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heart of every honest, truth seeking
man.
Why did not these leaders tell us
that four years ago? I believe that
my distinguished competitor stated
somewhere that 1 did not know
these things. Well, it seems that he
did not know’ them four years ago,
and he has found out a great deal in
a very short time. While it is true
that he is a very young man he was
in a very high station—as high as
the Democratic party could elevate
him by putting him on the electoral
ticket of the Democratic party. Now
I was surprised wdien he commenc
ed to talk about the public domain
and said that they had given away
the patrimony of the people to mono
polists. lie said that they had given
away the land purchased by the
taxes and the blood of the people to
railroad monopolies of the country.
Does he not know that one of rea
sons urged why the people of Geor
gia should support |Grover Cleve
land was that he had restored over
one hundred millions of public lands
to the people. That w r as in the very
platform on which he was run as an
elector.
Voices. Glory, glory, glory. Hit
him again. [Cheers.]
Mr. Black. Now look on this pic
ture and then on that. Four years
ago he stood in the city of Savan
nah as the guest of the young men’s
Democratic club. He made a very
eloquent speech, as he always does.
He spoke for democracy, for this
very Democracy which he now tells
you is unworthy of your confidence
and support. He spoke for your
candidate and told his hearers that
he had restored millions of acres to
the people, of the public domain
forfeited by the great railroad cor
porations. He closed that Savan
nah speech with a beautiful perora
tion, as he always does, telling the
people what? Not that this was a
Hobson’s choice; not that there was
do party but the Democratic party,
but telling the people that it was a
labor of love, and amidst the acclaims
of his young friends he betook him
self to a banquet where, I suppose,
he mingled his convivial spirit and
speech with the young men’s Demo
cratic club of the city of Savannah.
[The following coloquy took place
between the speaker and Mr. Wat
son in a low tone.]
Mr. Watson. That is a mistake,
Major.
Mr. Black. Wnat happened?! will
correct it.
Mr. Watson There was no ban
quet.
Mr. Black. I wrote to Mr. Lester
ibout it, and got his reply.
Mr. Watson. Mr. Lester is mis
taken. There was no banquet.
Mr. Black. [To the audience.] I
take pleasure in stating that Mr.
Watson assures me there was no
banquet, and so far as the banquet
goes 1 was mistaken. I took my in
formation of the meeting from the
public prints, of the time. That
you will say, however, is immaterial.
It makes no difference one way or
the other. Thu point is that he was
a Democrat then. He held the same
(lag in his hand that my friends have
placed in mine now.
A voice. There was nothing else
In sight.
Mr. Black. Ah, ray friend, there
was something else in sight. You
are mistaken. There was another
political party with your
financial plank, and almost
every other plank substantial
ly identical with the one you have
to-day. You were not forced to
fight the Democratic party, my
friends—my misguided friends. You
do not kuow how it grieved my
heart when my competitor used
language that, I was so sorry to hear
in the form of a charge that our
honored representatives and Sena
tois had shown a disposition to rob
the people of the United States.
Mr. Watson. Let me put you
right, Major. What I said was that
if this statement -was true, then they
wanted to pay that claim twice.
Many voices. That is true, that
is true. That is exactly ■what you
said.
Voices on the outskirts of the
crowd. It ain’t true.
Mr. Black. Never mind, never
mind, my friends. We have most
excellent order and temper to-day,
and I hope that nothing will trans
pire to mar the occasion. I hope,
too, that my friends will not go
away with the justified impression
that Mr. Watson has more control
over his friends than I have over
mine. He has made a request of
his friends to keep order, and I must
say that they observed it. The
questions they asked, and the en
thusiasm they displayed were legiti
mate and respectful. Now I ask
you, my friends, to respect me.
Let me say this about this picture
which he has introduced in almost
all of these debates. Ido not know
this old colored man. I never saw
him but once in my life, but I think
that a look at the picture would im
press the people that he is an honest
man. The claim that he had against
the government, and that Congress
paid, may be only part of the claim.
