4 / >nyv 
 
 KINLEY ON LABOR 
 
 His Public Utterances in Behalf of the Work- 
 ingmen of the United States. 
 
 V 
 
 y 
 
 TWENTY-TWO YEARS OF PERSISTENT LABOR FOR THE ADVANCE- 
 MENT OF THEIR INTERESTS. 
 
 The following extracts from tlie public utterances of William McKinley during 
 the twenty-two years since the beginning of his participation in national legislation 
 cannot fail to interest every wurkingman and every friend of labor. They show a 
 consistent and persistent devotion to the interests of labor and legislation in its behalf. 
 The quotations here given are from public addresses, and in the attempt to present 
 them as a continuous record of a period of such length and activity they are neces- 
 sarily incomplete and fragmentary, being in all cases brief extracts from speeches 
 and addresses in which the interests of labor are discussed at greater length than 
 would be possible to completely present’ in a publication of this character. They are 
 sufficient, however, to show that William McKinley has been at every stage of his 
 career and on all occasions an avowed, earnest, and persistent friend of labor and of 
 its protection and the advance of its interests in every legitimate means. 
 
 “WE SHOULD TAKE CARE OF OUR NATION AND HER INDUSTRIES FIRST.” 
 
 (In House of Representatives, April 15, 1878.) 
 
 No man or party would be bold enough to advocate the reduction of labor as a 
 naked proposition, but rather its increase. But, Mr. Chairman, behind this bill, un- 
 derneath its provisions, as I shall attempt to show you later, is inevitable reduction 
 of the price of labor all over the country. The price of labor is inadequate to the 
 necessities of the laboring man, and the workingmen of the country are patiently ac- 
 cepting the inevitable in the hope of relief and better times in the near future. And 
 while I would rejoice at the reduction of the rate of interest for the use of money 
 and the decrease of local taxation, I must protest against this or any other measure 
 which looks to the scaling down of the wages of labor. * * * * Reduce the 
 
 tariff, and labor is the first to suffer. The difference between the present and the 
 proposed rate of duty must be made up somewhere, must be compensated in some 
 way. As always has been the case, when economy in production is to be studied, 
 the manufacturer looks to his payroll of labor and commences there first. * * * * 
 
 It is our duty, and we ought to protect as sacredly and assuredly the labor and the 
 s industry of the United States as we would protect her honor from taint or her ter- 
 d ritory from invasion. We ought to take care of our own nation and her industries 
 first. 
 
 U “OUR LABOR MUST NOT BE DEBASED OR OUR LABORERS DEGRADED.” 
 
 (In House of Representatives, April 6, 1882.) 
 
 The fundamental argument for protection is its benefits to labor. That it en- 
 ables the manufacturer to pay more and better wages than are paid to like labor and 
 services anywhere else will not be disputed. 
 ri There is not a branch of labor in the United State 0 that does not receive higher 
 " rewards than in any other country. Our laborers are not only the best paid, clothed, 
 and educated in the world, but they have more comforts, more independence, more of 
 - them live in houses that they own, more of them have savings in savings institu- 
 ■ tions, and are better contented, than their rivals anywhere else. And this, according 
 to my view, is the result of protection — of the protective system that was inaugurated 
 by the Republican party. Our laboring men are not content with the hedger and 
 ditcher’s rate of pay. No worthy American wants to reduce the price of labor in the 
 •* United States. It ought not to be reduced; for the sake of the laborer and his family 
 and the good of society it ought to be maintained. To increase it would be in better 
 vJ- harmony with the public sense. Our labor must not be debased, nor our laborers de- 
 -v. graded to the level of slaves, nor any pauper or servile system in any form, nor under 
 
 V* 
 
any guise whatsoever, at home or abroad. Our civilization will not permit it. Our 
 humanity forbids it. Our traditions are opposed to it. The stability of our insti- 
 tutions rests upon the contentment and intelligence of all our people, and these can 
 only be possessed by maintaining the dignity of labor and securing to it its just re- 
 wards. That protection opens new avenues for employment, broadens and diversifies 
 the field of labor, and presents variety of vocation, is manifest from our own ex- 
 perience. 
 
 “I SPEAK FOR THE WORKINGMEN OF THE COUNTRY.” 
 
 (In House of Representatives, Jan. 27, 1893.) 
 
 No lover of his race, no friend of humanity, wants reduced wages. I speak for 
 the workingmen of my district, the workingmen of Ohio, and of the country. 
 
 (Mr. Springer. — They did not speak for you very largely at the last election.) 
 
 A “> my friend, my fidelity to my constituents is not measured by the support 
 they give me! (Great applause.) I have convictions upon this subject which I 
 would not surrender or refrain from advocating if 10,000'majority had been entered 
 against me last October. (Renewed applause.) 
 
 “WE MUST NOT REDUCE THE PRICE PAID TO LABOR.” 
 fTn House of Representatives, April 30, 1884.) 
 
 Our wages are higher here than in any other nation of the world, and we are all 
 proud and grateful that it is so. I know it is denied, but experience outweighs the- 
 ories or misleading statistics. One thing we do know is, that our work people do not 
 go abroad for better wages, and every other nationality comes here for increased 
 wages and gets them. * * * * The proposition of the Chairman of the Com- 
 
 mittee on Ways and Means will result in reducing the wages of labor or the destruc- 
 tion of many of our most valuable industries, and the deprivation of employment to 
 thousands. • The one or the other alternative must come; either will be most disas- 
 trous, and attended by business depression and individual suffering. We must not 
 reduce the price paid to labor; it is already sufficiently low. We can only prevent 
 it by defeating this bill, and it should be done without unnecessary delay. The sooner 
 the better, and remove this menace which hangs over all of our industrial life and 
 threatens the comfort and independence of millions of American workingmen. 
 
 “FOR PROTECTION TO AMERICAN LABOR.” 
 
 (At Petersburg, Va., Oct. 29, 1885.) 
 
 There is no royal blood among us; there are no descended titles here; there is 
 no way in the world of getting on and up, or earning money, except by work. (Ap- 
 plause.) There are just two ways in the United States to acquire money; one is to 
 steal it, the other is to earn it, and the honorable way is to earn it; and you earn it 
 by labor, either the labor of the hand or the labor of the brain. (Applause.) And 
 the industrious labor of the hand, and the careful labor of the brain — the possessors 
 of these are going to be the men of the future, whether they are in Virginia or in 
 Ohio. (Applause.) * * * * Kow^ a great question, my fellow-citizens, before 
 
 this country — a question of the now and a question of the hereafter — is whether we 
 shall have maintained in the United States a system of protection to American labor 
 and American development, or whether we shall have practical free trade wuli all 
 the countries of the world. * * * * . 
 
 The chief ground upon which we can justify a protective tariff to-day is that it 
 is in the interest of American labor — American black labor as well as American white 
 labor — and the protective tariff we want is a tax sufficient to make up the difference 
 between the prices paid labor in Europe and the prices paid labor in America. Now, 
 that is all the duty we want. Whenever the workingmen of the United States — I 
 mean skilled and unskilled laboring men — whenever they are ready to work for the 
 same wages, the same low wages that are paid their rivals on the other side, their 
 rivals in England, in Germany, in Belgium, and yi France, engaged in the same occu- 
 pation — whenever they are ready for that, which I hope and believe will never be, 
 then we are ready for the free-trade doctrines of the Democratic party. (Applause.) 
 
 # * * * 
 
 I tell you, free-trade Democracy does not mean prosperity, because when true free 
 trade comes, and everything made on the other side comes in here to compete with 
 that we make on this side, either one of two things must happen — either the Ameri- 
 can manufacturer must quit business, put out his fires, discharge his employes, or go 
 to his payroll and cut that pay roll down low enough to compete with the cheap labor 
 that makes the product on the other side. (Cries of “That's it!”) You will nevei 
 
have prosperity as long as the Democratic party remains as a standing menace to th« 
 industry, growth, and advancement of the United States. Stand by your interests — 
 stand by the party that stands by the people. (A voice, “You are right, and we 
 will do it.”) Because in the Republican party there is no such thing as class or caste. 
 The humble poor colored man in the Republican party, the humble poor white man 
 in the Republican party, has an equal chance with the opulent white or colored Re- 
 publican in the race of life. And so with every race and every nationality, the Re- 
 publican party says, “Come up higher!” We do not appeal to passions; we do not 
 appeal to baser instincts; we do. not appeal to race or war prejudices. We do appeal 
 to your consciences; we do appeal to your own best interests, to stand by a party that 
 stands by the people. 
 
 ON THE ARBITRATION BILL. 
 
 . (In House of Representatives, April 2, 1886.) 
 
