Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1892-08-05
THE MCKINLEY TARIFF
What 1t Has Dome for the Country
Senator Aldrich's Great Speech

Answering the Attacks Of the Dcn-
ocratic Critics and Proving their Fal-
sity.
Senator Aldrch of Rhode Island deiv.
cred in the Senate last week an extended
plete and mastery defence of the McKin-
ley law and its effect in practical operation.
Mr.. Vest of Missouri was put forward by
the Democrats to outline the attack on the
two speeches in the Senate, charging it
with increasing the cost of living, lower
ing wages, causing strikes and labor
troubles, narrowing foreign commerce, and
depressing agriculture. Mr.. Aldrich, who
is more than any other man in public life a
master of the intricate and puzzling prob
lens of tariff legislation, answered and eX-
posed Mr.. Vests innumerable msstate-
ments. blundcrs and errors in way which
left him scarcely fact to stand upon. Mr..
Aldrich showed by unimpeachable evidence
that the reverse of all Mr.. Vests charges
is true: that since the Mckinley tariff
went into operation the cost of living has
fallen, wages have slightly increased, strikes
have been less numerous, our foreign com
merce has been expanded, the prices of ag.
rcultural products have advanced, and
general prosperity has been in every way
more marked. 1t was a speech which
furnishes complete arsenal Of tariff facts
in support of the Republican protective
policy.
The positions of the two parties on the
tariff question, which by common consent
is the leading issue in this campaign, have
never been so clearly defined as now, Mr.
Aldrich said in opening. The Republi-
cans enter the campaign distinctively fa-
voring the continuance of the protective
policy and announcing definitely the prin-
ciples which should control tariff legisla-
tion, while on the other hand Democrats
denOunce protection as fraud, declare
the unconstitutionality of protective tariff
duties, and make a special and vicious at
tack upon the tariff act of 1890 as the cul-
minating atrocity of tariff legislation.
The principal charge made by Mr.. Vest
against the tariff of 1890 was that it had
increased the cost of the necessaries OF
life, especially among the poor. The falls
ity of this charge is proved by the result
of the exhaustive and non-partisan inqui-
ry on this subject undertaken by the SEN
4, In, FHl,a
prices were secured by trained experts of
the department of labor, and the quota
tions covered the entire country geograph-
ically. The decline in the cost of living
from June, 1889, to May, 1892, as shown
in the report of this committee, was 3.4
per cent. The advance in wages, as shown
by the same report, was 10 of l per cent.
This makes an average advance in the pur-
chasing power of wages of 4. IL per cent,
assuming 5000 as the average income OF
families of the country, this would be
equivalent to S25 per family, or an aggre
gate saving for l3, 900, 600 families of S32j,-
coo, 900 for each year. 1.-The addition OF
this vast sum annually to the national
earnings and wealth is an achievement, -
Mr.. Aldrich said, (Which speaks with a
more eloquent voice than | can command
in behalf of a policy under which such re
suits are possible. 1t is very significant
that, while the cost of living declined fol
the period covered by the investigation o.
the finance committee, the cost of living
in England increased l.9 per cent. If tn,
conditions had been reversed, our Demo
cratic friends would have insisted that thi,
was the direct and logical result of tn,
rival revenue systems. | am curious tC
see what explanation they will now make.
The question of wages was next takeI
up, and on this point Mr.. Aldrich said tha
at no time in our history had the earning
of the American people been as great
measured by their power to purchase tn,
| comforts and necessaries of life, as the!
were today. Measured by the same stand
ard, they were vastly greater than those o
/ any other people in the world. The inves
| tigation of the Senate finance committee
| showed that in general occupations wage
in the United States were II per cent high
er than in England. He had submitted
table showing the relative wages in cOttOl
and worsted mills in the two countries
with American wages in many cases NOR
than 100 per cent higher The tables il
reference to wages in the production of til
plate showed difference of 1872 per cen
in favor of the United States as compare
with Wales. Similar statistics were abun
dant Wages in the United States shove
a still greater excess when compared wit
those of countries of continental Europe
Referring to Mr.. Vests assertion that neN
er before the present time had there bee
such disturbances of labor, or of such no:
tile and inimical relations between en-
ployer and emplOye, Mr.. Aldrich present
ed statistics of strikes in each year froI
1880 to 1890, inclusive in the United State
The strikes varied from 61O in 1880 to 7G
in 1890, whereas in Great Britain, the pa
adse of tariff reformers, 3l64 strikes Ina
occurred in 1890.
The Alleged Agricultural Depression
Mr.. Aldrich next took up the remarks
BILE assertion by Senator Vest that the
has never been such a prostration of agl
cultural interests as was effected by the a
of 1890. In support of this statement I
evidence whatever was submitted, and l
assertion could be more Numerically o
posed to the facts. In no class of peop
in the United States has the improv
ment in condition been so marked as