The St. Johns herald., 1892-07-28
"A Good Thing" fer Plutocrats.

] cannot thoroughly take In the
 meaning of the great strike of the
 iron and steel workers at Pittsburg,
 Cleveland and many other points in the country without bringing to bear upon it little recent tariff his tory. When the conference report on the Mckinley bill was presented to the House Mir. Mckinley said (September 27, 1S9O): "The metal schedule, which occupies twenty-five pages of the bill, has received earn est consideration because of the inn portance of the great industries it represents. Nothing has been done in the metal schedule that can re- suit in loss of business or prestige, and nothing that can call for a re- ductlon of wages or a daminution of the number of workingmen em- ployed."
 That schedule was really made up for the bill by the American Iron and Steel Association, as we find in the annualreport of it's secretary ,Mr. Swank, dated May 1891, who said: During the long period in which this measure received the consider ation of Congress, the views of this association concerning the proper framing of the metal schedule were frequently solicited and were promptly given. The schedule as it was finally adopted is, in my judgment, the most harmonious and most completely protective of all the metal schedules that have ever formed part ofour tarif'leglslation." "Our iron and steel manufacturers have reason to be thankful that the new tariff adequately protects their interests from injurious foreign competition. * It is working admirably"
 About the same time that this report of the admirable working" of the Mckinley bill was made, the patron of that bill, believing or af- fecting to believe that he had scat tered plenty over a smiling land, exclaimed to an applauding com pany Representatives of the trusts and protected industries at the Tariff League banquet at New York "Now go on and prosper" assuring them there was to be mo monkey ing with the tariff" and that his bill was good for ten years at least.
 Let the believer in Protection and especially the workingman read these assertions and promises made at the time the Mckinley bill was in the making. Let him then turn to the published list of mills closed, list that will be greatly increased before this paper reaches his eye, and see what the performance has been. H.ever a tariff schedule could have brought good wages and steady employment to labor here was the schedule that ought to have done so. It received earnest consIdera- ton" from the House Committee, said Major Mckinley. The views of our Association of employers), said MT. Swank, "were frequently solicited and promptly given" It will call for mo reduction of wages or diminution of hands," said Mai. Mckinley. It IS the most har- monious and eompletly protective of all the metal schedules ever tram- ed, said MT. Swank, and "adequa,e- ly protects" our interests.
 It's rates were dictated by the eager selfshness of home producers. Those rates are high enough to shut out foreign competition and to put the home market at the mercy of the American Iron and Steel Asso- citation. They are high enough to compel the American consumer to buy from the. home producer at prices dictated by trusts and pools.