 If by the passage of this simple measure arbitration as a system shall be aided to 
 the slightest extent or advanced in public or private favor, or if it shall serve to at- 
 tract the thoughful attention of the people to the subject, much will have been ac- 
 complished for the good order of our communities and for the welfare and prosperity 
 of the people. * * * * It places both parties upon an equality in pursuing the 
 
 investigation. A lack of means upon the one hand or the other will not impair the 
 fullest consideration. The humblest and poorest man can send for persons and 
 papers without incurring an expense which very often they can illy bear. As the 
 compensation of the board comes out of the public treasury, neither party is subject 
 to the expense of the investigation, and the laboring men will not be required to draw 
 from their scanty savings or assess their fellow-workmen to meet actual expenses. 
 This overcomes the disadvantage of limited means on the one hand, and avoids any 
 advantage which might occur from bounteous means on the other. It equalizes their 
 condition for a thorough investigation and a complete disclosure of the true situa- 
 tion. That provision alone is worth to the cause of arbitration much more than it 
 will cost the National Treasury. ***** 
 
 I believe, Mr. Chairman, in arbitration as a principle; I believe it should prevail 
 in the settlement of international differences. It represents a higher civilization 
 than the arbitrament of war. I believe it is in close accord with the best thought and 
 sentiment of mankind; I believe it is the true way of settling differences between 
 labor and capital; I believe it will bring both to a better understanding, uniting them 
 closer in interest, and promoting better relations, avoiding force, avoiding unjust ex- 
 actions and oppression, avoiding the loss of earnings to labor, avoiding disturbances 
 to trade and transportation. 
 
 “I WOULD NOT HAVE AN IDLE,MAN OR AN IDLE MILL IN THE COUNTRY.” 
 
 (At Boston, Mass., Feb. 9, 1888.) 
 
 The manufacturers of New England, and more particularly the skilled labor em- 
 ployed by them, need a protective tariff, and require it equally with the industries 
 and labor of other States. It is imperatively demanded, not only here, but in every 
 section of the Union, if the present price of labor is to be continued and maintained. 
 * * * * I would secure the American market to the American producer (ap- 
 
 plause), and I would not hesitate to raise the duties whenever necessary to secure 
 this patriotic end. (Applause.) I would not have an idle man or an idle mill or an 
 idle spindle in this country, if by holding exclusively the American market, we could 
 keep them employed and running. (Applause.) Every yard of cloth imported here 
 makes a demand for one yard less of American fabrication. Let England take care 
 of herself, let France look after her interests, let Germany take care of her own peo- 
 ple, but in God’s name let Americans look after America! (Loud applause.) 
 Every ton of steel imported diminishes that much of home production. Every blow 
 struck on the other side upon an article which comes here in competition with like arti- 
 cles produced here makes the demand for one blow less at home. Every day’s labor 
 upon the foreign products sent to the United States takes one day’s labor from Ameri- 
 can workingmen. I would give the day’s labor to our own, first, last, and all the 
 time, and that policy which fails in this is opposed to American interests. To se- 
 cure this is the great purpose of a protective tariff. 
 
 OUR LABOR MUST NOT BE REDUCED TO THE EUROPEAN LEVEL. 
 
 (In House of Representatives, May 18, 1888.) 
 
 We will have no objection to free trade when all the nations shall bring the level 
 of their labor up to ours; when they shall accept our standard; when they shall re- 
 gard the toiler as a man, and not a slave; but we will never consent while we have 
 
 s 
 
rotes and the power to prevent to the dragging down of our labor to that of the 
 European standard. (Applause.) Let them elevate theirs; let them bring theirs 
 ;o our level; and we will then have no contention about revenue or protective tariffs. 
 We will meet them in the open field, in home and neutral markets, upon an equal 
 looting, and the fittest will survive. (Applause.) 
 
 “THE GATEWAY OF OPPORTUNITY MUST BE OPEN TO ALL.” 
 
 (At Atlanta, Ga., August 21, 1888.) 
 
 We cannot without grave danger and serious disturbance — we ought not under 
 >ny circumstances — adopt a policy which would scale down the wages and diminish 
 the comforts of American workingmen. Their welfare and independence, their prog- 
 ress and elevation, are closely related to the welfare and independence and progress 
 )f the Republic. We have no pampered class in this country, and we want none. We 
 tvant the field kept open; no narrowing of the avenues; no lowering of our standard. 
 IVe want no barriers raised against a higher and better civilization. The gateway of 
 >pportunity must be open to all, to the end that they may be first who deserve to be 
 first, whether born in poverty or reared in luxury. We do not want the masses ex- 
 cluded from competing for the first rank among their countrymen and for the nation’s 
 greatest honors, and we do not mean that they shall be. 
 
 Free trade, or a revenue tariff, will of necessity shut them out. It has no re- 
 jpect for labor. It holds it as the mere machinery of capital. It would have cheap 
 nen that it might have cheap merchandise. With all its boasted love for the strug- 
 gling millions, it is infinitely more interested in cutting down the wages of labor than 
 in saving twenty-five cents on a blanket; more intent in reducing the purchasing 
 power of a man’s labor than the cost of his coat. 
 
 “WE W ANT LABOR TO BE WELL PAID.” 
 
 (At Cleveland, O., October 5, 1889.) 
 
 I do not prize the word cheap. It is not a word of hope; it is not a word of 
 comfort; it is not a word of cheer; it is not a word of inspiration! It is the badge 
 >f poverty; it is the signal of distress; and there is not a man in this audience, not 
 i single white-haired man, who, if he will let his memory go back, will not recall 
 that when things were the cheapest, men were the poorest. (Applause.) * * * * 
 
 pheap merchandise means cheap men, and cheap men mean a cheap country ; and that 
 is not the kind of Government our fathers founded, and it is not the kind their sons 
 nean to maintain. (Applause.) If you want cheap things, go where you can get 
 them; that is where you belong; this is not your abiding place. We want labor to 
 De well paid; we want the products of the farm, we want mechanical products, we 
 tvant everything we make and produce to pay a fair compensation to the producer. 
 That is what makes good times; that is what protective tariffs mean. 
 
 “WE HAVE GIVEN TO EVERY MAN. A FAIR CHANCE IN THE RACE 
 
 OF LIFE.” 
 
 (In tjie House of Representatives, May 7, 1890.) 
 
 There is no other country in the world where individual enterprise has so much 
 encouragement as in the United States. There is no nation in the world, under any 
 system, where the same reward is given to the labor of man’s hands and the work of 
 their brains as in the United States. We have widened the sphere of human endeavor 
 and given to every man a fair chance in the race of life and in the attain* 
 ment of the highest possibilities of human destinies. To reverse this system means 
 to stop the progress of the Republic and reduce the masses to small rewards for their 
 labor, to longer hours and less pay, to the simple question of bread and butter. It 
 means to turn them from ambition, courage and hope, to dependence, degradation, 
 and despair. No sane man will give up what he has, what he is in full possession of, 
 what he can count on for himself and his children, for what is promised by your 
 theories. Free trade, or, as you are pleased to call it, “revenue tariff,” means the 
 opening up of this market, which is admitted to be the best in the world, to the free 
 entry of the products of the world. It means more — it means that the labor of this 
 eountry is to be remitted to its earlier condition, and that the condition of our people 
 is to be leveled down to the condition of rival countries; because under it every ele- 
 ment of cost, every item of production, including wages, must be brought down to the 
 level of the lowest paid labor of the world. * * * 
 
 With me this position is a deep conviction, not a theory. I believe in it and thus 
 tvarmly advocate it because enveloped in it are my country’s highest development 
 and greatest prosperity; out of it come the greatest gains to the people, the great- 
 tst comforts to the masses, the widest encouragement for manly aspirations, with the 
 
largest rewards, dignifying and elevating our citizenship, upon which the safely and 
 purity and permanence of our political system depend. ( Lowg-eontinued applause 
 on the Republican side, and cries of “Vote!” “Vote!”) 
 
 ON THE EIGHT HOUR LAW. 
 
 (In the House of Representatives, August 28, 1890.) 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I am in favor of this (the Eight Hour Law) bill. It has been said 
 that it is a bill to limit the opportunity of the workingman to gain a livelihood. This 
 is not true; it will have the opposite effect. * * * The Government of the United 
 
 States ought, finally and in good faith, to set this example of eight hours as consti- 
 tuting a day’s work required of laboring men in the service of the United States. 
 (Applause.) The tendency of the times the world over is for shorter hours of labor, 
 shorter hours in the interest of health, shorter hours in the interest of humanity, 
 shorter hours in the interest of the home and mmily; and the United States can do 
 no better service to labor and to its own citizens than to set the example to States, 
 to corporations, and to individuals employing men by declaring that, so far as the 
 Government is concerned, eight hours shall constitute a day’s work, and be all that 
 is required of its laboring force. * * * 
 
 Mr. Speaker, we owe something to the care, the elevation, the dignity and educa- 
 tion of labor. We owe something to the workingmen and the families of the work- 
 ingmen throughout the United States who constitute the large body of the population, 
 and this bill is a step in the right direction. (Applause.) 
 
 “THAT COUNTRY IS LEAST PROSPEROUS WHERE LOW PRICES ARE 
 SECURED THROUGH LOW WAGES.” 
 
