Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1894-04-12
CAUSED sY THE m'KlnLEY LAW.

CAUSED BY THE M'KlNLEY LAW.
| senator NOorhees' Arrai gnmant of High
| Tariff In the Senate
| ',The appalling legislation of IsD0.
known rs the Mckinley law, created n
necessity for relief more immediate and
absolute than was ever before known
in American history, and the peo-
pie issued their instructions at the
ballot box accordingly. at the same
time the riotous extravaganza OF
the party then in power, taking an
overlooking treasury from an outgoing
| democratic administration in March.
| 1889, and leaving it practically bank
rupt four years later, imposed upon
| those who are now responsible for the
| support of the government the imperi-
Gus duty of providing against ugly de-
ficieucies and impending national dis
honor. In reaching results of such
| magnitude and Importance as these,
| and in carrying out the interests and
| declared wishes of toiling millions as
| contradistinguish from powerful and
| favored classes, obstacles have of
course been encountered, gigantic in
| size, arrogant. insolent dictatorial, and
in some instances sinister, pertidious
and dishonest in character. This fact
could not be otherwise under the pro-
| tective system which has for SO many
| years prevailed in this country.
Manufacturing interests, which a
hundred years ago were indeed and in
| fact in their infancy and were nursed
| and fostered while yet in the cradle of
their birth, are now the colossal task
masters of the whole people, command
ing tribute from every days labor be-
| meath the sun, haughtily striding the
corridors of this capitol and issuing
their edicts in the tones of dictators
for or against the enactment of pend
ing measures in the halls of congress.
Those who own and represent these
swollen and arrogant interests do not
hesitate to declare on what terms a bill
vitality affecting seventy million of peo-
pie will be permitted to become a law,
and in default of what provisions for
financial profits to themselves they
will insure its defeat The only policy.
the only request of practical protec-
| ZIONIST is to be let alone in the enjoy
ment of the highest duty and the fat
test bounty the government can give.
He makes himself an obstacle to
change, from no other or higher con-
sideration than sordid, brutal selfish
ness.
ITO the thoroughly protected and
self-complacent American manufac-
turer, sole master of his own market
and incarnation of human selfshness,
his enforced customers, those to whom
he sells at his own protected price,
have a value, as slaves once had to
their owners. Not more than four
days in the week belong to the laborer
himself under tariff laws as they now
stand; every hour CT the other two days
is absorbed in paying the manufac-
turer's increased prices on the neces'
saries of life which protective tariff
guarantees
Can there be any wonder that pro-
tected classes, and protected individ-
uals, who have been. as it were, taken
into partnership by the government,
every one of them, should break out
into vehement protest and angry out
cry when toIched and disturbed by the
spirit of reform and equitable legis-
lation?
The enactment Of the Mckinley
law in 1890 was gigantic crime not
only against every workingman and
workingwoman in the United States
but also against every individual man.
ufacturer and against all manufacture
ing interests. It was not so designed
by its authors, but such was its real
and inevitable character. It declared
policy SO hagitious in principle, SO
rotten in morality and so ravenous in
Sc 81, ~, ~1,,%o 80
life that its possible duration was only
question Of time when the next cleo
ton by the people should occur. and
yet the vast manufacturing interests
Of the country were tempted and Sc
duced into accepting its delusive brides
and into an eager adjustment of them
selves to its alluring though evanescent
and short-lived provisions.
''Our purpose Is to replace the law OF
1890 with u measure of reform, safe.
conservative and harmonious in itself,
and to which all the wholesome and
legitimate industries of the country
will speedily adapt themselves, and
tenaciously cling for secure develop
ment and undisturbed growth in the
future. If this can be done without
needless delay an era of prosperity will
dawn upon all the diversified interests
OF the country such as has never been
surpassed in our history.
OF the more than six million of peo-
pie employed in the manufacturing es-
Establishments of the entire country
from ocean to ocean, not one has ever
appeared before congress, or any COM
mittee of congress, or made response in
any public meeting, stating that his
employer, upon the enactment of high
er rates of duty on imports, ever gave
or suggested to give him a farthing's
increase of pay for his work.
COMMENTS OF THE PRESS.
Thomas B. Reeds sarcasm on the