Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1890-04-17
HIGH TAXATION.
THIS Is THE PURPOSE OF
THE MCKINLEY BILL.
Il is a General Attack on American
Industries, and is in the Inter-
est of Trusts.

The tariff bill which has at last beer
reported to the ways and means com
mittee by the Republican member
thereof is first and foremost an attach
on the manufacturing industries of thil
country. The protests of the shoe and
leather men of New England, New
York and Pennsylvania against the tax
on hides led the committee to abandon
the project and restore hides to the free
list, where they have been for IS year;
to the great advantage Of American Ia
Dor and commerce. But at the impera.
tive demand of four great beef packers
In Chicago and SOME of the great cattle
syndicates of the far West, the Repub.
lican members of the committee chang.
ed their minds again and decided tc
put tax on hides, which is opposed
by the New York Tribune, the Boston
Home Market Club and the entire shoe
and leather trade, regardless of locali-
ties or politics.
The cordage industry is threatened
without any compensating benefit to
the farmers of the Northwest, who have
been demanding free fibres and free
binding twine. The Mckinley bill
makes the duty on binding twine cent
and half a pound, and while it puts
jute and sisal on the free list, 1t fixes a
duty of $25 a ton on hemp and hemp or
flax, and Mayor Filter, of Philadelphia,
who was one of the candidates in Chi
cago in 1888 for the Republican ,,Presiden-
tial nomination, says that the McKin-
Iox, h;II mould &c ~ haoa mn N Ioxu drixyo
to Canada and Mexico an industry now
employing 900 Americans.
The duties on imported tobacco will
infiict a serious, If not disastrous, blow
upon large cigar making industry.
The wooden Industry for year past
has been in critical condition; failures
have been unprecedented. The carpet
industry has suffered especially. The
Mckinley bill strikes blow at this de-
caying industry by raising the duties on
all grades of wool. 1t is attempted to
offset this by increased duties on all
woolen products, but this will simply
increase the prices to the consumer;
the higher prices the manufacturers
will have to charge will restrict his sales
and leave him worse off than he is now.
The bounty of seven cents pound
for cocoons and 81 pound for raw silk
is gross injustice to the men who raise
corn and wheat and potatoes and pork,
and not only get no bounty, but cannot
sell their produce at remunerative pri-
ces.
These changes of duties are designed
to make the farmer feel that his inter-
ests are being conserved. They will
not accomplish that result in any ap-
preciable degree because this country
produces an excess of agricultural COM
modities. We can protect the Ameri-
can manufacturer against the foreigner
because the foreigner sends goods to
This country. But our agricultural pro-
ducts go abroad. We already produce
more than we consume. Within short
distance of the Canadian border Amer
can farmers may feel foreign competi-
ion slightly, but this does not extend
20 our agricultural interests generally.
The Canadian barley is imported, not
because 1t is cheaper, but because it
makes better mault. The price of wheat
s fixed in London in competition with
he wheat of Russia, India, South |
America and Australia. Corn is not |
much exported or imported. Ofpork |
We produce much Imore than we need |
It home, and European countries have
losed their ports against our pork be-
ause we have closed our ports to their
PRODUCTS. American wool Is used mixed
With foreign wool, and a blow at the
of woolens, in the shape
# an increased duty on wool, will sim
'ly react against the domestic wool
aisers.
The increase of duty on tin plates
fter next year will raise the price on
very tin pot and pan; it will raise the
ost of every can of vegetables, and if
he Gamers cannot get the increase out
t their customers they will get it out
f the farmers by paying less for the
vegetables they put up; it will also raise
he price of every tin roof and every
heet iron roof.
The Mckinley bill is bill to raise
axes for the benefit of the beef packers
Chicago, few sheet iron manufac-
lrers in Pittsburg, the starch trust, the
nseed oil trust, the lead trust, and
ome other large combinations of capi-
al. Even the New York Tribune warns
he farmers that they will get no good
ut of the hide duty.
1t is "a tariff for protection, with in
idental revenue" says the New York
lerdld, such as the Republican plat
,rm promised and as all Republican
peakers pleded themselves to make If
be people would restore them to power.
1t is as iniquitous and oppressive a
wv as has ever been proposed since the
)undation of the government. Every
and capitalist interest that
fried out" finds it's reward in the bill,
yhich strikes at the hard earnings of
he laboring poor in every page.
Here are few instances, hastily GULL
d. The changes from ad valorem to
pecific and in other ways in the form
f the duties laid make the bill puz-
lie, which only experts can finally un-
avel with much trouble and waste of
me.
The duties on cotton and woolen ma
srials are raised heavily along the
vhole line, but those on the goods used
y the laboring masses are Invariably
3 far as we can see-made to pay high
r duties than are put on the more cost
' goods used by the rich. The duty on
,ool, unreasonably high at present, is
eavily increased; the duty on wooden
arms is doubled, and the duty on
lankets and woolen stuffs is doubled
nd on some of the cheaper qualities,
hose most used by the poor, Is nearly
rebled. On some of these goods, in
Universal use, the duty is run UP to $50
er cent. So, too, the cheaper kinds of
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