Chapter VII: Part 7

_My Ohio and Indiana Friends_--The magnitude and the cordiality of
this demonstration are very gratifying. That these representatives of
the State of my nativity, and these, my neighbors in this State of my
early adoption, should unite this morning in giving this evidence of
their respect and confidence is especially pleasing. I do remember
Ohio, the State of my birth and of my boyhood, with affection and
veneration. I take pride in her great history, the illustrious men she
furnished to lead our armies, and the army of her brave boys who bore
the knapsack and the gun for the Union. I take pride in her pure and
illustrious statesmen. Ohio was the first of the Northwestern States
to receive the western emigration after the Revolutionary War. When
that tide of patriotism which had borne our country to freedom and had
established our Constitution threw upon the West many of the patriots
whose fortunes had been maimed or broken by their sacrifices in the
Revolutionary War, this pure stream, pouring over the Alleghanies,
found its first basin in the State of Ohio. [Cries of "Good! Good!"]

The waters of patriotism that had been distilled in the fires of the
Revolution fertilized her virgin fields. [Applause.] I do not forget,
however, that my manhood has all been spent in Indiana--that all the
struggle which is behind me in life has this for its field. [Cheers.]

I brought to this hospitable State only that to which Col. Lowe has
alluded--an education and a good wife. [Great cheering.] Whatever
else I have, whatever else I have accomplished, for myself and for
my family or the public, has been under the favoring and friendly
auspices of these, my fellow-citizens of Indiana. [Applause.] To
them I owe more than I can repay. My Indiana friends, you come from
a county largely devoted to agriculture. The invitation of Nature
was so generous that your people have generally accepted it. Guarded
as your early settlers were, and as those of Ohio were, by that
sword of liberty which was placed at your gates by the ordinance of
1787, stimulated, as you have been, by the suggestions of that great
ordinance in favor of morality and education, you have, in your rural
homes, one of the best communities in the world. [Applause.] You do
not forget, farmers though you are, that 95 per cent. of the product
of your farms is consumed at home, and you are too wise to put that
in peril in a greedy search after foreign trade. [Great applause.] You
will not sacrifice these great industries that have created in our
country a consuming class for your products. [Cheers.] I do not think
that there is any doubt what tariff policy England would wish us to
adopt, and yet some say that England is trembling lest we should adopt
free trade here [laughter], and so rob her of other markets that she
now enjoys. [Laughter.] The story of our colonial days, when England,
with selfish and insatiate avarice, laid her repressive hand upon our
infant manufactories and attempted to suppress them all, furnishes
the first object-lesson she gave us. Another was given when the life
of this Nation--the child of England, as she has been wont to call
us, speaking the mother tongue, having many institutions inherited
from her--was imperilled. The offer of free trade by the Confederacy
so touched the commercial greed of England that she forgot the ties
of blood and went to the verge of war with us to advance the cause of
the rebel Government. [Cheers.] But what England wants, or what any
other country wants, is not very important--certainly not conclusive.
[Cheers.]

What is best for us and our people should be the decisive question.
[Cheers.] My Randolph County friends, there are State questions that
must take a strong hold upon the minds of people like yours. The
proposition to lift entirely out of the range and control of partisan
politics the great benevolent institutions of the State is one that
must commend itself to all your people. [Cheers.] If all those friends
who sympathize with us upon this question had acted with us in 1886 we
should then have accomplished this great reform. [Applause.] And now,
to these old gentlemen whose judgment and large experience in life
gives added value to their kind words; to these young friends who,
for the first time, take a freeman's place in the line of battle to
do duty for the right, I give my kindly greetings and best wishes in
return for theirs. [Cheers.]

INDIANAPOLIS, SEPTEMBER

On the afternoon of September 22 General Harrison was visited by 600 Chicago "drummers," organized as the Republican Commercial Travellers' Association of Chicago and accompanied by the celebrated Second Regiment Band. They were escorted to the Harrison residence by the Columbia Club and 200 members of the Republican Commercial Travellers' Escort Club of Indianapolis, George C. Webster, President; Ernest Morris, Secretary.

The entire business community turned out to greet the visitors as they marched through the city, performing difficult evolutions, under the command of Chief Marshal Vandever and his aids--C. S. Felton, P. H. Brockway, B. F. Horton, Joseph Pomroy, W. H. Haskell, Geo. W. Bristol, A. C. Boyd, Geo. H. Green, and Secretary H. A. Morgan.

General Harrison's appearance was signalized by a remarkable demonstration. Col. H. H. Rude delivered the address on behalf of his associates.

In response General Harrison made one of his best speeches. He said:

_Sir, and Gentlemen of the Republican Commercial Travellers'
Association of Chicago_--I bid you welcome to my home. I give you
my most ardent thanks for this cordial evidence of your interest
in those great principles of government which are advocated by the
Republican party, whose candidate I am. I am not unfamiliar with the
value, efficiency, and intelligence of the commercial travellers
of our country. [Cheers.] The contribution you make to the success
of the business communities with which you are identified is large
and indispensable. I do not doubt that one of the strongest props
of Chicago's commercial greatness would be destroyed if you were
withdrawn from the commercial forces of that great city. [Cheers.] The
growth and development of Chicago has been one of the most marvellous
incidents in the story of American progress. It is gratifying to know
that your interest is enlisted in this political campaign. It is very
creditable to you that in the rush of the busy industries and pushing
trade of your city you have not forgotten that you are American
citizens and that you owe service, not to commerce only, but to your
country. [Great cheering.] It is gratifying to be assured that you
propose to bring your influence into the great civil contest which is
now engaging the interest of our people. The intelligence and energy
which you give to your commercial pursuits will be a most valuable
contribution to our cause. [Cheers.] The power of such a body of men
is very great.

