Proceedings & Collections - NSHS - Vol. IV

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HON. D. H. MERCER.

March 4th, 1893--March 4th, 1895.

   David H. Mercer was born in Benton City, Indiana, in 1857, and came to Nebraska from Adams County, Illinois, in 1866, after his father, Capt. John Mercer, returned from the Union Army. Here young David received advantages of the Brownville, Nemaha County, High School, and in 1877 entered the Nebraska State University, graduating in 1880. Returning to Brownville he was admitted to the bar in 1881, was elected City Clerk and served as Police Judge. After standing an examination before Judge Thos. M. Cooley, he entered the senior class, law department, at Ann Arbor, Michigan State University, graduating with the degree of LL. B. in 1882. He was for two years secretary of the Republican State Committee before removing to Omaha. Soon after acquiring a residence there, and while a comparative stranger in the county, he received a nomination for county judge but was defeated. For several years he served the city and county as chairman of their Republican Committee, and previous to 1892 was for two years Master in Chancery of the U. S. Court.
   Inasmuch as he was elected to Congress in the Democratic year 1892, when Cleveland and the House of Representatives were against his party, and his opponent the popular and talented Judge G. W. Doane, it was a source of much party congratulation. His majority over the Democratic candidate was 1,100.
   During the 53rd Congress he secured two branch postoffices for Omaha, introduced military training in the High School, secured $75,000 for Missouri River improvement (in House) for Omaha, aided in adding $200,000 to appropriation for Fort Crook, at Bellevue near Omaha, and for South Omaha secured a public building to cost $100,000.
   His constituents gave him an unanimous endorsement by a

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nomination and election to the 54th Congress, by the following vote: D. H. Mercer, 12,946; James E. Boyd, Democrat, 8,165, D. C. Deaver, Populist, 3,962; and for G. W. Woodberry, Prohibitionist, 393.
During the 53rd Congress, on June 6, 1894, his colleagues and friends, assembled in the venerable St. John's Church, Washington, congratulated him on his marriage with Miss Birdie Abbott, of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

The question being as to what newspapers should be selected as advertising mediums for furnishing paper for Government uses, Mr. Mercer moved to add the name of papers published in Omaha.

   MR. RICHARDSON, of Tennessee: I wish to ask my friend from Nebraska (Mr. Mercer), in all seriousness, whether he really thinks there are any paper-making establishments so far from the seat of government as Omaha that would make bids for furnishing paper which would have to be transported so great a distance as from Omaha to Washington? Does the gentleman think that any establishment out there could compete in this matter with gentleman right here in the East who would propose to furnish these supplies?
   MR. MERCER: How will we find out unless we give them a chance?
   MR. RICHARDSON: Oh, well, you know that all these papers circulate out there.
   MR. MERCER: On the contrary, we read our own papers instead, as they are just as good as Eastern papers and much fresher in news. We dislike even stale news out West. The great trouble is that you people do not get far enough West.
MAIDEN SPEECH.    MR. MERCER: Mr. Chairman, there are some persons on the floor of this House who, never having had occasion to go farther west than the Allegheny Mountains, are forgetful of the fact that far beyond the Mississippi River extends a rich country filled with people and with vast natural resources, a country through which they have never traveled and of which, perhaps, they have never read. When my friend from Tennessee, in an off-hand way, says that when the committee recognize Cincinnati and St. Louis they have

