Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1892-02-12
An Educational Measure.

| We are inclined to give credit wher
credit is due, and we cannot deny tina
the Mckinley bill, with all its draw
backs and weaknesses, has one admira
BILE feature. 1t is one of the best edu
cational measures of the day.
Its very thoroughness in RADICAL,
advancing the duties has had gool
effect in bringing the actual facts O
the tariff discussion irresistably before
the people. They have seen beyont
all dispute that the tariff advances the
price of articles. Mckinley himself
has at last been forced to admit this.
They have further seen that it up.
sets business and destroys values. And
as time goes on and the country is
found to be less prosperous instead OF
more so, except for the phenomenally
favorable condition OF agricultural pro-
ducts, the eyes of the people are being
opened.
The elections of last year were a
striking illustration of this movement,
and from time to time between cleo
tions a prominent Republican an
nounces his emancipation from the
fallacies into which his party has fallen.
A pamphlet recently issued by one
who signs himself "A Lifelong Re-
publican" presents brief arraignment
of his party that deserves reproduction.
1t scarcely gains strength from the fact
that the writer has been Republican,
but that fact is of interest as showing
the drift Of opinion. The arraignment
is as follows:
L. The public revenue from customs
duties has declined $47 10000 in eight
months. The public expenditures
during this period have increased.
=. The total number of mercantile
failures in the United States has in
creased III per cent. in the first six
months after the passage of the Nc
kinley bill. The liabilities of the
failed firms nave increased during the
same period Al per cent. Per contra,
the amount of liabilities of failed firms
in Canada, where all the conditions of
trade are like our own except as to
Mckinleyism, have decreased q per
cent. during the same time.
3. The number OF failures from
January l to October l. 1S9l-i. e.,
since the Mckinley bill went into op.
eration-has been greater than in any
other year during the past decade, be-
ing S,S66. The highest number during
the decade other than this was in 1885,
following the panic OF 1884, when it
was S,433.
4. The volume of business, as
shown by bank clearings, has fallen off
III per cent. in six months since the
Mckinley bill went into operation
The shrinkage in clearings during that
time has been more than three thous-
and million dollars.
5. A blow has been struck at the
prosperity of New York city by the
Mckinley bill, and this was intention
al on the part of the trainers of the
bill, because New York is the chief en-
trepot of foreign trade. This blow is
represented by a decline of 33 per cent.
in new buildings in the city during the
past seven months.
6. The general prosperity of the
country has been cut down So per
cent. This is shown by shrinkage of
that amount in the consumption of
pig iron, which is the best available
test of the general prosperity of the
country.
Z. Finally, the Mckinley bill
crushed the Republican party in the
last national election under a popular
of more than three million
votes. The writer does not mention
this circumstance as calamity, al
though he was Republican himself
up to that time.