I want now to introduce to you for a moment another speaker--an
Englishman. Within the last year I have been reading, wholly without
any view to politics, the story of our diplomatic relations with
England during the Civil War. The motive that most strongly influenced
the English mind in its sympathy with the South was the expectancy of
free trade with the Confederacy [cries of "That's right!"], and among
the most influential publications intended to urge English recognition
and aid to the Confederates was a book entitled "The American Union,"
by James Spence. It was published in 1862, and ran through several
editions. Speaking of the South he said:

"No part of the world can be found more admirably placed for
exchanging with this country the products of industry to mutual
advantage than the Southern States of the Union. Producing in
abundance the material we chiefly require, their climate and the
habits of the people indispose them to manufactures, and leave to
be purchased precisely the commodities we have to sell. They have
neither the means nor the desire to enter into rivalry with us.
Commercially they offer more than the capabilities of another India
within a fortnight's distance from our shores. The capacity of a
Southern trade when free from restrictions may be estimated most
correctly by comparison. The condition of those States resembles
that of Australia, both non-manufacturing countries, with the
command of ample productions to offer in exchange for the imports
they require."

The author proceeds to show that at the time England's exports to
our country were only thirteen shillings per capita of our population,
while the exports to Australia were ten pounds sterling per capita.
Let me now read you what is said of the Northern States:

"The people of the North, whether manufacturers or ship-owners,
regard us as rivals and competitors, to be held back and cramped
by all possible means. [Applause and cries of "That's it!"] They
possess the same elements as ourselves--coal, metals, ships, an
aptitude for machinery, energy and industry--while the early
obstacles of deficient capital and scanty labor are rapidly
disappearing. [Applause and a voice, "Exactly!"]

"For many years they have competed with us in some manufactures
in foreign markets, and their peculiar skill in the contrivance of
labor-saving machinery daily increases the number of articles they
produce cheaper than ourselves. [Loud cheering and a voice, "We'll
knock them out again!"]

"Thus, to one part of the world our exports are at the rate of
ten pounds sterling per head, while those to the Union amount to but
thirteen shillings per head."

I have read these extracts because they seemed to me very suggestive
and very instructive. The South offered free trade to Europe in
exchange for an expected recognition of their independence by England
and France. [Cries of "You are right!"] The offer was very attractive
and persuasive to the ruling classes of England. They took Confederate
bonds and sent out armed cruisers to prey upon our commerce. They
dallied with Southern agents, fed them with delusive hopes, and thus
encouraged the South to protract a hopeless struggle. They walked to
the very edge of open war with the United States, forgetful of all the
friendly ties that had bound us as nations, and all this to satisfy
a commercial greed. We may learn from this how high a price England
then set upon free trade with a part only of the States. [A voice, "We
remember it!"]

But now the Union has been saved and restored. Men of both armies
and of all the States rejoice that England's hope of a commercial
dependency on our Southern coast was disappointed. The South is under
no stress to purchase foreign help by trade concessions. She will now
open her hospitable doors to manufacturing, capital, and skilled labor.

It is not now true that either climate or the habits of her people
indispose them to manufactures. Of the Virginias, North Carolina,
Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Missouri, it may be now said, as
Mr. Spence said of the more northern States, "They possess the same
elements as ourselves [England]--coal, metals, ships, an aptitude
for machinery, energy, and industry--while the early obstacles of
deficient capital and scanty labor are rapidly disappearing." And I
am sure there is a "New South"--shackled as it is by traditions and
prejudices--that is girding itself to take part in great industrial
rivalry with England, which Mr. Spence so much deprecates. These great
States will no longer allow either Old England or New England to spin
and weave their cotton, but will build mills in the very fields where
the great staple is gathered. [Applause.] They will no longer leave
Pennsylvania without an active rival in the production of iron. They
surely will not, if they are at all mindful of their great need and
their great opportunity, unite in this crusade against our protected
industries.

Our interests no longer run upon sectional lines, and it cannot be
good for any part of our country that Mr. Spence's vision of English
trade with us should be realized. [Cries of "Never! Never!"] Commerce
between the States is working mightily, if silently, to efface all
lingering estrangements between our people, and the appeal for the
perpetuation of the American system of protection will, I am sure,
soon find an answering response among the people of all the States.
[Loud cheering.]

I thank you again for this beautiful and cordial demonstration, and
will now be glad to meet you personally.

INDIANAPOLIS, SEPTEMBER 25.

The third delegation from Wabash County during the campaign arrived on September 25, a thousand strong, headed by Hon. Jesse Arnold, Col. Homan Depew, Thomas Black, W. D. Caldwell, Obed Way, Thomas McNamee, Rob't Thompson, Wm. Alexander, Robert Wilson, Andrew Egnew, C. S. Haas, W. W. Stewart, W. H. Bent, Robert Stewart, and W. D. Gachenour. Their spokesman was Capt. B. F. Williams. Parke County, Indiana, contributed a large delegation the same day, under the lead of John W. Stryker, Jacob Church, John R. Johnson, A. O. Benson, W. W. McCune, Joseph H. Jordan, and A. A. Hargrave, of Rockville, and 300 school children, in charge of A. R. McMurty. Dr. T. F. Leech was orator for the Parke visitors.

