Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1893-10-14
REPEATING OLD EALsEHooDs.
StO~ck-in-Trade Arguments of High Tariff
Republicans.

NNIN
Said Mr.. Mckinley in his recent
speech at Akron; They say Il protec-
tive tariff is a tax and a burden upon
the people. 1t is a tax upon the foreign
producer, and his w~elfareis not our first
concern
The soft coal beggars in their suppli-
cations before the ways and means
committee told a different story. They
all agreed that they wanted the tax on
imported coal because without il Nova
Scotia coal could be delivered in New
England ports cheaper than their own
could be. That is, they wanted the
tax to enable them to exact seventy
five cents per ton more from New Eng
landers than they could get without
the tax. They wanted it as a tax On
New England consumers, not ON Nova
Scotia producers
Other tariff beggars have admitted
the same thing, some of them expressly
as well as by necessary implication.
For instance, George 7. lkert, who was
heard on behalf of the pottery beggars,
said IN reply to a question from Mr..
Reed that 1.-The tariff tax was undoubt-
edly added to the price, and the con-
sumner really paid the duty" Three
years ago ex-Gov. Warmoth, of Louisi.
ana, protested against the substitution
of a bounty for the tariff tax because
it would disclose the fact that the tariff
is a bounty" and the people wouldn't
stand it when they discovered that fact.
When Benjamin Harrison was prcsi-
dent his protectionist solicitor general
made an argument before the supreme
court in which he said that ''the
amount of duty levied is n bounty to
the domestic manufacturer" and that
lit is with a view to such a benefit for
him that it is levied"
And so say they all when they are
not trying to deceive people whom
they take to be unidentified. Me
kinley himself said SO when he
was defending his notorious bill
three years ago, Speaking of his
ridiculous provision putting the same
duties on articles imported for govern
mcnt use as on the same articles inn
ported for private use, he said; THE
government, its officers, agents and
contractors will hereafter have to pay
the same duties which it's citizens gen
orally are required to pay" In his
eagerness to fool the people in one way
he let slip the truth in another way.
He admitted that the citizens of this
country, and not foreign producers,
pay the duties. IN the same speech. re.
ferring to the free admission of per
sonal effects" under the old law, he
said.
The practical effect OF this provision was
that the wealthy classes who we're able ia
visit distant countries secured exemption from
the payment OF duties, while the average Cit.
zen, unable to 30 abroad, was compelled TO nav
a duty upon the articles which he might want
TO use"
SO 1t was tbs average citizen who
paid the duties, while the wealthy citi-
zen, who could go abroad and bring in
a small cargo Of personal effects
free, escaped. And even in his Akron
after asserting that the tariff is
a tax on the foreign producer, he adj
nits in no less than three places that
home consumer pays it in the form
higher prices.
VI course every nan who understands
he subject knows that the object of
protection is to tax the domestic con-
tuners for the benefit of favored pro-
and that if this were not the
fleet the latter would lose all interest
II protection. But since the prctec-
lonists persist in their old attempt to
leceive, it is in order to convict them
II falsehood out Of their own mouths.
Chicago Herald.