hut there has been a tendency throughout the century to live better, and each generation in this countiy has lived better than the one that preceded it, and that is the one great ideal for which we have labored through the years. I hope it will continue and that we can continue here to develop a better civilization than any- where else in the world by protecting our labor and industry against the competition of the labor and industry in the more crowded parts of the earth. When anybody tells me that our labor is now no better off than the labor of Europe 1 look to Castle Garden and tind the answer in the thousands of inmiig-rants who come here every year and tind employment and become a part of our civilization. But we have other testimon}- from our American consular sei vice, from the agents of the Department of Commerce and Labor, and from Mr. Samuel (xompers. president of the American Federation of Labor, to the effect that wages in America are double the wages in Europe, and that the cost of living is no higher here than there. I could weary you with details from these reports from those most interested in knowing the truth about this question, but I will not, except to quote a conclud^ ing sentence from the annual report of Mr. Gompers to the Federation of Labor after he made a personal tour of investigation in Europe. Mr. Gompers savs: If the immigrant of this country is willing to continue living here at the same level he^was obliged to accept in his native land, he can find it for the same money. He adds: Meat is usually from 25 to 100 per cent higher in price than in the United States. When this statement is coupled with a detailed comparison by Mr. Gompers of wage scales here with those for the same kind of labor in Europe, and the general conclusion that wages in America are double those in Europe, we can readily understand why the immigrant con- tinues to come in spite of the statements that they can not improve their condition. Down here in Massachusetts where you are building new factories, and running on full time those which wei'e builded before, with increasing wages to your operatives, and where you are making fair profits, who are the men that are doing the lal)or in vour factories^ Are they your children, the children of the Puritan stocks Nay, nav. They are the foreign born, largely from Canada, a less number froni Europe. They may be ignorant: they may be. part of them at times, uncomfortable, but in the United States, with a common-school system that daily instructs l,s,0()<),(tOO of oncoming sovereigns at the public expense, costing almost $4O0,OiH>,O0i». four-tenths of all the money that is spent in all the world, civilized and uncivilized, for the purposes of education, as long as they come of the Caucasian race, willing to live in the sweat of their faces, with the example and inspiration of their brothers who have preceded tliem, the common schools in the future as in the past will, I believe, enable us to assimilate them, as 12 SPEECH OF HON. JOSEPH G. CANNON. mtiMV of our forebears were assiniiluted, after they hnd crossed in the stecrao-e from tl)o old world to the new. We have ninety niillions now. '"We had thirty millions when Lincoln was elected President. After all oui- enormous expenditures, after we have lived as no people ever lived l)efore in the history of the race, the savings from labor since lb«'»<>, in spite of these enormous burdens which we have borne, have increased from Sl(>.tU)O.0O'J,00(> then to >^1l>5,000,ou(),000 to-day, two-fifths of all the wealth of all the world. The Black Ilander will come in and does come in. The Black Hander reads, the Black Hander writes. The anarchist may come in. Me reads; he writes. 1 have listened with ureat interest to the remarks of ex-Governor Black here this evening-. While I would continue to prevent contract labor from comin*:- to our shores, and while 1 would shut out the pauper and the criminal, 1 would not siuit out the capable and industrious Anglo- Saxon. I would shut out the Chinaman l)ecause of his habits and his capacity to live cheaply and because he does not bear the burdens of our civilization. If we did not shut him out. he would put us all out of business. |Laut(hter and applause.] Jf the world should take its hand oti' the Chinaman and let him come without regulation, he in his patient laboi- and his changeless orientalism would conquer the world. ho much for that. May I add one word^ As I look into your faces 1 realize that many of those V)ef()re me are descendants of the Pilgrims and of the Puritans. Many of you are not. Oh. how Massa- chusetts and New Kngland have been like a benediction to that great West stretching beyond the Alleghenies to the l*acitic coast I Asa schoolboy in the log schoolhouse, my earliest knowledge of books was of Noah Webster's elementary spelling book. You never used it. Most of you do not know that it was the first modern schoolbook. In that western countr\" that was our first book, beginning to spell a b ab. b-a ba. cat cat. d-o-g dog, clear through until we came in the the tinal pages of that speller to those wonderful words like "incom- patibility." We would begin, i-n in, c-o-m, com. incom. p-a-t pat, and so on. syllal)le by sylhible. until we s])elled it out and pronounced it. I do not think the later publishers have much improved on Noah Webstei''s elementary spelling book: t)ut by paper, by magazine, by your good >chools you became evangels for the common school system. You gave us many of the t)est that you had. As your high schools and your universities graduated them, Uke the course of empire, westward they took their way. You have min- gled in that great West with the Scotch-Irish from Tennessee and North Carolina and Kentucky, and it has made a magnificent civiliza- tion. We feel grateful to you. And yet. Governor Black, while I agree with much you have said, and while 1 would by \n\\ and by the enforcement of the law more rigidly shut out and keep out the pauper, the t-riminal, and the diseased, yet when T recollect that my ancestors on one si