Speeches of Benjamin Harrison, Twenty-third President of the United StatesHarrison, Benjamin
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Speeches of Benjamin Harrison, Twenty-third President of the United States
Harrison, Benjamin
Harrison, Benjamin, 1833-1901; Speeches, addresses, etc., American; United States -- Politics and government
We are here to repudiate the authority claimed by a few professional
men to speak for the wage-workers of Indiana, to deny the truthfulness
of their statements, and to contradict the assertion that there is
other than the kindliest feeling among the workingmen of Indiana
toward General Harrison. While General Harrison has never acted the
blatant demagogue by making loud professions, yet we have had evidence
of his earnest sympathy and sincere friendship on more than one
occasion, notably his advocacy while in the Senate of the bill making
arbitration the means of settlement of labor troubles and excluding
contract labor from our shores. Also the bill prohibiting the use of
convict labor on Government works, or the purchasing by the Government
of any of the products of convict labor.
As General Harrison arose to respond there was another prolonged
outbreak; he appeared greatly moved, and delivered probably his most
earnest speech of the campaign. The demonstrations of approval were very
marked, especially as the General warmed up to his denials of matters
suggested by Chairman McDaniels' remarks. He said:
_Mr. McDaniels and my Friends_--I have seen, during this
busy summer, many earnest and demonstrative assemblages of my
fellow-citizens. I have listened to many addresses full of the kindest
expressions toward me personally; but, among them all, none have been
more grateful to me, none have more deeply touched me than this great
assemblage of the workingmen of Indiana and these kind words which
have been addressed to me in your behalf. [Great cheering.] There
are reasons why this should be so that will readily occur to your
minds, and to some of which Mr. McDaniels has alluded. Early in this
campaign certain people, claiming to speak for the laboring men, but
really in the employ of the Democratic campaign managers, promulgated
through the newspaper press and by campaign publications that were not
given the open endorsement of the Democratic campaign managers, but
were paid for by their funds and circulated under their auspices, a
number of false and scandalous stories relating to my attitude toward
organized labor. [Great and prolonged cheering.] The purpose of all
these stories was to poison the minds of the workingmen against the
candidate of the party that stands in this campaign for the principle
of protection to American labor. [Great cheering.] I have only once,
in all the addresses I have made to my fellow-citizens, alluded to
these malicious and scandalous stories, but, now and in the presence
of this great gathering of workingmen, I do pronounce them to be
utterly false. [Tumultuous cheering, waving of flags and banners,
continued for several minutes.] The story that I ever said that one
dollar a day was enough for a workingman, with all its accompaniments
and appendages, is not a perversion of anything I ever said--it is a
false creation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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