It may be that he went back to the
next Congress to have it opened up
again. But, inasmuch as my com
petitor has made it a feature of this
campaign, I want to ask
men if you do not think it just and
right that they should give him a re
spectful hearing, and consider his
claim a second time?
Now this is a digression. Much
has been said, not only here, but
everywhere that we had these dis
cus sioi.i; about the Augusta ring, and
the Atlanta ring, and that I am the
candidate of these rings. 1 say here
PEOPLE’S PARTY PAPER, ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1892.
and now, that I am the candidate of
as many good farmers in the Tenth
Congressional District as he is.
[Cheers from the Augusta crowd.]
I say here that I am the candidate
of as many good women in the Tenth
Congressional District as he is. [Re
newed cheering from the same
crowd.] He says in one of his
speeches that if he was stricken that
thanksgiving would go up from the
bankers, the monopolists, and the
oppressors of the poor, and if he is
successful that pioans of praise will
go up from the humble hovels of the
land. He enjoys this advantage
over me, that he is personally known
to a great many of the people before
whom we come for these discussions.
I am personally unknown to them,
but I say it here, and I repeat it
as often as it is to necessary without
entering into detail or parading my
virtues, that I call upon a life of
twenty-five years in the city of Au
gusta, and I ask you to talk to any
man, white or black, rich or poor, if
lam not entitled to the credit of
as much interest in, and sympathy
for the poor as any other man.
A voice. Hurrah for Black.
Mr. Black. Please do not do that
my friend. Applaud at the right
time. (Laughter.) I will tell you this.
Now listen to me. I will tell you this.
As I look into your honest faces, as
I have no interest subserve, except
as best in me lies to promote your in
terests —to promote the interests of
every man in the tenth Congressional
District, I assure you that I did not
seek this nomination, and every man
who know’s the facts in the case,
know’s that I tried to get my party to
nominate a farmer.
A voice. That is right. (Laughter.)
Mr. Biack. Let me tell you this,
my friends, as I stand here to-day
and look into your honest faces, I
sympathise with every fibre of my
nature, w’ith every burden that bears
upon your backs, with every sorrow
that comes into our homes; but I
would scorn the highest honor that
could be conferred upon me if I had
to earn it by arraying class against
class, farmers against professional
men, laborers against capitalists,
locality against locality, the country
against the cities and towns. It looks
a little singular to me that when I
come into the country the suggestion
should be made that I cannot know
anything of the wants of the farmer,
and am not competent to represent
them, but my competitor does know
their want. On the other hand he goes
into the city of Augusta and claims to
be the best friend the day laborer has.
(Cheering for both Black and Wat
son.) Now it is a fact that I do not
live in the country, and I do not be
lieve that he lives in the country. I
live in the city of Augusta and he
lives in the town of Thomson. But
living in the town or the city neither
qualifies nor disqualifies a man to re
present the tenth congressional dis
trict. I say this, that any man who
wants to go to Congress ought to go
as the representative of all the peo
ple of the tenth congressional dis
trict. (Cheers for both.) Now, listen.
Listen to these two platforms, I have
got them before me ; let us see what
they say. Here is where I am at.
A voice. You are in the soup.
Mr. Watson. (Addressing the
voice.) Ish, ish, don’t say that, my
friend.
The voice. Mr. Watson, that slip
ped out. I don’t mean a bit of harm.
Mr. Black. Four years ago he
was bitter in denunciation of the
tariff, and says that he is bitter to
day. He has bitterly declared in
favor of free trade, when your own
platform is not in favor of free trade.
He denounces the tariff and says
that such and such per cent is wrong,
that a tariff of such another less per
cent is also wrong. Are we to aban
don all practical wisdoms. He says
to abolish the tariff, I am for free
trade. His own platform does not
say it. Now listen to this platform
on that question. It says : (Reads.)
