The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1888-06-01
MCKINLEY on PROTECTION.
Allusions to Blankets and the Cheap Wooden
Clothes Mai. Mccormick Desires.

zette, who has admitted the timber policy Of
the administration 10 wrong, adheres to it's
policy of "free wool' because he wishes to
buy his clothes cheaper. As there would be
perhaps five pounds of wool in q suit of
clothes, and the tax thereon is s cents per
pound, even the full forty cents saved would
not cut much of a figure if he got all the
benefit of 1t, which he would not and on
the two suits a year, which is the maximum
for Montana editors, he probably would,
under most favorable circumstances, save less
than his cigars cost for one day.
As there may be many who regard the
abolition of the wool tariff from the same
standpoint of personal benefit in the purchase
of wooden goods, we give below 3 couple Of
extracts from the mastery speech of McKin-
ley, of Ohio, in the House the other day,
which cover an episode in which the 'cheap
clothing" racket was knocked out, to the in
finite amusement of even the Democrats:
Mr.. Mckinley said that the country was
ready for free trade the moment European
producers would bring their labor up to the
American standard. That was the free trade
the country wanted. The gentlemen on the
other side talked about cheap clothing.
Cheap clothing was too narrow for a National
issue. 1t was not big enough to run . Ma
tional campaign upon. He had never had
any complaints from men in his district that
their clothes we're too high.
Mr.. Morse, of Massachusetts: "They did
not buy of me-" %TLaughter].
Mr.. Mckinley: "If they had bought of the
gentleman from Massachusetts, it would not
have made any difference. The gentlemen
will know bis own goods. Producing q suit
Of clothes from bis desk]. The Chairman Of
the Ways and Means committee talked about
the laboring man who worked ten days for a
dollar . day and then went to buy q suit of
clothes for $40. He finds he could have
bought it for $40, but that the robber manu-
f.ctnrers have been down to Congress and
had hundred per cent. put upon the suit,
toll and the use of his muscle to earn the
extra $40 with which to buy the suit Of
clothes. Agentleman who heard that speech
sends me q suit of clothes. Here it is, rob-
Der taxes and all, and the retail cost Is just
$40, so that the poor fellow does not have to
20 back for ten days more toll after all.
In order to be sure of the goods (knowlng
the honesty and honor of the gentleman
from Massachusetts) the gentlemen went to
his store and bought the suit. l hold in my
hand the bill:
I'D. Williams-Bought of Leopold Morse
& Co. To one suit all wool clothes, $1O.'
Applause and laughter].
And I never before knew of q gentleman
engaged in that business selling without .
profit. This is the very ten-dollar suit of
all-wool, described by the gentleman from
Texas, which can be bought in Boston, Chi
cago, New York and other cities for $40 at
retail, forty per cent. cheaper than 1t could
have been bought. in 1880 under . low tariff
and low wages. Now you have not SO much
sympathy with that fellow that went back
to perform ten days. labor" [Laughter.]
Continuing, Mr.. Mckinley said that the
E:.na of the gentlema ans speech was reached
when he got tt, the American blanket and
the enormous burden the tariff was upon
the poor mans blanket. He quoted copi-
ously from the books of a blanket manufact-
uring firm to show that blankets to day sold
for much less than they did under q Demo
cratic tariff. A blanket that sold in 1860 for
$40 could be bought now for $3.50; and that
which sold in 1860 for $13 could now be OBJ
list. In 1860 the spinner got Sc q week ; to-
day he got SIS. The weaver in 1860 got 81,
the unskilled 6nisher $3.50 and the skilled
inisher So per week to-day they got respec-
lively $40, 50 and SIG per week. The weekly
earnings of spinner in 1860 would buy three
pairs of cheap blankets the spinner of 1888
could buy fifteen pairs of blankets for q:
weeks work. [Applause].
We had free trade-more than any country
in the world. We had free trade among our
thirty. eight States and Territories, and with
sixty millions of people extending from
ocean to ocean and from the lakes to the
gulf; free trade an ong ourselves, within our
own borders. Free trade in the United
States was based upon a community Of equal
rocal obligation of a family. He requested
his honored friend from Kentucky CHR.
Breckenridge), who was to follow him, to
tell him why the foreign producer should be
admitted to an equality with our own pro-
ducers upon our own soil. He paid no taxes,
performed no civil duties, he was not amena-
BILE to our laws, he was subject to no civil
obligation. He was with us neither in war
nor peace. He was an alien to US. He
cared nothing for us beyond what he could
make out of u.s.. Applause on the Republi-
can side]. We put 3 tariff on the competing
foreign products to protect ourselves, to pre-
serve ourselves, to defend ourselves, and
those who are always with us in adversely
and in sunshine, in sympathy and in purpose,
and in sacrifice if need be. [Applause]. It
was about all we could do as American citi-
zens to look after our own people.
The above should convince Major McCor-
mick as thoroughly on the wool question as
he is convinced on the timber question. 1t is
not the 8 cts. q pound on wool that makes his
clothes come high, nor, as shown, do wooden
goods come high, while the duty protects the
grower aud renders profitable q vast industry
that would be paralyzed by removing 1t.