The Dispatch. [volume] (Provo City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1891-07-15
WHOLESALE EXTORTION.

4uo S1CnGNLEY ON ndS d more I'M
portant object than simply to pacify
the farmer 1t is intended as an aid to
protected manufacturers that shall re-
pay their contributions to elect Mr.
MCKINLEY and the gentlemen whom he
commands, and what is more to the
point, induce them to renew their con-
tributions this autumn and increase
them in 1892. The trainers of the Nc
K1NLEY bill know better than to try to
fool the manufacturers, and so they
have given them real additions to the
substantial bonus that the present tar
iff already gives them-to be extorted
mainly from the farmer, just as the
present bonus are wrung from him, and
for the same reason-because the agri-
cultural class is the largest class of our
citizens, and therefore the best to tax
TO get certain and large returns-be-
cause it has been so far the most pa
tient class, hence can most safely be
imposed upon. So when Mr.. McKIN-
LEY rushes forward with beaming face
TO show the farmer how much he in
tends to do for him, he not merely
offers hlm sham protection instead of
any that can possibly benefit him, but
uses his benevolent pretenses as a
cloak to hide him while he pays off the
political debts of himself and, his high
tariff associates at the farmer expense.
not because he wants to hurt the
farmer, or, indeed, really stops
to think whether he hurts him
or not; but because the pro
tected" interests and trusts that
have bought the election Of hlgh-tar-
if Congress must be satisfied or they
viii meyer contribute to buy another.
And thus we have the MCKINLEY bill.
one that insults the intelligence Of rural |
voters by offering them tariffs that can
do them no good and drains their pock- /
cts by raising the duty on many neces-
stiles that they have to buy and for
which this bill proposes to make them
pay more than they do now. There Is
no room here to expose the petty steals
that are hidden in the McKIYLEY bill.
Some Of the larger ones are, however,
worth nothing.
That on all wooden goods is bad
enough. 1t will be remembered that
the Mckinley bill does not increase
the duty on any wool that a farmer
raises; that its only increase is upon
carpet wool, which a few ranchmen
only raise, and of which we have to i'm
port nlne-tenths Of all we use; so that
the only result will be to make every far
ner whose family has carpets, pay an
enormous bonus to profit few owners
Of ranches in regions where a carpet is
never seen. The eXtortion would be
bad enough if it stopped there, but it
does not. Farmers rarely contribute
more than an occasional So TO cam
paign expenses. But great ranchmen,
over whole townships of gov
ernment land and employing gangs Of
herders, can afford for such legislation)
to give checks Of thousands of dollars
each. Hence, they are protected"
though every farmer in the land is
taxed more to do it, The manufactur
ers, however, are men who in return :
for protection" can and do raise cam
paign funds of hundreds of thousands i
Of dollars, and not merely decline to be '
imposed upon, but insist on their share I
Of any plunder that is being divided. /
So the carpet manufacturers as con-
iition Of not obiecting to the ranch i