 (At Toledo, O., Feb. 12, 1891.) 
 
 Mr. President, that country is least prosperous where low prices are secured 
 through low wages. Cheap foreign goods, free or practically free, in com- 
 petition with domestic goods involve cheap labor at home or depend- 
 ence upon foreign manufactures. Those who advocate duties solely for 
 revenue see only as a result cheaper prices, which are but tem- 
 porary at best, arid do not see the other side, that of lower wages, cheaper labor, 
 agricultural depression, and general distress. The protective system, by encouraging 
 capital to engage in productive enterprises, has accorded to labor, skill and genius 
 higher opportunities and greater rewards than could otherwise be secured, defend- 
 ing them against ruinous foreign competition, while promoting home competition, 
 and giving the American consumer better products at lower prices and the farmer a 
 better market than was ever enjoyed under the free-trade tariffs of the Democratic 
 party. / 
 
 “TO THE FARMER THE BEST MARKET AND TO LABOR THE BEST WAGES.” 
 
 (At New York City, April 10, 1891.) 
 
 As a tariff has to be levied to raise revenue, we believe it better that it should 
 be levied on the foreign products which compete with those produced by our own 
 people, and to that extent protect our own producers, our own labor, and defend 
 them reasonably and fairly in their own markets. The result of this system of tariff 
 has so quickened the energies of our people, so stimulated production and develop- 
 ment, as to make us the greatest agricultural and mining and manufacturing Nation 
 of the world. It has diversified our industries, given to the farmer the best market 
 and to labor the best wages anywhere to be found, and the consumers better products, 
 at lower prices, than they ever before enjoyed. (Applause.) 
 
 “THERE IS NOTHING TOO GOOD FOR THE MEN WHO WORK.” 
 
 (At Cincinatti, O., on Labor Day, Sept 1, 1891.) 
 
 I come by invitation of your Committee, not to make a formal address, but to ex- 
 press by my presence the interest which I feel in the cause which you represent, and 
 to participate with you in the suitable recognition of “Labor Day.” There is nothing 
 too good for tjie men who work. The days of rest and recuperation in our pushing, 
 busy age are too few, altogether too few, and the setting apart of this public holiday 
 is a step worthy our highest commendation, and is an honorable recognition of labor, 
 which is the foundation of our wealth and production. * * * It is our glory that 
 
 the American laborer is more intelligent and better paid than his foreign competitor, 
 and so far no call upon his greater inventive skill and genius has been made in vain. 
 Herbert Spencer has testified, “Beyond question, in respect to mechanical appliances 
 the Americans are ahead of all other nations.” Superior tools would alone give ui 
 
 a 
 
no small advantage, but the possession of the best machinery implies much more, 
 that we have also the best mechanics in the world. 
 
 There are some things we should remember, however. Nothing is cheap which 
 enforces idleness upon our # own people. Invention does not follow idleness. Noth- 
 ing is cheap which permits to slumber in our hills and mountains the rich raw ma- 
 terials that only await the manipulation of man to produce untold wealth. Tne 
 first duty of a nation is to enact those laws which will give to its citizens the widesl 
 opportunity for labor and the best rewards for work done. 
 
 LABOR BETTER REWARDED HERE THAN ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE 
 
 WORLD. 
 
 (To Committee of Republican Clubs, at Ann Arbor, Mich., May 17, 1892.) 
 
 I need not say to you what the world knows : That this country, after nearly 
 one-third of a century of protection, has reached the proud position of being of all 
 nations of the world the first in manufactures, first in mining, first in agriculture, 
 first in invention, and first in educational advantages for the masses; that labor is 
 better rewarded here; and that the great body of the people have wider and better 
 opportunities for advancement here than could be found anywhere else in the wide, 
 wide world. Protection builds up; a revenue tariff tears down. Protection brings 
 hope and courage to heart and home; free trade drives them from both. Free trade 
 levels down; protection levels up. 
 
 “GIVE TO EVERY AMERICAN WORKINGMAN FULL WORK AT AMERICAN 
 
 WAGES.” 
 
 ' (To Tin Workers of Niles, 0., June 20, 1896.) 
 
 I am glad to have demonstrated in my native town that we can make tin plate 
 in the United States, and in reply to what your spokesman has been kind enough tc 
 say of my efforts in that direction, 1 answer that if I have been associated with any 
 legislation that has given to a single American workingman a day’s work at Ameri- 
 can wages which he did not receive before, that is honor enough for me. What we 
 want in this country is a policy that will give to every American workingman full 
 work at American wages. (Applause.) 
 
 WE WANT THE POLICY WHICH WILL GIVE TO LABOR WORK AND WAGES. 
 
 (To Zanesville Young Men’s Club, June 22, 1896.) 
 
 We have had some experience in the last three years and a half. Experience has 
 superseded prophecy, and cold facts take the place of prediction. We all know more 
 than we knew then, and are ready and anxious to get back a period like that of 1892. 
 when this country was enjoying its highest prosperity with the greatest domestic 
 trade it ever had, and the largest foreign trade ever known with the nations of the 
 world. We want to get back the old policy, my fellow-citizens, which will give to 
 labor work and wages, and to agriculture a home market and the good foreign mar- 
 ket which was opened up by the reciprocity legislation of the Republican party. We 
 have come to appreciate that protective tariffs are better than idleness. (Applause.) 
 
 “I WANT A POLICY THAT WILL PUT IDLE MEN AT W T ORIv AT GOOD 
 AMERICAN WAGES.” 
 
 (To Tuscarawas tin workers, July 3, 1896.) 
 
 Here in this country we are dependent upon each other, no matter what our oc- 
 cupation may be. All of us want good times, good wages, good prices, good markets, 
 and then we want good money, too, and ahvays intend to have it. Wlien we give a 
 good day’s work to our employers we want to be paid in good sound dollars, worth 
 one hundred cents each, and never any less. * * * * What I want to see in this 
 
 country is a return to that prosperity which we enjoyed for thirty years, prior to 
 1893. A policy that will put idle men to work at American wages, for the more men 
 we have at work at good American wages the better markets the farmers will have 
 and the better prices they will get for their products. 
 
 “RESTORE AMERICAN PROTECTION AND SERVE THE INTERESTS OF 
 
 AMERICAN LABOR.” 
 
 (From speech to Notification Committee, June 29, 1896.) 
 
 Great issues are involved in the coming election, and eager and earnest the peo- 
 ple for their right determination. Our domestic trade must be won back, and our 
 idle working people employed in gainful occupations at American wages. * * * 
 
 The dollar paid to the farmer, the wage-earner, and the pensioner must continue for- 
 ever equal in purchasing and debt-paying power to the dollar paid to any Govern- 
 
 6 
 
ment creditor. * * * The great body of our citizens know what they want, and 
 
 that they intend to have. They know for what the Republican party stands and what 
 its return to power means to them. They realize that the Republican party believes 
 that our work should be done at home and not abroad, and everywhere proclaim their 
 devotion to the principles of a protective tariff, which, while supplying adequate 
 revenues for the Government, will restore American production, and serve the best 
 interests of American labor and development. Our appeal, therefore, is not to a false 
 philosophy, or vain theorists, but to the masses of the American people, the plain, 
 practical people, whom Lincoln loved and trusted, and whom the Republican party 
 has always faithfully striven to serve. 
 
 “WE WANT GOOD WAGES PAID IN GOOD MONEY.” 
 
 (To Alliance, O., workingmen, July 23, 1896.) 
 
 What we want, no matter what political organization we may have belonged to 
 In the past, is a return to the good times of four years ago. We want good prices 
 and good wages, and when we shall have them again we want them paid in good 
 money. (Applause.) Whether our prices be high or low, whether our wages be 
 good or bad, they are all better by being paid in dollars worth one hundred cents 
 each. If we have good wages, they are better by being paid in good dollars. If we 
 have poor wages, they are made poorer by being paid in poor dollars. 
 
 “WORKINGMEN, HAVE WE NOT HAD ENOUGH OF SUCH COSTLY 
 
 EXPERIMENTS ?” 
 
 (To the delegation of window glass workers, at Canton, O., July 23, 1896.) 
 
 The Government, my fellow-citizens, has not been the only sufferer in the past 
 three years, as your spokesman has vividly shown. The people have suffered, the 
 laboring man in his work and wages, the farmer in his prices and 
 markets, and our citizens generally in their incomes and investments. Enforced 
 idleness among the people has brought to many American homes gloom and wretched- 
 ness, where cheer and hope once dwelt. Both Government and people have paid 
 dearly for a mistaken policy, a policy which has disturbed our industries and cut 
 down our revenues, always so essential to our credit, independence and prosperity. 
 Having stricken down our industries, a new experiment is now proposed, one that 
 would debase our currency and further weaken, if not wholly destroy, public confi- 
 dence. Workingmen, have we not had enough of such rash and costly experiments? 
 Don’t all of us wish for the return of the economic policy which for more than a 
 third of a century gave the Government its highest credit and the citizen his greatest 
 prosperity? 
 
