The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1892-09-23
GAVE THEORIES FOR FACTS.
The dampened ardor caused by Il


The dampened ardor caused by tn,
report of the Labor Commissioner O
New York seemed to have it's effec
upon the speakers at the Democrat,
meeting Friday and they were yer!
careful about entering into any of tht
details of the tariff question and con
tented themselves with assertions on
lY. During the latter portion of theil
addresses both speakers INDUCED in
considerable self congratulation, and
in this respect Mr.. Lawler verge6
strongly upon the abusive in the
treatment of his opponents.
The burden of Mr.. LAWYERS re.
marks, was an opposition to the pro-
tective system, and what he regarded
as the browning infamy of American
legislation, the Mckinley law. In his
assertion that the Republican con-
gresham from Minnesota four years
ago promised to go to Washington
and vote to reduce the tariff, and
when they got there voted to increase
the duties upon the necessaries of
life, Mr.. Lawler paid very little at
tention to the facts. The Mckinley
bill has not increased the revenues of
the government, but on the other
hand has decreased them from $780,
00O,0 900 to $50, 100000 annually. Take
the item of sugar, which is one of the
chief necessaries of life, the tax was
taken therefrom, and it's cost to the
consumer reduced. This was done be-
cause its production in this country
never reached point where it came
in competitor with foreign article, so
as to reduce it's cost, as is the case in
the manufactures of this country.
Further than this the Senate
Finance committee in it's investiga-
tions found that the average retail
prices of 214 articles of common con-
sumption among the people bad de-
clined since the Mckinley law took
effect, and of this number 80 are ar
ticles of food and 81 clothes and cloth
ing; 81 are metals and implements
and q house furnishing goods. This
report was signed by Senators Carlisle
and Harris, and surely Mr.. Lawler will
not impeach their Democracy nor
their sincerity in battling for the
cause of free trade. Mr.. Carlisle in a
speech IN the senate admitted the
truth of this report, and that the
necessaries of life were cheaper than
ever before, but the only word he had
to offer in regard to it was that the
result would have been the same had
there been no protective system in
force, which as mere assertion with
nothing to back it, is entitled to no
particular weight. Yet in the face
of these facts, the soundness of which
Senator Carlisle confirmed, Mr.. Law
Ter maintains that the price of the
necessaries of life have been increased
by the Mckinley law.
Mr.. Lawler was eloquent in his
praise of the leaders of the Republican
party who so successfully guided the
affairs of the nation through the
dark days of the war against the life
of the government, though upon the
question of protection they stood the
same as do the leaders of the party to-
day, upon whose heads he poured out
volleys of condemnation simply for
their protective views.
Mr.. Hammond in his remarks con-
fined himself chiefly to the tariff
question, but avoided all details. In
regard to the effects of the tariff he
said that the friends of protection
claimed that all the good that came
to the country resulted from our pro-
tectiye laws. He said that if the
good was charged up to the protec-
tion system the evils that exist
throughout the country must also be
traced to the same source. But Mr..
Hammond exhibited a streak of Dem
ocratic inconsistency in his next as
sertion, that if his party was placed
in control it would wipe out this
protection system, and drive the evils
from our land. Now, accepting that
the protective system is responsible
for the evils that affiict our country,
as we'll as for the good that comes to
it, and that the wiping out of the
protective system would do away with
the evils, would it not be as likely to
carry the good results also? But
right here, if the Mckinley law is re-
sponsible for the strikes and labor
troubles that have occurred lately, as
Mr.. Hammond would incidentally
have his audience infer, and it's re-
peal would put stop to such de-
plorable state of affairs, what is the
cause of similar state of affairs in
the paradise of free trade,