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gone west far enough, I wish to say to him that when you go as far as those cities you have scarcely gone a third of the way across this continent.
   Does not the gentleman know that the Missouri River runs through the geographical center of this great country? Gentlemen of the Eastern States should realize that there is a large body of people living west of the Missouri River; that there is a large amount of capital invested in that region; that there are paper-manufacturing industries out there as well as printing industries, which are of too great importance to be ignored.
   I sorely regret the attitude assumed upon this floor by many Eastern and Southern members in the discussion of legislation affecting the West. The city of Washington is no longer the center of population of this Nation. "Westward the star of empire takes its way" and has been so traveling for lo, these many years. Because Washington continues to be the seat of our National Government, and is so near the great cities of New York and Philadelphia and within a few hours' ride by train to populous New England and the East, is no reason why representatives of the great West should be forbidden the privilege of reminding the country that beyond the Mississippi River lies a magnificent empire which some day will refuse to perform the services of tail to the dog, will protest against the dominations of the East, and will obtain a recognition in national councils befitting its resources and station, and this recognition will be obtained, not by war, not by threat or intimidation, but by peaceful legislation.
   The time is not far distant when the center of population will be near that great metropolis, the queen city of the Missouri Valley, the commercial gateway to the Occident my home city, Omaha. Some people in New York City firmly believe that Central Park is the center of population in the United States. The poor deluded creatures. That point is now in southwestern Indiana, and at the rate population is increasing in America it will find a location at Omaha before this century will have ceased numbering years.
   This bill does not recognize in section 3 that there is any United States west of Chicago and St. Louis. But there is a great deal of America west of those two cities. Early in this century Indiana and Illinois could properly be considered in the West; but since civilization has traveled to the Pacific Ocean, leaving in its wake magnificent cities, beautiful and fruitful farms and mines of wealth in almost every state west of the Mississippi River, we politely ask

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the conservative East to include in the West all that region west of the Father of Waters.
   Does the gentleman from Tennessee not know that Omaha, Kansas City, Sioux City, Lincoln, Des Moines, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Denver, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, the beautiful cities of Washington, and many other commercial centers in the great West are as much superior to many of the older cities of America as is the illumination of the sun stronger and brighter than that of the moon? These cities began where the Eastern cities finished, taking advantage of experience.
   We profit by experience in the West, while the East is eternally experiencing a profit at our expense. All we ask is a recognition that we are still a part of the Union. We pay taxes, we will fight to preserve the Union, but we ask a little more than glory and empty promises. Omaha is the home of newspapers. In this city they prosper, they grow, they succeed. Our people are a reading, thinking people, and they include advertisements in their literary bill of fare. I will venture the assertion that an advertisement inserted in one of Omaha's newspapers would receive as much notice and call for as many replies as would a similar notice appearing in any newspaper published in half the cities mentioned in section 3.
   Our papers circulate to the Pacific Ocean, to the Gulf, and even force an entrance into cities along the Atlantic seaboard, while we all know there are cities mentioned in this bill whose papers have a limited circulation beyond the confines of the State in which they are published. In our city we have one of the largest newspaper office buildings in the world. In fact, Omaha is such an important factor in Western America that I propose to read you a few statistics simply as an "eye-opener" to those of you who have been confining your visits to a small fraction of this great country.
   Omaha has 8 public parks.
   Omaha has 71 miles of paved streets.
   Omaha has 100 miles of sewers.
   There are 42 public schools, employing 296 teachers.
   There are 22 church and private schools, employing 152 teachers.
   The school census shows over 30,000 children of school age with an enrollment of 15,500.
   Omaha is a city of churches, having 109 houses of religious worship.
   There are 53 hotels.
   There are 13 trunk lines of railway, covering 38,233 miles of road operated from Omaha. One hundred and thirty passenger trains arrive daily.

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   Omaha has the largest smelter in the world.
   Omaha has the largest linseed oil works in the United States.
   Omaha has the largest distillery in the world, and three of the largest breweries in the United States.
   Omaha has the largest white lead works in the world.
   Omaha has 160 manufacturing enterprises, with a combined capital of $11,508,400. Last year their products amounted to $34,104,200.
   The principal shops of the Union Pacific Railway are located in Omaha. They cover 50 acres of ground and represent an outlay of $2,500,000. They furnish employment to 1,200 skilled mechanics and 200 day laborers.
   There are 207 jobbing houses, with a capital of $14,116,000. During 1892 their sales amounted to $50,000,000.
   The actual real estate valuation is $250,000,000, while the assessment for taxation is based on a one-tenth valuation.
   Omaha has sixteen banks, of which eight are national and eight are State banks.
   During 1892 the clearings were $295,319,922.
   The post-office receipts for the year 1892 were $290,799. This department gave employment to 106 carriers.
   Omaha has one of the most complete water works systems in the world. The plant cost $7,000,000 and has 175 miles of mains. The pumping capacity is 85,000,000 gallons daily.
   There are 95 miles of street railways, mainly electric. The system employs 600 men and operates 275 cars. The monthly pay roll is $40,000.

