Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-12-25

She WIN Treat Us to a Dose OF Mckinley.
The French are trying their hand
now at high tariff making, moved to do
50 partly by the example of our man
Mckinley The commission having the
matter in hand says that one of the
motives which induced it to propose q
great increase of duties was ''the ex-
amples given by different foreign coun-
tries"
The foreign country whose tariff 1egis-
lat;on has awakened most opposition in
France is the United States with her
two Mckinley laws First came the
Mckinley customs law, which went into
effect August l, and which places great
and unnecessary difficulties in the way
of our trade with foreign countries
This measure was intended and framed
with the direct purpose of lessening our
purchases in foreign markets by putting
artificial and unj Just restrictions in the
way. What are some of those difficult
ties? Duties must be paid not only on
goods but on the boxes or other cover
ings, and on all charges on the other
side in transporting the goods to the
seaports; the goods must be accom-
panied by a sworn statement from the
manufacturer giving the cost of each
component part of them, and nothing
is to be allowed at the custom houses
for breakage and damage at sea-
These barbarious actions have had a
very unpleasant effect on the French
manufacturers, and when this measure
was first passed by Congress last spring
there was much talk in France abou,
retaliation. Efforts were made 60 ge,
all the principal Governments of Europe
to agree upon a common plan of retail.
iation upon rs; but these efforts were
unsuccessful, the hostile and Jealous
nations of the continent not being able
to pull together, and England, the great
free trade merchant na ton of the world,
being opposed to any scheme for raising
up barriers against trade.
Meanwhile France had to a certain
extent taken matters into her OWL
hands, and had adopted measure OF
partial retaliation against MS Early
in the summer the grain tariff was re
vised. duty of 80 cents bushel being
imposed on our wheat while that OF
other countries was allowed to come in
at Is cents; and Indian corn. hitherto
free. was made dutiable. The measure
has already resulted in restricting oul
exports of these commodities to France
For the nine months ended September
so. 1890. we sent France 4, $50. 900 bush
els of corn against 6. $50. 600 for the
| same time last year.
But the summer passed, and 1t be
! came certain that the Mckinley tariff
| bill would become a law. Then thu
French girded up their 1oins and de
cided that something more must b
| done to show that tariff making is Z
game that two can play at According
~, a commission was appointed to pre-
| pare tariff bill This commission hal
| prepared the first draft of its bill and
will present it to the Chamber Febru.
| airy L
| A few of the provisions of this bill
viii be of interest to our farmers a
showing how they will be hurt by it
A new and striking feature of the bill
is the fact that it viii impose a mini
mum and maximum duty, the Latte
being about one-quarter higher thai
the former. The maximum duties Ar
| Intended for nations whose tariffs d,
not give France favorable trade condi
| tons
| OF course the maximum is intendet
for Is as the chief tariff offender. 1t
= countar-ixr;tant for McKinleyism.