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| Terrence V. Powderly. |
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| Warner Miller. |
Cortland
Evening Standard, Friday, September 11, 1896.
THE DAY IN POLITICS.
Terrence V. Powderly and Warner Miller Address
a Republican Massmeeting In New York.
NEW YORK,
Sept. 11.—The massmeeting in Cooper Union under the auspices of the campaign
committee of the McKinley league, which was addressed by Terrence V. Powderly,
the former leader of the Knights of Labor, attracted a great crowd. There was a
large contingent of Bryan supporters among the workingmen who composed the
audience, and they disturbed the program by repeated cheers for Bryan, so that
the police were kept busy putting out the leaders of the cheering.
Senator
Frank D. Pavey presided, and when he spoke of McKinley as the friend of the laboring man there were cheers for Bryan
answered by hisses.
Resolutions
were adopted commending George E. Matthews, president, and John Milholland, secretary of the executive committee
of the league, for their work.
When Mr.
Powderly was introduced he was cheered and hissed by the two factions. Mr.
Powderly said:
"Mr.
President and Friends—Did I believe an apology for my presence on this platform
necessary, I would say that I am here because I believe the right of the
American wage earner to receive the highest rate of compensation for service
rendered and the right to claim and receive the best kind of money in exchange
for his labor should not be interfered with."
Mr.
Powderly then took up the Chicago platform and compared it with previous
platforms of the Democratic party saying:
"The
platform of four years ago pledged the party entering into power [Democratic
Party] to the overthrow of the American system of protection and with all his
and their power, with all the force and influence at his and their command, the
man [Grover Cleveland] and party upon whom the power was conferred labored to place
the foreign workmen on a higher plane than his American competitor and that platform
was anything but meaningless. Four years ago the pivotal point around which the
Democratic platform swung was free trade.
"When
that congress assembled there was no deficit; the revenue was amply sufficient
for the needs of government and there was no income tax law upon the statutes
of this nation. The income tax law was an after consideration; it was no part
of the Democratic platform of 1892, and was only thought of when it became manifest
to its originators that they had sawed off the revenue limb on which they had
been sitting in their mad attempt to undo what their Republican predecessors
had so well planned and so faithfully executed.
"To
make amends for a blunder they would perpetrate a crime, and the income tax law
was no less than a crime. I may be charged with opposing one of the cardinal
principles of the Knights of Labor which demanded that a graduated income tax
be levied. That section was adopted by the Knights of Labor in opposition to my
earnest and emphatic protest. I never believed in it and have always opposed it.
"When
congress assembled in 1893 there was no income tax law upon our books. Under the provisions of such a law no revenue
accrued to the government and it is unfair, as well as dishonest, to charge a
falling revenue to something which has no existence when the agitation for a
change in our economic laws began. Does it not appear inconsistent to the
defenders of the Chicago platform to assert that they are opposed to English
rule in America on the finance question after they have opened our ports to the
product of the English factory and mill?
"They tell us that the manufacturers are robber barons and that the
tariff which protects them and those who work for them is a robber tariff.
Well, what of it? If workingmen will not organize, as the window glass trade
and railroad workmen are organized, to unite with employers in
protecting their trades and callings, they have themselves to blame for not
securing all the advantages of protection.
"The
farmer is told that the cause of his ills is because he has not been blessed with
free silver. But whoever tells him that deceives him to his injury. Those who advocate
free silver tell the farmer that 'the crime of 1873' is responsible for the ills
he bears.
"Since
1873 farming in the United States has undergone radical and almost total change
and causes other than the demonetization of silver have combined to cheapen his
product."
Mr.
Powderly then compared the work possible to be done with modern agricultural
implements with that under the old methods and said:
"Is it
any wonder then that the prices of wheat, corn and other grain have fallen and
does it not seem plain to the observing man that the agencies which I have
pointed out have been far more potent in levelling prices than the
demonetization of silver?"
He then
entered into a lengthy analysis of free coinage of silver, declaring it would
drive gold from the country and enhance the value of silver at the expense of
the people. Closing he said:
"What
about labor with the nation on a silver basis instead of a gold basis? One
silver dollar then will buy but half what it will now, and the man working for
a dollar a day will then have to work two days in order to purchase as much for
two silver dollars as he now obtains for one of gold or of silver, or of paper
based on gold. The proposition that the silver dollar is the poor man's dollar
is pure gush. The dollar of the poor man is the dollar which he earns, whether
it be gold or silver.
"The
workingman is entitled to the best in the market; the gold dollar is as much
his dollar as it is the dollar of the millionaire, and instead of joining in
the shout for a cheap dollar, for free and unlimited coinage, he should
inscribe on his banner:
"The
best is none too good for me."
