CONGRESS. (THE TARIFF BILL.) 



175 



corridors are thronged with representatives of 

 the monopolists, and our petition boxes filled 

 with protests of the trusts, let us be true to our 

 faith and our pledges, let us go forward until 

 we make this a country in which every man 

 shall see the gateway of opportunity opening 

 before him, in which the great avenues of indus- 

 try shall no longer be the private possession of 

 the wealth of the country, but every youth in 

 its borders shall be inspired to rise by his own 

 merits and his own efforts not born to labor 

 for others nor beaten back in contempt by those 

 who speak of him as a rebel when he seeks his 

 own rights. Let this be a country free to all, 

 equal for all, with the golden ladder of oppor- 

 tunity planted in every cabin, in every home, 

 and at every humble fireside in the land." 



On Feb. 1, 1894, in summing up the debate 

 for the opponents of the measure, Mr. Reed, of 

 Maine, said : 



' Mr. Speaker, in this debate, which has ex- 

 tended over many weeks, one remarkable result 

 has already been reached, a result of the deepest 

 importance to this country. That result is, that 

 the bill before us is odious to both sides of the 

 House. It meets with favor nowhere, and com- 

 mands the respect of neither party. On this 

 side we believe that while it pretends to be for 

 protection it does not afford it, and on the other 

 side they believe that while it looks toward free 

 trade it does not accomplish it. 



" Those who will vote against this bill will do 

 so because it opens our markets to the destruc- 

 tive- competition of foreigners, and those who 

 vote for it do it with the reservation that they 

 will instantly devote themselves to a new cru- 

 sade against whatever barriers are left. 



" Whatever speeches have been made in de- 

 fense of the bill on the other side, whether by 

 gentlemen who were responsible only to their 

 own constituencies or by the gentleman from 

 West Virginia, who ought to have been steadied 

 by his sense of responsibility to the whole coun- 

 try, have one and all, with but rare exceptions, 

 placed their authors uncompromisingly, except 

 for temporary purposes, on the side of unre- 

 stricted free trade. 



" It is evident that there is no ground for 

 that hope entertained by so many moderate men, 

 that this bill, bad as It is, could be a resting 

 place where our manufacturing and productive 

 industries, such as may survive, can re-estab- 

 lish themselves and have a sure foundation for 

 the future, free from party bickering and party 

 strife. Hence, also, there can be no foundation 

 for that cry, so insidiously raised, that this bill 

 should be passed at once, because uncertainty is 

 worse than any bill can possibly be. Were this 

 bill to pass both branches to-day, uncertainty 

 would reign just the same. 



" This result was inevitable. Although this 

 bill professed to open to the manufacturers a new 

 era of prosperity and professed to be made in 

 the interest of some of them, the moment it 

 came to be defended on this floor the great bulk 

 of it could not be defended on any other ground 

 than the principles of free trade. Hence, in this 

 discussion, the precise terms of this proposed 

 act count for nothing, and we are left to the 

 discussion of the principles which underlie the 

 whole question. That question may not be de- 



cided here and now upon these principles, but 

 the ultimate decision by the people can have no 

 other foundation. 



" After this statement it would be entirely 

 natural that a feeling of weariness should come 

 over this audience, for if anything seems to have 

 been discussed until human nature can bear it 

 no more it is the tariff. Nevertheless the fact 

 that the subject is still before the people shows 

 that the last word has not yet been said, and 

 that the subject has not yet been exhausted or 

 understood. 



" The history of protection has been most re- 

 markable. Fifty years ago the question seemed 

 to be closed. Great Britain had adopted free 

 trade, the United States had started in the same 

 direction, and the whole world seemed about to 

 follow. To-day the entire situation seems to be 

 reversed. The whole civilized world except Great 

 Britain has become protectionist, and the very 

 year last passed has witnessed the desertion of 

 English principles by the last English colony 

 which held out. This has been done in defiance 

 of the opinions of every political economist in 

 England who wrote prior to 1850, and of most 

 of those who have written since. 



" When you add to this that the arguments 

 against it have seemed so clear and simple that 

 every schoolboy can comprehend them and 

 every patriot with suitable lungs could fill the 

 atmosphere with the catchwords, the wonder in- 

 creases that in every country it should still 

 flourish and maintain its vigor. Ten years ago 

 it was equally true at one and the same time 

 that every boy who graduated from college 

 graduated a free trader, and that every one 

 of them who afterward became a producer or 

 distributor of our goods became also a protec- 

 tionist. 



"The arguments of the political economist, 

 clear as crystal, do not seem to have convinced 

 the world, nor, what is much worse, do they seem 

 to have made any substantial progress. On the 

 contrary, these economists have taken up the 

 task of tearing each other to pieces, so that to- 

 day there is hardly a namable important propo- 

 sition on which they agree, and the more the 

 facts of the universe are developed the more 

 confusion seems to reign among them. Mean- 

 while the world has proceeded in its own way 

 without much regard for their theories and their 

 wisdom. I do not mean that studious men have 

 not discovered great truths and had glimpses of 

 still greater, but in the main they have only 

 passed from one inaccuracy to another, because 

 they have forgotten that the whole race is wiser 

 than any man. 



" You and I, Mr. Speaker, can not hope to do 

 much better than these famous men, except so 

 far as we view with tolerance what great masses 

 of our fellow-men are doing and assume that 

 they are probably right instead of assuming that 

 they are probably wrong in matters which so 

 deeply concern them. 



" It is often said that the truth is the simplest. 

 That is so, after you understand the truth, but 

 when you do not a lie is far simpler. When 

 Copernicus discovered the theory of the universe 

 it took centuries for men to believe it. The 

 Ptolemaic theory was so simple that anybody by 

 using his eyes could see that the sun rose in the 



