SENATOR TILLMAN'S RETROSPECT OF EIGHTEEN YEARS.

REMARKS OF HON. BENJAMIN R. TILLMAN, OF SOUTH CAROLINA, IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1913.

Mr. TILLMAN. Mr. President, a few dars 120 I asked unanimous consent for the publication of H. Charles Francis Adams's retrospect of his life, called Tis Sixty Years Since." Serators who have not read it will enjoy it. I know, and find it most profitable rea ling.

I am going to indulge in something of the sale kind for myself, and I ask unanimous consent to have published in the Recori and also as a public document an article I prepared 18 years ago for the New York World, giving my impressions and the then beliefs about Wall Street and what is called - The Money Power.”

I am asking for its republication because so much that was mere surmise and prophecy has come true, that I feel it very appropri ate for me to reproduce it. I shall incorporate in it, if the Senate will permit, statistics and facts to make the picture a photograph of present conditions, to be compared with conditions which existed in 1896-something on the order of before and after taking"; or Tillman on conditions in 1896 and those conditions now, brought down to date.

The growth of wealth in New York has been marvelous, and all thoughtful men must realize that the processes by which this wealth has been taken from the producers and transterred to the pockets of those Wall Street sharks have been both morally and legally wrong. The unscrupulous methods which have been used are nothing but robbery, pure and simple.

Charles Francis Adams's retrospect is for 60 years; mine for

only 18.

When I came to the Senate 18 years ago I was looked upon as an ultra radical and semianarchist, and the plutocratic press have never ceased to hold the prejudice they then imbibed against me, though of recent years they have become more liberal-some of them even generous in their comments about my personal characteristics.

One point that will strike everybody-and it is a most important one is that the income tax which the Supreme Court then declared unconstitutional has just been enacted into law, the Constitution having been amended so as to make it lawful for Congress to do it.

We have had a great howl in the Senate about the inequality and injustice of the income tax. Some eastern Senators have lamented the wrong done to their constituents, the well-groomed and well-fed rich men and millionaires who will have to contribute to the ex

penses of running the Government because of this tax. They have spoken about the injury done their "people"-"my people" collectively seemingly unconscious of the fact, which is very patent to anyone, that while the well to do in New England and the Middle States will bear most of the burden of the income tax, these very men have been robbing their fellow citizens, who are workingmen, and keeping them poor. These rich men have systematically milked the poor man's cow in the East just as constantly as they have milked the farmer's cow in the West and South, but they have been shrewd enough to make them believe the contrary. They have appealed to the poorer classes to vote with them to keep the Democrats out of power, and have succeeded until the last election.

I do not believe that these poor men can be longer bamboozled into voting against our Democratic President and his policies by any such claptrap or illogical appeals in future. The time is coming very rapidly when the poor men everywhere will line up at the ballot box against wrong and oppression without regard to party, and a demand for laws which will secure equality of opportunity with equality of burden will be made in thunder tones.

The Democratic platform at Chicago, instead of declaring for a revision of the Constitution, attacked the Supreme Court, asserting that it needed reforming more than the Constitution. But whatever may be the opinion now on that subject--for men will differ-we have just enacted an income-tax law graduated as it should be and cumulative; and the enormous fortunes which have been created by reason of Republican favoritism and class legislation are going to bear their just share of the burden of maintaining this Government. I predict this is only a beginning. An inheritance tax will follow

soon.

It is peculiarly gratifying to me to have lived long enough to see this consummation; and I congratulate my brother Democrats throughout the United States on the victory for the people which has at last come. I did my share of the fighting while I had strength and health. I am enjoying to the limit of my ability the victory which we won; and, like an old soldier fallen on the battle field, ill, though not yet dead, I love to think I can hear the shouts of victory; and want to raise one myself-a regular war whoop!

But we have only just begun to undo the deviltry which has been perpetrated by the Republican Party during and since the war. Let us continue the good work until we enact laws which will insure the country against manufactured panics, such as was produced in 1907, and against the robberies of trusts and monopolies. The Republicans have heretofore been shrewd enough to play one half of the working people and farmers against the other half under the plea of protecting American labor. They have preached this lie from every stump, while at the same time they were importing "pauper labor" from Europe by the millions to take the places of the American workingman and his family. The European laborer was called a pauper as long as he was on the other side of the Atlantic and held up as a scarecrow. To admit his goods to our markets was almost a sin against the Holy Ghost. But he became a pet as soon as he landed on this side and was turned into a Republican voter, giving the protected interests more Congressmen at Washington and more opportunity to rob the producers.

