Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1893-08-03
Mckinieyism ". cisvsiaadism.

Some Of cur free trade contemporaries,
says the New York Press. are squabbling
over the definition of MeKinieynm. We
will gladly de fine Nekinlsyism, aud sc
hope that the definition will be accepted.
Mekinieyism, az applied to the tariff leg
i.latfnn formulated BY William Mckinley.
chairman Of the ways and means commit
tee Of the Pifty-hrst Congress, represents
the alost advanced tariff bill ever enacted
by an American Congress.
That act a. IL s,aads on the statute books
today represents the broadcast statesmansbip.
It extended the free list, reducing the
average al salorem rate on all imported
merchandise to a trihe over 20 per cent
I. gave the masses Of the people the great
boon of free sugar.
IL gave the msnuf4ctur rs free raw ma
terisi wherever this cond be done without
! destroying an American industry or impov-
eri.hng American labor.
IL reduced duties wherever It was posi-
bic TO DO so without injury to American
manufactures.
f. fcarIessIy increased duties wherever
By so doing it was possible to establish on
this side of the Atlantic an industry en-
pl ;, ~ American labor and American cap.
itaI
It strengthened the administration of the
customs laws by substituting specific for adj
vaIorem duties, thereby decreasing the pos
sbihties of fraud.
It adjusted rates of duties to the needs of
bu,iaess with the one patriotic aim of EN-
plo, ing the largest amount Of American
e.gi al or the greatest number of American
artisans for the benefit of the home market
That in brief is McKinleyism. What
we're the results:
No sooner WAS the law enacted than the
current began to run in our objectionable
Erection sf the nlted States. Mills,
factories and workshops began to spring
up al over the country. Many large in
iuslries moved their entire plants to this
COUNTRY The manufacture of tin plate, of
various other metals, of pearl buttons of
lacr, of plush and hundred other com
moilties was established. Wages stiffened.
Additional hands were employed. New fac
tori. were built. The country was pros
porous. The working classes were employ
Ell. To say that McKinleyism increased the
cost OF anything cannot for an instant be
sustained, for even such rabid free trade
organ as the New York Evening Post in an
article elsewhere reproduced, admits that
never IN lut history VI tut country HIS tHt
American workman been able to purchase
% much for given sum of money as dur
ing this period.
Had Mckinleyism been allowed to stand
this prosperity would have continued. The
preson- depression and industrial ruin
would have been ayerted. In place of Nc
Kinleylsm, with its prosperity, it's high
ways and abundant work, the nation is
nov threate ned with the blight of Cleye-
hn,lism The very hearts core Of the
c ,un.ry-its industries--are to be de-
stroyed. The wages Of labor so free trade
organs Coliiy announce, must be reduced.
They are too high, they proclaim. Ii the
passage of these free trade laws means
ruin, why ruin it must be. Clevelandism
means broken financial institutions. shrink
age of values reduced wages, men and
women out of employment, ruined manu-
facturers, closed workshops.
1t wont take long if matters continue as
they are just now, for the wage earners of
the United States TO obtain very clear and
very emphatic de finition of the difference
be tween Mckinley ism and Cleyelandism.