The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1890-10-22
our Unstable Tarifr Policy.

What this great country, with its
countless sinews Of industry and
matchIess development, most needs
is settled and stable tariff policy.
There is no more fruitful source of
business paralysis than distrust as
to the economic policy of the gov
ernmcnt; and wise craftsmanship
always aims to enact such Judicious.
tariff laws as will stand the test of
time and command the considerate
approval of all conditions of the peo-
pie.
1t is boasted by such thoughtless
organs as the New York Tribune
and the Philadelphia Press that the
new tariff bill that has just gone in
to operation can't be changed for
years to come because of the large
partisan majority put into the SEN
ate by the admission OF new States.
The Tribune says: dor years to
come, perhaps for generation, the
policy of this nation has been fixed
by the action of Congress" Since.
the meeting of Congress last Deem
Der, six new States have been ad-
mitted. The population of the
whole six combined is less than half
the population of Pennsylvania, but
party necessity demanded it and it
was done to give the assurance of
Republican supremacy in that body
ssfor years to come, perhaps for a
generation"
So far as the monstrous tax law
known as the Mckinley tariff bill is
concerned, there is no assurance of
its safety in the Senate for even a
single Congress. Indeed, if the peo-
pie shall condemn the Doodle bought
tariff taxes on the industrial people
of the land by the election of an
anti monopoly Congress next month,
as now seems certain, the boasted
partisan majority of the Senate will
be ready at once to throw off the
mask and unsettle our tariff policy
by demanding the repeal OF the
new law.
When the short session of the
present Congress shall meet in De-
cember the 4th new Republican
Senators from Idaho and Wyoming
will be added TO the present 10 Re
publican majority in the body.
There will be 81 Democrats, all
against the monopoly tariff taxes of
the Mckinley bill, and 81 Republi-
cans, with fully one half or more at
heart against the new tariff. There
Were 3 Republicans who had the
courage to vote squarely against the
bill; there were IL who had at one
time decided to vote against it, but
were overruled by party necessities,
and there are not less than II of
the Western Republican Senators
who are sincerely against the whole
theory of the increased taxes of the
Mckinley law and will take the
earliest opportunity to overthrow
it.
Some of the strongest Republican
States of the West have become
doubtful solely because of the gem
eral hostility to monopoly tariff
taxes. They have been promised
reduced taxes on the necessaries of
life by both, and the failure to full
fill that promise has made some of
the once most reliable Western
States falter in party loyalty. What
may be expected of these States
when, instead of reducing taxes, the
tariff taxes have been largely in
creased on the articles most com
monty consumed Even Kansas,
with her more than $4,000 Repuli-
can majority for Harrison, is trem-
bling in the balance to-day, and one
of her Senators voted against the
new tariff, as did one from Nebras-,
ka ond one from Dakota.
To assume that such a monstrosi-
ty as the new tariff bill can stand
in a country, even with a Senate
packed by Senators from pocket
States, is to confess ignorance Of
the convictions of dozen or more
of Republican Senators and of one
half or more of the five millions of
Republican people; and the business
man who predicates his business
operations on expected results from
the Mckinley tariff law, will surely
be disappointed. Indeed, not only
is the new tariff law reasonably GER
tain to be revised at an early day,
but there will be grave peril to the
policy of protection if the over tax
ed people are driven TO revolution
AIRY action to halt the remorseless
greed of doodle paying and tax
exacting monopolists.
-S-.-V--
The Mckinley tariff law is now