Mr. Powderly
was followed by Hon. Warner Miller, who said: "Today there is a great lack
of employment in the country. Tens of thousands of stalwart workers are without
demand for their skill. Mills are closed or running upon short time. Great
transportation companies are doing a slack business and are compelled to lay
off very many of their employes. In my judgment the cause of the difficulty is twofold.
The first is the reduction of the tariff by the so-called 'Wilson bill.'
Secondly, an agitation of the money question."
Mr.
Miller stated that under the protective tariff system from 1860 to 1890 the
country had quadrupled its wealth, becoming the foremost manufacturing nation and
raising enough farm produce for its 70,000,000 people. The Wilson bill
destroyed confidence and decreased the consuming power of the people 25 per cent.
Then he
said: "Twenty-two years of this condition and when we had partially
adjusted our business to the new tariff, there came another trouble which has been
no less disastrous than was the agitation of the tariff and the reduction made by
the Wilson bill. This was what is called 'The Silver Question' or the demand for
the free and unlimited coinage of silver at a ratio or at a valuation as money
twice that of its value as a commodity.
"The
demand for the free coinage of silver was based upon two grounds: First, that
the depression of business was due to a lack of money and that the money, or currency
of the country, should be largely increased; secondly, that gold, the basis of
our currency, had appreciated in value and thereby caused low prices. If either
of these propositions had been true there would have been some show of reason
in the demand for the free coinage of silver; but neither is true, and
therefore the arguments based upon them must fall.
"Secondly, it is claimed that gold has appreciated
and that it is not a broad basis enough upon which to transact the business of
the country. The only proof offered that gold has appreciated is the low prices
of products, but it is impossible to judge whether gold has appreciated or
depreciated by comparing it with the prices of products.
"During
the past 20 years a wonderful advance has been made in every manufacturing
industry. Labor saving machinery, improved processes, the inventive power of
man, have enormously reduced the cost price of every product made and the present
low prices are chiefly due to that fact. Of course they are abnormally low
because of the depressed condition of affairs, but they are not low because
gold has appreciated."
PAGE TWO—EDITORIALS.
Should
Prove Their Faith With Their Acts.
The silver fanatics say that when Bryan is
elected silver will go to $1.29 an ounce. Why don't they turn in, then, and buy
silver at about half the price to which they say it will advance? They can't
lack money—for many of them are wealthy mine owners. They do lack confidence in
their own prophecies. They would like to have the other fellows put the price
up. They have enough to supply them all. What a market they would have if only
the public would bite at the hook which has been baited for gudgeons. If any of
them really believe what they say, they would buy all the silver
offered.—Cincinnati Commercial.
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| Abdul Hamid II. |
Damned,"
as a British poet calls him, was proclaimed sultan of Turkey. Dispatches
announce that the twentieth anniversary of his accession to the throne has been
ceremoniously observed. A jolly anniversary it must have been, truly, with the
Cretan rebellion not yet settled, Turkish soldiers still butchering Armenians
on sight, houses and temples in Constantinople stained with the blood of the
sultan's subjects and the streets full of mobs, murder and rioting, the empire
bankrupt, foreign soldiers and marines crowding the city and the powers of
Europe looking on with lowering brows. Would it be really kind to wish Abdul
Hamid II many returns of the day?
WHERE
THE MONEY GOES.
The Ithaca Journal Speaks of Circuses, Fairs,
Street Cars and Bicycles.
The Ithaca Journal of Thursday says:
The times are called hard. It is notorious
that many factories are closed, many mechanics unemployed, farm products bring
low prices, collections are difficult. It is the closing of the fourth year
full of conditions depressing and discouraging, compared with the long period
of prosperity and flushness preceding. For the United States the times are not
propitious yet the resiliency here is remarkable compared with that of other
lands.
There was a circus here yesterday. After the
afternoon performance its treasurer conveyed from the ticket wagon to the
postoffice $2,900 in cash, $1,300 of the same being in silver coin. With this
postal money orders were bought, payable at different postoffices in this
country. At any rate none of this large sum remains to the circulating medium
of this city and county.
The gate receipts of the county fair must
have been considerable; and the fares rung up by the trolley car conductors
exceptionally large for the same day; but these sums remain to local
circulation.
At a recent meet and run of the cycle club
of this city property to the value of $4,000 revolved.
A hard working woman here, paying rental for
a small tenement house, recently remarked to a merchant that the wheels
[bicycles] in use by members of her small household aggregated nearly $250.
That it cost, probably, $30 to $40 a year for repairs for these wheels; and
that they would last only about two years.
Since the circus claims to operate under a
daily expense of $6,000 it is not unfair to assume that its treasurer had in
charge a sum of receipts equal to that first named as avails of the evening
performance.
The contributions to the side-shows may be
included in the $6,000 or $7,000 of cash credited to the Ithaca stop and date.