 “WE WANT NEITHER CHEAP MONEY NOR CHEAP LABOR.” 
 
 (To delegation of colored citizens and military of Cleveland, O., at Canton, August 
 
 17, 1896.) 
 
 We want in the United States neither cheap money nor cheap labor. We will 
 have neither the one nor the other. We must not forget that nothing is cheap to the 
 American people which comes from abroad and when it entails idleness upon our own 
 laborers. We are opposed to any policy which increases the number of the unem- 
 ployed in the United States, even if it does give us cheaper foreign goods ; and we are 
 opposed to any policy which degrades American manhood that we may have cheaper 
 goods made either at home or abroad. Having reduced the pay of labor, it is now 
 proposed to reduce the value of the money in which labor is paid. * * * 
 
 My countrymen, the most un-American of all appeals observable in this campaign 
 is the one which seeks to array labor against capital, employer against employe. It 
 is most unpatriotic and is fraught with the greatest peril to all concerned. We are 
 all political equals here — equal in privilege and opportunity — dependent upon each 
 other and the prosperity of the one is the prosperity of the other. 
 
 TO BENEFIT LABOR IS THE HIGHEST REWARD THAT MAN CAN HAVE. 
 (To delegation of workmen and others from his old Congressional district, August 
 
 24, 1896.) 
 
 I cannot forget that you trusted me in my young manhood, and that you have 
 ever since followed me with unfaltering confidence. I remember the first time that I 
 ever looked into the faces of an East, Liverpool audience twenty years ago, and that 
 then, as now, I was speaking for sound money and a protective tariff. Your spokes- 
 man has alluded most graciously to what he terms the services I have given to your 
 great industry. If I have done anything to bring work to you or my fellow-man any- 
 where and make the condition of the American workingman easier, that is the high- 
 
 7 
 
«oi reward I »*sk, and greater reward bo mam oould hare. There it me industry in 
 
 the United States, my fellow citizens, which demands or deserves protection through 
 
 our tariff more than yours. 
 
 “APPEALS TO PREJUDICE ARE BENEATH THE SPIRIT OF A FREE PEOPLE." 
 
 (From Letter of Acceptance, 1896.) 
 
 No one suffers so much from cheap money as the farmers and laborers. They 
 are the first to feel its bad effects and the last to recover from them. It has been 
 the experience of all countries, and here as elsewhere the poor and not the rich are 
 the greatest sufferers. * * * It is a cause for painful regret and solicitude that 
 
 an effort is being made by those high in the councils of the allied parties to divide 
 the people of this country into classes and create distinctions among us which, in fact, 
 do not exist, and are repugnant to our form of government. These appeals to pas- 
 sion and prejudice are beneath the spirit and intelligence of a free people, and should 
 be met with stern rebuke by those they are sought to influence, and I believe they 
 will. 
 
 “THE EQUALITY OF ALL LIES AT THE BASIS OF POPULAR 
 GOVERNMENT." 
 
 (To delegation of Pittsburg workingmen, on Labor Day, Sept. 5, 1896.) 
 
 This assemblage thoroughly typifies the National idea of a great American com- 
 monwealth in this, that it presents the equality of all which lies at the basis of popu- 
 lar government. * * * * Here is a striking protest against the unworthy effort 
 
 on the part of those who would divide our citizenship into classes and a striking con- 
 demnation of such un-American appeals to passion and prejudice. Nothing can better 
 stamp with falsehood and indignant disapproval the effort to array class against 
 class, than this great demonstration before me to-day. I have no sympathy with such 
 appeals — have you? Patriotism is a grander sentiment; it ennobles but never dis- 
 graces. Instead of seeking to work the masses, it would be worthier on the part of 
 all of us to try to get work for the masses. Workingmen, that you should have call- 
 ed on me the day set apart by your great commonwealth to celebrate the worth, the 
 dignity and the power of labor, is a great honor, which I duly and gratefully appre- 
 ciate. 
 
 PROTECT THE WORKINGMAN AGAINST CHEAP LABOR AND CHEAP MONEi. 
 
 (To Workingmen of Homestead, Pa., Sept. 12, 1896.) 
 
 I have always been, as you know, in favor of a protective tariff. I have always 
 advocated it, and believe in it, because I think it is necessary to protect the American 
 workingman against the cheaper labor of the Old World. Applying that great prin- 
 ciple, I am in favor of protecting to-day the laboring men of the United States against 
 a degraded currency. I am opposed to free trade because it degrades American labor ; 
 1 am opposed to free silver because it degrades American money. 
 
 “WE WANT A FULL DOLLAR AND THE BEST OPPORTUNITY TO EARN IT.” 
 
 (To employes of Pennsylvania Railroad, at Canton, Sept. 12, 1896.) 
 
 I thank you gentlemen of Pennsylvania, representing every branch and depart- 
 ment of industry, for the call which you have made upon me here to-day, and I thank 
 you for the messages, the gracious messages which you have brought, that you will 
 stand this year for American honor, American public faith, American prosperity and 
 the full employment at American wages of every idle man in , America. What we 
 want in America, and by that I mean the United States, what we want, I say, in 
 this country, is a full one hundred cent dollar and then we want after that the freest 
 and best opportunity to earn it. 
 
 AMERICAN WAGES FOR AMERICAN WORKINGMEN. 
 
 (To steel workers of Braddock, Pa., Sept. 17, 1896.) 
 
 My countrymen, I am one of these Americans who believe that the American 
 workshop should be protected as far as possible from the foreign workshop, to the end 
 that American workingmen may be constantly employed at American wages. Nor 
 do I want products cheapened at the expense of American manhood, nor do I think 
 that it is economy to buy goods cheaply abroad if it thereby enforces idleness at 
 home. 
 
 “WE WANT NEITHER SHORT WORK NOR SHORT DOLLARS." 
 
 (To delegation of Pennsylvania workingmen, at Canton, Sept. 19, 1896.) 
 
 I am one of those Americans who believe that the American workshop should be 
 protected against Hie foreign workshop. 1 believe that tile American workingmen 
 should be defended by a wise and judicious protective policy against the underpaid 
 
 a 
 
workingmen of the Old World. In a word, I believe that thi» country is oure and 
 
 that we, first of all, are entitled to enjoy its privileges and its blessings. The first 
 thing we want in this country is plenty to do. We want neither short work nor 
 short dollars in the United States. We want neither free trade nor free silver in the 
 United States. We want an opportunity to work and when we have improved that 
 opportunity, we want to be paid in dollars that are worth as much the week or year 
 after they are received as on the day of their receipt. Free trade has cheated you in 
 your wages and you do not propose to permit free silver to cheat you in your pay. 
 
 “EVERY MAN WHO SEEKS WORK SHOULD HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO 
 
 WORK.” 
 
 (To employes of the Carnegie City Mills, of Pittsburg, Pa., Sept. 19, 1896.) 
 
 Nothing moves me more deeply than to have the assurances of support which I 
 1 am daily receiving from the men in the United States who toil. To have as allies in 
 this great contest for the honor and prosperity of the countrymen the workingmen 
 of the United States is indeed a crown to any cause. You have but one aim in the 
 use of your ballots and that is to secure the highest and greatest good to the people 
 of the United States. That is what the ballot is for and it is for the accomplishment 
 of this that you will use the ballot this^year. We have had in this country for three 
 years past an experience under two contending National policies. Most of the men 
 who sit before me to-day never had any experience under but one policy until within 
 the last four years. You have now tried them both. You have tried the protective 
 policy of the Republican Party and you have tried the free trade revenue policy of 
 the Democratic Party. Which do you like best? * * * * What we want in this 
 
 country is that every man who seeks' work shall have an opportunity to work. And 
 then wfien he has performed an honest day’s work for his employer, we mean he shall 
 bo paid in honest dollars. 
 
 “WHAT WE WANT FIRST IS WORK FOR AMERICAN WORKMEN.” 
 
 (To delegation of workingmen and others from Mercer and Butler Counties, Pennsyl- 
 vania, at Canton, Sept. 19, 1896.) 
 
 What we want in this country first and foremost is work for the American work- 
 ingman. Every man in the country who wants to work ought to have an opportunity 
 to work, and that opportunity is always limited by the extent to which we have our 
 work done in Europe and European workshops by European labor. I am one of those 
 who believe in the doctrine of protecting American factories against foreign factories 
 and the American laborer against the workingmen of the world. * * * * \, j ia t 
 
 we want is a chance to work and when we have wages the home market is always 
 improved for every farmer who wants to turn an honest dollar. We want an honest 
 American dollar, too, and you should vote for the Party that you believe is more 
 likely to give you the best chance to work and the best coin in payment, and you must 
 judge for yourselves which party that is. 
 
 °“WE WANT THE AMERICAN WORKSHOP DEFENDED AGAINST THE 
 FOREIGN WORKSHOP.” 
 
 (To delegation of citizens of Western New York, Sept. 2, 1896.) 
 