Population in 1860	1,861
Population in 1870	16,083
Population in 1880	30,518
Population in 1885	61,835
Population in 1890	140,452
Population in 1893	175,600

   The telephone company has had 4,427 telephones in use during the past year.
   In this connection I desire to add that the city of South Omaha, the third city in size in the State of Nebraska scarcely five years of age, yet the liveliest baby city in America--situated in the same county as Omaha, each city growing so rapidly that it is difficult to ascertain where one begins and the other ends, would gladly assist Omaha in protecting her name and fame as a commercial center. This city of South Omaha is the third packing center of America; 185,000 sheep, 800,000 cattle, and 2,000,000 hogs killed annually.
   The packing-house product alone requires 35,000 cars annually to ship it, and is worth $45,000,000, being as much as the total silver output of American mines in 1889; one weekly and four daily papers; population, 15,000; six banks, doing a daily business of $3,000,000; miles of paved streets, elegant viaducts; a dozen railroads, and during the late panic not a bank failure, while the city of Omaha led all the

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cities of the United States but seven as a substantial, safe banking center. Talk to me about commercial centers and newspapers and progressive industries! Give us a chance. Who knows but what we can bid upon work needed by the Government as low as our Eastern friends, and protect our laboring men at the same time. The Lord knows we would not pay starvation wages for all the contracts in the universe.
FIRST REGULAR SESSION, FIFTY-THIRD CONGRESS.

Early in the session of the 53rd Congress Mr. Mercer supplemented his maiden speech, as above, with a large mass of manufacturing statistics, and the protests of numerous business men and manufacturers against the reduction of tariff duties on foreign importations, all tending to add additional lustre to Omaha's crown of honors.
But in the midst of general jubilation his farmer constituency were not forgotten:

Mr. Chairman--The farmers of Douglas, Sarpy, and Washington Counties, the territory which comprises the Congressional district which I have the honor to represent upon this floor, have been materially and handsomely benefited by the growth and development of Omaha and South Omaha as markets for the products of the farm. The more manufacturing plants, the greater the diversity of interests, the stronger becomes the home of such benefits as a receiver, consumer, and distributer (sic) of farm products. Then, too, a home market like Omaha and South Omaha increases in value the price of farmlands tributary thereto. Although not to so great a degree, the smaller cities and towns in this territory afford a convenient market for the product of farms situated nearby. Town people and the agriculturists should be the best of friends. Their interests are reciprocal, and protection to one is protection to the other, and in all instances they should be inseparably joined in a contest against foreign invasion, whether that invasion be of the nature of pauper immigration or the products thereof. If America is to be flooded with the cast-off cheapness of foreign lands the stability of our institutions will surely fall from its foundation and American honor will have suffered an unfortunate stain.
I am proud of the enterprising citizenship in the State of Nebraska. I am proud of the important and prominent position occupied by Douglas County and its enterprising

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cities in the agricultural, commercial, and manufacturing domain of this Republic, and I firmly believe that with a national policy of protection in America this greatness in Nebraska will increase and the good times of the Harrison Administration will return to this land now stricken with a business depression brought about by a false economic policy.
BEET SUGAR.

A few days later, while indicating the policy of a bounty upon beet sugar production, he exploded a rhetorical bomb in the camp of the Arkansas delegation, they having failed to succeed in the new industry, and being opposed to that policy which he believed desirable for Nebraska.

   MR. MERCER: Mr. Chairman, some years ago a farmer in the state of Ohio made up his mind that he would change his place of residence and move to Arkansas--the reason why nobody knows; history has never given us an explanation. It seems that a short time after he landed in Arkansas a country fair was held. He had taken with him from Ohio to his new home some very fine Chester White pigs--six in all--beauties every one of them. He thought it no more than right that he should encourage the industry of raising fine thoroughbred hogs in his new home; so he took to this country fair these six elegant Chester White pigs and placed them on exhibition. After the awards had been made the Ohio man discovered that the breed of hogs in which he had been dealing all his life were not appreciated in the State of Arkansas. The first premium ribbon was pinned upon a pen that contained six "razorbacked looking" hogs--hogs with long legs--hogs that looked more like greyhounds than any hogs ever before raised upon American soil.
   The man from Ohio was not very much chagrined because he had not received the first premium, but his curiosity was excited. So he called upon the chairman of the awarding committee and asked him the reason why his hogs were rejected for a premium while the pen containing the "razors" was recognized. The chairman said to him, "My dear sir, you must be a stranger in this part of the country. In Arkansas the people have no use for hogs that can not outrun a negro." [Laughter.]
   Now, Mr. Chairman, I am not surprised that Representatives from the State of Arkansas on this floor---
   MR. McRAE: Before the gentleman gives us another "chestnut" will he please pick out the worm?

