SPEECH OF JOHN G. M'HENH Issues of Campaign Forcibly Presented by the Com ing Congressman, An Eloquent Address to the vr'• ers of the Sixteenth District by One Who Will Serve ; Them Faithfully and y™' .J'L Well. The following speech was dellvemd by John G. McHenry, Democratic j nominee for Representative in Con- | gress for the Sixteenth District of j this State at Dushore. Sullivan county on Monday evening, October 15: Mr. Chairman, Ladles and Gentlemen: I greet you tonight not as demo cratic or republicans but as earnest ! fellow citizens seeking an honest so lution of political problems some of whlrli have become a menace to the 1 fundamental principles of a free gov ernment and the prosperity of our poop! ■ The predominant question ( at i sue during the campaign is not wh< her our state and national gov- • erin out shall be tilled by the demo cra : party or the republican party j l,u; whether we shall have a govern nu by the people, of the people, I a or the people, or a government ii;. . illroads corporations, and trusts, j coli our government was pure and > honest because it was operated in the ; interest of humanity and for the equal gootl of all. Since their day there has sprung up now political methods and a new form of being, an artificial man. It has neither heart nor soul nor conscience, yet is recognized by j our government with all the rights j and powers and privilege of citizen- j ship without the burden or responsi bility which personal citizenship car- j lies with it—the corporation. So great has Its concentrated power grown that every farm, hamlet, town J and city feels its blighting influence 1 either directly or indirectly in the j tribute it levies upon the necessities j :4 life,,and the activity which it (lis play in nearly every local. County, < State and National election. So wonderful has this corporate being grov.n in strength and power that it now controls and directs the destiny of the American people. A legiti mate corporation Is a business ne cessity and a good thing when hon estly conducted, but when any cor poration assumes the role of a mono- j poly and taUes from the people and upon Itseir the functions of govern ment it then exceeds its limitations j and becomes a dangerous element in I our social, business, and political J life The paramount question Is, i shall the people be controlled by the corporations or shall the corporations be controlled by the people. Shall we have a government by the people or a government by political corpor ate Bosses. Three Kinds of Representatives. One kind represents the trust di rect, with brazen effrontery and with out apology—another kind represents the trusts indirectly by obeying or- . ders of the political Boss who in ev- ( ery Instance is a trust Representa tive. Still another kind is the kind , that Lincoln meant, who chosen by the people, becomes acquainted with the people, learng to know them— knows their thought and wishes and j honestly strives to reflect that j thought and wish through the me dium of his voice and vote In the state or national assembly. I j believe in the people and believe that you can trust them.. I do not believe In centralized power either in govern ment or in the realms of business and I do not believe that the business in- 1 terests of this country or the man agement of our government is safer in the hands of a few men than In the hands of all the people where J self interest would secure a square deal to all. To admit that It Is would be to admit that our Jury system Is at fault and that Justice would be j meted out wlih more uniform fair- i ness and less free from prejudice in the hands of one man than in the , hands of twelve men —or to agree | that we would be more prosperous and happier If instead of trying to : manage our own affairs we would turn them over entirely to John D. j Rockefeller and his associates. We have a wonderful country and a great government and you will vote on No vember 6th to determine whether you want to continue to have a vest ed interest in your country and a T* R ? f —w ¥ ¥ t w —"* w—v ,?'"® 1 : \l 11 I -i | 11H !"'* 'l. ••--< SLf JL JL M. i. £-l i & i=. *—**? JB - A .„> a \ i.v—*gf Jl^t i «, Hf" -W.-:' m., ' ■ - j V V, -*T • • „ ••••! vW.T . ' r'" " ' A . j • 'A 'M; ' »<• • • ''A • •.i.v-'A'-i. .t-K ■ * f AA ?#'A-A. • ; t •••.'' *... p *■-- . , I ■. • •' : ' A.jjj '' * 1 - ',7~ 'M. A- - A 112\ 01 "' '■ ' , ■ k '■ " * (<>** T y \r - A .:, " s : , . • A. A '-AAA ' " ml im».'wrrn.,r ■ ■ ..... voice in the contm! niuf tnunagpnient of your povernmenf or wlicth* 1 you will vote it out of your possession for all time. ! For I tell you my friends with its ■ history of graft, political debauchery j and wrong; doing fresh before us j and with the recent examples in both State and National legislatures of the | evils of political Bossism and Gov- I ernmental favoritism as exemplified j by the republican state machine and I the subservience with which the | Pennsylvania delegation at Washing j ton has bowed to the will of this ma I ehine if it does not now deserve and receive a fitting rebuke at the polls, justice will have miscarried and ( American citizenship and American : patriotism become but an empty : thing. The