 We never had so much work in our history as we had in 1892. What we want 
 is to get back to those good times and the people are only waiting for an opportunity 
 in 1896, to vote back the principles and policies they gave up four years a»o. We 
 want no free trade in the United States. We wa?*t the American* workshop protected 
 and defended against the foreign workshop for t!>y benefit of American workingmen. 
 Suppose the foreign manufacturer could pay customs duties with a fifty-cent d'ollar, 
 would not that reduce the protection you now hav* one half? My fellow citizens, do 
 not be deluded. No matter how much money we vave or may have in this country, 
 there ?.s but one way to get it and that is to givf something for it. What we want 
 just now is somebody who wants what we have to g/ve him. Labor cannot wait. The 
 capita] of the -workingman is his strong right arm. If he does not use it to-day just 
 that much of his capital is gone and gone forever. The capitalist can wait on his 
 dividends but the workingman cannot wait on hie dinner. And there is nothing so 
 well calculated to injure labor in the United States as a depreciated currency. 1 
 want you to read what Webster said, March 15, 1837, in your great State: “He who 
 tampers with the currency robs labor of its bread He panders, indeed, to the greed 
 of capital, which is keen sighted and may shift fo” itself, but he beggars labor which 
 is honest, unsuspecting, and too busy with the present to calculate for the future. 
 The prosperity of the working classes lives, move* and has its being in established 
 credit and a steady medium of payment. All sudden changes destroy it; honest in- 
 
 • 
 
dustry never comes in for any part of the spoils in that scramble which takes place 
 when the currency of the country is disordered.” 
 
 “WE WANT NO IDLE MEN IN THE UNITED STATES.” 
 
 (To citizens of Pennsylvania, at Canton, Sept. 25, 1896.) 
 
 We want no idle men in the United States. We want no idle mills in the United 
 States and to the end that we may have neither idle mills nor idle men, we must do 
 our work in the United States and not outside the United States. You may disagree 
 with me, but I believe in a Protective tariff. I have always so believed and I have 
 never felt called upon to make an apology to anybody anywhere for having been de- 
 voted to the great principles which promotes and encourages American development 
 and good wag'es to American workingmen. Then, my fellow citizens, having secured 
 a tariff that will defend American interests, we want to continue the use of the good - 
 old dollars that we have had since 1879. We want no clipped coins in the United 
 States. We want no debased dollars any more than we want debased labor, and when 
 men have given a full day’s work to an American employer, we want that American 
 employer to pay him in dollars a^ good as any dollars anywhere in 
 the world, and worth one hundred cents each everywhere in the world. Then, 
 my fellow citizens, we want another thing — we want peace and tranquility in the 
 United States. We want it established once for all that this is a Government of law 
 and by law and that now as always we are a law abiding people. There is one thing 
 that we are proud of and that is that the Republican party can submit its principles 
 to the workingmen, to the farmer, to the student, to the scholar, to those of every 
 calling or profession, with confidence, because those principles are right and eternal. 
 
 “CLASS APPEALS ARE DISHONORABLE AND DISHONEST ” 
 
 (To citizens of Peoria, 111., at Canton, Sept. 26, 1896.) 
 
 The judgment of the people is swift and terrible against those w T ho mislead and 
 delude them. The people are never led astray by deceit or misrepresentation when 
 they investigate for themselves. This they are doing this year in a marked degree. 
 
 It is of no avail that party leaders appeal to passion w T hen the people are alive to their 
 own and the public interests. It will not do to say to the men who are poor in this 
 world’s goods — you must get off by yourselves, form a class of your own; your inter- 
 ests are opposed to those who employ you. This is not enough this year. The poor 
 jman inquires: what good will it do me, how will that better my condition, how will 
 that bring bread to my family or food to my children? Will I be benefited by de- 
 spoiling my employer? Will it give me more employment and better wages to strike 
 down those whose money is invested in productive enterprises, which give me work 
 and wages? Four years ago it was said that the manufacturer was making too much 
 money. You remember it. But that cannot be said now. And that the robber 
 'tariff which was enriching him, must be torn root and branch to the end that he 
 •should be deprived of what some people were pleased to call his “ill-gotten profits.” 
 The country seemed to share in the suggestion, and the trial was entered upon, with 
 iwhat result every manufacturer, commercial man, traveling man, and workingman 
 best knows. It has beeii discovered to our hurt and sorrow that you cannot injure 
 the manufacturer without injuring the laborer. It has been found, too, that you 
 cannot injure the manufacturer without injuring the vVhole business of the country. 
 You may close tke shops by adverse tariffs, because you imagine the manufacturer is 
 piaking too much, but with that done you close the door of employment in the face of 
 jthe laborer whose only capital is his labor. You cannot punish the one without punish- 
 ing the other and our policy would not inflict the slightest injury upon either. In 
 ^such a case “getting off together” does not do either any good. Arraying labor 
 (against capital is a public calamity and an irreparable injury to both. Class appeals 
 (are dishonorable and dishonest. They calculate to separate those who should be 
 united, for our economic interests are common and indivisible. Rather, my fellow 
 citizens, teach the doctrine that it is the duty and privilege of every man to rise; 
 (that with honest industry he can advance himself to the best place in the shop, the 
 (store, the counting house or in the learned professions. This is the doctrine of equal- 
 ity and opportunity that is woven into every fiber of our National being; a doctrine 
 •which has enabled the poorest boy with the humblest surroundings to reach the best 
 place in our great industries and to receive the highest trusts which can be be- 
 stowed by a generous people. Gentlemen, and I speak to my countrymen everywhere, 
 if you have not yourselves been among the most fortunate, I pray you think of your 
 boys and girls and place no obstacles in their pathway to the realization of every 
 lofty and honorable ambition which they may have. 
 
 i 10 
 
‘‘THE WAY TO HAVE PROSPERITY IS TO ENCOURAGE THE AMERICAN 
 
 WORKSHOP” 
 
 (To delegation of Railwaymen, at Canton, Sept. 26, 1896.) 
 
 Yours is a most delicate and dangerous employment. I never step off a railroad 
 train, after either a long or short journey, that I do not feel like making personal 
 acknowledgement to every railroad employe for his care for the safety of the passen- 
 gers. I never step off a railroad train that I do not feel like going to the engineer 
 and taking off my hat to him. * * * * I make no appeal to you that is not 
 
 based upon what I believe to be for the public good. I believe it is the mission of the 
 Government of this country to take care of the industrial people of the country ; I 
 believe it is the business of the country to make everything that can be made, in the 
 United States which our people consume. I believe ft is the business of the country 
 to protect every citizen in his employment from the cheap products made by the 
 cheaper labor of other lands. I believe that the way to have prosperity in the United 
 States is to encourage the American workshop and uphold American labor; and 
 when you uphold American labor and sustain the American workshop, you have given 
 trade and traffic to these great railroad companies, the arteries of commerce, which in 
 turn, give steady employment to the railway employes of the country. 
 
 “THERE IS NO MENACE TO LABOR LIKE THAT OF A DEBASED CURRENCY ” 
 (To the tin plate workers of New Kensington, Pa., Sept. 26, 1896.) 
 
 To be called by laboring men themselves “the workingman’s friend,” is the high- 
 est honor for which I would strive. To have been in any way connected with Nation- 
 al legislation that has furnished employment to the hundreds and thousands of men 
 who stand beside and around me, is worthy the best ambition of any man. I am glad 
 to have it demonstrated here to-day that we can and do make tin plate in the United 
 States. If your factory and other kindred factories are not as prosperous as they 
 were two or three years ago, you know the reason why. If your wages have been 
 reduced in the tin plate factories; you know quite as well as I can tell you the reason 
 it is so; for whenever there is a cut in the rates of tariff upon foreign imports, it is 
 likely to be followed by a cut of rates in American wages. I take it that you are all 
 in favor of a protective tariff. I take it that you know which party stands for a 
 protective tariff. I take it that you know which ticket represents that great Ameri- 
 can doctrine, and knowing it, I take it you know just what National ticket is best for 
 you. Now what you want after all — after good work and wages — is that you shall 
 be paid in good dollars. You do not want your wages cut and your money too. It 
 is bad enough to suffer a reduction in your pay but it is an added aggravation to have 
 to suffer a cut in the money in which you are paid. I take it that every man who 
 stands before me to-day is not only in favor of National prosperity, but he is in 
 favor of National honor, and a National currency that will be as sound as the Re- 
 public and as unsullied as its honor has always been. There is no menace to labor 
 like that of a depreciated and debased currency. * * * We must not lose our 
 
 moorings; we must not be deluded by false doctrines or by false prophets. We must 
 never by our ballots stigmatize ours either a dishonest or a repudiating Nation. 
 Steady work and: good wages are the test of the Nation’s prosperity, and the happi- 
 ness of its citizens. Neither of them will come through free trade or free silver; for 
 while both may benefit somebody else, neither of them can benefit the American citi- 
 zen. 
 
