182 



CONGRESS. (THE DINGLEY BILL.) 



be increased to a strength second to no naval police 

 force in the world ; the Nicaragua Canal would be 

 constructed ; the trade of Central and South Amer- 

 ica, China, Japan, and India would be transferred 

 to our shores from the shores of the British Isles ; 

 in short, all that the Republican party stands for 

 and means for good government and vigorous ad- 

 ministration can be secured under an honest con- 

 struction and a fair administration in accordance 

 with the the Republican platform of 1892." 



Senator Hoar of Massachusetts asked two ques- 

 tions: Whether Senator Carter would say that the 

 interpretation put upon that platform by Mr. Har- 

 rison was delusive, fraudulent, or misleading ; and 

 whether he was to be understood as saying that " if 

 he fail to convince the majority of the American 

 people, if he fail to convince the majority of his 

 Republican associates that they are wrong and he 

 is right, he proposes to say to them, ' You shall not 

 pass any protective tariff unless you surrender your 

 honest convictions, the opinions of the majority, 

 and come over to us.' If a protective tariff bill be 

 hereafter presented, fair and just to the whole 

 country, based on Republican principles, providing 

 for the industries of the Northwest and the new 

 States, with a just tariff on wool, a just tariff on 

 lead, and the other products of those States, and a 

 just tariff on the fruits of California, do you mean 

 to say to us, ' You shall not pass that tariff, if we 

 can help it, unless you surrender your honest con- 

 victions on what is true bimetallism ' f " 



In the course of his remarks Mr. Hoar said : 



" I desire to remind my honorable friend that this 

 protection upon wool has been supported by the 

 votes of New England against the. votes of the 

 wool-growing States themselves. When Ohio halted 

 between two opinions, when California gave her 

 vote for free trade, when Texas sent her representa- 

 tives here to champion in this and the other House 

 the policy which struck down one of their own most 

 important industries, the manufacturing interests 

 of New England have stood firm and stanch in its 

 support. When the wool schedule was on its pas- 

 sage two years ago I rose in my place here and asked 

 the representatives from the wool-growing States if 

 they could suggest any one thing which the New 

 England Senators had failed to do which would 

 help to save the tariff on wool, or which they could 

 then do to avert the destruction of that protection. 

 I asked that question of the then Senator from 

 Montana, the predecessor of my honorable friend, 

 and the other representatives of the wool-growing 

 States, and one after another, the Senator from 

 Montana, the Senator from Colorado, and one or 

 two other Senators, with a candor which became 

 them, replied that there was nothing of which they 

 complained of New England in that particular. 



"I do not justify the views of the Eastern press 

 of my honorable friend and his companions, but I 

 think that if the Senator reads the papers in his 

 own section of the country he will find that they 

 are not far behindhand. I have myself had the 

 honor of being hanged in effigy in a bimetallist 

 State for advocating in secret session on a treaty 

 what I thought were the true principles of the 

 Constitution of the United States and the Declara- 

 tion of Independence. I have had my mail packed 

 with abusive and scurrilous articles against me, in- 

 significant and humble as I am on this question 

 and on this floor, whose scurrilous vituperation 

 would have set Dean Swift crazy and made him 

 turn green with envy. I wonder how posterity will 

 think of the great, useful life of John Sherman if 

 they read the account of him in the Western press 

 as the thief, the trickster, the man who defrauded 

 the Americsin people by stealth by getting silver 

 demonetized, and who was so anxious to keep it a 



secret that he only had the bill printed thirteen 

 times ! That chorus comes up from the whole West 

 against the old and honored leaders of the Re- 

 publican party, the men who carried this country 

 through war and calamity. It is a very trifling mat- 

 ter, after all. Nobody yet was ever hurt by a little 

 talk, a little abuse, a little printer's ink. 



" But this is the one question about which the seri- 

 ous people of my part of the country are concerned, 

 the question whether we are acting in good faith 

 and on an equality. 



" Now, I say to you, vote me down on this question 

 of free coinage of silver or any policy that seems to 

 you to be inconsistent with your opinions upon it, 

 and, sorry and mortified and humiliated as I shall 

 be, I shall walk straight up in half an hour after- 

 ward and vote for any measure which the Senator 

 from Idaho or the Senator from Colorado or the Sen- 

 ator from Montana may show me is to the interest of 

 his State ; and if out of revenge, out of anger, out of 

 a desire to force my miserable little notions against 

 the judgment of the majority of my associates, the 

 majority of the representatives of the American 

 people, I did not do it, I should not dare to go 

 back to New England and face my constituents. I 

 should be hurled out of power, if I did that thing, 

 with an indignation and scorn and contempt which 

 would make miserable the rest of my life and the 

 life of all my posterity for generations to come. 



" Some persons have understood the gentlemen 

 who stand with my honorable friend from Nevada 

 to say something different from that, and say that, 

 ' unless you will surrender and swallow your con- 

 victions on this matter of bimetallism and under- 

 take to have the United States do this thing alone, 

 you shall not have, if we can help it, the protective 

 tariff or any other measure which will benefit you 

 more than it benefits us.' 



4i I should like the further information whether 

 we are to understand the Senator from Montana as 

 occupying that attitude, or whether, if it shall turn 

 out that he fails to convince the majority of the 

 American people that he is right in this matter 

 of silver, he is going to say, ' I shall destroy 

 every interest of the American people that I can 

 strike at.' " 



In answer to the first question Mr. Carter said : 



" The interpretation of the platform by President 

 Harrison, who proved by his action to be conscien- 

 tiously and honestly disposed to give full and free 

 expression to it and to the administration of the 

 law, coming from that source, was reasonably satis- 

 factory to our people as furnishing a beacon light 

 for hope. 



" If, upon the other hand, the interpretation of 

 the platform is to be considered in the light of a 

 majority party action on this floor since then, I say 

 we could not accept the interpretation. They seem 

 to assume that the Minneapolis platform com- 

 manded them to wipe the last vestige of legislation 

 favorable to silver from the statutes. With that 

 construction of the platform we are at war now and 

 shall continue to be at war." 



In reply to the second question he said : 



" Mr. President, the question is further pro- 

 pounded, if defeated in an honest effort made to 

 secure legislation in conformity with this particular 

 principle of the party platform, shall gentlemen 

 from west of the Missouri river who affiliate with 

 the party now and contemplate doing so in the 

 future absolutely refuse then and there to further 

 co-operate with the party on its pronounced principle 

 of adherence to protection? In reply to that, I say 

 that the Republicans who believe in the platform 

 as construed in our portion of the country will be 

 the very last to desert the ship. If gentlemen elect 

 to accept the gold theories of Mr. Cleveland and 



