The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1893-12-15
Pass the Wilson Bill at Once.

Pass the Wilson Bill at Once.
1t is probable that the Mckinley
tariff is to an enormous degree respon-
sible for the existing business depres-
sion. The wreck of our commercial
interests which is shown in the apali-
ing reduction in receipts from GUS
toms duties, and in the statistics of
our foreign trade. 1t is true the en-
ployes of our manufacturing indus
tries are the visible sufferers, but in
our Judgment their unhappy state is
only the practical exposure of the n
DERIVING fallacy of McKinleyism. that
you can wreck one interest in the
community to the profit of some
other.
But however baleful the influence
of the present atrocious tariff may be,
you cannot now get anyone to under
stand it. The issue has been SO COM
plicated that not Chairman Wilson or
Edward Atkinson himself can now
tell how much of the disaster is the
natural result of the Mckinley system
or the consequence of unreasoning
fears regarding the Cleveland-Wilson
idea. Nobody can deny that panic
has much to do with the present
standstill; but we believe with a
better perspective the country will
presently see that the crash was
bound to come any way.
1t is a pity that the Mckinley law
did not pass at the very beginning of
Presidential term. 1t is a pity it
had not a longer trial, accomplished
by the new element of a public pro-
nouncement against it. 1t is a pity
it had not a fair chance to work out
its own logical conclusions instead of
reaching these conclusions at a time
when its defenders might allege-as
they do-that the events were not it's
conclusions but were due to the dia-
metricaliy opposite cause, viz, its de-
feat.
Had McKinleyism prevailed in the
first year of Mr.. Harrison's admins
t~ration, the present depression and
suffering would have come before the
regime would be spared the onus of
its predecessors sins while the popu-
lar mind would not be torn by con-
fiicting theories and victimizsd by
Misrepresentation.
In order that some simple direct ex-
perience may at last be gained, the
Wilson bill should be passed at once.
Its provisions should be made oper-
alive, too, in short order. Thus the
people will have some opportunity to
judge of its workings by the time of
the next National election. its effects
Its advantages we implicit ly believe
will be plain and undeniable when
we come to elect another President in
1896.
Thus for ultimate reasons of princi-
pie, as we'll as for present motives of
expediency, the bill should pass at
n C The business community to-
day needs nothing SO much as GER.
tainty. We think the worst fanatic
on either side will admit that the
worst possible settlement; speedily
reached, is better than the pre- sent
utter unsettlement. Inside a month
after the bill passes, the industrial
and commercial worlds will have
adapted themselves to it, and every
body will be making money again,
eve if it is only a little.
SOME people are trying to persuade
the public of Hudson County that
Congressman George B. Fielder has
said he would vote against the Wilson
bill. We do not believe he ever said
n such BANKED idiotic thing. Mr..
Fielder, we like to think, is a man OF
enlightenment. a democrat, and an
observer of his plighted faith. In
every speech he made in the campaign
of1S92 he committed himself, beyond
retreat, to support the tariff reform
cause. We do not think he is either
weakened or tickle enough to &c
back on his word now.
DR.. McGILL's high praise Of the
late Grand Jury will carry great
weight with the public. He was a
member of it, and, of course, he ought
to know. Indeed nobody ever said a
word about the members as
individuals except that they
were the flower of our citizen
ship. There is only one trouble
as a body. and that is that they
totally neglected their most inn
portant duty, "a fact which will pres
emily be apparent from a comparison
OF their work with that of the Grand
Jury, in which George L. Record, DR..
Gordon, DR.. Edge. Mr.. Coffin, Mr..
Ufz and certain other examples of the
flower of our citizenship are the MEM
beers.
IT is marvellous how success invari-
ably brings to the helm the very worst
elements in the Republican party.
In spite OF feeble struggles of a few
mugwumpiau spirits to escape from
boss domination. it is plain that the