 “I FAVOR THAT POLICY THAT GIVES THE MOST WORK AND BEST WAGES 
 TO EVERY AMERICAN LABORER.” 
 
 (To delegation of workingmen from Harrisburg, Pa., at Canton, Oct. 3, 1896.) 
 
 The cry of distress is going up from every part of our common country. What 
 men want is busine - z activity. VTiat laboring men want is work. We have discov- 
 ered in the last three years and a half that we cannot increase the output of the 
 mines or the wages of the miner by decreasing manufacturing in the United States. 
 We have discovered that less American coal is required if we do any part of the work 
 in Europe rather than here at home. I favor that policy which will give the largest 
 development to every American interest, that gives the widest oportunity to every 
 American citizen, that gives the most work and best wages to every American laborer, 
 and secures to our people the highest possible prosperity in all their occupations. 
 * * * * My fellow citizens, we must defeat by decisive majorities every scheme 
 
 for the debasement of our currency, whether it be free silver or irredeemable paper 
 money; but while we do this we must also defeat the destructive and dangerous men- 
 ace of free trade. V 7 e have lost enough already in the reduced wages of our labor, and 
 
 XX 
 
we do not propose to be further cheated by being paid in depreciated dollars. Let us 
 
 effectually dispose of both, and restore to the country the great .usiness prosperity 
 which is naturally and properly ours to possess and enjoy. 
 
 “NOBODY IS CHEATED BY A DEPRECIATED CURRENCY SO MUCH AS THE 
 
 MAN WHO LABORS.” 
 
 (To mechanics and workingmen of Alleghany, Pa., and Pennsylvania Railway shops, 
 
 Oct. 3, 189G.) 
 
 I have been pleased to note in the public press and learn from the many delega- 
 tions that have visited me during the last six weeks, that the employes of our great 
 railroads are deeply interested in the rightful settlement of the questions which are 
 presented in this campaign. We have come to realize, no matter what may be our em- 
 ployment, that we are most prosperous when the country is most prosperous. We 
 have come to realize that the railroads do the most business, pay the best wages and 
 have the most work when the farmers have good crops, good prices and good markets 
 and the manufacturers have plenty of orders and their workmen steady emplovment. 
 You always build more engines, repair more engines, and do more by way of iprov- 
 ing equipments when your railroads do the most business, and when they do the most 
 business you have the steadiest employment and best wages. * * * * Democrats 
 
 and Republicans alike, I ask you, do you want a continuance of a policy that has 
 taken work from the American workshop and givfen it to the foreign workshop, or do 
 you disapprove of that policy? You will have an opportunity to vote directly upon 
 that proposition. We have the best country in the world, and if it does not continue 
 to be the best it will be our own fault. We have the best railroads, and more rail- 
 roads, and more internal commerce than any other nation, and it is because we have 
 such vast internal commerce that the railroads of this country have been able to ex- 
 tend their lines and give such liberal employment to American labor. You have an 
 opportunity to vote this year on another question — as to whether you want good, 
 full, round, one-hundred cent dollars in payment of your wages, or whether you want 
 to be paid in fifty-two cent dollars. Nobody is cheated by a depreciated currency so 
 much as the man who labors. This is the experience of mankind the world over. It 
 has been our own experience at every period in our history when we have entered 
 upon an era of depreciated currency, and were living under the wild-cat banking sys- 
 tem which issued State money. The workingmen of this country are its largest cred- 
 itors. There is due to the workingmen in prosperous times so vast a sum of money 
 as to make them the greatest creditors of the world, and they are, therefore, more in- 
 terested or quite as much interested as any other part of our population, in having a 
 sound and stable currency, unvarying in value and good wherever trade goes. 
 
 “OUR POLICY SEEKS TO GIVE A SITUATION TO EVERY MAN WHO WANTS 
 
 WORK.” 
 
 (To citizens of Ashland County, 0., Oct. 7, 1890.) 
 
 Eighteen years ago your county was in the Congressional district for which 1 
 stood as a candidate for Congress. I remember to have gone to your county, as a 
 young man, almost an entire stranger to your people, but I shall never forget the 
 warm and cordial welcome you gave me, and the splendid support you gave to the 
 Republican Party that year. * * * * * That year, as the older men m the 
 audience will recall, I was contending for two things. In every speech I presented 
 what 1 regarded as two great overmastering issues. One was the return to specie 
 payments and the other was the continuance of a protective tariff policy that would 
 preserve our own market for the American farmers and our factories for the Ameri- 
 can workingmen. We are contending this year for the same principles. On the othei 
 hand the allied parties of the opposition insist that this country shall take a step 
 backward. Ever since 1879 we have been on a gold basis, on the solid rock of honest 
 finance and of honest payment of debts, public and private. It is proposed now that 
 wc shall enter upon an era of not only a depreciated silver dollar, but of depreciated 
 paper money to that the Republican Party answers, “No, forever, No.” Some peo- 
 ple seem, sometimes, to despair of the future of the United States. Nobody need 
 have any apprehension oil that score. The United States is too gieat and too re- 
 sourceful to have its progress impeded for any considerable length of time by any 
 political party. This year we stand, as in 1878, for the restoration of a protective 
 policy. In 1§92, a year the most prosperous in our history, we were under such a 
 policy Every man in this country who wanted work could find it, and every man 
 who worked In this country in 1892 got better wages than he ever received in any 
 other period of our history or in all the world’s history. The farmers of this coun- 
 try had the best home market in the world : had more and better paid consumers thanj 
 
 12 
 
they had ever had before. But that has all changed. The newspaper advertisements 
 in 1892 used to read "Men wanted.” The advertisements that run in the newspapers 
 to-day read “Situations wanted.” Our policy seeks to give a situation to every man 
 of this country who wants to work. The policy of partial free trade has put the 
 workingmen in a situation which entails upon them heavy loss, and upon every far- 
 mer of the country great injury. 
 
 T BELIEVE THE RIGHT POLICY IS THE ONE WHICH PROTECTS THE 
 AMERICAN WORKSHOP.” 
 
 (To delegations of Cleveland workingmen and coal miners, Oct. 7, 1896.) 
 
 I am one of those who believe that we should look after our own people before 
 we look after the people of other lands, who owe no allegiance to the Government of 
 the United States. 1 believe the right policy is the one which protects the American 
 workshop by putting a tariff upon the products of the foreign workshop. My fellow 
 citizens, I do not believe that we ought to have a tarifF policy that will let the prod- 
 ucts of cheaper lqmds and of underpaid labor, come into this country and destroy our 
 manufactories and impoverish and degrade our labor. Now, the protective policy 
 is my policy. It is the doctrine I have always believed in and 1 make no apology to 
 anybody anywhere for holding that view. And if on the third day of November the 
 A.merican people in their sovereign capacity shall decree that a protective policy shall 
 De restored, and sound money continued, I hope and fervently pray that we will enter 
 upon an era of prosperity that will give happiness and comfort to every American 
 home. 
 
 ‘LET US EMPLOY EVERY IDLE MAN AND BRING HAPPINESS TO EVERY 
 
 AMERICAN HOME.” 
 
 (To delegation of workmen from West Virginia potteries and iron and steel workers, 
 
 Oct. 7j 1896.) 
 
 •The thought in every man’s mind here, is: How can I better my condition? 
 How can I improve the condition of my family? The answer comes almost with one 
 voice — the way to do it is to protect American industry and defend American labor. 
 Let us do our own manufacturing here in the United States. Let us make our own 
 iron and steel, our own glass — and when we do that we will employ every idle man 
 in the United States and bring hope and happiness to every American home. I be- 
 lieve in the policy of protection to home industries and to energies of the American 
 people. I do not believe anything is cheap to our people that imposes idleness upon 
 a, single American citizen. What we want is work and wages. Do you believe free 
 trade will aid you? Do you believe protective tariffs will do it? (Cries of “Yes.” 
 '‘Yes.” “Every time.”) Then vote that way. Protection never closed an American 
 factory. Protection never shut an American mine. Protection never put Ameri- 
 can labor out on the streets. I can not say as much for partial free trade, such as 
 we have experienced in the last three years and a half. More than that, my fellow 
 citizens, we not only want an opportunity to work, but when we get that opportunity 
 we want to be paid in honest dollars worth a hundred cents each. We believe neither 
 in free trade nor in free silver. The one debases labor and the other the currency 
 of the country. And more than all, you gentlemen, I know, are in favor of the 
 maintenance of law and order. 
 
 VOTED AND SPOKE FOR AN EIGHT -HOUR DAW IN THE SERVICE OF THE UNITED 
 
 STATES. 
 
 (To employes of Cleveland Rolling Mills, Oct. 7, 1896.) 
 
