Part 16

_Gentlemen and my Ohio Friends_--The State of my nativity has again placed me under obligations by this new evidence of the respect of her people. I am glad to meet you and to notice in the kind and interested faces into which I look a confirmation of the cordial remarks which have been addressed to me on your behalf. You each feel a personal interest and, I trust, a personal responsibility in this campaign. The interest which expresses itself only in public demonstrations is not of the highest value. The citizen who really believes that this election will either give a fresh impulse to the career of prosperity and honor in which our Nation has walked since the war, or will clog and retard that progress, comes far short of his duty if he does not in his own place as a citizen make his influence felt for the truth upon those who are near him. [Applause.] You come from a community that has recently awakened to the fact that beneath the soil which has long yielded bounteous harvests to your farmers there was stored by nature a great and new source of wealth. You, in common with neighboring communities in Ohio and with other communities in our State, have only partially realized as yet the increase in wealth that oil and natural gas will bring to them, if it is not checked by destructive changes in our tariff policy. This fact should quicken and intensify the interest of these communities in this contest for the preservation of the American system of protection. [Applause.]

It is said by some of our opponents that a protective tariff has no influence upon wages; that labor in the United States has nothing to fear from the competition from pauper labor; that in the contest between pauper labor and high priced labor pauper labor was always driven out. Do such statements as these fall in line with experiences of these workingmen who are before me? [Cries of "No, no!"] If that is true, then why the legislative precautions we have wisely taken against the coming of pauper labor to our shores? It is because you know, every one of you, that in a contest between two rival establishments here, or between two rival countries, that that shop or that country that pays the lowest wages--and so produces most cheaply--can command the market. If the products of foreign mills that pay low wages are admitted here without discriminating duties, you know there is only one way to meet such competition, and that is by reducing wages in our mills. [Applause.] They seek to entice you by the suggestion that you can wear cheaper clothing when free access is given to the products of foreign woollen mills; and yet they mention also that now, in some of our own cities, the men, and especially the women, who are manufacturing the garments we wear are not getting adequate wages, and that among some of them there is suffering. Do they hope that when the coat is made cheaper the wages of the man or woman who makes it will be increased? The power of your labor organizations to secure increased wages is greatest when there is a large demand for the product you are making at fair prices. You do not strike for better wages on a falling market. When the mills are running full time, when there is a full demand at good prices for the product of your toil, and when warehouses are empty, then your organization may effectively insist upon increased wages. Did any of you ever see one of the organized efforts for better wages succeed when the mill was running on half time, and there was a small demand at falling prices in the market for the product? [Applause.] The protective system works with your labor organization to secure and maintain a just compensation for labor. Whenever it becomes true--as it is in some other countries--that the workingman spends to-day what he will earn to-morrow, then your labor organizations will lose their power. Then the workman becomes in very fact a part of the machine he operates. He cannot leave it, for he has eaten to-day bread that he is to earn to-morrow. But when he eats to-day bread that he earned last week or last year, then he may successfully resist any unfair exactions. [Applause.] I do not say that we have here an ideal condition. I do not deny that in connection with some of our employments the conditions of life are hard. But the practical question is this: Is not the condition of our working people on the average comparatively a great deal better than that of any other country? [Applause and cries of "Good! Good!"]

If it is, then you will carefully scan all these suggestions before you consent that the work of foreign workmen shall supply our market, now supplied by the products of the hands of American workmen. I thank you again. The day is threatening and cool, and I beg you to excuse further public speech. [Applause.]

At night 200 Pennsylvanians, who came to Indiana to aid in developing the natural gas industry, called upon General Harrison at his residence, under the direction of a committee composed of Capt. J. C. Gibney, J. B. Wheeler, and Geo. A. Richards. Their spokesman was Wm. McElwaine, a fellow-workman.

General Harrison addressed them and said:

_Gentlemen_--It is very pleasant for me to meet you to-night in my own home. The more informal my intercourse can be made with my fellow-citizens the more agreeable it is to me. To you, and all others who will come informally to my home, I will give a hearty greeting. I am glad to see these representatives from the State of Pennsylvania whose business pursuits have called them to make their home with us in Indiana. The State of Pennsylvania has a special interest for me in the fact that it was the native State of a mother who, though nearly forty years dead, still lives affectionately in my memory. I welcome you here to this State as those who come to settle among us under new conditions of industrial and domestic life, to bring into our factories and our homes this new fuel from which we hope so much, not only in the promotion of domestic comfort and economy, but in the advancement of our manufacturing institutions. Your calling is one requiring high skill and intelligence and great fidelity. The agent with which you deal is an admirable servant but a dangerous master, and through carelessness may bring a peril instead of a blessing into our households and into our communities. I am glad that Indiana, so long drained upon by the States west of the Mississippi, has at last felt in your coming from that stanch, magnificent Republican commonwealth some restoration of this drain, which has made the struggle for Republican success in Indiana doubtful in our previous elections. It is time some of the States east of us, having such majorities as Pennsylvania, were contributing not only to our business enterprise and prosperity, but to the strengthening of the Republican ranks, which have been depleted by the invitations which the agricultural States of the West have extended to our enterprising young men. I welcome your here to-night, and will be glad to have a personal introduction to each of you. [Applause.]