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MR. MERCER: The gentleman by rising in his seat has given one himself and therefore it is not necessary that I should do so.
Mr. Chairman, the people of Arkansas tried the experiment with beet-sugar seed. They sent to the Agricultural Department of the United States for seed, and they were furnished. They experimented, as also did the people of Missouri, and the people of those two states made the poorest exhibit made by the people of any state where the experiment was tried.
TARIFF.

Again, upon the 27th of January the Record contains a speech, with editorial and manufacturers' views, and sentiments from the author of the McKinley tariff, and from the Hon. James G. Blaine, with Mr. Mercer's protest against a reduction of tariff duties. Of employer and employee he said:

Profit and loss as knowledge should be common property to employer and employee. If the head of an establishment is living beyond his means, he should throw pride to the dogs and make a confession. If prosperity smiles upon him, he should see to it that the wage worker shares with the stockholder in some of the dividends. If reverses occur, the wage earner should in turn extend the employer aid and assistance. While legislation does not compel this course, an honest conscience and a generous heart would suggest it.

In regard to a certain equalization of wages he said:

These are cruel words. When such a condition exists in America I trust my days will have been numbered, as I have no desire to witness the scenes of starvation and struggle for bread that will then be daily observed upon this American soil, a soil hallowed in patriotism, love of country, and protection to American industry and American labor. Then will the dignified, intelligent American bread-winner grovel in the mire side by side with the pauper labor of Europe; then will hordes of Mongolians infest our territory, enjoy the fruits of our labor accumulated in better days, and the anarchist will prevail in resplendent glory.

In rebuttal of all charges or insinuations against his constituency he drew the following glowing picture of life upon the farm:

It is my privilege and pleasure to represent a constituency rich in natural and acquired resources. Although there are
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only three counties in my district, these three counties in agriculture, in manufacture, and in commerce, challenge the world for superiors. The counties of Washington and Sarpy and the agricultural part of Douglas are filled with bountiful farms and intelligent farmers and farmers' families. The farmers in this district are well to do and many quite wealthy. They have excellent farms and they know how to farm them. What is more, they farm the soil with the plow and other implements and machinery and not with the mouth. Instead of occupying a place upon a dry goods box with the whittling knife in hand, grumbling at that which labor and industry would prevent the happening, the farmers of these counties exercise their brain in the management and control of their possessions, and they employ industrious, honest labor in the cultivation and management of the same.
The farmers in this district ride in carriages. They dress in fine linen, and their homes are conveniently and advantageously furnished. It is not a strange thing to find a piano in the farm houses, Brussels carpet upon the floor, excellent parlor furniture, pictures upon the walls, well-dressed inmates, and bountifully-laid tables. The rich meadows and rich soil properly tilled produce magnificent crops of everything planted therein, and the whole country blooms with prosperity and richness. If I cannot say something good about the neighborhood in which I live, rest assured I would not call attention to the unfortunate happenings therein.
More damage has been done in certain sections of the United States west of the Mississippi River by the mouthings and vaporings of cranks and demagogues, who assume to be farmers and farmers' guardians, than was ever done by windstorms, grasshoppers, drouth, or by any pestilence whatsoever. In many instances, you show me a man who claims to be a practical farmer, who travels from place to place stirring up strife and discontent among his neighbors, criticising everything in the Government but himself and those whom he seeks to use, and I will show you a man who, if a farmer, does not know how to farm.