 Nothing touches me more deeply than to have around and about me, assuring me of 
 their support the workingmen of the United States. They are the bone and sinew of the 
 country and the mighty conservative force which in every perilous crisis of history must 
 be relied upon to preserve National honor and the supremacy of the law. I am more than 
 glad to meet at my home the workingmen of the Cleveland Rolling Mill and the Wire Mill 
 employes. I have met you before. 1 have addressed thousands of the workingmen who 
 stand about me to-day, at their homes in Newburg and Cleveland, and I believe there is 
 not one of you present who would say that I ever sought to deceive or mislead you. I 
 have stood in the past as a public servant striving to benefit my fellow man ; to roll the 
 weight off his shoulders and give him a fair and equal chance in the great race and con- 
 test of life. I believe in the American home as the corner-stone of liberty and free insti- 
 tutions, and I have always believed that the American home was made best when the 
 head of that home had plenty to do. I have always stood for a Government policy — not 
 one that would prohibit goods from coming into the United States, but for a policy that 
 would protect the products of American labor against the products of the cheaper labor of 
 the old world. I believe it is our duty to guard and defend the American workshop, and 
 when we are doing that we are defending the American home. I stand to-day not only 
 for a protective tariff but an honest dollar, a dollar based upon the best money of the 
 world, recognized in every center of the world. We have had some experiences with 
 short hours in the last four years, and we do not want to experiment with short dollars 
 
 13 
 
now. When I addressed you last, four years ago, In the old tent at Newburg, a commltte? 
 waited upon me and wanted to know if I was in favor of eight hours for a day’s work 
 They were discussing the wisdom and advisability of shorter hours for their own comforl 
 and for their own advancement and interest. To them I said “yes” ; I both voted and spoki 
 for an eight hour law in the service of the United States. Since 1893 I haven’t heard a wore 
 about shorter hours from the American workingmen. They are all too short, as my friends 
 tell us. What you want is steady employment. Whatever will bring you the first in th< 
 true Government policy, and when you have that, then you want to be paid in dollars wortt 
 one hundred cents, good not only under our flag, but good~in every civilized nation of tin 
 world. 
 
 “RESTORE A POLICY THAT GIVE WORK TO AMERICAN WORKINGMEN.” 
 
 (To delegation of Maryland workingmen, at Canton, Oct. 14, 1896.) 
 
 What we want to do In this country is to restore a policy that will encourage America! 
 development, American manufacturing, and give work to American workingmen. (Cheers.) 
 This is the policy of the Republican Party, and it has been its uninterrupted policy sines 
 1881. Under this policy, as every workingman in my presence well knows, we enjoyed s 
 higher prosperity than we ever enjoyed before or since. Now, having restored that policy, 
 which can only be done by your votes, in connection with the votes of your fellow countrymer 
 everywhere, let it be recorded by the same votes on the third day of November,, that thf 
 people of this country are in favor of honest dollars with which to measure out. exchanges 
 and not shifting dollars, to be ascertained by consulting the market reports published in th« 
 daily newspapers of the country. (Great applause.) When you have performed a good 
 honest day’s work, you want to be paid in good, honest dollars. (Cheering, and cries ol 
 “That’s right.”) You want to be paid in staying dollars that are good, not only when you 
 receive them, but good for all time (applause, and cries of “That’s what we want”) be 
 cause they rest upon unextinguishable and inherent value, recognized the world over. 
 
 “PROTECTION OPENS BUT NEVER CLOSES AMERICAN WORKSHOPS.” 
 
 (To delegation from Western New York, October 15, 1896.) 
 
 There is one thing the people of this country will not submit to — that the savings 
 of the poor shall be squandered and wasted by a depreciation of the hard earned monej 
 which they have laid aside as the results of their thrift and economy. (Great applaus* 
 and cries of “Good.” “Good.”) Can the people of Dunkirk, and Chatauqua county for on< 
 instant favor such a policy? (Loud cries of “No.” “Never.”) I am glad to know thal 
 you do not. Let me tell you what I think is a better, safer and more honorable policy, 
 Let us restore the protective tariff system and pay as we go. (Enthusiastic cheering and 
 cries of “Hurrah for McKinley.”) Put your laboring people at work and restore business 
 confidence from one end of the country to the other. (Great applause, and cries of “That’s 
 the stuff.”) I am a protectionist (cries of “That’s right, so are we”) because I believe ths 
 protective system Is best adapted to our conditions and citizenship. (Cries of “You are 
 right.”) It doeo everything that a revenue tariff does and vastly more. It supplies need' 
 ed revenue. (Great applause.) A revenue tariff can do no more, and the present tariff has 
 not done that much. (Great applause.) It accomplishes this end with equal, if nol 
 greater certainty than a revenue tariff, and while doing that it wisely discriminates in 
 favor of American interests, and is ever mindful of the American people. (Cheers, and 
 cries of “Right,” “Right.”) * * * Protection favors the United States (Great ap- 
 plause and cries of “That’s the stuff”) and the flag of the United States. (Renewed ap 
 plause.) It favors the people of the United States (cheers) and is the true friend oi 
 every American girl and boy struggling upward. (Great applause.) It builds up : nevei 
 rears down. (Cries of “That’s right.”) It opens but never closes American workshops 
 That is what we want in this distressed country to-day. (Cries of “That’s what we want.”) 
 This is what will diminish idleness, want any misery and stop deficient revenues. 
 
 “SET EVERY WHEEL IN MOTION AND LIGHT THE FIRES OF EVERY FACTOK1 
 
 IN THE LAND.” 
 
 (To Kentucky Railway Sound Money Club, October 17, 1896.) 
 
 Nothing gives me greater honor ; nothing brings to me higher distinction ; nothing in- 
 creases my gratitude so much as to feel that I have the warm, earnest, sincere support ol 
 the men who toil. (Great applause and cries of “You will have ours.”) Labor is at th< 
 foundation of all our wealth and prosperity. You might open every mint of the world 
 and coin the silver of all creation, but it would not produce the prosperity thal 
 the labor of the United States would produce, had it an opportunity to worli 
 (Great cheering.) What we want in this country, my fellow citizens, is constant employ- 
 ment. (Applause and cries of “That’s correct” and “That’s the stuff.”) You get thal 
 when the country is prosperous. (Cries of “Correct,” Correct.”) We do not get it wher 
 the business of the country is depressed. (Cries of “No,” “No.”) What we want to dc 
 now, irrespective of party, is to adopt an industrial policy which will set every wheel in 
 motion (applause) and light the fires in every factory of the land (renewed applause), and 
 then the employes of every railroad will have all they can haul and all the work thej 
 can do. 
 
 MAJOR MCKINLEY TO THE WORKINGMEN OF HIS OWN HOME. 
 
 (To Workingmen of Canton, O., Oct. 15, 1896.) 
 
 My Fellow Citizens : I have witnessed in front of this porch many scenes which 
 have touched my heart, but none which have more deeply moved me than this gathering 
 of the workingmen of Canton. Fringed about this assemblage are the wives and the littl? 
 ones whom you love so much and for whom you want an opportunity to labor. I bid you 
 all warm, hearty and sincere welcome. I have known most of you almost a lifetime. On? 
 of the spokesmen, the last one, was one of the earliest of my friends when I came to th« 
 city of Canton, and the other I have known for fifteen or sixteen years ; while in this audi- 
 ence there are thousands of well-known and familiar faces to me. I greet you all as m 3 
 friends. I have been with you in every undertaking to build up our splendid little city, 
 to bring enterprise, thrift and employment to our people, and in all the years of the past 
 there has not been a moment that I have not felt, whether I had their support or not, thal 
 I had the respect and confidence of the workingmen of Canton. * * * In 1892 fret 
 
 trade as against protection was the paramount issue of the campaign and free trad? 
 
 14, 
 
triumphed before the great tribunal of the American people. This year we bring the ques- 
 tion to you again. We ask you to review it, and to express your reconsidered, better and 
 more matured judgment upon that Issue, after three years of dreadful experience. * * * 
 
 I bid you, workingmen of Canton, use your ballots as your intellects and consciences shall 
 direct, moved by the highest and most honorable considerations which can influence the 
 voter — that of the welfare of the people, and the honor and good name of the government 
 which we love. Use the ballot as will best subserve your own interests and those of your 
 family, whose welfare and happiness you have in your sacred keeping. I thank you from 
 the bottom of my heart for this call. It is a pleasure I shall never forget. It is an honor 
 I shall always cherish, and I can not find words to tell you how this great assemblage of 
 my own fellow citizens, coming from every shop and factory of the town, has given me 
 courage and inspiration. I wish for you all the best in this life. I wish for your homes 
 love, happiness and contentment, and for our common country the greatest glory and 
 highest prosperity. 
 
 “A FULL DAY’S WORK SHOULD BE PAID IN FULL UNQUESTIONED DOLLARS.” 
 
 (To delegations of Maryland Workmen, Oct. 17, 1896.) 
 
