%images;]>LCRBMRP-T2113The tariff. : Speech of Hon. George H. White in the House of representatives, Wednesday, March 31, 1897.: a machine-readable transcription. Collection: African-American Pamphlets from the Daniel A. P. Murray Collection, 1820-1920; American Memory, Library of Congress. Selected and converted.American Memory, Library of Congress.

Washington, 1994.

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 01-004014Daniel Murray Pamphlet Collection, 1860-1920, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress. Copyright status not determined.
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THE TARIFFSPEECHOFHON. GEORGE H. WHITEOF NORTH CAROLINA,IN THEHOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,Wednesday, March 31, 1897.WASHINGTON.1897.

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SPEECH OF HON. GEORGE H. WHITE.

The House being in Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, and having under consideration the bill (H.R. 379) to provide revenue for the Government and to encourage the industries of the United States--

Mr. WHITE of North Carolina said:Mr. Chairman: I rise to supplement what was said by my colleague [Mr. Linney], during the five minutes I have. I desire not only to add a word in behalf of the articles mentioned by him--coal. iron, mica, cotton, wool, cattle, hogs, etc.--but wish especially to emphasize a word in behalf of the people of eastern North Carolina on that part of this bill which includes lumber. Under the Wilson bill the contracts which had been entered into by the mill men had in many instances to be forfeited; the mill that had been running day and night, giving employment to thousands and thousands of operatives, were shut down, and those operatives were thus shut out. These men, the heads of families, were forced to see their loved ones pinched with want, with no way for them to earn a dollar. This bill, because of this lumber schedule, as well as others, commends itself especially to the Southern people who have to labor to get bread and meat for their families.

I have been amused, Mr. Chairman, by my Democratic friends, though not surprised, because I have heard that old yarn before [laughter], in their advocacy of "free trade." Why, they have from time to time advocated "free whisky" also; and in the last campaign their shibboleth was "free silver." In fact, the Southern element of the Democratic party has advocated "free" everything except free ballots and free negroes. [Laughter and applause on the Republican side and in the galleries.]

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It is wonderful, Mr. Chairman, how solicitous those gentlemen are about the future welfare of the Republican party. The bone and sinew of their arguments are their fears that the place which now knows us will, if we pass this bill, soon know us no more forever. Well, gentlemen, we will take care of this side of the House. We have heard of the devil teaching scriptures, but never to save a soul. If we are contented, you ought not to be troubled. [Laughter.]

Mr. Chairman, gentlemen on the other side of this Chamber have felt themselves called upon to resent some imputations of incompetency that went from this side of the House. Well, I am a Southerner to the manner born and reared, and am usually in sympathy with the South, but when Democratic members on the other side of this House drag into this great Congress of the United States the expressions of the Southern plantations in regard to "the dark and the heels of a mule," then I think the imputation is a correct one.

Mr. Chairman, I am here to speak, and I do speak, as the sole representative on this floor of 9,000,000 of the population of these United States, 90 per cent of whom are laborers. Under this bill they are protected; they are given an opportunity to earn their living. Bread and butter are what we want, not finespun Democratic campaign theory. We have had enough of that. We want something now upon which soul and body can be kept together. We want an honest dollar. We want pay for an honest day's work. We believe that by this bill these things may be brought about or that such may largely be the effect. We are therefore willing to rest our case here. We are willing to go before the American people with this bill even as it is now. When, as the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Johnson] suggests, it shall have passed under the scrutinizing eye of the United States Senate, we shall have, as I believe, a measure of which every American citizen ought to be proud.

My friend from South Carolina said that my colleague [Mr. Linney] did not represent the popular sentiment of the South when he advocated the protective tariff features enunciated in this bill. I think, Mr. Chairman, that it comes with bad grace from the gentleman to talk of misrepresentation of the Southern people 00044when he considers the fact that 130,000 voters in his State are not allowed to vote at all. [Applause on the Republican side.]

I want to say to him that while I know but little of South Carolina as it now is--I used to know something of it when it was a State in the Union, with the privileges of sister States of the Union--yet I do know something of the sentiment in my own State of North Carolina, and many other States, and I can tell the gentleman from my own knowledge that there is a growing sentiment prevailing with the development of that country that the industries and the labor of America shall be protected against the pauperism and the cheap labor of foreign countries, Democratic campaign thunder to the contrary notwithstanding. [Prolonged applause on the Republican side.]