Senator Squire Speaks Out Against 'The Day of Doom'
Washington State’s Senator Watson Squire takes to the Senate floor to argue that the pending Democratic tariff reform will destroy the state's lumber and mining industries.
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In the Senate proceedings, Senator Squire of Washington made a carefully prepared speech in general opposition to the tariff bill. Squire took issue with Senator Mills of Texas, declaring that if tariff reform had been passed immediately after the administration's advent, it might have been said the Democratic party was complying with the will of the voters. But such a measure had not been prepared, and the feast to which the people had been invited had grown cold. He declared that the attempt of the Democratic party to change the system of protection to American industries was not what the people wanted. 'Should this become a law,' he said, 'the day on which the president should affix his signature to it will be the day of doom for American labor. No man who takes the trouble to acquaint himself with the facts can be blind to the truth that the country has prospered under the policy of protection.' In the discussion of the schedules, he devoted himself mainly to those that affected his own state: 'Free lumber means the sacrifice of our lumber industries to those of British Columbia; free coal means poverty for our miners; free iron means the postponement of development of the magnificent deposits within our borders; free wool means the destruction and abandonment of the sheep industry.'
“Should this become a law, the day on which the president should affix his signature to it will be the day of doom for American labor.”
Senator Squire's arguments over the protection of Washington's natural resources—lumber, coal, and mining—highlight the state's historic tension between global trade policy and local economic survival. Today, while the specific commodities have shifted, the debate over how federal trade and climate policy impacts Washington’s industrial identity remains a central theme in state politics.
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