General Harrison spoke as follows:

_My Wabash County Friends and my Little Friends from Parke_--I
am very glad to meet you here to-day. My friend who has spoken for
Wabash County has very truly said that the relations between me and
the Republicans of that county have always been exceedingly cordial.
I remember well when I first visited your county in 1860, almost a
boy in years, altogether a boy in political experience. I was then a
candidate for Reporter of the Decisions of the Supreme Court of this
State. You had in one of your own citizens, afterward a distinguished
soldier, a candidate for that office in the convention that nominated
me, but that did not interfere at all with the cordial welcome from
your people when, as the nominee of the party, I came into your
county. I think from that day to this my name has never been mentioned
in any convention for any office that I have not had almost the
unanimous support of the Republicans of Wabash County. [Applause.]
This is no new interest which you now manifest to-day. The expressions
of your confidence have been very numerous and have been continued
through nearly thirty years.

There is one word on one subject that I want to say. Our Democratic
friends tell us that there are about a hundred millions--their
arithmeticians do not agree on the exact figures--in the public
Treasury for which the Government has no need. They have found only
this method of using it, viz.: depositing it in the national banks of
the country, to be loaned out by them to our citizens at interest, the
Government getting no interest whatever from the banks. I suggested,
and it was not an original suggestion with me--Senator Sherman has
advocated the same policy with great ability in the Senate--that
this money had better be used in buying Government bonds, because
the Government would make some money in applying it that way, and
there was no other way in which they could get any interest on it
at all. But it is said if we use it in this manner we pay a premium
to the bondholders. But it is only the same premium that the bonds
are bringing in the market. In other words, as I said the other day,
capitalists who can use their money as they please--put it out on
mortgages, at interest, or in any other way--think the Government
bond at the current rate of premium is a good investment for them.
Now, the Government can buy those bonds at that premium and save a
great deal of interest. I will not undertake to give you figures. One
issue of these bonds matures in 1907, and bears four per cent. annual
interest. Now, suppose this surplus money were to remain all that
time in the banks without bringing any interest to the Government;
is there a man here so dull that he cannot see the great loss that
would result to the people? I have another objection to this policy:
the favoritism that is involved in it. We have heard--and from such
high authority that I think that we must accept it as true--that the
great patronage appertaining to the office of President of the United
States involves a public peril. Now, suppose we add to that danger a
hundred millions of dollars that the Secretary of the Treasury can put
in this community or that, in this bank or that, at his pleasure; is
not the power of the executive perilously increased? Is it right that
the use of this vast sum should be a matter of mere favoritism, that
the Secretary should be allowed to put $10,000,000 of this surplus
in Indianapolis and none of it in Kansas City, or $75,000,000 in New
York and none in Indianapolis? If the money is used in buying bonds it
finds its natural place--goes where it belongs. This is a most serious
objection to the present method of dealing with the surplus. But if
you still object to paying the market premium when we buy these bonds,
see how it works the other way. The banks deposit their bonds in the
Treasury to secure these deposits, get the Government money without
interest, and still draw interest on their bonds. If any of you had a
note for a thousand dollars due in five years, bearing interest, and
your credit was so good that the note was worth a premium, and you had
twelve hundred dollars that you could not put out at interest so as
to offset the interest on your note, would you not make money by using
this surplus to take up the note at a fair premium? Would you think
it wise finance to give the thousand dollars that you had on hand to
your creditor without interest and allow him to deposit your note with
you as security, you paying interest on the note until it was due and
getting no interest on your deposit? [Laughter and applause.].

I welcome my young friends from Parke County. There is nothing
fuller of interest than childhood. There is so much promise and
hope in it. Expectancy makes life very rosy to them and them very
interesting to us who have passed beyond the turn of life. [Applause.]
You are fortunate in these kind instructors, who from week to week
instil into your minds the principles of religion and of morality;
but do not forget that there is another vine of beauty that may be
appropriately twined with those--the love of your country and her
institutions. [Applause.] I thank you again for this cordial evidence
of your regard. The skies are threatening, and as there is danger that
our meeting may be interrupted by rain I will stop here in order that
I may meet each of you personally. [Cheers.]

INDIANAPOLIS, SEPTEMBER 26.

Ohio and Indiana united to-day again, through their delegations, aggregating 4,000 citizens, in paying their respects to General Harrison. The Tippecanoe Veteran Association of Columbus, Ohio, J. E. St. Clair, President, comprising 200 veterans, whose ages averaged 76 years, was escorted by the Foraker Club of Columbus, led by President Reeves. The veterans were accompanied by the venerable Judge John A. Bingham, of Cadiz, and Gen. Geo. B. Wright, of Columbus, both of whom made addresses. No other club or organization, during the entire campaign, was the recipient of such marked attentions as the Ohio veterans; the youngest among them was 68 years of age. Among the oldest were Wm. Armstrong, aged 91; Ansel Bristol, 80; H. H. Chariton, 84; Francis A. Crum, 82; Joseph Davis, 84; Henry Edwards, 80; John Fields, 82; John A. Gill, 82; J. L. Grover, 81; J. A. S. Harlow, 87; Harris Loomis, 84; Dan'l Melhousen, 80; Sam'l McCleland, 80; Judge John Otstot, 86; James Park, 80; Daniel Short, 83; John Saul, 86; George Snoffer, 85; David Taylor, 87; Jacob Taylor, 88; J. D. Fuller, 82, and Luther Hillery, aged 90, who knew William Henry Harrison before his first nomination. Prominent in the Foraker Club were Dr. A. W. Harden and D. K. Reif.

