Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1893-12-13
THE NEW TARlFF BILL.
McKinley's Opinion of the Bale.
full Measure.
What it Means to the Industrial In
terests Of Our Country.

What 1t Means to the Industrial In
terests Of Our Country.
NEW YORK, Dec. 3.-Governor Nc
Kinley is out with review Of the Will
son tariff bill in the New York Press.
He says:
II have already said it is good bill
for Europe and bad for the United
States. 1t is also sectional. Hoop iron
is made free for bailing cotton and
dutiable for all other uses. The bill is
reassertion of the economic doctrines
OF the old South, and blow at the coal
and iron industries of the new South.
1t strikes wage earners without mercy,
and deals serious blow to agricultural
interests. 1t means that the greatest
manufacturing and agricultural nation
in the world is to abandon its own
economic system and adopt that of a
competitive nation. which it has already
outstripped in the pursuit of wealth
and happiness.
II have no hesitation in pronouncing
this bill by far the most radical and
far reaching in the direction of free
trade of all tariff bills prepared by the
Democrats during the last decade. 1t
viii prove more destructive to Aneri
can industry than the ambiguous and
uncertain cross cut proposed in 1884. 1t
reaches far beyond the measure of 1886.
and makes deeper cuts and more serious
inroads into the protective system. than
were made in the production of Mills
in 1888. 1t was fashioned outside the
committee, printed apparently without
the knowledge of the minority and
without consideration and discussion
in full committee.
Never in the whole course of my
experience in tariff legislation has the
testimony been so direct, SO clear, SO
unqualifiedly, SO pathetically in some
instances, against the changes which
the committee seems to have made. A
glance at the printed testimony, pub
lished by the committee suggests doubt
if the members of the committee respon-
sible for the proposed legislation ever
listened to or examined this testimony.
One after another expert in the several
branches of manufactures and mining
referred to, representing a total of prob
ably 100000 wage carriers. testified to
the existing unhappy condition, that
fully one half of labor is unemployed,
mills and factories shut down, mines
closed up, railroad transportation re.
duced to half its usual proportion.
"Shrinkage of values, curtailed capi-
tai, uncertainty and distress are the
sorrowful refrain in every instance.
These unusual conditions were brought
on in large measure by the fear of free
trade, and touching, as they do, prac-
tically every home and fireside in the
land, intensity the misery and indust-
rial wreckage already occasioned by
the agitation of this question SO soon
after its supposed settlement in 1890.
1.-THE bill itself undertakes to revise
the revenue system. Substantially all
tariff schedules are affected. The most
dangerous features of the bill seems to
be additions to the free list, and changes
from specific to ad valorem rates of
duties. The first will prove absolutely
destructive to important American in
dustries, while as to the second change
experience has shown that it is produc-
tive of frauds and under valuations.
The law of 1890 endeavored to correct
irregularities in the collection of Gus
toms duties, while the proposed bill
only aggravates them. First, the Nor
rison bill might have been termed a
leap in the dark. Now, the Wilson bill
is reckless leap into dangers illumi-
mated by indisputable testimony, the
experience of generation. The ad
valorem feature of the bill ought to
defeat the entire measure. In framing
the bill of 1890, the committee intro
duction, wherever possible, specific
duties. This system is based upon
quantity, the other upon value difficult
of ascertainment, resting upon the
judgment of experts, all the time offer
ing bribs to undervaluation. The
other rates upon quantity, fixed and
well known the world over, always
determinable and always uniform. The
ad vslorem system applied to our wooden
industry, so English newspapers re-
Gently said, would close up half the
mills in the United States. The vice