That the revenue derived from the
graduated income should be applied to
the reduction of the burdens of taxation
now resting upon the domestic industries
of this country.
He turned with an air of triumph
and asked me how I was going to
raise the money to support the gov
ernment if I reduced the tariff. He
says that he will abolish the tariff
altogether, and then support the
government by a graduated income
tax, when his own platform appro
priates the receipts of the income
tax, not to defray the expenses
of ths government, but to relieve the
domestic industries of the country.
The Democratic party has been held
up before the people of this country
as the friends of trusts, and as the
friend of monopolies. I say that
there is not a chapter in its history
that will sustain that indictment. I
am talking about it now as a party.
The Democratic party, as a great
political party, has been the invet
erate and relentless enemy of trusts
and monopolies, and the man to-day
who stands as the most illustrious
representative of that opposition has
been held up to the scorn of the peo
ple as the ally of Wall street and the
enemy of the masses of the people,
when every man who will look upon
the record aud give a fair verdict
knows that there is not power
enough in the country, not money
enough in Wall street, to swerve him
ole iota from his honest convictions.
Here is something in the preamble
about which I would like to have
my friend tell this people. Let him
give you his interpretation of these
words :
Believing that the forces of reform this
day organized will never cease until
every wrong is righted and equal rights
mid equ u privileges securely established
fir tv. ry man rnd woman of this
CJiintrj.
To me, that looks like a declara
tion in favor of woman’s suffrage, a
political heresy which I hope heaven
in its mercy will save this country
from. (Cheering.) Now, listen. He
asked me at Crawfordsville if I
would not acknowledge that there
was unusual suffering in the country,
caused by vicious legislation, and to
what legislation I attributed it. I
stated that I did acknowledge that
there was depression in the country,
but that I believed it to be exag
gerated. I think, my friends, that it
is exaggerated by the preamble to
this platform. I belieVe that the
agricultural interest is depressed;
that the railroad interest is de
pressed; that the mercantile interest
is depressed; that the laboring in
terest is depressed to-day; but I do
say that the depression is exag
gerated in this preamble, -which says
that the people are on the verge of
political and moral ruin. Now listen.
You may not receive -what I am go
ing to say w’ith favor to-day. I know
that there are hundreds of you going
away from here with the impression
that I am not friendly to your inter
ests, but listen. There are evils in
this country that no political party
can ever relieve you from. Now,
which do you think is the best friend
to you, that man that tells you that,
or the man who under a mistaken
conception of the functions of the
government holds out hopes that can
never be realized ? I say that there
is legislation that ought never to
have been enacted; but I here and
now dare assert, and the truth of
history will sustain me in it, that the
legislation to which you owe all your
ills is the infamous tariff—a tariff
that levies taxes on the black man
and the white man ; on every vessel
that he uses; on every hat he wears;
on every pair of shoes he puts on
his feet; on every coat he puts on
his back; and I say here and now
that I am a better friend of the poor
man, and will go further towards re
moving the iniquities of this infa
mous system, than he.
Why, fellow-citizens, he says that
the people have not been informed.
That is true to a great extent. The
people have not been informed upon
many of these great questions. But
let me tell you that the people have
been misinformed upon a great many
things.
A voice. They have been reading
the Chronicle. (Sarcastic laughter.)
Mr. Black (ignoring the rejoinder).
If I had the time I could take them
up. You have been told over and
over again—it has been told this
people by their public speakers—that
the per capita circulation of this
country is less than five dollars per
head, when there stands the report
of the Secretary of the Treasury
which shows that the circulation of
the currency is greater than ever it
was in the history of the country.
You have been told that the per
capita circulation is less than five
dollars when it is admitted in Mr.
Watson’s own book, and in one of
his communications to the People’s
Party Paper, that there are in cir
culation three hundred and forty-six
million of greenbacks. Now let any
school boy divide 346 by 62 and he
will know that the per capita circu
lation is more than five dollars.