The Tipton County, Indiana, visitation was under the auspices of the First Voters' Club of the town of Tipton. A large club of Tippecanoe campaign veterans headed their column, led by Chief Marshal J. A. Swoveland, assisted by M. W. Pershing, James Johns, John F. Pyke, R. J. McCalion, Isaac Booth, J. Q. Seright, and J. Wolverton. Judge Daniel Waugh, of Tipton, was the mouthpiece of the delegation.

From Elkhart County, Indiana, came a notable delegation of a thousand business men, prominent among whom were State Senator Davis, Hon. Geo. W. Burt, Daniel Zook, H. J. Beyerle, E. G. Herr, D. W. Neidig, T. H. Dailey, D. W. Granger, and I. W. Nash, of Goshen; and James H. State, A. C. Manning, J. W. Fieldhouse, J. G. Schreiner, A. P. Kent, J. H. Cainon, Frank Baker, and Jacob Berkley, of Elkhart City. Hon. O. Z. Hubbell was spokesman for the delegation. Judge Bingham's eloquent address was listened to with marked attention.

General Harrison responded as follows:

_Gentlemen, my Ohio and Indiana Friends_--Again about this platform
there are gathered representatives from these two great States. Your
coming is an expression of a common interest, a recognition of the
fact that there is a citizenship that is wider than the lines of any
State. [Cheers.] That over and above that just pride in your own
communities, which you cherish so jealously, there is a fuller pride
in the one flag, to which we all give our allegiance, and in the
one Constitution, which binds the people of these States together
indissolubly in a Government strong enough to protect its humblest
citizen wherever he may sojourn. [Prolonged cheers.] Your State
institutions are based, like those of the Nation, upon the great
principles of human liberty and equality, and are consecrated to the
promotion of social order and popular education. But, above all this,
resting on like foundations, is the strong arch of the Union that
binds us together as a Nation. You are citizens of the United States,
and as such have common interests that suggest this meeting. [Cheers.]

I cannot speak separately to the various organizations represented
here. There is a broad sense in which you are one. But I cannot omit
to pay a hearty tribute of thanks to these venerable men who are
gathered about me to-day. I value this tribute from them more than
words can tell. I cannot, without indelicacy, speak much of that
campaign to which they brought the enthusiasm of their earlier life
and to which their memories now turn with so much interest. If, out
of it, they have brought on with them in life to this moment and have
transferred to me some part of the respect which another won from
them, then I will find in their kindness a new stimulus to duty.
[Applause and cries, "We have; we have!"] In looking over, the other
day, a publication of the campaign of 1840, I fell upon a card signed
by fifteen Democrats of Orange, N. J., giving their reasons for
leaving the Democratic party. It has occurred to me that it might be
interesting to some of these old gentlemen. [Cries of "We want to hear
it!" and "Read it!"]

It was as follows: "We might give many reasons for this change in
our political opinions. The following, however, we deem sufficient:
We do not believe the price of labor in this free country should be
reduced to the standard prescribed by despots in foreign countries.
[Applause.] We do not believe in fighting for the country and being
unrepresented in the councils of the country. We do not believe in an
exclusive, hard, metallic currency any more than we believe in hard
bread or no bread! We do not believe it was the design of the framers
of the Constitution that the President should occupy his time during
the first term in electioneering for his re-election to a second
term!" [Loud laughter and applause.] I have read this simply as an
historical curiosity and to refresh your recollections as to some of
the issues of that campaign. If it has any application to our modern
politics I will leave you to make it. [Laughter and applause.] I have
recently been talking, and have one thing further to say, about the
surplus.

There is a very proper use I think that can be made of more than
twenty millions of it. During the Civil War our customs receipts and
our receipts from internal taxes, which last had brought under tribute
almost every pursuit in life, were inadequate to the great drain
upon our Treasury caused by the Civil War. Our Congress, exercising
one of the powers of the Constitution, levied a direct tax upon the
States. Ohio paid her part of it, Indiana paid hers, and so did the
other loyal States. The Southern States were in rebellion and did
not pay theirs. Now we have come to a time when the Government has
surplus money, and the proposition was made in Congress to return this
tax to the States that had paid it. [Applause.] The State of Indiana
would have received one million dollars, which my fellow-citizens of
this State know would have been a great relief to our taxpayers in
the present depleted condition of our treasury. [Cheers.] I do not
recall the exact amount Ohio would have received, but it was much
larger. If any one asks, Why repay this tax? this illustration will
be a sufficient answer: Suppose five men are associated in a business
corporation. The corporation suffers losses and its capital is
impaired. An assessment becomes necessary, and three members pay their
assessments while two do not. The corporation is again prosperous and
there is a surplus of money in the treasury. What shall be done with
it? Manifestly, justice requires that the two delinquents should pay
up or that there should be returned to the other three the assessment
levied upon them. [Great cheering.] A bill providing for the repayment
of the tax was killed in the House of Representatives, not by voting
it down, but by filibustering, a majority of the House being in favor
of its passage. And those who defeated the bill by those revolutionary
tactics were largely from the States that had not paid the tax.
[Cheers.] I mention these facts to show that twenty millions of the
surplus now lying in the banks, where it draws no interest, might
very righteously be used so as to greatly lighten the real burdens
of taxation now resting on the people--burdens that the people know
to be taxes without any argument from our statesmen. [Applause and
laughter.] I am a lover of silence [laughter], and yet when such
assemblies as these greet me with their kind, earnest faces and their
kinder words, I do not know how I can do less than to say a few words
upon some of these great public questions. I have spoken frankly and
fearlessly my convictions upon these questions. [Cheers and cries of
"Good! Good!"] And now, unappalled by the immensity of this audience,
I will complete the accustomed programme and take by the hand such of
you as desire to meet me personally. [Cheers.]

