“Why do they not do that? They simply come to you and tell you that they want a high tariff to make low prices, so that the manufacturer will be able to pay large wages to his employees. [Laughter.] And then, they want a high tariff on agricultural products so that they will have to buy what they buy at the highest possible price. They tell you that a tariff on wool is for the benefit of the farmer, and goes into his pocket, but that the tariff on manufactured products goes into the farmer’s pocket, too, ‘and really hurts us, but we will stand it if we must.’ They are much like a certain maiden lady of uncertain age, who said, ‘This being the third time that my beau has called, he might make some affectionate demonstration’; and, summing up all her courage, she added, ‘I have made up my mind that if he does I will bear it with fortitude.’” [Great laughter and applause.] He thus pleaded for the protection of the greatest of “home industries,”—the home-building of the common people: “I desire to say, Mr. Chairman, that this Republican party, which is responsible for the present system, has stolen from the vocabulary one of its dearest words and debased its use. Its orators have prated about home industries while they have neglected the most important of home industries—the home of the citizen. The Democratic party, so far from being hostile to the home industries, is the only champion, unless our friends here, the Independents, will join with us, of the real home industry of this country. “When some young man selects a young woman who is willing to trust her future to his strong right arm, and they start to build a little home, that home which is the unit of society and upon which our Government and our prosperity must rest—when they start to build this little home, and the man who sells the lumber reaches out his hand to collect a tariff upon that; the man who sells paints and oils wants a tariff upon them; the man who furnishes the carpets, tablecloths, knives, forks, dishes, furniture, spoons, everything that enters into the construction and operation of that home—when all these hands, I say, are stretched out from every direction to lay their blighting weight upon that cottage, and the Democratic party says, ‘Hands off, and let that home industry live,’ it is protecting the grandest home industry that this or any other nation ever had. [Loud applause on the Democratic side.]