And yet that statement has gone
into all the homes in this district
where it was subscribed for, and into
many where it was not subscribed
for, and which I do not now criticise.
You have been told another thing,
that the Democratic party took sixty
millions of dollars and gave it to the
bondholders. I deny that. I stand
here to vindicate the Democratic
party from that charge. What are
the facts of the case ? The facts are
that under the Republican tariff—
Mr. Watson (producing a volume).
Major, as I am in conclusion, allow
me to call your attention to—
Mr. Black. I do not say that I
can—
(A spontaneous laugh rippled over
the entire audience by the hasty re
treat, supplemented with the remark
of a gentleman who was standing
near the corner of the platform; “Ah
ha, Tom was about to draw the book
on him.”)
Mr. Black. Now, my friends, you
do not know what you are laughing
at.
A voice. We will show you in
November.
Mr. Black. Now that shows you
how you may be misled. You are
getting up a great hurrah over an
imaginary victory, and I assume that
that is something like the victory you
will achieve in November.
A voice. He is rattled. (Laugh
ter.)
Mr. Black. Now, he laughs best
who laughs last. I venture to say
that there is not one of you that can
tell what you were laughing at.
Now, is there?
Voices. Yes ; because you got in
the sixty million hole. (Prolonged
laughter.)
Mr. Black. Now, here is a wise
man. (Sarcastic laughter.)
Mr. Matson. (Waving his hand
to insure quiet). Boys, that is
enough. Leave him to me.
Mr. Black. I say that the charge
that the Democratic party gave sixty
millions of the money of the people
to the bondholders cannot be sus
tained by the record. I was about
to concede, when you thought you
had me in a hole, and I am always
willing to concede the truth in every
thing, that there had been a large
surplus in the treasury, put there by
the iniquitous tariff system, which
the Democratic party is striking such
vigorous blows, and there were out
standing obligations and under Cleve
land’s administration that amount of
money was appropriated to pay off
il
these outstanding obligations, and
that the final reports show, in round
numbers, thirty-three million dollars
saved to the honest people of the
United States. • (Great cheering.)
Now you have not got so much to
laugh at, have you ?
Voices. No, no, no. (Renewed
cheering.)
Mr. Black. We have you in a
corner now, have we not ?
A voice. Are you speaking about
the sixty million corner ?
Mr. Black. No ; the thirty-three
million corner.
[There was a renewal of merri
ment all around at this sally, Mr.
Watson’s friends being largely in the
majority, getting the best of the
badinage.]
Mr. Watson. My friends, leave
him to me. I have got fifteen min
utes to scalp him, and it will not re
quire half the time. (Laughter.)
Mr. Black. Suppose that a man
had an outstanding obligation on
which he -was paying interest, and he
had plenty of money lying in bank
drawing no interest, would it not be
the part of prudence to take out the
money and pay off the debt, thus
stopping the interest?
Now, he cites Andrew Jackson and
his methods for our guidance, and
asks why we did not give it to the
people of the country. My answer
to that is that the are
changed. Here is a large surplus
that was not accumulated under Dem
ocratic methods. Mr. Cleveland, all
through his administrative career,
has made the most earnest protests
against a surplus in the treasury, and
said that it is a temptation for reck
less appropriations. Now, I appeal
to every man who is a student of po
litical history whether Mr. Cleveland
did not make his fight for the presi
dency, and throw away his almost
certainty of success because he would
not stifle his convictions about this
iniquitous system, and yet he is held
up to you as a man who has entered
into an unholy alliance with Wall
street, and with trusts, and with mo
nopolies. Now, my friends, in lieu
of Cleveland, who has brought back
the unstained banner of Democracy
which he carried four years ago, my
friend, who went before the people
and told them that Mr. Cleveland
was a lion-hearted man, a bold man,
a man who had the courage to strike
at every wrong; a man who had the
courage to veto reckless expenditures,
to veto unjust pension bills—that
man, I say, came back with the ban
ner entrusted to him trailing in the
! dust, and the blood-red sword of an
enemy in his hand, and asks you to
vote for—whom ? Why, for General
James B. Weaver. That is the stand
ard he has unfurled and asks you to
fight under.
