US Presidency
1892

During the last fiscal year $ 458,000,772 worth of merchandise, or 55.35 per cent of our total importations, came in free ( the largest per centage in our history ); while in 1889 the per cent of free importations was only 34.42 The placing of sugar upon the free list has saved to the consumer in duties in fifteen months, after paying the bounties provided for, $ 87,000,000. This relief has been substantially felt in even ' household upon every Saturday's purchase of the workingman. per cent. One of the favorite arguments against a protective tariff is that it shuts us out from a participation in what is called with swelling emphasis the markets of the world. If this view is not a false one, how does it happen that our commercial competitors are not able to bear with more serenity our supposed surrender to them of the markets of the world? And how does it happen that the partial loss of our market closes foreign tin-plate mills and plush factories that still have all other markets?