The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1890-10-10
M'kINLEY ON THE TARIFF BILL.

An Extract from His Speech on Being
Nominated for Reelection.
Another purpose we declared in Chi
cago, another pledge we made to the
people, to revise the tariff on the lines of
Protection. How? Let me recall the
platform: "By such revision as will tend
to check imports of such articles as are
produced by u people, the production
of which gives employment to our labor,
and release from import duties those ar
ticles of foreign production Except lux
uries) the like of which cannot be
produced at home" No one questions
that the house has kept that pledge in
every respect in the bill which is sent to
the senate of the United States. 1t has
lowered duties when they were in the in
terest of the people, and it has had the
courage to raise them when to do so was
to inaugurate or promote great indus
tries and enlarge the field of employment
for American men and women.
Ifany doubtever existed that the house
tariff bill was a piece of American legis-
lation for the benefit of the American
people, and in the line of the country's
largest prosperity, that doubt must have
long since been removed by the manifes-
tations of opposition which have come
from the leading and competing nations
Of the world. We said in our platform
of 1888: "We are uncompromisingly in
favor of the American system of Protec-
ton. We protest against its destruction
as proposed by President Cleveland and
his party. They serve the interests of
Europe; we will support the interests of
America" We have given legislative
sanction to this declaration in the bill
which has passed the house with a
fidelity of purpose which ven our
enemies will not question.
The public meetings which have been
held in England, and the exhibitions Of
temper which have been witnessed in
some of its great manufacturing centers,
and in the parliamentary bodies of other
nations, protesting against our proposed
tariff bill, must have convinced the most
ignorant or incredulous that our foreign
rivals regard the bill not in the interests
of Europe, but in the interests of
America. They see nothing in it but a
diminution of their American trade and
a corresponding gain to our W pro-
ducers.
Of course it does not please other ma
lions. 1t was not framed after that
fashion. The Mills bill did. President
Cleveland's Free-trade messages received
only acclamations of praise from the ma
tions of the world. Our bill receives
from them only condemnation and bit
ter denunciation. This is the precise
difference-it was not made to please
other nations; it was framed for the
people of the United States as a defense
to their industries, as a security to their
interests and investments, as a proteo
ton to the labor of their hands and as a
safeguard to the happy homes of Ameri-
a Workmen.
If it shall be enacted into law Iventure
the prediction, which will be fully veri-
fed, and which thoughtful men every
where will confirm, when l declare that
it will bring to this country a prosperity
unparalleled in our own history and I'M
rivaled in the history of the world. Ard
let me assure you that the bill will be-
come a law. A Republican senate will
pass it, and a Republican president will
put upon it his seal of approval as O as
it shall reach him, and another great
pledge of the Republican party will have
been fulfilled.