Voices. Hurrah for Black; hur
rah for Watson ; hurrah for Weaver.
Mr. Black. Now listen to this;
he admits that the tariff is iniquitous.
He admits that it is so bad that it
ought to be cut up root and branch.
I say that it is impracticable ; you
must have money to pay the expen
ses of the Government. He says to
pay the expenses out of the income
tax ; his own platform says that the
income tax shall not be appropriated
to the expenses of the Government
but to relieve the domestic industries
of the country. I say we must be
practical; that we cannot get rid of
all the tariff. We cannot have a per
fect political party, do not claim
that the Democratic party is perfect.
I do not claim that it has not made
mistakes; that it has not been incon
sistent. I acknowledge that the Dem
ocratic party, like individuals, may
not live up to its professions. No
political party ever has done it. No
political party ever will until God in
his infinite wisdom shall send his Son
to redeem this world and make us
all perfect.
Voices. Right, right, right.
Mr. Black. Why, fellow-citikens,
you talk about divisions and dissen
sions among us. My competitor will
admit that one of the ablest men that
his party has stood on the floor of
the House of Reprasentatives and
made a speech against the sub-treas
ury bill. And speaking about the
Alliance, -where is your Alliance to
day ?
Voices. Gone where the wood
bine twineth.
Other voices. It is all right.
We’ll show you where it is in No
vember.
Another voice. Livingston has
got it. (Some hisses at the name of
Livingston.)
Mr* Black. I ask where is your
Alliance to-day—l mean as an active,
combative organization, able to ac
complish the great purposes laid
down in its platform, the principles
and purposes of which Cleveland
himself approved?
A voice. Why did not you ap
prove them? (Laughter.)
Mr. Black (ignoring the question.)
Not as a political organization, but
as an organization, which in its fun
damental principles, exclusive of
politics, said that no man should be
proscribed for his political or relig
ious affiliations. Now, I say this,
that if your Alliance lives until No
vember—
Many voices. You will find out
in November whether it lives or not.
Mr. Black. You need not fool
yourself with the idea that your
party owns the Alliance in the Tenth
Congressional district.
[Here followed a duel of voices
between the Augusta crowd and the
farmers as to whether the Alliance
was for Mr. Watson or Mr. Black.
The only question was as to which
were the most competent witnesses —
which had the better means of know
ing. The weight of evidence was
certainly on Mr. Watson’s side.]
Mr. Black. All over this district,
in McDuffie county, in Hancock
county, in Taliaferro county, in Lin
coln county—
A voice from the Lincoln county
band wagon. Old Lincoln is here
for Watson, you bet.
Mr. Black [continuing.] Some of
the best Alhancemen—some of the
most prominent farmers in the Alli
ance—are standing side by side with
me, with this Democratic banner in
my hands. Now, when anybody
suggests the idea that I am not the
friend of the farmers I ask the ques
tion, where is your Alliance ? If it
is not dead, it is almost dead.
A voice. We know you want it
dead, Major, but you cannot kill it.
Mr. Black. Now, I appeal to your
sober intelligence ; I ask your calm,
impartial j udgment; I ask you to be
honest with yourselves, who killed
the Alliance ?
Voices. Livingston I Livingston!
Livingston! (From the Augusta
contingent. Harrah for Livingston !
’Rah! ’Rah! Rah!)
Other voices. You and Living
ston can’t kill it! It ain’t dead!
We will show you and him in
November!
Mr. Black. Yon will remember
that I told you awhile ago that there
is not any one who did as well as he
ought to do. There is not a man in
this assemblage who can stand up
and look God in the face and put his
hand on his heart and say, “I have
done just as I ought to have done.”