The sum and substance of the plea for State and national protection is easy of comprehension:

I desire the mills and spinneries to come to Nebraska. I contend that if protection has filled New England with mills and spinneries, has enriched her people in city and on farm, that the same legislation will make of Nebraska another and

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springing up everywhere. They are welcome, thrice welcome. Encouragement they need, protection they must have. Stand up for Nebraska!

On the subject of Missouri River improvement Mr. Mercer did not forget the interests of Omaha and Council Bluffs, but his colleague, Mr. Hainer, had so completely occupied the ground that but little was left to be added.
Some time having elapsed since Mr. Mercer's last eulogy upon Omaha and Nebraska a suitable occasion offered during a discussion upon irrigation, which was promptly embraced.

   Mr. Chairman--Some years ago it was my good fortune to visit the State of Oregon, and I there noticed some of the benefits of irrigation. On one side of a roadway the soil was pure sand, while ten feet away the same sand, through the merits of irrigation, was made rich in a most profusive production of vegetation. In Nebraska the same success has crowned the efforts of the enterprising farmers who have attempted irrigation. The sand lots of one year were made to produce a most remarkable yield of potatoes, while farm after farm emerged from the valueless to the valuable.
   Eastern Nebraska has been fortunately blessed in nature's gifts, and does not need irrigation or other artificial methods to insure crops. I venture the assertion that this part of Nebraska is the cream of the agricultural kingdom, no matter in what part of the world competition is sought. A failure of crops has not occurred since the first settlement, and year after year this qualification of the soil increases in its usefulness.
   It is the western part of Nebraska which seeks and needs irrigation, and if irrigation is given this part of Nebraska State which now stands second in the Union as a corn producing State--it will soon take rank with the eastern part, and then will Nebraska be the greatest corn and wheat producing State in America.

Leave being granted to print in the Record a speech "of ex-Senator Warren, Omaha "came up smiling."

We remember, nearly all of us, when Omaha was a little, struggling hamlet, and it seemed to me then and it seems to me now, that scarcely a place above or below upon this river but what a city could have been as well built as here. It has been, however, the spirit of her people, the ambition,

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the brain, and the will power of the citizens of Omaha that have made it what it is.
Omaha, when but a small village, took advantage of opportunities and made her supreme effort at a time when the Nation declared that it would have a railroad constructed across the continent, connecting the vital life of the great East with the mighty possibilities of the boundless West. Omaha became the gateway of this transcontinental line. There has always been in Nebraska and in Omaha supreme hospitality. In this State, especially in Omaha, a spirit has always existed which said to every man seeking a home, "We welcome you. Law-abiding citizens, all come to us and make your home with us."
EDUCATION, SUFFRAGE, AND NATURALIZATION.

As the last days of the 53rd Congress were being numbered Mr. Mercer placed upon record sentiments of general national import.

   Mr. Speaker--The public school in America is a necessity, and I rejoice that it steadily grows in favor. The American flag should decorate every school building in the land, and the pupils should be taught to reverence as well as respect one equally with the other, for the moment our public school system is all owed to crumble and disappear that moment will the Stars and Stripes cease to be emblematical of American patriotism, and the Constitution and the law will have gone the way of the dead.
   If we will carefully keep church and state separate in all legislative matters, and continue to throw around our public school system walls of protection, sift the suffrage of the country so a man will not be allowed to vote until he realizes the full responsibility of the act, cure our naturalization laws so a man will not be allowed to become an American citizen until he is properly qualified to wear the dignity which that honor and title bear, to so remedy our immigration laws that only the best elements of foreign society will be allowed an opportunity to mingle with and become a part and parcel of American civilization and make it impossible for the anarchy and pauperism of the Old World to find a lodgment here, we will have done much to uplift American institutions.
   I am glad to note that in educational matters great steps of progress have been made, especially in the western part of the United States. The great universities of Chicago and Stanford illuminate educational circles to-day, while the

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great universities of several western states, notably Nebraska, Iowa, and Kansas, occupy an enviable position in the educational world. Their instructors and their students are gradually achieving a prominence which cannot do otherwise than reflect the greatest of credit upon them and upon the institutions they respectively represent. It is a good sign of civilization when education is pushed into the frontier of this, as well as other countries, because education always civilizes, but public money should be expended in a nonsectarian direction. Such a course will insure less division, less trouble, and more efficiency than any other method which might be pursued.