INDIANAPOLIS, SEPTEMBER 27.

General Harrison's visitors this day came from Ohio and Pennsylvania. Hancock and Allen counties, Ohio, sent over a thousand, including the Harrison and Morton Battalion of Lima, commanded by Capt. Martin Atmer, and the Republican Veteran Club of Findlay, Rev. R. H. Holliday, President. The Chief Marshal of the combined delegations was Major S. F. Ellis, of Lima, hero of the forlorn hope storming column which carried the intrenchments at Port Hudson, La., June 15, 1863. Prominent members of the Allen County delegation were Hon. Geo. Hall, Geo. P. Waldorf, S. S. Wheeler, J. F. Price, W. A. Campbell, J. J. Marks, and Burt Hagedorn. Major S. M. Jones was spokesman for the visitors.

General Harrison, with his usual vigor, replied:

_Gentlemen and my Ohio Friends_--The State of my nativity has again
placed me under obligations by this new evidence of the respect of her
people. I am glad to meet you and to notice in the kind and interested
faces into which I look a confirmation of the cordial remarks which
have been addressed to me on your behalf. You each feel a personal
interest and, I trust, a personal responsibility in this campaign.
The interest which expresses itself only in public demonstrations is
not of the highest value. The citizen who really believes that this
election will either give a fresh impulse to the career of prosperity
and honor in which our Nation has walked since the war, or will clog
and retard that progress, comes far short of his duty if he does not
in his own place as a citizen make his influence felt for the truth
upon those who are near him. [Applause.] You come from a community
that has recently awakened to the fact that beneath the soil which
has long yielded bounteous harvests to your farmers there was stored
by nature a great and new source of wealth. You, in common with
neighboring communities in Ohio and with other communities in our
State, have only partially realized as yet the increase in wealth
that oil and natural gas will bring to them, if it is not checked by
destructive changes in our tariff policy. This fact should quicken and
intensify the interest of these communities in this contest for the
preservation of the American system of protection. [Applause.]

It is said by some of our opponents that a protective tariff has
no influence upon wages; that labor in the United States has nothing
to fear from the competition from pauper labor; that in the contest
between pauper labor and high priced labor pauper labor was always
driven out. Do such statements as these fall in line with experiences
of these workingmen who are before me? [Cries of "No, no!"] If that
is true, then why the legislative precautions we have wisely taken
against the coming of pauper labor to our shores? It is because
you know, every one of you, that in a contest between two rival
establishments here, or between two rival countries, that that shop
or that country that pays the lowest wages--and so produces most
cheaply--can command the market. If the products of foreign mills
that pay low wages are admitted here without discriminating duties,
you know there is only one way to meet such competition, and that
is by reducing wages in our mills. [Applause.] They seek to entice
you by the suggestion that you can wear cheaper clothing when free
access is given to the products of foreign woollen mills; and yet
they mention also that now, in some of our own cities, the men, and
especially the women, who are manufacturing the garments we wear
are not getting adequate wages, and that among some of them there
is suffering. Do they hope that when the coat is made cheaper the
wages of the man or woman who makes it will be increased? The power
of your labor organizations to secure increased wages is greatest
when there is a large demand for the product you are making at fair
prices. You do not strike for better wages on a falling market. When
the mills are running full time, when there is a full demand at good
prices for the product of your toil, and when warehouses are empty,
then your organization may effectively insist upon increased wages.
Did any of you ever see one of the organized efforts for better wages
succeed when the mill was running on half time, and there was a small
demand at falling prices in the market for the product? [Applause.]
The protective system works with your labor organization to secure
and maintain a just compensation for labor. Whenever it becomes
true--as it is in some other countries--that the workingman spends
to-day what he will earn to-morrow, then your labor organizations
will lose their power. Then the workman becomes in very fact a part
of the machine he operates. He cannot leave it, for he has eaten
to-day bread that he is to earn to-morrow. But when he eats to-day
bread that he earned last week or last year, then he may successfully
resist any unfair exactions. [Applause.] I do not say that we have
here an ideal condition. I do not deny that in connection with some
of our employments the conditions of life are hard. But the practical
question is this: Is not the condition of our working people on the
average comparatively a great deal better than that of any other
country? [Applause and cries of "Good! Good!"]

If it is, then you will carefully scan all these suggestions before
you consent that the work of foreign workmen shall supply our market,
now supplied by the products of the hands of American workmen. I thank
you again. The day is threatening and cool, and I beg you to excuse
further public speech. [Applause.]

At night 200 Pennsylvanians, who came to Indiana to aid in developing the natural gas industry, called upon General Harrison at his residence, under the direction of a committee composed of Capt. J. C. Gibney, J. B. Wheeler, and Geo. A. Richards. Their spokesman was Wm. McElwaine, a fellow-workman.