INDIANAPOLIS, SEPTEMBER 29.

Ohio and Illinois did honor this day again to the Republican nominee. From Cleveland came 800 voters; their organizations were the Harrison Boys in Blue--200 veterans of the Civil War--commanded by Gen. James Barnett; the Garfield Club, led by Thomas R. Whitehead and Albert M. Long; the Logan Club, headed by Capt. W. R. Isham, and the German Central Club. Prominent in the delegation were Hon. Amos Townsend, John Gibson, and Major Palmer, the blind orator. Gen. E. Myers spoke for the Buckeyes. The city of Normal, McLean County, Illinois, sent a delegation of 200 teachers and students of the State Normal School, including 70 ladies. Student William Galbraith spoke for his associates.

General Harrison, in response, said:

_Gentlemen and Friends_--The organizations represented here this morning have for me each an individual interest. Each is suggestive of a line of thought which _I_ should be glad to follow, but I cannot, in the few moments that I can speak to you in this chilly atmosphere, say all that the names and character of your respective clubs suggest as appropriate. I welcome those comrades in the Union army in the Civil War. [Cheers.]

Death wrought its work in ghastly form in those years when, patiently, fearlessly, and hopefully, you carried the flag to the front and brought it at last in triumph to the Nation's capital. [Cheers.] Death, since, in its gentler forms, has been coming into the households where the veterans that were spared from shot and shell abide. The muster-roll of the living is growing shorter. The larger company is being rapidly recruited. You live not alone in the memories of the war. Your presence here attests that, as citizens, you feel the importance of these civil strifes. You recall the incidents of the great war, not in malice, not to stir or revive sectional divisions, or to re-mark sectional lines, but because you believe that it is good for the Nation that loyalty to the flag and heroism in its defence should be remembered and honored. [Cheers.] There is not a veteran here, in this Republican Club of veterans, who does not desire that the streams of prosperity in the Southern States should run bank-full. [Cheers.]

There is not one who does not sympathize with her plague-stricken communities, and rejoice in every new evidence of her industrial development. The Union veterans have never sought to impose hard conditions upon the brave men they vanquished. The generous terms of surrender given by General Grant were not alone expressions of his own brave, magnanimous nature. The hearts of soldiers who carried the gun and the knapsack in his victorious army were as generous as his. You were glad to accept the renewal of the Confederate soldier's allegiance to the flag as the happy end of all strife; willing that he should possess the equal protection and power of a citizenship that you had preserved for yourselves and secured to him. [Cheers.] You have only asked--and you may confidently submit to the judgment of every brave Confederate soldier whether the terms are not fair--that the veteran of the Union army shall have, as a voter, an equal influence in the affairs of the country that was saved by him for both with the man who fought against the flag, and that soldiers of neither army shall abridge the rights of others under the law. [Great cheering.] Less than that you cannot accept with honor; less than that a generous foe would not consent to offer.

To the gentlemen of the John A. Logan Club let me say: You have chosen a worthy name for your organization. Patriot, soldier, and statesman, Logan's memory will live in the affectionate admiration of his comrades and in the respect of all his opponents. His home State was Illinois, but his achievements were national.

To these German-American Republicans I give a most cordial welcome. You have been known in our politics as a people well informed upon all the great economic questions that have arisen for settlement. You have always been faithful to an honest currency. [Cheers.] The enticements of depreciated money did not win you from sound principle. You bravely stood for a paper currency that should be the true equivalent of coin. [Cries of "Good! Good!"] Those who, like your people, have learned the lessons of thrift and economy in your old-country homes, and have brought them here with you, realized that above all things the laborer needed honest money that would not shrink in his hands when it had paid him for an honest day's toil. And now, when another great economic question is pressing for determination, I do not doubt that you will as wisely and as resolutely help to settle that also.

