St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-03-29
M'KINLEY TALKS TARIFF,
Continued From First Page.

are July 01S-IOufCu USiOW Tie USUAL
quantity. The small advance attempted
in boots and shoes Year ago was not
sustained, but with prices as low as
ever the shipment of boots and shoes
from Boston are ri per cent less than
last year in December. Not only man.
ufactured goods as whole, but the
most
IMPORTANT FARM PRODUCTS
are so low that farmers find little com
fort. Official and other reports deluded
traders with the notion that crops of
last year were so short that famine
prices could be realized" To add to
the perpleXities of the situation under
the menace of free trade, here de-
Scribed. the Wilson bill, which recently
passed the house OF representatives at
Washington and is now in tile hands of
the senate, proposes ostenSlbly to re-
duce the revenues S16.0G0.000. The real
decrease would eventually, after we be-
came more and more impoverished. be
far greater. This is at time when the
expenses of the government far exceed
lis receipts, and When by reason of such
q condition the secretary of the treasury
has been compelled to sell $50, =
100000 of government bonds, with
the belief in many quarters
that this is but the beginning of
bond Issuing to relieve the daily wants
000,u00 which IL is proposed to surrender
of the revenues is more than one-third
of the entire sum received from customs
in the last fiscal year. This reduction is
made upon the theory of the Democratic
free traders that it will relieve the pe0-
pie Of burdenSome taxation. Whether
it does or not depends. But OF one thing
we are certain: 1t has relieved the Deo-
pie of employment, of work. of wages,
of prosperity and OF plenty-and some
of them OF their homes. The blessings
OF good wages, good prices and good
times are more 10 be desired than The
proposed relief from so-called burden
some taxation" Such a relief is no
relief. Before considering this measure
Ill detail, let us briefly review
OUR TARIFF LEGISLATION.
1t is worth something TO US all to
know what the founders of the republic
thought and did. 1t is inspiring to us
10 know from history that our earliest
legislation upon economic questions
was not manned by SectionallSm, nor
framed upon geographical lines, but
was prompted by the loftieSt patriotism
and marked by national sentiment as
broad as the country. The first pro-
tective tariff law in our history "a law
that was approved by Washington had
for its author james Madison. of Vir-
ginia. known and revered as the
its supporters and friends were
such well-known Southern States
men as Richard Henry Lee, the
friend and e!uogist of Washington
Charles Carroll, of CarrOll:on; Abra-
ham Baldwin and James Jackson, of
Georgia; Theodore Bland and John
Brown. of Virginia; Hugh Williamson
and John Sewer. OF North Carolina
John Henry and Daniel Carroll, of
Maryland; George Read and John Vim
ing, of Delaware; Ralph lizard. Thomas
Tudor Tucker aud Thomas Sumter, of
South Carolina. These men mad. for
the most part, been soldiers of the Revo-
luton and members of the convention
which framed the constitution. They
held protective legislation to be essen
tial TO our industrial independence and
progress and knowing something OF
the constitution did not hold such legiS-
lation to be an infraction OF that inStru-
ment. A still more
STRONGLY PROTECTIVE LAW
was enacted i'll 1890, aud il is Slgnifi-
cant fact that of the thirty-nine votes
given for the bill twenty-on were from
the Southern, thirteen from the Middle
and five from the New England states.
Its advocates included most of the
Southern leaders already named and
James Monroe, Of Virginia. The early
laws which inaugurated the policy of
lon lrD1 ha al r
three presidents, all from tine South =
Washington, Madison and Monroe. OF
the thirteen votes against the law nine
were from New England, three from
the Southern and one from the Middle
states. 1t VIII thus be seen that we are
largely indebted 10 the South for the
Inauguration and establishment OF our
protective system. The early Southern
statesmen were nearly 10 a man in its
favor, and it is cause for universal re-
greet that those who assume to speak
for that section today have wandered
so far away from the example anG
teachings OF their patriotic predecessors
John &. Calhoun began his career as
plotectioniSt. and favored the dilfu-
sion and growth of manufacture:
throughout all sections alike. He re
manned Staunch pIOtcctioniSt for many
years, until he and his followers OF The
South began to realize that the interest:
of SlaVe-UuyerS and owners, aud o
free, protected and well-paid labor were
inevitably anlagonlStlc. That reason
whatever influence it may have hat
then, ought to have no force now, TO
slavery and tie slave traffic no Ionge
have place In our civilization, and tn,
Interests OF one section of
OUR COMMON COUNTRY
Of every other. Washington, in hi
message of 1856, urged upon congress
the necessity of accclerating the eStaO
llShment OF certain useful manufacture
by the intervention of Legislative ali
and protection" jefferson. in Decem
Der, 1901, i'll his first message, congratu
lated congress upon the revenue derives
from tariff duties and suggested tina
There is now reasonable ground @
confidence that we MAY safely diSpens
with all internal taxes and rely for tn
support Of the government and the pay
ment OF the public debt upon tariffs.
in 1908, III his annual message OF tina
year to congress, he still adhered to til
protective tariff.
In 1916 the first revenue'or free-trad
tariff was enacted. Henry Clay in lS2;
seven Years after the adoption of th
tariff, thus described the condition {
the country: The general -distres
which pervades the whole country
forced upon Us by numerous facts {
the most iHcontestibIe character 1t
indicated by tie diminished exports
native products; by the depressed an
reduced state OF our foreign navigation
by our diminished commerce; by SUI
ceSSive unthreshrd crops of grain pc
iSning in our barns for want of a marke
by the alarming diminution OF tF
circulating medium; by the universe
complaint OF the
WANt' OF EMPLOYMENT,
and the consequent reduction of tt
wages of labor, and above ali, by I'll
low and depressed state of the Walt
of almost every description of propert
IN the nation. which has, on an averag
sunk not less than 80 per cent within
few years. 1t is most painful for Inc
dwell on The gloom OF this picture, but
have exaggerated nothing. Perfe
fidelity to the original would ha'
authorized me TO throw on deeper al
n limos ,,