General Harrison addressed them and said:

_Gentlemen_--It is very pleasant for me to meet you to-night in
my own home. The more informal my intercourse can be made with my
fellow-citizens the more agreeable it is to me. To you, and all others
who will come informally to my home, I will give a hearty greeting. I
am glad to see these representatives from the State of Pennsylvania
whose business pursuits have called them to make their home with us
in Indiana. The State of Pennsylvania has a special interest for me
in the fact that it was the native State of a mother who, though
nearly forty years dead, still lives affectionately in my memory. I
welcome you here to this State as those who come to settle among us
under new conditions of industrial and domestic life, to bring into
our factories and our homes this new fuel from which we hope so much,
not only in the promotion of domestic comfort and economy, but in
the advancement of our manufacturing institutions. Your calling is
one requiring high skill and intelligence and great fidelity. The
agent with which you deal is an admirable servant but a dangerous
master, and through carelessness may bring a peril instead of a
blessing into our households and into our communities. I am glad that
Indiana, so long drained upon by the States west of the Mississippi,
has at last felt in your coming from that stanch, magnificent
Republican commonwealth some restoration of this drain, which has
made the struggle for Republican success in Indiana doubtful in our
previous elections. It is time some of the States east of us, having
such majorities as Pennsylvania, were contributing not only to our
business enterprise and prosperity, but to the strengthening of the
Republican ranks, which have been depleted by the invitations which
the agricultural States of the West have extended to our enterprising
young men. I welcome your here to-night, and will be glad to have a
personal introduction to each of you. [Applause.]

INDIANAPOLIS, SEPTEMBER 29.

Ohio and Illinois did honor this day again to the Republican nominee. From Cleveland came 800 voters; their organizations were the Harrison Boys in Blue--200 veterans of the Civil War--commanded by Gen. James Barnett; the Garfield Club, led by Thomas R. Whitehead and Albert M. Long; the Logan Club, headed by Capt. W. R. Isham, and the German Central Club. Prominent in the delegation were Hon. Amos Townsend, John Gibson, and Major Palmer, the blind orator. Gen. E. Myers spoke for the Buckeyes. The city of Normal, McLean County, Illinois, sent a delegation of 200 teachers and students of the State Normal School, including 70 ladies. Student William Galbraith spoke for his associates.

General Harrison, in response, said:

_Gentlemen and Friends_--The organizations represented here this
morning have for me each an individual interest. Each is suggestive of
a line of thought which _I_ should be glad to follow, but I cannot, in
the few moments that I can speak to you in this chilly atmosphere, say
all that the names and character of your respective clubs suggest as
appropriate. I welcome those comrades in the Union army in the Civil
War. [Cheers.]

Death wrought its work in ghastly form in those years when,
patiently, fearlessly, and hopefully, you carried the flag to the
front and brought it at last in triumph to the Nation's capital.
[Cheers.] Death, since, in its gentler forms, has been coming into
the households where the veterans that were spared from shot and
shell abide. The muster-roll of the living is growing shorter. The
larger company is being rapidly recruited. You live not alone in the
memories of the war. Your presence here attests that, as citizens, you
feel the importance of these civil strifes. You recall the incidents
of the great war, not in malice, not to stir or revive sectional
divisions, or to re-mark sectional lines, but because you believe
that it is good for the Nation that loyalty to the flag and heroism
in its defence should be remembered and honored. [Cheers.] There is
not a veteran here, in this Republican Club of veterans, who does not
desire that the streams of prosperity in the Southern States should
run bank-full. [Cheers.]

There is not one who does not sympathize with her plague-stricken
communities, and rejoice in every new evidence of her industrial
development. The Union veterans have never sought to impose hard
conditions upon the brave men they vanquished. The generous terms of
surrender given by General Grant were not alone expressions of his
own brave, magnanimous nature. The hearts of soldiers who carried
the gun and the knapsack in his victorious army were as generous as
his. You were glad to accept the renewal of the Confederate soldier's
allegiance to the flag as the happy end of all strife; willing that he
should possess the equal protection and power of a citizenship that
you had preserved for yourselves and secured to him. [Cheers.] You
have only asked--and you may confidently submit to the judgment of
every brave Confederate soldier whether the terms are not fair--that
the veteran of the Union army shall have, as a voter, an equal
influence in the affairs of the country that was saved by him for
both with the man who fought against the flag, and that soldiers of
neither army shall abridge the rights of others under the law. [Great
cheering.] Less than that you cannot accept with honor; less than that
a generous foe would not consent to offer.

To the gentlemen of the John A. Logan Club let me say: You have
chosen a worthy name for your organization. Patriot, soldier, and
statesman, Logan's memory will live in the affectionate admiration of
his comrades and in the respect of all his opponents. His home State
was Illinois, but his achievements were national.

To these German-American Republicans I give a most cordial welcome.
You have been known in our politics as a people well informed upon all
the great economic questions that have arisen for settlement. You have
always been faithful to an honest currency. [Cheers.] The enticements
of depreciated money did not win you from sound principle. You bravely
stood for a paper currency that should be the true equivalent of coin.
[Cries of "Good! Good!"] Those who, like your people, have learned
the lessons of thrift and economy in your old-country homes, and
have brought them here with you, realized that above all things the
laborer needed honest money that would not shrink in his hands when
it had paid him for an honest day's toil. And now, when another great
economic question is pressing for determination, I do not doubt that
you will as wisely and as resolutely help to settle that also.