And let me tell you, you will never
get a political party to do it. If you
expect to get a political party of
which every member is wise, every
member is just, every member is
consistent, and makes no mistakes,
you are deceiving yourself with a
delusion and a snare. Now, I want
to call your attention to the Demo
cratic platform. We denounce the
Republican system of protection as a
fraud. We declare it to be a funda
mental principle of the Democratic
party that the Federal government
has no power to collect tariff duties,
except for the purpose of revenue
only. We demand that the collec
tion of such taxes shall be limited to
the necessities of the government
economicallly administered.
Now, I invite any fair man to take
these two platforms home to-night
and say which is the most methodi
cal, the most consistent, the most
effective against this iniquitous tariff,
which Mr. Watson admits is an
enormous wrong put upon the peo
ple of this country. The Demo
cratic party from its earliest history
has been the party of low tariff. I
do not mean that it has always
spoken in the same language, but I
do say that all through its history it
has spoken against high tariff with
emphasis, and the candidate of that
party is the man who stands before
the country as the most illustrious
exponent of tariff refoam. (Great
cheering.) You talk about the tariff
as an iniquitous tariff. I say that if
it was practicable to cut it out, root
and branch, that I would put the
knife down as deep as any one, but
it is not practicable. We must have
money to run the government. One
of our great troubles is the extrava
gance of the government. I would
join hands with any party, Peoples’
party or any other, to check this
growing evil. I do not approve of
the appropriation of twenty thousand
dollars to bury a senator, but that
was done by a Republican Senate.
If such a thing was done in the
Democratic House I would condemn
it as quick as I would the Senate. I
say that the way to cure these evils
is inside and not outside the Demo
cratic party.
Now look here. Do you know
what I think is one of the greatest
impositions put upon us in this coun
try, and especially in the South ? It
is these pensions. And I am here as
a candid man to acknowledge that
the Democratic party is not faultless
in this, but I do say that the record
of the Democratic party is better
than the record of the People’s par
ty. lam talking of this party now
as we see it in its platform, and not
what some individual representatives
say. Don’t you know that this pen
sion roil has gone up t'o $150,000,000
a year; and they tell you that it is
going to $200,000,000? He may
point to the Democratic party and
say with truth, perhaps, that it was
more liberal than the Republican
party. But I say that it is a ques
tion environed with embarrassments;
and I say furthermore that the far
mers in the field ; that the laborer on
the public works ; that the mechanic
at his bench, and all the oppressed,
tax-ridden people, have a thousand
times more hope for relief through
Mr. Cleveland than they have
through James B. Weaver. One of
them went before the people of this
country having vetoed a pension bill
that saved the toilers of the country
millions of dollars. The other goes
before the country with an indis
puted reqprd of having introduced
into three different Congresses a bill
to anpropriate three hundred millions
of dollars to pay pensions.
Now, you honest farmers, you hon
est laborers, you want to put down
this iniquitous tax on everything you
eat and wear. You want to remove
these burdens from the back of an
overburdened country, do you not?
How are you going to do it ? If I
believed that the measures they pro
pose could be enacted into laws, and
serve the purpose for which they are
intended, no man would more cheer
fully join in the work than I. Ido
not tie myself to any party; but that
time, let me tell you, will never come.
You may hug the hope to your bosom,
but it is a delusion and a snare. The
time will never come, I repeat, when
you can get money from the govern*
ment at 2 per cent upon the agricul
tural products of the country. (Cheer
ing from the Hancock and Augusta
brigades.) Now, my friends, we
have heard a great deal about the
sub-treasury, and a great many of
the people of the country have an
idea that the sub-treasury is going to
bring them relief; that the govern
ment is going to issue them money
on the sub-treasury plan at 2 per
cent. Now, it is very difficult for me
to understand how any man who
stops to consult his reason and judg
ment can entertain such an idea as
that this government is going to deal
them out money at 2 per cent. Why,
1 doubt very much if the government
could float its own indebtedness at
2 per cnnt. The idea that the gov
ernment is going to issue money, es
tablish warehouses, and lend that
money out on corn, wheat and cot
ton storedin those warehouses at 2
por cent, when it cannot float its own
indebtedness at 2 per cent, is too
chimerical to receive a serious thought
from any ordinary business man.