Centralized Power of the Trusts • For years we have decried the cen i tralization of political power within 1 the hands of a few men, but not with ! standing our watchful alarm we have seen this mighty octupus grow, and grow and grow until it now hangs like the shadow of rebellion over a land of free people. Free in person al liberty, free to breathe the air and drink the water that God has given us, free to eat if w can work long enough hours to buy the food, but un der a political bondage which neith- j er hegLrs nor know any voice but. the voice and command of the trust and a financ-ial bondage which now has the power to determine how much each man may earn and how much each man shall spend—the power to say to the working man we will advance your wages 10 per cent, and the cost of your tood and clothing and household supplies 20 per cent. The power to say to the farmer and home owner you must pay the taxes to support our schools and poor, I and defray the expenses of govern HI FFLEMEiM 1 TO • D ".;"'i/ILLE, PH.; FRIDHY, 2, 1906 JOHN G. M C JI RNK V. permitted togo comparatively frer cf Luxation, The power to say to the wage earner, accspt our terms or we will apply the law by injunction and if that don't work we will call out the Russian State Constabulary and shoot you. Look where you will you will find the area of citizenship becoming narrower as the scope and power of the artificial man and the political Ross becomes greater. Who Can We Trust? We realize that gross wrongs have been committed in the past and all • honest men of all parties agree that, i these wrongs must be righted in the most speedy way possible. But who shall we trust with the stewardship of reforms already begun and those till more important yet to come? j Shall we trust the men and party who by base political treachery has betrayed th« people and brought ;l • at the very condition of which we complain? If by-way of illustration ! ou wanted the Standard Oil Trust j ' -.I would ><u appoint John D. •hoos > as sptc i! commissioner to do work? If your wanted unfair Railroad transportation chanced would you choose a railroad president > readjust the railroad rules? If you wanted the tariff laws revised j would you choose a Trust president j whose corporation is a direct benefi- • ciary of said tariff law? If you feel j that we should have equalization of ! taxes would you choose one to revise our taxation laws who is profiting un der the present system or would you ' choose one of your ftwn kind of men 1 who have felt and still feel the bur den of ;lass legislation? In brief it. is not reasonable to expect of the ' average man and much less to ex- ( pect of this soulless, artificial, cor porate man that he will vote and I wnrk against his own. interests. Vote For Your Own Interests. Sri ij co,i.-id« ring the piollticnl re ' •n, which niv now'tinder-debate it resolves iiself into vJ a question of choosing; the njefl to represent you instate and national legislation whom you believe will represent your best interests and who will not be dominated and controlled by the i Trusts and political Bosses. The j time is hire for absolute selfishness : upon the part of all voters to cast their votes for what they believe will be for the best for themselves and families. When this is accomplish <-d and the power of the political Boss overthrown, we will once more ! have a government of the people, by 'he people, and for the people. The Tariff. We are not so much in need of new laws as we are in need of the cour ageous enforcement of 'laws we now ; have and of the revision of certain i laws to moot new and changed condi tions. The merchant, manufacturer, mechanic or professional * man who iH the business or prefes 'T, 1 i < Mi ids of fifty years aero in " • at !• business, woiild find him -1 vnv in the advancing tide of modern progrt ss. So., in the ad ministrate n of our government which is but one gigantic business enter prise, and the same care should be vorclsed in its management as your Representative would exercise in the management of his own personal bus iness and whe n it is clearly proven that under certain laws or regula tions or s; stems our government as a : .vfcole or the American people as Indi viduals arp losing money then that I law or rule should be changed and changed quickly If by such change ( the loss of the Government or the [people can be stopped. Take for in- I 112 | stance our present tariff laws. Born j in (heir inception of n desire to pro | tect certain home industries and to j provide revenue to meet the running expenses of Government we find in many instances that changed condi tions have converted what was ori ginally thought a blessing into a bur den. Let me cite you briefly to one or two specific cases which show such a flagrant abuse of Governmen tal protection in the interest of a fa vored class as against the whole peo ple, of sufficient importance to be an issue in this campaign and sufficient to illustrate the need for tariff revis ion along certain lines Lumber. Ten years ago we were buying hemlock lumber on board cars at the mill for SIO.OO per thousand. Today the ruling price is $20.00 per thousand on car at the mill for the same kind of lumber. We