As the great German chancellor, that student of human government
and affairs, turning his thoughtful study toward the history of
our country since the war, has declared that in his judgment our
protective tariff system was the source of our strength, that by
reason of it we were able to deal with a war debt that seemed to be
appalling and insurmountable, I do not doubt that you, too, men who
believe in work and in thrift, and so many of whom are everywhere
sheltered under a roof of their own, will unite with us in this
struggle to preserve our American market for our own workingmen, and
to maintain here a living standard of wages. [Cheers.]

To these students who come fresh from the class-room to give me a
greeting this morning I also return my sincere thanks. I suggest to
them that they be not only students of books and maxims, but also of
men and markets; that in the study of the tariff question they do not
forget, as so many do, that they are Americans.

I thank you all again for your visit. I regret that I am not able
to give you, in my own home, a personal and more cordial greeting. My
house is not large enough to receive you. [A voice, "Your heart is!"]
Yes, I have room enough in my heart for all. [Great cheering.] I am
very sincerely grateful for these evidences of your personal regard.
Out of them all; out of the coming of these frequent and enthusiastic
crowds of my fellow-citizens; out of all these kind words; out of
these kind faces of men and women; out of the hearty "God-speeds" you
give me, I hope to bring an inspiration and an endowment for whatever
may be before me in life, whether I shall walk in private or public
paths. [Great cheering.]

The largest delegation of the day, numbering over a thousand business men, arrived from Chicago, after stopping _en route_ at several important points, where their orators, Gen. H. H. Thomas, George Drigg, and Judge John W. Green, made speeches. Their notable political organizations were the First Tippecanoe Club of Chicago, 100 veterans of 1840, led by Dr. D. S. Smith; the Logan Club, and the Twelfth Ward Republican Club, led by Charles Catlin, E. S. Taylor, Wm. Wilkes, and Joseph Dixon. Judge Green and Dr. Smith delivered addresses.

General Harrison, responding, said:

_My Illinois Friends_--It is a source of great regret to me that
we are not able to make your reception more comfortable. The chill
of this September evening and of this open grove is not suggestive
of the hospitable and cordial welcome that our people would have
been glad to extend to you. Our excuse for this time may be found
in the vastness of this assemblage. I am pleased to have this fresh
and imposing evidence of the enthusiasm and interest of the Illinois
Republicans. [Cheers.] There is nothing in the great history of
the Republican party that need make any man blush to own himself a
Republican. [Cheers.] There is much to kindle the enthusiasm of all
lovers of their country. We do not rest in the past, but we rejoice in
it. [Cheers.] The Republican party has so consistently followed the
teachings of those great Americans whose names the world reveres that
we may appropriately hold a Republican convention on the birthday of
any one of them. [Cheers.] The calendar of our political saints does
not omit one name that was conspicuous in peace or war. [Cheers.] We
can celebrate Jackson's birthday or the anniversary of the battle of
New Orleans because he stood for the unity of the Nation, and his
victory confirmed it in the respect of the world. [Great cheering.]
There is no song of patriotism that we do not sing in our meetings.
There is no marble that has been builded to perpetuate the glory
of our soldiers about which we may not appropriately assemble and
proclaim the principles that we advocate. [Cheers.] We believe in our
country, and give it our love and first care. We have always advocated
that policy in legislation which was promotive of the interests and
honor of our country. [Cheers.] I will not discuss any particular
public topic to-day, as the conditions are so unfavorable for out-door
speaking. Let me thank you again for this cordial evidence of your
interest and for the personal respect which you have shown to me.
I hope you will believe that my heart is deeply touched in these
manifestations of the friendliness of my fellow-citizens. If in
anything I shall come short of the high expectations and hopes they
have formed, it will not be because I do not feel myself put under
the highest obligations by these evidences of their friendly regard
to do my utmost to continue in their respect and confidence. [Great
cheering.]

INDIANAPOLIS, OCTOBER 2.

The fourteenth week of General Harrison's public receptions opened this date with the arrival of an enthusiastic Republican club from the distant city of Tower, Minn., most of whose members were engaged in the iron industry. They left a huge specimen of Vermilion range iron ore--weighing over 500 pounds--in the front yard of the Harrison residence. Prominent in the delegation were Dr. Fred Barnett, Capt. Elisha Marcom, S. F. White, Chas. R. Haines, John Owens, W. N. Shepard, N. H. Bassett, S. J. Noble, J. E. Bacon, J. B. Noble, Frank Burke, W. H. Wickes, Chas. L. White, A. Nichaud, D. McKinley, and Page Norris; also Geo. M. Smith and W. H. Cruikshank, of Duluth.

Immediately following the reception of the Minnesota visitors came two large delegations from Fulton and Marshall counties, Indiana. The Fulton leaders were J. H. Bibler, Dr. W. S. Shafer, Dr. E. Z. Capell, Arthur Howard, Samuel Heftly, Henry Mow, C. D. Sisson, Arch Stinson, J. F. Collins, A. F. Bowers, W. J. Howard, and T. M. Bitters, of Rochester. M. L. Essick was their spokesman. Among the prominent members of the Marshall County delegation were M. W. Simons, John W. Parks, J. W. Siders, Edward McCoy, M. S. Smith, John V. Astley, Enoch Baker, I. H. Watson, and Abram Shafer, of Plymouth. H. G. Thayer delivered the address.