As the great German chancellor, that student of human government and affairs, turning his thoughtful study toward the history of our country since the war, has declared that in his judgment our protective tariff system was the source of our strength, that by reason of it we were able to deal with a war debt that seemed to be appalling and insurmountable, I do not doubt that you, too, men who believe in work and in thrift, and so many of whom are everywhere sheltered under a roof of their own, will unite with us in this struggle to preserve our American market for our own workingmen, and to maintain here a living standard of wages. [Cheers.]

To these students who come fresh from the class-room to give me a greeting this morning I also return my sincere thanks. I suggest to them that they be not only students of books and maxims, but also of men and markets; that in the study of the tariff question they do not forget, as so many do, that they are Americans.

I thank you all again for your visit. I regret that I am not able to give you, in my own home, a personal and more cordial greeting. My house is not large enough to receive you. [A voice, "Your heart is!"] Yes, I have room enough in my heart for all. [Great cheering.] I am very sincerely grateful for these evidences of your personal regard. Out of them all; out of the coming of these frequent and enthusiastic crowds of my fellow-citizens; out of all these kind words; out of these kind faces of men and women; out of the hearty "God-speeds" you give me, I hope to bring an inspiration and an endowment for whatever may be before me in life, whether I shall walk in private or public paths. [Great cheering.]

The largest delegation of the day, numbering over a thousand business men, arrived from Chicago, after stopping _en route_ at several important points, where their orators, Gen. H. H. Thomas, George Drigg, and Judge John W. Green, made speeches. Their notable political organizations were the First Tippecanoe Club of Chicago, 100 veterans of 1840, led by Dr. D. S. Smith; the Logan Club, and the Twelfth Ward Republican Club, led by Charles Catlin, E. S. Taylor, Wm. Wilkes, and Joseph Dixon. Judge Green and Dr. Smith delivered addresses.

General Harrison, responding, said:

_My Illinois Friends_--It is a source of great regret to me that we are not able to make your reception more comfortable. The chill of this September evening and of this open grove is not suggestive of the hospitable and cordial welcome that our people would have been glad to extend to you. Our excuse for this time may be found in the vastness of this assemblage. I am pleased to have this fresh and imposing evidence of the enthusiasm and interest of the Illinois Republicans. [Cheers.] There is nothing in the great history of the Republican party that need make any man blush to own himself a Republican. [Cheers.] There is much to kindle the enthusiasm of all lovers of their country. We do not rest in the past, but we rejoice in it. [Cheers.] The Republican party has so consistently followed the teachings of those great Americans whose names the world reveres that we may appropriately hold a Republican convention on the birthday of any one of them. [Cheers.] The calendar of our political saints does not omit one name that was conspicuous in peace or war. [Cheers.] We can celebrate Jackson's birthday or the anniversary of the battle of New Orleans because he stood for the unity of the Nation, and his victory confirmed it in the respect of the world. [Great cheering.] There is no song of patriotism that we do not sing in our meetings. There is no marble that has been builded to perpetuate the glory of our soldiers about which we may not appropriately assemble and proclaim the principles that we advocate. [Cheers.] We believe in our country, and give it our love and first care. We have always advocated that policy in legislation which was promotive of the interests and honor of our country. [Cheers.] I will not discuss any particular public topic to-day, as the conditions are so unfavorable for out-door speaking. Let me thank you again for this cordial evidence of your interest and for the personal respect which you have shown to me. I hope you will believe that my heart is deeply touched in these manifestations of the friendliness of my fellow-citizens. If in anything I shall come short of the high expectations and hopes they have formed, it will not be because I do not feel myself put under the highest obligations by these evidences of their friendly regard to do my utmost to continue in their respect and confidence. [Great cheering.]

INDIANAPOLIS, OCTOBER 2.

The fourteenth week of General Harrison's public receptions opened this date with the arrival of an enthusiastic Republican club from the distant city of Tower, Minn., most of whose members were engaged in the iron industry. They left a huge specimen of Vermilion range iron ore--weighing over 500 pounds--in the front yard of the Harrison residence. Prominent in the delegation were Dr. Fred Barnett, Capt. Elisha Marcom, S. F. White, Chas. R. Haines, John Owens, W. N. Shepard, N. H. Bassett, S. J. Noble, J. E. Bacon, J. B. Noble, Frank Burke, W. H. Wickes, Chas. L. White, A. Nichaud, D. McKinley, and Page Norris; also Geo. M. Smith and W. H. Cruikshank, of Duluth.

Immediately following the reception of the Minnesota visitors came two large delegations from Fulton and Marshall counties, Indiana. The Fulton leaders were J. H. Bibler, Dr. W. S. Shafer, Dr. E. Z. Capell, Arthur Howard, Samuel Heftly, Henry Mow, C. D. Sisson, Arch Stinson, J. F. Collins, A. F. Bowers, W. J. Howard, and T. M. Bitters, of Rochester. M. L. Essick was their spokesman. Among the prominent members of the Marshall County delegation were M. W. Simons, John W. Parks, J. W. Siders, Edward McCoy, M. S. Smith, John V. Astley, Enoch Baker, I. H. Watson, and Abram Shafer, of Plymouth. H. G. Thayer delivered the address.

