Grand Rapids herald. [volume] (Grand Rapids, Mich.) 1892-1959, 1892-09-16

The Mckinney pFioes hsr. driven INTO
a eoraer b. relentless faeLs, ike the car
which has been caught sucking eggs,
looAs fssDlleAlly Tor some ~ gao.s II
escape. Even MS seemingly gnooun1ed
audasity falls short y Az attempt % de-
ny that price, u nlalefactures have fall
81 rather than risen since tns Mckinley
tzrH took effect. There are the daily
market reports. the testimony q honest
free trace st4rlsticlaEs and finally the
report II The senate coDlni tee ca prices,
al before aim. de realizes the furllry
Of longer keeping up tas attempt - de-
ceiye the people by bald fzlsehood, bnt
IS nevertheless determined t. escape &C
kn0Wledgng his untruths.
As the pillering cur springs madly at
a tiny knotAole IA his efforts 10 escape
the blows oi his angry master, 50 our
hunted lar tries To set away from the
prices current and official reports which
surround him. Re pretends 10 take II
for granted that the prices II eonuo-
versy were II inn0rted goods, and Pro
eeeds % prove" from them that no was
night in asserting that prices had ad-
yanced under the new tariff.
IN the first place. the controversy was
not about prices Of foreign goods at all,
bat referred 10 prices Of domestic goods.
Those are the ones which Grover CIeve-
land maintained would be advanced
BY higher duty on imported goods,
and they we're always had IN mind by
intelligent persons IN talking about
prices. IL Is a dishonest subterfuge 10
argue that because goods actually i'm
ported under higher duties sold at higher
prices therefore domestic goods Were
also higher, and that the claims of the
campaign Of lying IN 1890 have been
thereby substantiated.
In the second place, il is a notorious
fact that imported goods have actually
been placed on our market at and even
below the prices charged under a lower
tariff rate before the Mckinley law. IL
IS the exception where they arc found
dearer because Of increased duty. To
the charge that the fan in the i'm port
price has been due TO lowering of tho
quality OF the goods we answer again
that that fact, even If admitted, proves
nothing as TO the quality Of domestic
goods. which. let it always be remem-
bered, are the ones really IN controversy.
On the contrary, the quality of do
nestle products Is known TO have stead
lily advanced under the new tariff. The
result has been that the efforts made by
foreign manufacturers 70 get over the
tariff by producing inferior products
have proved boomerang to them.
Their customers soon discovered the
fraud practiced upon them and promptly
returned TO the better domestic article.
So that all the conditions seemed TO con-
spire 10 compass the very result aimed
at by the trainers of the Mckinley act
viz, the supplanting of foreign goods in
this market by domestic products.
The controversy Is not over imported
goods, which concern not more than l
per cent. Of our people, butSur domestic
goods, which are used almost exclusively
by 80 per cent of the consuming popula-
ton Prices of imported goods may have
slightly advanced. bat even this is doubt
full, but it is fact beyond question that
domestic manufactures never before sold
so cheaply as they have been selling I'M
der this Mckinley tariff of ours, although
the Mckinley prices liar said they were
made higher from the instant that law
took effect. In other words, the free
trade victory of 1890 still remains with
its stigma of the triumph of lying"