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HON. GEORGE D. MEIKLEJOHN.

March 4th, 1893--March 4th, 1897.

   Hon. George D. Meiklejohn was born at Weyauwega, Waupaca County, Wisconsin, August 26, 1857, and brought up on a farm. He was educated at the State Normal, Oshkosh, and Michigan University, Ann Arbor; and graduated from the Law Department of Michigan University in 1880; prior to which time he was principal of the High School at Weyauwega and Liscomb, Iowa. He was a lawyer at 23 years of age, the same year in which he came to Nebraska, at 27 he was in the State Senate, at 30 was chairman of the Republican State Central Committee, at 31 was elected Lieutenant Governor; and at 35 years of age elected to Congress, as a Republican, receiving 13,635 votes against 10,630 for George F. Keiper, Democrat, and 9,636 for William A. Poynter, Independent. In 1894 he was re-elected to the 54th Congress.
   He was fortunate in the circumstances of life upon the farm early education--self support--settlement in a new and progressive community--ability to acquire and integrity to hold the confidence of a constituency till lauded in Congress with a legislator's resources and a presiding officer's experience, acquired in presiding over the State Senate, by election, and ex-officio, as Lieutenant Governor.
   The gentleman had also acquired a terse and comprehensive use of language, as evidenced by the introductory sentences of his first speech in the 53rd Congress January 12, 1894. Mr. Meiklejohn said:

One year ago the prayer for "a change of party" was, through the voice of a plurality but not a majority of the electors of this Nation, answered, and for the first time for more than a third of a century the executive and both branches of the legislative departments of the Government were placed in the absolute control of the Democratic party.
The American people prior to this "change of party" were

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enjoying the blessings guaranteed to them by the Constitution. Industry, the great heart of the arterial system of trade, was beating normally and regularly; her pulsations filled the conduits of commerce with the products of American labor, American capital, and American genius. She blessed with wealth and prosperity the most remote part of the Nation; she fed the bread-winners of the land with the produce of American soil and made a home market for the American farmer; capital had a field for investment; labor, employment; transportation, trade and commerce; manufactures, a demand for their products.
The Nation was blessed with universal prosperity, and happiness and contentment beamed from the home. The maxim of Daniel Webster, that "Where there is work for the hands there is work for the teeth,"was never more fully verified. This was the condition of our Republic before the transformation scene of a year ago.
"A CHANGE OF PARTY" was the verdict of the ballots; the "change of administration" had not yet come. Its realization was four months in the future. The prospect of Democratic experimentation and platform translation began its work of industrial prostration and commercial depression. Capital took fright; industry moved sluggishly; products of manufactures decreased to the current demand; labor saw her wages decline and the doors of employment slowly close.
Doubt and uncertainty drove our medium of exchange into hiding; banks were forced to realize on securities to keep up reserves; exports decreased and contents of bonded warehouses increased. The Nation for the first time since 1857 began to taste the unripened fruit of free trade and that sweet morsel of Anglomaniacs, the markets of the world. Who could predict what was in store when a "change of administration" should come?
BEET SUGAR.

Having made the point that the legislation of the extra session had failed to tranquilize the country, and a tariff bill being before the House for revenue, with incidental protection only, he argued the constitutionality of protection, of itself, instancing legislative custom and the opinions of Madison, Jefferson and others. Passing to what he affirmed would be the result of the bill, if passed, upon two Nebraska industries, beet sugar and

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binding twine, he enumerated the vast sums saddled upon our people, on account of foreign importation of sugar, which he would finally lessen, through the stimulus of bounties upon home manufactures.