General Harrison said:

_My Indiana Friends_--This is a home company to-day. Usually our Indiana visitors have met here delegations from other States. I am sure you will understand that I place a special value upon these evidences of the interest Indiana Republicans are taking in the campaign. Whatever the fate of the battle may be elsewhere, it is always a source of pride to the soldier and to his leader that the part of the line confided to their care held fast. [Applause.] I feel that I ought also to acknowledge the friendliness and co-operation which has been already extended to us in this campaign by many who have differed with us heretofore. [Applause.] It is encouraging to hear that the prosperous and intelligent farmers of Marshall and Fulton counties have not been misled by the attempt to separate the agricultural vote from the vote of the shop. It has seemed to me that the Mills bill was framed for the purpose of driving from the protection column the agricultural voters, not by showing them favor, but the reverse--by placing agricultural products on the free list, thus withdrawing from the farmer the direct benefits he is receiving from our tariff laws as affecting the products of his labor, hoping that the farmers might then be relied upon to pull down the rest of the structure. I am glad to believe that we have in Indiana a class of farmers too intelligent to be caught by these unfriendly and fallacious propositions. [Applause.] I had to-day a visit from twenty or more gentlemen who came from the town of Tower, in the most northern part of Minnesota, where, within the last four years, there has been discovered and developed a great deposit of iron ore especially adapted to the manufacture of steel. Within the four years since these mines were opened they tell me that about a million tons of ore have been mined and sent to the furnaces. They also mentioned the fact that arrangements are already being made to bring block coal of Indiana to the mouth of these iron mines, that the work of smelting may be done there. This is a good illustration of the interlocking of interests between widely separated States of the Union [applause]--a new market and a larger demand for Indiana coal.

The attempt is often made to create the impression that only particular classes of workingmen are benefited by a protective tariff. There can be nothing more untrue. The wages of all labor--labor upon the farm, labor upon our streets--has a direct and essential relation to the scale of wages that is paid to skilled labor. [Applause.] One might as well say that you could bring down the price of a higher grade of cotton cloth without affecting the price of lower grades as to say that you can degrade the price of skilled labor without dragging down the wages of unskilled labor. [Applause.] This attempt to classify and schedule the men who are benefited by a protective tariff is utterly deceptive. [Applause.] The benefits are felt by all classes of our people--by the farmer as well as by the workmen in our mills; by the man who works on the street as well as the skilled laborer who works in the mill; by the women in the household, and by the children who are now in the schools and might otherwise be in the mills. [Applause.] It is a policy broad enough to embrace within the scope of its beneficent influence all our population. [Applause.] I thank you for your visit, and will be glad to meet any of you personally who desire to speak to me. [Applause.]

INDIANAPOLIS, OCTOBER 3.

The Porter-Columbian Club, a local organization named in honor of Governor Porter, with a membership of 700 workingmen, paid their respects to General Harrison on this night, commanded by their President and founder, Marshall C. Woods, who delivered an address.

General Harrison, in reply, said:

_Mr. Woods and my Friends_--My voice is not in condition to speak at much length in this cool night air. I am very deeply grateful for this evidence of the respect of this large body of Indianapolis workingmen. I am glad to be assured by what has been said to me that you realize that this campaign has a special interest for the wage-earners of America. [Cries of "Good! Good!"]

That is the first question in life with you, because it involves the subsistence and comfort of your families. I do not wonder then that, out of so many different associations in life, you have come together into this organization to express your determination to vote for the maintenance of the American system of protection. [Great cheering.]

I think you can all understand that it is not good for American workingmen that the amount of work to be done in this country should be diminished by transferring some of it to foreign shops. [Applause.] Nor ought the wages paid for the work that is done here to be diminished by bringing you into competition with the underpaid labor of the old country. [Applause.]

I am not speaking any new sentiment to-night. Many times before the Chicago convention I have, in public addresses, expressed the opinion that every workingman ought to have such wages as would not only yield him a decent and comfortable support for his family, and enable him to keep his children in school and out of the mill in their tender age, but would allow him to lay up against incapacity by sickness or accident, or for old age, some fund on which he could rely. These views I entertain to-night. I beg you to excuse further public speech and to allow me to receive personally such of you as care to speak to me. [Applause.]

INDIANAPOLIS, OCTOBER 4.