ENGLAND HAS BEEN SERVED.
I F ENGLAND HAD HAD A POLITICAL PARTY MANUFACTURED TO ORDER BY THE MOST SKILLED ARTISANS OF THE EARTH, SHE COULD NOT HAVE HAD ONE MADE THAT WOULD MORE FAITHFULLY SERVE HER COMMERCIAL PURPOSES THAN HAS THE PRESENT ADMINISTRATION.
Let us briefly inquire into the cause. Take, for instance, the sheep and wool industry, which a few years ago was a prominent one in your state. Under the stimulus of protection, we had in this country in 1884, 50,500,000 sheep. Then Grover Cleveland was elected president, and this was followed by the democratic free wool indictment of 1885, known as the Mills bill. The wool growers of America became alarmed, they fattened and sold their sheep to the butchers by the millions. This slaughter continued for four years, or until Gen. Harrison was elected to the presidency in 1888. The authentic statement shows that the number of sheep had been reduced in this country from 50,500,000 in 1884 to 41,300,000 in 1888. President Harrison's election stopped the slaughter, and under the stimulus of the McKinley law the industry gained rapidly and at the close of Mr. Harrison's administration the total number of sheep in the United States was 47,800,000. (Applause.) In 1892 Mr. Cleveland was again elected president. This was followed by the repeal of the McKinley law and the enactment of legislation hostile to the wool industry. During the last three and a half years the number of sheep in this country has been reduced from 47,800,000 to 38,500,000, or fewer sheep than there was in this country in 1873, or at any time since the so-called crime of that year. So much fellow citizens, for the democratic free wool joke on the American people.