Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1894-04-05
ATTACKS BY REPUBLICANS.
Shifting tbs blame Due to the Blieht.nE
MeKfnIev Act.

ATTACKS BY REPUBLICANS.
Shining tbs Blazns- due to the Biisht.nE
Mckinley Act.
The effrontery of the republican lead
era and organs in charging upon the
democratic party-and especially upon
the administration = the stringency
through which we have passed and the
resulting eonsequen ces to the business
of the country is the most brazen thing
of the kind the country has ever wit
messed. If these leaders and organs
had any sense of responsibility or of
shame they would be doing penance in
sackcloth and ashes for the sad effects of
the conduct and reckless mismanage-
nent of their party instead of trying to
foist the responsibility upon the
shoulders of their political oppo-
nents- For it is as clear as day to the
intelligence Of the world that, in so far
as the troubles from which the country
has been suffering and still suffers can
be traced to the action of any political
party, they are directly traceable to the
action of the republican party.
Largely, of course, they are due to
causes with which the country has had
long experience-to extravaganza aud
over-confdence in business and tosthe
undue extension of credits which can
not with entire Justice be charged to
any party. But we challenge success
full contradiction of the statement that
the bulk of our business troubles are
due directly to the extravagant ex-
penditures of the republican party
while in power and to the class legis-
lation which bears the label of that
party. That the result did not show
itself until that party had been driven
from power by an indignant and out
ragged people does not change the fact
1t was clearly foreseen while the party
was in power and in the main as clear
1y predicted; and it was because it was
so seen and predicted that the party
was driven from power.
That the Sherman silver law was in
great part responsible for our financial
troubles has been clearly, though
grudgingly, admitted by the more in
telligent leaders OF the republican
party. That the Mckinley act is also
responsible to a great degree is suscep-
tible of the clearest proof To it can
be traced directly the falling off in our
expectation of breadstuffs and other
staples which has been SO important a
factor In the diminution of our trade.
This vas clearly foretold The trainers
of the Mckinley act were distinctly
warned that the imposition which that
act contemplated on our purchases of
foreign goods meant retaliation in
kind. 1t required no gift of prophecy
to utter the warning. 1t was simply
the voice of all experience; and the end
merely confirmed the teaching of the
past. Great Britain is nothing if not
commercial She buys of those to
whom she can sell. Finding that she
could not sell to us she bought her
wheat as we'll as she could of Russia
and the Argentine Republic, and her
cotton of India, sending in exchange
what she had to sell 1t was not senti-
ment, but business She has bought of
us what she was compelled to, but she
has bought no more; and the conse.
quence has been an enormous falling
off in our trade, sufficient alone to &C
count for half of the disaster which has
befalIen our business interests.
The Mckinley act was responsible
also, very largely, for the overproduc-
ton in manufactures which has Rlutted
our markets and brought about stagna-
ton. 1t has been the result Of protec-
tive tariffs from their first inception.
The hrst effect is to unduly stimulate
manufacturing and thereby competi-
ton. Then follows that falling in
prices over which the short-sighted
protectionist gloats as the fruits of his
pet policy. The next step is the scram-
BILE to unload and this soon results in
stagnation. There Is nothing new in
the process. 1t ia as old as protective
tariffs are.
The most absurd of the pretenses by
which it is sought to Justify the attack
on the democratic party is that the
foundation of the trouble has been
dread of tariff change. 1t is undoubt-
eddy true that the inaction and delay
in congress has produced, and is pro-
ducing a feeling of uncertainty which
initiates against the revival for which
we are all waiting. But it is arrant
nonsense to talk of the panic SO called,
having been produced by anxious an
ticipation of tariff changes. Aside
from the fact that the blighting effect
of the Mckinley act is abundantly sui
ficient to account for the mischief done,
it is notorious that because of the evils
it foresaw from that act the country
voted Overwhelmingly for those very
tariff changes which it is now repre-
sented as looking forward to with
gloom and foreboding.-Det Free
Press.