RESULTS.    Wherever a beet-sugar factory is located and within a radius of many miles the agricultural country seems touched as with a new life. There is a rise in the value of land and labor is in demand, towns and villages take on vigor and growth, and every man, laborer, banker, merchant, and farmer, feels the touch of a new industry. Thousands of dollars are annually expended by the factory in every direction, giving business a steady impetus and a demand for the products of other industries.
   No man, of whatever political faith, who is not a demagogue can go through a beet field and visit a sugar factory without feeling that God's sunshine is indeed a partner with labor and capital in one of the great agricultural industries.
   Are the energy and capital invested in this enterprise, the hopes of the farmers and planter in this great sugar industry, to be paralyzed? At whose behest? Is it possible that Claus Spreckels has found favor in the eyes of a Democracy which only fourteen months ago was yelling itself hoarse in denunciation of trusts?
   Mr. Brigham, in 1890, Master of the National Grange, composed of one and one-quarter millions of farmers, said:
   "I think our people would not favor a bounty on any commodity that we now produce in sufficient quantities to supply our people. There are many of them in favor of bounties. Take, for instance, sugar. "
   At the transmississippi convention, held at Ogden last spring, a convention composed of over 600 delegates from 22 States, a, resolution passed without opposition against a repeal of the bounty from or protection for sugar.
   Let no one suppose for a moment that but two or three states growing sugar are the only ones interested in this industry. On the contrary, the mechanic, the laborer, the merchant, and the farmer in many states, aside from the cane, beet, and sorghum belt are deeply interested in this struggle. Prior to 1857 Louisiana had paid to Eastern foundries and machine shops over $10,000,000 for engines, sugar mills, kettles, furnaces, doors, grates, bars, vacuum pans, pumps, water pipes, wagons, and harness. She had paid to Tennessee, Ohio, Kentucky, Illinois, and Indiana over $7,500,000 for mules and horses for her plantations.

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She had purchased every year over $1,500,000 of pork, $65,000 of flour, $275,000 of shoes, $1,250,000 of clothing, half a million dollars of blankets, and $1,250,000, of horses and mules, or a total of nearly $4,700,000 annually. When she had with a capital in this industry increased fourfold and now reaching $150,000,000, her calls on the North and border states for machinery, animals, wagons, harness, provisions, and clothing makes an interstate commerce of $50,000,000 annually.
Is such an industry in such a state to be stricken down or crippled?

Her product in 1870-'71 was, pounds	168,878,512
In 1890-'91 it was	483,489,856
A gain of nearly 200 per cent, or pounds	314,611,264

The planters have invested at least ten millions new or additional capital, and increased their planted area 100,000 acres since the bounty law was enacted, and on the faith of its continuance as promised and provided.

LAST ROSE OF SUMMER.

He entered a protest, also, because binding twine was placed on the free list; and playfully alluded to Mr. Bryan:

   My colleague (Mr. Bryan) will remember, in the Fifty-second Congress, in speaking of the election of 1890, he said that he would not find fault with Mr. Reed if he consumed his time in recalling those words of Thomas Moore, "The last rose of summer."
   You will remember that you predicted that the "revolution" might reach the shores of Maine. Little you then thought that it would reach the prairies of Nebraska before the shores of Maine. With the victory of the Administration in the last Democratic convention in Nebraska and the Republication victory in the Nation I know my colleague will find no fault with me if I consume sufficient time to recall the words in the last stanza of that beautiful anapest: "So, soon may I follow,
   When friendships decay,
And from love's shining circle
   The gems drop away.
When true hearts lie withered,
   And fond ones are flown,
Oh, who would inhabit
   This cold world alone."

[Laughter and applause.]

PERORATION.

In his peroration he charged Democrats with "wrecking in-

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dustries"; of treason, by alliance with "England and Canada"; canonized Thoreau and lay under contribution the rhetorical figure of Echo, to intensify the knell of destiny.
   "What humiliating contrast, gentlemen of the majority, does your plan and purpose to wreck the industries of this country present to that patriotic utterance of Thoreau which made him immortal
   "There is no hope for him who does not think that the bit of mold under his feet is the sweetest spot on earth."
   You propose to sacrifice this industry, destroy this new field for agriculture, and place this necessity of the American farmer under the control of foreign manufacturers.
   You propose to give preference and priority to foreign lands and foreign productions. In this you have succeeded in securing the support and indorsement of the Canadian and English press.
   Sirs, pass this bill and you will lock the vaults of American resources.
   Pass this bill and you sign the death-warrant for American industries.
   Pass this bill and you issue a proclamation for the enslavement of American labor. [Applause.]
   Pass this bill and you will declare for the destruction of our home market; the depletion of the national treasury; the placing of labor on a plane with ryots, coolies, and kanakas, and the transfer of American manufactures to foreign shores. [Prolonged applause on the Republican side.]
SECOND TARIFF SPEECH.