General Harrison said:

_My Indiana Friends_--This is a home company to-day. Usually our
Indiana visitors have met here delegations from other States. I am
sure you will understand that I place a special value upon these
evidences of the interest Indiana Republicans are taking in the
campaign. Whatever the fate of the battle may be elsewhere, it is
always a source of pride to the soldier and to his leader that the
part of the line confided to their care held fast. [Applause.] I feel
that I ought also to acknowledge the friendliness and co-operation
which has been already extended to us in this campaign by many who
have differed with us heretofore. [Applause.] It is encouraging to
hear that the prosperous and intelligent farmers of Marshall and
Fulton counties have not been misled by the attempt to separate the
agricultural vote from the vote of the shop. It has seemed to me
that the Mills bill was framed for the purpose of driving from the
protection column the agricultural voters, not by showing them favor,
but the reverse--by placing agricultural products on the free list,
thus withdrawing from the farmer the direct benefits he is receiving
from our tariff laws as affecting the products of his labor, hoping
that the farmers might then be relied upon to pull down the rest
of the structure. I am glad to believe that we have in Indiana a
class of farmers too intelligent to be caught by these unfriendly
and fallacious propositions. [Applause.] I had to-day a visit from
twenty or more gentlemen who came from the town of Tower, in the
most northern part of Minnesota, where, within the last four years,
there has been discovered and developed a great deposit of iron ore
especially adapted to the manufacture of steel. Within the four years
since these mines were opened they tell me that about a million tons
of ore have been mined and sent to the furnaces. They also mentioned
the fact that arrangements are already being made to bring block coal
of Indiana to the mouth of these iron mines, that the work of smelting
may be done there. This is a good illustration of the interlocking of
interests between widely separated States of the Union [applause]--a
new market and a larger demand for Indiana coal.

The attempt is often made to create the impression that only
particular classes of workingmen are benefited by a protective tariff.
There can be nothing more untrue. The wages of all labor--labor upon
the farm, labor upon our streets--has a direct and essential relation
to the scale of wages that is paid to skilled labor. [Applause.] One
might as well say that you could bring down the price of a higher
grade of cotton cloth without affecting the price of lower grades
as to say that you can degrade the price of skilled labor without
dragging down the wages of unskilled labor. [Applause.] This attempt
to classify and schedule the men who are benefited by a protective
tariff is utterly deceptive. [Applause.] The benefits are felt by all
classes of our people--by the farmer as well as by the workmen in
our mills; by the man who works on the street as well as the skilled
laborer who works in the mill; by the women in the household, and by
the children who are now in the schools and might otherwise be in the
mills. [Applause.] It is a policy broad enough to embrace within the
scope of its beneficent influence all our population. [Applause.]
I thank you for your visit, and will be glad to meet any of you
personally who desire to speak to me. [Applause.]

INDIANAPOLIS, OCTOBER 3.

The Porter-Columbian Club, a local organization named in honor of Governor Porter, with a membership of 700 workingmen, paid their respects to General Harrison on this night, commanded by their President and founder, Marshall C. Woods, who delivered an address.

General Harrison, in reply, said:

_Mr. Woods and my Friends_--My voice is not in condition to speak at
much length in this cool night air. I am very deeply grateful for this
evidence of the respect of this large body of Indianapolis workingmen.
I am glad to be assured by what has been said to me that you realize
that this campaign has a special interest for the wage-earners of
America. [Cries of "Good! Good!"]

That is the first question in life with you, because it involves the
subsistence and comfort of your families. I do not wonder then that,
out of so many different associations in life, you have come together
into this organization to express your determination to vote for the
maintenance of the American system of protection. [Great cheering.]

I think you can all understand that it is not good for American
workingmen that the amount of work to be done in this country should
be diminished by transferring some of it to foreign shops. [Applause.]
Nor ought the wages paid for the work that is done here to be
diminished by bringing you into competition with the underpaid labor
of the old country. [Applause.]

I am not speaking any new sentiment to-night. Many times before the
Chicago convention I have, in public addresses, expressed the opinion
that every workingman ought to have such wages as would not only yield
him a decent and comfortable support for his family, and enable him
to keep his children in school and out of the mill in their tender
age, but would allow him to lay up against incapacity by sickness or
accident, or for old age, some fund on which he could rely. These
views I entertain to-night. I beg you to excuse further public speech
and to allow me to receive personally such of you as care to speak to
me. [Applause.]

INDIANAPOLIS, OCTOBER 4.

Three States did homage to the Republican nominee this date. From Grand Rapids and Muskegon, Mich., came 500 visitors, under the auspices of the Belknap Club of Grand Rapids. The wife of Governor Luce was a member of the delegation, accompanied by R. C. Luce and W. A. Davitt. Other prominent members were: Judge F. J. Russell, Hon. A. B. Turner, Col. C. T. Foote, J. B. Pantlind, Don J. Leathers, Col. E. S. Pierce, Wm. A. Gavett, H. J. Felker, D. G. Crotty, H. J. Stevens, Aldrich Tateum, Louis Kanitz, A. E. Yerex, and N. McGraft, of Grand Rapids; Thomas A. Parish and Geo. Turner, of Grand Haven; and John J. Cappon, of Holland. John Patton, Jr., of Grand Rapids, was orator.

The Ohio visitors came from Tiffin, Seneca County, led by the venerable A. C. Baldwin, Capt. John McCormick, Albert Corthell, Capt. Edward Jones, Edward Naylor, and J. B. Rosenburger. The wife of Gen. Wm. H. Gibson was an honored guest of the delegation, accompanied by Mrs. Robert Lysle and Mrs. Root. J. K. Rohn was spokesman for the Ohio visitors.