find by comparison ! ihat the average wage rate paid tt> mill men and woodsmen to be prac tically the same in wages as it was ;en years ago, with exceptional cases I of advance in wages that do not ex < i><l an average in wage rate lof 10 per cent. Now who pays this increased cost and who receives this •normoiis sum of money represented by an Annual sale of thirty-five thou and million feet and a clear profit of •>350,000,000. ' Monopolies of Our Natural Resources. In all countries there are three di rect sources of natural productive wealth. The coal, mineral and oil underneath the earth's surface; the farm production and real estate Tal lies of the earth's surface, and the virgin forests of standing timber. In fach article we find a necessity —we must have fuel, we must have oil, we must have food, we must have lum- I ber to build our homes, our mills and our towns and cities and we find la nearly every case with the exception of Tarm products that the ownership 1 an-! control of these necessities have passed Into the hands of allied money intrrcsts with the power to charge such prices as their avarice an 1 wreed may determine. The only reason 'hat farm products are not controlled ny Wall Street is because each year produces a new crop- the supply la inexhaustible and cannot he corner j ed, but in the case of coal and oil and timber it is different. If the j financial interests buy all of nature's stores they can of course cantrel the price and us nature's Biipply dimin j ishes and our population increases It | fallows with inevitable certaiity that j i still higher price ran lie charged ■ttid we must buy these products sad pay the price demanded for we can not buy them anywhere else aid must | have them. I The People. Not the Trusts Should Control Our Government. We cannot prevent rich men from '■>:ying up these' natural resources If they want to do it and which they have a right to do and have already done but we ought neither give nor sell our government to these same finan cial interests to be used as addition al, weapons against us. Let us sea how your Government Is leading its lid to the timber trust and aiaking you pay the bill. The first wave by the trust was to buy all the timber in the country then hare a nrehlbl tivo tax placed upon all imparted lum ber to prevent foreign fempetitiea so that if a man needs lumber he must buy it from the timber and lum ber trust. On dressed lumber there s a tax of $2.00 per thousand, which dded to the heavy transportatien 'targes prevent lumber comiag frem anada or Mexico or foreign ceun tries because it cannot be delivered to compete with our prices aad pay his additional tariff and transperta tion charges So the timber truot adds this additional cost to their awn prices and keep the prices up te the | point just a little below the price | ivhich the foreign competitors could | offer 1 want to explain what I mean | by allied interests and I want you te ! ''arry this thought home with yon and think it over. The same finan cial interests which control the tim ber trust also controls the railroad! •112 the country So the Government ■ s presenting the timber trust with >2.00 por thousand through its m regulation while through the rail road trust thg foreign rates from im port points are male so high that foreign lumber can not be brought into this country or if it Is the rail road people make such a large prof- It on the transportation charges that they don't care. . Farce of Government Tax on Lumber Think of the absolute folly and un tenable position for our government in spending vast sums of money to preserve our forests upon the one hand and upon the other hand Inv posing an import tax of s2.*o per thousand feet to prevent foreign lum ber from coming into thia country. Impoverishing our people to the ex tent of these unlawful million* which the timber trust ii annually collect ing from the people and at the same time helping to denude our foreet* In stead of drawing upon the foreetry reserves of foreign countries. Twen ty years ago there were untold mll lions of feet of standing timber In Pennsylvania. Today there la scarcely a decent saw-mill tract left and every tract of timber In Peansyl vanla of any considerable she Ic owned by the timber trust. You may think that this matter does not con cern you because you do not expect to buy any lumber, but don't forget that the consumer Is the man who al ways pays the price and when you see these enormous fortunes built by the artificial corporation man yoi must know that this money has beet drawn from the pockets of the people and the centralization of this same money into the one supreme bea4 gives it additional power while weak ening the power of resistance vpoa the part of the people. Whether you own a home or rent one you are pay ing direct tribute to the timber trust And I will venture the assertion that there is not a mechanic or working man living in this Congressional dis trict today who rents a home whe has not had his rent advanced any where from 25 to 40 per cent, iurlag the past five years. How Timber Tax Affects the Peeple, How does the Government timber ' tax affect the people? One werklaf J
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