Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-10-02
Mk,NLEv REnoMINATEp.

Congress-What HIS Party Promised
How It Has Kept It's word-An Interpre-
tation of the Chicago Platform.
The St Louis Globe-Democrat, the
St Paul Pioneer-Press. the Chicago
Tribune, the Omaha Bee, the Atchison
throughout the West which have al
tariff army, have, of late. been very
FESTIVE under the leadership of Mr.. Nc
Kinley and those who think with him.
Senators Plumb, Ingalls,, Paddock. Man
derson, and even Senators Dawes and
Blair, and a few Of the Representatives.
notably Congressman Butterwerth, while
insisting that they are protectionists.
have made more or less vigorous pro-
tests against the Mckinley bill These
papers and statesmen profess the ut
most loyalty to their party. and to a Ma
tional protective system as we'll They
have no sympathy with the Democratic
party; and yet McKinleyism does not
please them.
That gentleman has been silent for
some time. The leading papers of his
own party have abused him without
stint, and have discussed his measure
in the most savage terms. And in so
orthodoxy. It is interesting. therefore,
to hear what he has to Say for himself.
OF course he claims that he belongs to
the regular school, and he quotes the
Chicago platform, of which he is the
reputed author, in support of his claim.
What does that document say? What
was the issue upon which the party
fought the last campaign? What had
no cifiznn who understood
plain English, a right to expect from
the party which asked him to vote for
Mr.. Harrison?
Tariff revision, to be sure, but of
what kind? Many people insist that
they thought that revision meant re-
duction, and some of them go so far as
to say that had it been generally sup
posed that it meant any thing else Mr..
Harrison would never have reached the
White House. Yet the words of this
platform are quite plain, and Mr.. Nc
Kinley appeals to them in his own de-
Tense. The promise was to revise the
tariff in such way as to check fmporta-
tions.
That is the party's latest utterance
upon the subject of the tariff. 1t is
bound by it-that is, if party platforms
ever bind any one. It was entrusted
with power that it might ''check i'm
portations' Millions of dollars were
subscribed to its campaign fund on the
strength of that pledge. Protection for
projections sake was the theme of the
orators and the organs The revenue
reformers were denounced as free trad
ers because they proposed to do almost
what the Western 'skickers" are asking
to have done now.
The victory was won with the help of
the Omaha Bee, the Chicago Tribune,
the ST. Paul Pioneer-Press and Messrs
Plumb, Butterworth and the rest of
them. Then Mr.. Mckinley set about
the work of translating the platform
into legislation. The result is the Nc
Kinley bill, which has provoked howl
all along the line. "And what he asks
sis the howl about? Have we not done
what we could to check importa tions?'
The Customs Administrat bill, which
is now the law of the land, is denounced
by the free traders because it does just
that thing. The Mckinley Tariff bill,
which the Senate will pass when it gets
ready, will contribute to the accom-
plishment Of the same result The
party is carrying out its pledges You,
Mr.. Plumb, and you, too, Mr.. Blaine,
approved those pledges when they were
made. Shall we stand by them or not?
That is the sole question. I say we
shall stand by them. And say further,
that whatever may have been the case
before 1888. in that year our party was
! committed to the cause of protection as
embodied in the Mckinley bill. The
time for protest has gone by. The rec
ord is made up. The party must abide
by it-at least until the next National
convention meets"
Such is Mr.. McKinley's plea. And ii
must be confessed that it has plausi.
BILE sound. The man who makes it is
undoubtedly honestly and earnestly de-
voted to bad cause, while the men
who are fighting him usually give the
cause just as effective support when
voting time comes, though they know il
to be bad cause.
| Another Kansas paper evidently
agrees with Mr.. McKiniey's view of the
situation. It says that those protec
tionists who are clamoring for lower
duties and an increased free list have ne
business to be doing it on party grounds
Probably sympathizing itself with thi!
clamor it declares that these demand.
are the very demands that the tariff re
formers made in 1888 and are making
now. It thinks that the dissatisfied
gentlemen will have to admit that they
have changed their base; that they art
now, occupying the tariff reform posi-
ton and that all their talk in 1883 abon
the tariff not being a tax, etc, wa.
purest humbug. 1t certainly looks tha
| way.
The quarrel is pretty one. but Mr.
Mckinley seems to have the best of it
There is one other thing which tells il
his favor. The Plumbs and Mander
sons and the protesting newspaper
have invariably come round all right a
election time. So it is not special,
dangerous to offend them. But it is dan
gerous to offend the protected manu-
facturers who kindly allow the 'fat t,
be fried out of them" for the purpose o
lubricating the protection machine
These gentlemen must be taken yer.
seriously. They invested their doodle.
Their interests must be cared for. 1t il
money that talks. Mr.. Andrew Carne
gie's little finger is thicker than tn,
! thigh of the 1ustiest kicker.
Making Things Dear.
The tariff tax on table knives ant
forks is raised from IS per cent to I