In another place the Journal says:
Yesterday was pay day for the employees of
the Barnum & Bailey aggregation. Quite a number of the people sent their
money away through the medium of postal orders. Shortly after 5 P. M. a man
brought in one lot money orders to the amount of $1,288.55, all of which he
paid for in silver. The orders were for various attaches of the show who had
requested him to transact the business for them. Among the orders were some
payable in Great Britain, Austria, India and Italy, besides many for points in
the United States, showing the cosmopolitan nature of the organization.
Dr.
Daniel Jay Mosher.
Cortland friends of Dr. Daniel Jay Mosher of
Norwich, N. Y., will learn with regret of his death in that place Monday
evening, Sept. 7, after an illness of six weeks, at the age of 57 years.
Dr. Mosher was born in Laurens, N. Y., Sept.
8, 1839, and was a nephew of the late Dr. H. K. Bellows of Norwich. During the
earlier years of his professional life he was an assistant surgeon in the
United States Navy. Later he removed to Norwich and for many years practiced
his profession in this place.
Some years ago failing health caused him to
retire from active practice, since which time he has resided with his family at
their present residence.
June 11, 1872, he married Miss Harriet
Randall of Cortland. N. Y., daughter of the late Hon. Henry S. Randall, who
survives him, together with his father, William Mosher, and his sister, Mrs.
Edward Conklin, both of Binghamton, N. Y.
The funeral took place from his late
residence, Thursday, at 2 P. M., Rev. Henry D. Stebbins officiating. Burial was
made in Mt. Hope cemetery, Norwich.
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| Cortland Park. |
Band
Concert, Dance and Fireworks.
There will be a triple attraction at the
park Saturday evening, to say nothing of the natural attraction of the place itself.
The Cortland City band will give one of its popular concerts. There will be a
dance in the pavilion, and McDermott's well-known orchestra will furnish the
music. There will also be an exhibition of fireworks in the north grove near
the band stand. Before the fireworks were displayed in the open space south of
the grove, but this time rockets will be dispensed with, and only set pieces will
be used that can be seen to advantage in the grove where the spectators can
retain their seats.
C. A. A.
FAIR.
One Solid
Week of Festivity at the C. A. A. Clubhouse.
Beginning on Monday evening, Oct. 12, and
continuing each evening during the week, the Cortland Athletic association will
hold a fair and entertainment in their large clubhouse [historic Randall House]
on Tompkins-st. The doors will be thrown wide open and the public invited to
all parts of the building in which entertainment will be provided to please the
most fastidious.
The first floor will be devoted to the museum
and exhibition of curios, booths and restaurant. The second floor will be given
up to booths, and on the third floor of the building there will be free dancing.
A feature will be the brilliant electrical
illumination of the building, but that which will probably interest the
greatest number will be the exhibition of the X-rays
produced by a machine of Edison's invention and manufacture and manipulated by
an operator from his laboratory. Valuable door prizes for the week will be
given away. Concerts will be given each evening.
BREVITIES.
—New advertisements to-day are—Bacon,
Chappell & Co., autumn season '96, page
5.
—The Congregational church and Sunday-school
of Summerhill will hold their picnic at Elysium park to-morrow.
—The members of Emerald Hose left at 1
o'clock this afternoon for Homer where they have a place in the firemen's parade
this afternoon. Their beautiful parade cart was taken to Homer this morning.
—Some persons still persist in bicycle riding
on the path between the walk and the Randall place on Main-st. The police have
been notified to carry out the regulations and those who violate them will be
subject to arrest.
—Owing to the fact that court will be in
session at the courthouse on Wednesday, Sept. 10, the drafted men of Cortland
county will meet at Fireman's hall that morning at 10 o'clock instead of at the
courthouse as previously noted.
—A
well is being put down for the junior republic at Freeville, which has reached
the depth of 273 feet; with the exception of the Johnson mineral well of
Ithaca, the Freeville well is said to be the deepest in that county.—Moravia
Republican.
—The managers of the Old Ladies' Home in
Homer will serve ice cream in the park during the concert by the Cortland City
band in the band stand up there this evening. Cortland people are invited to
attend, listen to the music and give the Home a lift.
—The
funeral of Mr. Thomas Kernan, who was found dead in bed yesterday morning, will
be held from his late residence on Homer-ave., opposite the furniture store of
O'Leary & McEvoy at 9:30 o'clock to-morrow morning and from St. Mary's church
11 o'clock.
—The town hoard met this morning and voted
to settle the claim of Miss Mary McCarthy against the town at $500. Miss
McCarthy claimed damages for injuries received in being thrown from a cutter
between Cortland and McGrawville, alleging that the road was defective. The
case has been tried once when the jury disagreed.
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