Now look me straight in the eye. I
do not mean to impeach any man,
but look me straight in the eye. The
farmer or the laborer, the white man
or the black man who goes home and
builds on the hope that the govern
ment is going to let him have money
at 2 per cent, is just as certain to
wake up to disappointment as that
God’s sunshine will light up the east
ern hills to-morrow morning. (Ap
plause.) That is something you can
never realize.
A voice. • The liquor men realize
it.
Mr. Black. The liquor men do
not realize it. Where is the man
that says the liquor men realize it. I
say they do not.
Mr. Watson, I say it, and if you
do not know it, I will show it to
you.
Mr. Black. I say that the govern
nment lots them store their liquor,
but that is not the sub-treasury, plan,
and I say moreover that I am ready
to joinhands with any one in striking
downthat liquor law.
A voice. You did not do it in
prohibition times. Another voice.
He promised to do better.
Mr. Black. Ido not suppose that
you know how to do better. Here
these men are bringing in matters
that has nothing to do with the mat
ter, but I will tell them and every
person in the Tenth Congressional
District that I am not ashamed of
my vote on that or any other ques
tion. [Applause.] I say that I
dare on that question, as on every
other question, to follow my convic
tions. I will say further that I do
not shrink from cqmparison on any
moral question with any other man.
A Hancock man. Hit him hard,
hit him hard.
A farmer. [ln a sneering tone.]
Oh, isn’t that awful?]
Mr. Black. That has got nothing
to do with this issue, and I am sorry
that it was injected into it. Mr. Wat
son insists that the government lets
the whisky men have money on their
whisky.®
Mr. Watson. Here is the law if
you want to see it.
Mr. Black. I have seen the law ;
I have read the law. I say in the first
place that it levies a tax on the
manufacture of three or four
times the value of the whisky.
Mr. Watson. That gives them a
protection to the extent of three or
four times the value of the whisky.
(Loud laughter.)
Mr. Black. Now, boys, you laugh
ed too soon again. You have not
profited by your own experience. I
say that the government does show
some sort of favor, but the govern
ment does not lend money to the
whisky men on the sub-treasury
plan.
A voice. On a sub-treasury plan,
(Laughter.)
Mr. Black. No, nor on a sub
treasury plan. These whisky man
ufacturers build their own warehouses
and the government levies this enor
mous tax upon them and impounds
their goods until * their tax is paid.
But suppose that it is wrong, suppose
that it is iniquitous, suppose that it is
deserving the condemnation of every
honest man, what is the way to re
medy it ? Why, to repeal the law.
If this government has passed one or
two laws in the interest of one class,
is that a reason that it should pass
another law in the interest of another
class? What was the slogan of the
Ocala platform ? It is not in the
Omaha platform. I wish that I had
‘time to put these two platforms side
by side and show you what was in
the Ocala platform that is not in the
Omaha platform. To show you that
the great principle on wnich you
formulated your platform at Ocala
has been abandoned. It was good
doctrine, in essence, the Democratic
doctrine of “equal rights to all men,
special privileges none.” (Cheering.)
Now wait; if you found a system of
legislation that gives special favors
to one class, how do you keep faith
with the Ocala platform by saying
because the government has
ed favors to one class it shall remedy
the wrong byj giving favors to
another. I say no. Strike down the
favors to all classes, and I stand here
to-day as a better friend and ex
ponent of the doctrines of the Ocala
platform than any man that advo
cates the sub-treasury plan.
Voices. Hurrah for Weaver
hurrah for Watson.
Mr. Black. Why, my friends, have
you lost your reason ? ‘ Are you go
ing to let madness control you ?
Voices. Not a bit of it. We know
where we are at, and where you are
at.
[continued cn sixth page. J
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