Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-06-12
M.kINLEY.s oocTR,NE.

M'KINLEY's DOCTRINE.
The Bin Passed the Other Day Con-
DENIED by Western Republicans.
The Mckinley bill to reduce the
revenue by increasing taxation is
drawn to relieve the discomfort of the
capitalists, but the inevitable result is
to broaden, deepen and embitter the
discomfort of the people.
This discomfort finds only an occa-
sionai expression in the House of Rep
resentatives. The Democrats have for
all practical purposes been excluded
from debate. No adequate discussion
OF the monstrous measure Of taxation
has been possible in the face of Reeds
ruling and McKinley's demands. Now
and then some Republican '.frees his
mind" as Butterworth did, as Nc
Kenna did and as Henderson did, but
these outbreaks, instead OF warning
Mckinley of danger ahead, determine
him to go on regardless of the here
after.
But the debate Of the bill continues
in the public press, and before the peo-
pie. The working-men and the farmers
are manifesting new interest in the
subject, and they will make themselves
heard in the next House.
The Chicago Tribune is the leading
Republican newspaper of the Northwest.
During the campaign of 1888 it declared
that the Republican platform meant a
revision and reduction of the tariff.
1t insisted that the words used by Nc
Kinley in the platform were to be taken
only in Pickwickian sense, and that
the interests Of the producing classes
would be entirely safe in the hands of
the Republican party.
Things hev' changed" since 1888
Mr.. Mckinley, who wrote the platform.
has interpreted it by his tariff bill. 1t
is useless for the Tribune to squirm;
the bill means exactly what the plat
form meant, except that it does not
abolish the whisky and tobacco taxes.
Otherwise McKinley's bill consists
beautifully, line by line. with McKin-
ley's platform; it is as ''big as life and
twice as natural" In every line there
Is robbery, and the two combined, the
platform and the bill, are an open def
ance of public opinion and denial Of
the ordinary rights of property.
Our Chicago contemporary is alarmed
at the results of its own work. 1t
brought Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin to
the support of the Mckinley platform,
but it denOunces in the most bitter
terms the Mckinley bill The Tribune
declares that the new tariff schedule will
advance ten per cent. the price of such
necessaries of life as clothing, leather,
tinware, carpets, cutlery, hardware and
tools This advance in price results in
taxing the consumer S237, $50, 600, as
against reduction in sugar of $40, 900,
600. The Tribune should see that from
this sugar reduction we must deduct a
bounty of $1,000, 600, to be paid to the
sugar planter, and S12, 500, 600 bonus paid
to the sugar refiner, or $40, 600, 600 in all.
We have, therefore, these figures:
Higher prices. ss37. $50 0OO
Total. ............. s2S7. 5OO.O O0
This is the actual amount of increased
taxation imposed by the bill. Contem.
plating these figures the Tribune ex-
claims Indignantly:
And there are Republican Western mem
bers, overawed and terrorized by a violent,
greedy rapacious minority, who are thinking OF
voting for this BILL under the caucus lash,
which will transfer tens OF millions from the
pockets of their constituents to those OF East
ern manufacturers who already have all the
protection they need or more. How will these
Western members justify their betrayal OF
Western interests when they get home among
constituents whom they have helped to rob!
They would do wisely to think Of that before
they vote
''If they have lost all sense Of right and wrong
have they also lost all political sense? Can moi
they see that by passing this bill they are play
ing directly into the hands OF the Democrats
| that the opposition OF the latter to the abomi
nable bill is formal and that they long to have
1t pass in order that this fall they may go be-
fore the consumers and exultantly explain to
them the tariff revision and reduction of their
political opponentss These Western Repub-
licans elected as protectionists should hesitate
long before they abandon their party creed and
become tariff prohibitionists.''
Had the Tribune been as fair and
frank in 1855, when discussing the Nc
Kinley platform as it is now in dis
cussing the Mckinley bill, the betrayal
of Western interests would not have
been possible. The bill simply fulfills
the promise of the platform. One was a
dream; the other is an actual condition;
together they are ''the riot of the tipsy
Bacchanals.' -LouisvilIe Courier-Jour-