The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1890-06-18
M'kiNi.EY'S PLATFORM,
Tho Bill Passed the Other Day Con-
DENIED by Western Republicans.

DENIED by Western Republicans.
The Mckinley bill to reduce the
revenue by increasing taxation is
drawn to relieve the discomfort of the
capitalists, but the inevitable result is
to broadeg, deepen and embitter the
discomfort of the people.
This discomfort finds only an occa-
sional expression in the House of Rep
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 "frecs his
mind" as Buttcrworth did, as Nc
Kenna did and as Henderson did, but
these outbreaks, instead of warning
Mckinley of danger ahead, determine
him to go on regardless Of the here
after
But the debate of the bill continues
in the public press, and before the peo-
pie. The worlSing-men and the farmers
are manifesting new interest in the
subject, and they will 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 a
revision and reduction of the tariff.
1t insisted that the words used by Nc.
Kinley in the platform were to be taken
only in Pickwickian sense, and that
the interests OF the producing classes
would be entirely safe in the hands OF
the Republican party.
Things heT' changed" since 1883.
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-
ley's platform; it is as "big as life and
twice as natural" In every line there
is 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 con temporary is alarmed
at tho results of its own work. II
brought Illinois, Iowa and Wisconsin tt
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 sucl
necessaries of life as clothing, leather
tinware, carpets, cutlery, hardware anc
taxing the consumer S237 $50, 900, a!
against reduction in sugar of $40, 900,
| 900. The Tribune should see that from
this sugar reduction we must deduct ;
bounty of 1909, 900, to be paid to thu
sugar planter, and S12, 500, 900 bonus pait
to the sugar refner, or $40, 900, 900 in all
We have, therefore, these figures:
Higher prices WI ,S:OUg
Sugar duties. Observation-Disclosures. 100000
ICtal.... ...GSoi,ooo,oo
This is the actual amount of increased
taxation imposed by the bill. Contem
plating these figures the Tribune ex
claims Indignantly:
''And there are Republican Western mem
bers overawcd and terrorizcd by violent
greedy. rapacious minority, who are thinking Q
voting for this bill, under the caucus lash
which will transfer tens OF millions from tn
| pockets of their constituents to those OF East
ern manufacturers who already have all tn
protection they need or more. How will thes
Western members justify their betrayal c
Western interests when they get home anon
constituents whom they have helped to rob
They would do wisely to think Of that bcfor
they vote.
''If they have lost all sense OF right and wron
have they also lost all political sense? Can nc
they see that by passing this bill they arc play
ing directly into the hands of the Democrats
that the opposition of the latter to the abom
nable bill is formal and that they long to hav
| it pass in order that this fall they may go bt
fore the consumers and exultaatly explain t
them the tariff revision and reduction Of the1
political opponents? These Western Reput
licans elected as protectionists should hesitat
long before they abandon their party creed an
become tariff prohibitionsts.
Had the Tribune been as fair an
frank in 1855, when discussing the Nj
Kinley platform as it is now in dis
cussing the Mckinley bill, the betraya
of Western interests would not hav
been possible. The bill simply fulfill
the promise of the platform. One was
dream; the other is an actual condition
together they are ''the riot of the tips
RaCchanals. ''-Louisvill Courier-Jou1
nal