Sharp County record., 1890-06-26
M.KINLEY'S PLATFORM.
Tho Rin Passed the Other Day Con-
DENIED by Western Republicans

tPlneu Dl heNttih
The Mckinley bill to reduce the
revenue by increasing taxation IS
drawn TO relieve the discomfort OF the
canitalists, but the inevitable result Is
TO broaden, deepen and embitter the
discomfort of the people.
This discomfort finds only an occa-
sional expression in the House OF KEEP
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 90 on regardless OF the here
after. $50,
But the debate of the bill continues
in the public press, and before the peo-
! ple. The working-men and the farmers
are manifesting a new interest in the
subject, and they viii 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
revision and a reduction of the tariff.
Il insisted that the words used by Nc
Kinlev in the platform were to be taken
only in a 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-
levs platform; it is as "big as life and
twice as natural" In every line there
is a 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,
tiuware carpets, cutlery, hardware and
tools. This advance in price results in
taxing the consumer $237, $50, 900, as
against a reduction in sugar of $40, 900,
900. The Tribune should see that from
this sugar reduction we must deduct a
bounty of 81, ,OOO to be paid to the
sugar planter, and S12, ,5O0,0 900 bonus paid
to the sugar refner, or 500, 600, 900 in all.
We have, therefore, these figures:
Higher prices. es....................... S937 25O, ,OU
Sugar duties. ....................'...' 0OUOO,OON
-
Total.. ............ ....... 'e1o',oVoo'>
This is the actual amount Of increased
taxation imposed by tf,e Lill. 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 o.
, | yOtiou for thic hill uO1nr the 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 O.
, Western interests when they get home amonl
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 wionl
have they also lost all political sense? Can no
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 oXultantly explain tC
them the tariff revision and reduction Of thci
, political opponentsY These Western Repub
lcans elected as proteCtonists should hesitate
; long before they abandon their party creed ant
, become tariff prohibitionists.n
Had the Tribune been as fair ant
frank in 1888, when discussing the Nc
Kinley platform as it is now in dis
cussing the Mckinley bill, the betraya
of Western interests would not have
been possible. The bill simply fulhlls
the promise of the platform. One was
dream; the other is an actual condition
together they are "the riot of the tipsy
Racchanals. ."-Louisville Courier-Jo our
nal