Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-11-24
The Republicans and the Tariff.

Secretary Charles Foster, while dc.
claring that the tariff was the cause of
the Republican overthrow, says it
| would be nonsense for the Republi-
cans to abandon in any degree their
present policy" The Secretary is not
a wise counselor in the present emer-
gency. When an army meets an over
whelming defeat its commander, if he
knows his business, at once inquiries
into the causes, with the intention of
remedying them, and thus to put his
forces in better condition for the next
encounter. If the defeat be due to the
incompetency or negligence of his lieu
tenants they are either removed or re-
duced, if to faulty plan of campaign
I the plan is altered, and if to the adop-
tiOn of a wrong position the positions
taken in the future, SO far as conditions
will permit, will be different. The
leaders of a great party, after the de-
feat of their party, will, if they are at
all fitted for their posts make like
investigation and take similar precau-
tions.
The Republican party was beaten be-
cause it had taken wrong position
on some of the leading questions of ma
tional concern. 1t was wrong on the
Federal election matter; it was emphat-
ically and fatally wrong on the tariff.
The passage of the Mckinley law of
1890 was the greatest blunder ever
committed by any party since the DEM
Ocratic crime of secession. 1t over
whelmingly defeated the party in the
Congressional election of that year,
and it was the leading cause in the
overthrow this year. Many Republi-
cans who were never in favor of the
act believed after the setback of 1890
that the popular hostility to it would
subside by the time the Presidential
election came around, and that the
party might then retain its supremacy
in the executive branch of the Govern
ment and regain control of the legisla-
tive branch. The returns show how
and conspicuously those
hopes have been blasted.
This thing called McKinleyism-this
of duties on articles which
have been on the dutiable list for from
a third Of century to century-has
been condemned finally and eternally
by the people. This verdict has been
rendered twice, and after an interval Of
two years between the judgments. The
first verdict may have been hastily
given. and without sufficient examina-
lion of the evidence, but the second
was recorded after reasonable deliber-
alton, and it was more profound and
emphatic than the first. II the Repub-
ican party is to win any victories in
,he future it must drop McKinleyism
and permanently, and send
Ill the men who cling to it to the rear.
The party must, of course, adhere to
he protective policy, but it must be
protection of the rational kind = the
which keeps the interests of
consumers as well as those of produc-
rs in view. 1t must be the kind Of
which the party adopted at
he beginning of its career, which it
'egan to practically exemplify in the
arly ..70s" by reducing duties discrim-
but decidedly, and which it
until the Mckinley school
t economists forced themselves to tho
ront. Under this sign the Republi-
ans can again conquer Globe Demo
rat
job Work of all kinds neatly execut-
at this Office.