Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1890-10-04
M'KINLEY RENoMINATED.
His Speech Accepting the Nomination Fol
Congress-What His Party Promised
How 1t Has Kept Its Word-An Interpre-
fafinn of the Chicago PIAtfnrm.


Congress-What His Party Promised
How 1t Has Kept Its 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
Champion and many other papers
throughout the West which have al
ways been loyal soldiers in the high
tariff army, have, Of late. been very
restive 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 Butterworth, 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 Ma.
tional protective system as we'll They
have no sympathy with the Democratic
party; and yet McKinleyism does not
please thom.
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
doing they have assailed his political
orthodoxy 1t 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
the ordinary citizen, who understood
plain English, 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-
fense. The promise was to revise the
tariff in such way as to check ampOrta-
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. 1t 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 fol
projections sake was the theme of the
orators and the organs. The revenue
reformers wore denounced as free trad
ers because they proposed to do almost
what the Western "kickers" are asking
to have done now.
The victory was won with the help O.
the Omaha Bee, the Chicago Tribune
the St Paul Pioneer-Press and Messrs
Plumb, Butterworth and the rest O
them. Then Mr.. Mckinley set abou
the work of translating the platform
into legislation. The result is the Nc
Kinley bill, which has provoked a how
all along the line .And what. he asks
f"is tre si0wi about? Have'wosnot dont
what we could to check importations?
The Customs Administration 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 get!
ready, will contribute to the accom-
plishment of the same result. Tht
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. say w
shall stand by them. And l say further
that, whatever may have been the cast
before 1885, in that year our party wa
committed to the cause of protection a
embodied in the Mckinley bill. Th'
time for protest has gone by. The rec
ord is made up. The party must abide
by it-at least until the next Nationa
convention meets"
Such is Mr. McKinley's plea. And i
must be confessed that it has plausi
BILE sound. The man who makes it i
undoubtedly honestly and earnestly de
voted to a bad cause, while the mel
who are fighting him usually give tn
cause just as effective support whel
voting time comes, though they know i
to be bad cause,
Another Kansas paper evidentl.
agrees with Mr.. McKinley's view of thu
situation. 1t says that those protec
tionists who are clamoring for lowe
duties and an increased free list have NJ
business to be doing it on party grounds
Probably sympathizing itself with thi
clamor 1t declares that these demand
are the very demands that the tariff re
formers made in 1883 and are making
now. 1t thinks that the dissatisfied
gentlemen will have to admit that the.
have changed their base; that they ar
now, occupying the tariff reform posi-
tion and that all their talk in 1883 abou
the tariff not being tax, etc, wa
purest humbug. 1t certainly looks tina
way.
The quarrel is pretty one, but MI
Mckinley seems to have the best of il
There is one other thing which tells il
his favor. The Plumbs and Mandel
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 dar
gerous to offend the protected man,
tacturers who kindly allow the fiat
be fried out of them for the purpose {
lubricating the protection machine
These gentlemen must be taken yer
seriously. They invested their doodle.
Their interests must be cared for 1t
money that talks. Mr.. Andrew Carn'
gie's little finger is thicker than I'll
thigh Of the lustiest kicker.
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Making Things Dear.
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