The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1890-04-03
The Mckinley Tariff Bill.

The Republican party promises to revise, not
| reduce the tariff. The leaders of that party and
the newspapers representing its principles
promised the people of the United States that
they would correct the inequalities of the pres
| emit tariff interests of the home market, and at
/ the same time reduce the excess of revenue
The Republican party is, moreover, pledged to
protect honest importers and domestic pro-
ducers from the disastrous consequences result
ing from fraudulent differentiation, and for
InlS purpose what is known as the admins
trative tariff BILL which must be taken in con-
junction with the rate bill, has been reduced and
| passed by the present Congress
The bill, therefore, of which q summary is
| posed rates of duty, is not mere reduction of
the rates of duty, but measure which is i'll it's
purpose a reduction of revenue and remedy
OF the defects, anomalies, and inequalities which
nave been from time to time discovered in the
tarin schedules. 1t is not such a bill as that
proposed by Mr.. Mills in the last Congress, which
invaded in hostile spirit every tariff schedule.
reducing duties to the danger line in many of
our most important industries-a BILL in fact
calculated to blight and wither American in
dustries and open the doors wider to foreign
products. The Mckinley bill is not bill which
removes all duties from list OF manufactured
oASAOo
duction OF which far exceeds $5OO,OOO,OOO and
represents 800 600 workmen now EMPLOYED. as
was the case in the Mills bill. It is not bill in
considerably and purposely disastrous in its
tendency, cutting here and there the rates of
duty on lines Of production in which the value
OF the annual product Of the corresponding
home industry might safely be estimated at
81 900 600 and affecting the wages paid to at
least l2500 600 persons as the Mills bill was it is
not a bill which will imperil American indus
tries and bring forth voice of universal pro
test excepting from a handful of Free traders)
from those anxious to preserve great enterprises
from ruthless and unnecessary ruin.
= On the contrary, it is a bill which seeks to
strengthen in every possible way those indus
tries in which the people of this country have
embarked, and which represents hundreds of
millions Of American capital and millions of
American wage earners. For long time the
American producer has been claiming that an
nually there comes into the ports of this coun-
try from abroad products valued at many mil
lions which ought to he, and could just as well
be, produced in this country. Some time ago
the Press showed that the aggregate of manu-
featured products thus coming exceeded $780,
100000. One OF the objects of the bill is to stop
this sort of importation, so that the idle work
man in the large American cities is not obliged
n0C6SSarlGS
for his families, and at the same time see the
shop windows filed up with the products of the
looms and the factories of foreign countries
There is no reason for this. Why should we i'm
port $53,OOO,0 600 worth of wooden fabrics, when
little additional protection will enable the
American mills to produce those goods Just as
well and ultimately just as cheap in this coun-
try? Why should we import $26,OOO,OOO worth of
linen, when proper adjustment of the tariff
would give our own mills an opportunity to fur
nish these fabrics in quantities and styles suita-
bic to our home MARKET Why should we i'm
port x444,el000a worth Of iron and steel, when
tightening of the tariff here and there and a
correction of the inequality in regard to tin
plate would enable us not only to manufacture at
almost the same price England does all the iron
and steel consumed in this country and even in
crease the expectation, which now stands sew
enth an our list Of exports? Why should we
with constantly growing chemical industry
representing probably to-day not far short
of $2O0OO00OO worth of products, continue to
purchase nearly $40,OOO,OOO worth of chemicals,
drugs, dyes and medicines from foreign coun-
tries! Way should we ship our raw cotton
across the Atlantic and then buy $3O,OOOOOO
worth OF liner fabrics made from that cotton
back the product Of the German and the Eng
hsh looms? These are only some principal i'm
ports which the Ways a,,a means Coinmitree
bill proposes in the line of Republican policy to
cut down, and thereby increase the home pro
duction, the production Of our own mills OF our
own labor.
In CHANGING at the schedules In our Washing
ton despatch, showing the present rate of duty
on the one side and the rate proposed by the
committee on the other the reader of the Press
should bear in mind that any changes in these
schedules looking to reduction OF duties will
affect more or less the labor of American arti-
sans. For example, it is not an exaggerated es-
innate to assume that the following table rep
resents at the present time the number of hands
the capital and the home products in these
Sohndu1pc