 It is an unusual honor to any candidate, or cause, to have three thousand wage-earners 
 travel a thousand miles to testify to him their devotion and loyalty, and I appreciate more 
 than I can find words to express the presence here, in Canton, of the potters and wage- 
 earners of the Mt. Vernon mills, the wage earners of the transportation companies, the 
 sound money clubs and the employes of the iron works and shipyards, who have gathered 
 about my home this evening. * * * Nothing in all this campaign has given me so 
 
 much pleasure and satisfaction as the knowledge that the wage earners of the country are 
 for the most part enlisted in the cause for which we stand. (Prolonged cheering.) I 
 Know something of the workingmen of the United States. I know something of the potters. 
 (Great applause from the potters.) I know something of the wage earners in the great 
 cotton and woolen mills, and that all they want is an opportunity to work ; and to do this 
 all they ask is protection from the products of other lands made by underpaid labor. 
 ^(Tremendous applause.) * * * The tariff question is a question wholly of labor. We 
 
 will manufacture with the world, if the rest of the world Will pay as good wages as were 
 paid in the United States. But as long as they do not, patriotism, genuine Americanism, 
 and every industrial interest, demands that we should make our tariff high enough to meas- 
 ure the difference between the low cost of labor in foreign countries and the cost of labor 
 in this. (Cheers.) Then, you are interested in honest money. You don’t want any short 
 dollars. (Cries of “No,” “No,” and applause.) You have tried short hours in the last 
 four years and haven’t liked them. (Laughter and applause and cries of ‘‘you bet we 
 don’t.”) When you give a full day’s work to your employer, you want to be paid in full 
 unquestioned and unalterable dollars. (Great applause.) ^ 
 
 THE TOILERS ARE ENTITLED TO LIBERAL CARE AND PROTECTION. 
 
 (From Inaugural Address, March 4, 1897.) 
 
 The depression of the past four years has fallen with especial severity upon the great 
 body of toilers^of the country, and upon none more than the holders of small farms. Agri- 
 culture has languished and labor suffered. The revival of manufacturing will be a relief 
 to both. No portion of our population is more devoted to the institutions of free govern- 
 ment, nor more loyal in their support, while none bears more cheerfully or fully its proper 
 share in the maintenance of the government, or is better entitled to its wise and liberal care 
 and protection. Legislation helpful to producers is beneficial to all. The depressed condi- 
 tion of industry on the farm and in the mine and factory has lessened the ability of the 
 people to meet the demands upon them ; and they rightfully expect that not only a system 
 of revenue shall be established that will secure the largest income withTThe least burden, 
 but that every means will be taken to decrease, rather than increase, our public expen- 
 ditures. 
 
 WELL-EMPLOYED LABOR MAKES A CONTENTED POPULATION. 
 
 (To Manufacturers’ Club, Philadelphia, June 2, 1897.) 
 
 * * * Philadelphians have in the past shown what busy Industries and well-em- 
 
 ployed labor can do to make a great city and a contented population. (Applause.) They 
 do not mean to accept present conditions as permanent and final. (Cheers.) They will 
 meet embarrassments as they have bravely met them in the past, and in the end will re- 
 store industries and labor to their former condition and prosperity. (Great cheering.) 
 And, gentlemen, Philadelphia is but a type of American pluck and purpose everywhere. 
 (Great and prolonged applause.)* 
 
 THE FURNACE FIRES HAVE BEEN LIGHTED. 
 
 (At Joliet, Illinois, October 7, 1899.) 
 
 I am glad to know that every one of the fires of all the furnaces and factories and 
 shops in the city of Joliet has been lighted, and that employment waits upon labor in every 
 department of human industry here. The nation is doing a vast business not only at home 
 but abroad. For the first time in bur history we send more American manufactured 
 products abroad, made by American workingmen, than we buy abroad. (Applause.) 
 
 DO NOT DIVIDE THE PEOPLE INTO CLASSES OR BUILD A WALL AGAINST TUB 
 
 AMBITIONS OF YOUR BOY. 
 
 (To the Chicago Bricklayers’ and Stonemasons’ Union, Chicago, Oct. 10, 1899.) 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : It gives me great pleasure to meet with the work- 
 ingmen of the city of Chicago. Of the many receptions that have been tendered me during 
 my three days’ stay in your city, none has given me more pleasure or greater satisfaction 
 than the welcome accorded to me in this hall and the kind words spoken in my behalf by 
 your president. (Cheers.) I have come not to make an address to you, but rather to give 
 evidence, by my presence, of the great interest I feel in the cause of labor, and to con- 
 gratulate you and your fellow-workmen everywhere upon the improved condition of tbe 
 country and upon our general prosperity. (Applause.) When labor is employed at fair 
 wages, homes are made happy. The labor of the United States Is better employed, hotter 
 paid, and commands greater respect than that of any other nation in the world. (Ap- 
 
 15 
 
plauaa.) What I would leave with you here to-nlfht, la the moment I shall occupy, le the 
 
 thought that you should Improve all the advantages and opportunities of this free govern- 
 ment. Your families, your boys and girls, are very close to your heart-strings, and you 
 ought to avail yourselves the opportunity offered your children by the excellent schools 
 of the city of Chicago. Give your children the best education obtainable, and that is the 
 best equipment you can give any American. Integrity wins its way everywhere, and what 
 I do not want the workingmen of this country to do is to establish hostile camps and divide 
 the people of the United States into classes. I do not want any wall built aganist the am- 
 bitions of your boy, nor any barrier put in the way of his occupying the highest places in 
 the gift of the people. 
 
 WAGES AND EMPLOYMENT NOW WAIT UPON LABOR. 
 
 (At Vincennes, Ind., October 11, 1899.) 
 
 My Fellow Citizens : We ought to be a very happY people. We are a very happy 
 people. The blessings which have been showered upon us have been almost boundless, and 
 no nation in the world has more to be thankful for than ours. We have been blessed with 
 good crops at fair prices. Wages and employment have waited upon labor, and, differing 
 from what it was a few years ago labor is not waiting on the outside for wages. Our 
 financial condition was never better than now. We have good money and plenty of it 
 circulating as our medium of exchange. National banks may fail, fluctuation in prices 
 come and go, but the money of the country remains always good ; and when you have a 
 dollar of it, you know that dollar is worth one hundred cents. Not only have we prosperity, 
 out we have patriotism; and what more do we want? 
 
 “THE EMPLOYER IS LOOKING FOR THE LABORER, NOT THE LABORER FOR 
 
 THE EMPLOYER.” 
 
 (At Iron Foundries, Milwaukee, Wis., Oct. 17, 1899.) 
 
 My Fellow Citizens : As I have been journeying through the country, 1 have been 
 welcomed with a warm cordiality by my fellow citizens, but at no place have I had a re- 
 c. pt'on that has g v n me more genuine pleasure, more real satisfaction, than the greetings 
 of the working mm o this great establishment and the other great establishments o’fthis 
 city about the build. :gs in which they toil. (Great applause.) I congratulate you all 
 upon the prosperity of the country. The employer is looking for the laborer and not the 
 laborer for the employer, and I am glad to note, from one end of the country to the other, 
 a universal demand for labor. 
 
 “I HAVE NO SYMPATHY WITH THAT SENTIMENT WHICH WOULD DIVIDE MY 
 COUNTRYMEN INTO CLASSES.” 
 
 (At Racine, Wis., Oct. 17, 1899.) 
 
 I am glad to stand in this city of diversified industries and busy toilers and look Into 
 the faces of the people who have made your city what it is. This is a nation of high 
 privilege and great opportunity. We have the free sch* ol, the open Bible, freedom of re- 
 ligious worship and conviction. We have ‘the broadest opportunity for advancement, with 
 every door opeh. The humblest among you may aspire to the highest place in public favor 
 and confidence. As a result of our free institutions the great body of the men who control 
 public affairs in state and nation, who control the great business enterprises of the country 
 the railroads and other industries, came from the humble American home and from thi 
 ranks of the plain people of the United States. (Applause.) I have no sympathy with 
 that sentiment' which would divide my countrymen into classes, j have no sympathy with 
 that sentiment which would put the rich man on one side and the poor man on the other 
 (applause), because all of them are equal before the lew, all of them have equal power 
 in the conduct of the government. • 
 
 “FOR LABOR A SHORT DAY IS BETTER TUAN A SHORT DOLLAR. * 
 
 (From Letter of Acceptance, Sept. 8, 1900.) 
 
 The best service which can be rendered to labor is to afford it an opportunity for steady 
 and remunerative employment, and give it every encouragement for advancement. The 
 poliev that subserves this end is the true American policy. The past three years have 
 been more satisfactory to American workingmen than many preceding years. Any change 
 of the present industrial or financial policy of the government would be disastrous to their 
 highest interests. With prosperity at home and an increasing foreign market for American 
 products, employment should continue to wait .upon labor, and with the present gold stand 
 ard the workingman is secured against payments for his labor in a depreciated currency 
 For labor, a short day is better than a short dollar ; one will lighten the burdens, the other 
 lessens the rewards' of toil. The one will promote contentment and independence, the other 
 penury and want. The wages of labor should be adequate to keep the home in comfort, 
 educate the children and, with thrift and economy, lay something by for the days of in- 
 firmity and old age.