The tariff law which we have just enacted will have demonstrated before the next general election whether there is any foundation in the prediction made on the floor of the Senate about the ruinous consequences which would follow its enactment. With free sugar and free wool the cost of living is bound to come down, and such falsehoods will no longer influence the men who have ballots to protect themselves. Heretofore the ballots have been cast often directly against their own interests and in favor of the plutocrats who had debauched the Government at Washington, causing laws to be enacted to make their wealth increase while the poor were growing poorer every day.

The "silver craze," as it was called in derision, has quieted down. Whether or not it was a 66 craze" at all and whether the world will not be compelled to remonetize silver only time can tell. The "goldbugs" promised all sorts of blessings to the country if the gold standard was maintained. But somehow the high cost of living continues to climb, the poor people are getting more and more restless, and many are becoming angry. Some of them are almost desperate and hopeless of any relief.

I do not know myself what is wrong with the world, but I do know this: The unrest is growing daily and socialists multiplying apace, and Congress should set itself honestly and earnestly to the task of righting things and furnishing relief. Charles Francis Adams's address will throw a great flood light from the viewpoint of that distinguished publicist and patriot, now verging on 80 years.

The essential parts of the Democratic platform of 1896 are going to be enacted into law sooner or later, I firmly believe.

The people have chosen a wise and patriotic leader, who will neither betray nor sell them out. Woodrow Wilson is "making good" every day of his life and will go down in American history as one of the greatest of our Presidents. Let all laggard Democrats, if there be any, buckle on their armor and fall into line under his leadership; and let us move forward toward the restoration of our Republic to Lincoln's grand and glorious ideal, "a Government of the people, for the people, and by the people."

The VICE PRESIDENT. Is there objection to the request of the Senator from South Carolina that the matter referred to by him be published in the Record and also as a public document? The Chair hears none, and it is so ordered.

(The matter referred to follows.)

THE MONEY POWER.

[From the New York World, Sunday, March 1, 1896.]

TILLMAN'S BLAST-THE FARMER ICONOCLAST AMONG WALL STREET MONEY KINGSHIS PARABLE OF THE COW-FED ON FRUITFUL FARMS OF THE COUNTRY, BUT MILKED ONLY BY EASTERN SPECULATORS-TWO CARTOONS OF HIS OWN DESIGNTHE KIND OF ARGUMENT WHICH MADE TILLMAN FIRST GOVERNOR AND THEN SENATOR FROM SOUTH CAROLINA-CLEVELAND AND THE "MONEY POWER"ELECTED AS A PROTEST AGAINST GOVERNMENTAL PARASITES, BUT HAS ADDED TO THEIR POWER.

A strange figure appeared in Wall Street on Monday morning and wandered with the crowds that roared between the towering buildings. A tall, strong man with brown, shaven face, Napoleonic features, and a single, fierce eye. The black slouch hat was pulled down in front and turned up behind. There never was a more striking figure seen in the citadel of the millionaires, nor one of deeper significance. As he stood in front of the Subtreasury, grimly eyeing the office of J. Pierpont Morgan, a few men turned around to look a second time at the dark, almost savage countenance. But none in that vast, restless multitude seemed to recognize Senator Benjamin Ryan Tillman, who had come to New York to write up Wall Street for the World.

"So that's where Morgan lives, yonder!"

The one eye burned with a sudden enthusiasm. The voice was shrill and harsh. Then the Senator turned and gazed at Trinity Church, standing like a benediction at the top of the street.

"How much did you say Trinity Church has accumulated?" "More than a hundred millions."

"And so much poverty! So much suffering! It's very strange." With a sigh the Senator strode across to the Stock Exchange, climbed up to the gallery, and peered down at the swirling, shrieking speculators on the main floor. The lines in his face deepened.

"I have been here before," he muttered. "I came as governor of South Carolina to sell the bonds of my State. I know what a horde of wolves they are. These are the men who have the Nation by the throat."

So for two days Senator Tillman went about in the strongholds of the money kings of America searching for facts.

"There isn't a drop of patriotic blood in this crowd," he said. "And yet it writes the laws and controls the policy of the country. Nothing but a revolution can overthrow the money power. We must try the ballot box first, and then if we fail-but I have said it on the floor of the Senate. The American spirit is not yet dead, thank God, and you fellows in New York will soon hear from the South and the West."