In the last hours of the 53rd Congress, second session, after hundreds of speeches had been delivered upon the subject of a tariff for revenue or protection, Mr. Meiklejohn, under leave to print, wrote and filed a speech, as a political attack upon the Democratic party.
In the first sentence he charged "a lowering of the flag of tariff reform"--"a surrender without terms." To stigmatize the Senate amendments to the House bill (634 in number), he published the celebrated letter of President Cleveland to Mr. Wilson, Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee of the House, in which the Senate bill was characterized as meaning "party perfidy and party dishonor," involving "outrageous discriminations and violation of principle."

MEMBERS OF U. S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

555

Inasmuch as Democrats had to conciliate the coal states, the iron ore states, and those having cotton, silk, tin, glass and sugar interests he found it convenient to put on record Senator Vest, of Missouri, and Senator Mills, of Texas:

   No wonder the Senator from Missouri, in turning the calcium light on this tariff bill and exposing the tribulations of the Democracy in framing it, was led to say:
   "Sir, were it not for this tariff I could now indulge in the ecstacy (sic) of that well-known hymn "There shall I bathe my wearied soul
   In seas of endless rest,
And not a wave of trouble roll
   Across my peaceful breast."

   No wonder Mr. Mills, one of the present Democratic leaders in the Senate and the author of the famous Mills bill, speaking of this Gorman compromise bill in a speech delivered in the Senate on the 15th of August, 1894, was led to exclaim:
   "Mr. President, I have not risen either to attack or defend the bill which has recently passed Congress and is now awaiting the signature of the President. I think perhaps the least that we can say about that measure the better it will be. It is the most remarkable measure that has ever found itself upon the pages of the statute books of any country. It is a phenomenon in political science; and especially is it so when we consider that this is a popular government and that legislation in a popular government is the crystallization of the public will.. I make bold to say here to-day that that bill does not reflect the sentiment of one thousand people of the United States.
   "I do not think I will be far from the truth when I say there is not a Republican in the United States who favors it. I do not think I will be far amiss when I say there is not a Populist in the United States who favors it, judging by the votes of their representatives in this chamber. I do not believe I will be far from the truth when I say that the great masses of the Democratic people of the United States. condemn it. It is the product, as we all know, of five or six, or at best seven, members on this floor."

In adjusting rates some had been lowered, some removed, and some increased, while of those increased, a list was given of fifty articles.
The sugar schedule was very thoroughly examined, and the repeal of bounties denounced, while certain Missouri members were warned of the indignation of their sugar-eating constituents.

556

NEBRASKA STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

In conclusion, he invoked the muse of History and called on the House to join in the refrain:

TUNE--"The Old Oaken Bucket."

"How dear to our hearts is our Democratic Congress
As hopeless inaction presents it to view;
The bill of poor Wilson, the deep-tangled tariff,
And every mad pledge that their lunacy knew;
The widespread depression, the mills that closed by it,
The rock of free silver where great Grover fell,
They've busted our country, no use to deny it,
And darn the old party, it's busted as well.: This G. Cleveland's Congress,; This Queen Lilly Congress,; This wild free-trade Congress; We all love so well.

"Their moss-covered pledges we no longer treasure,
For often at noon when out hunting a job,
We find that instead of the corn they had promised,
They've given us nothing--not even a cob.
How ardent we've cussed 'em with lips overflowing
With sulphurous blessings as great swear words fell,
The emblems of hunger, free trade and free silver,
Are sounding in sorrow the workingman's knell.: This bank-breaking Congress,; This mill-closing Congress,; This starvation Congress; We all love so well.

"Flow sweet from their eloquent lips to receive it,
Cursed tariff protection no longer uphold.
We listened and voted our dinner pails empty,
The factories silent, the furnaces cold.
And now far removed from our lost situations,
The tear of regret doth intrusively swell,
We yearn for Republican administration
And sigh for the Congress that served us so well.: This Fifty-third Congress,; This Democratic Congress,; This sugar-cured Congress; We wish was in -----