The Washington times., 1894-03-29
WILSON BILL ARRAIGNED
McKinley's Opening Blast to the Re-
publicans Of Minneapolis.
HIS NAME IS DOOMED FOR '96
Discussion Of Schedules and Bsrates the
Mammoth Incompetency Of the Present
Administration and Congress.

was alive with Republican enthusiasm to-day.
1t began when Governor McKinley's party
arrived at the West hotel. The Governor
the great staircase to a throng that packed
the hotel lobby as it has not been packed since
the national convention.
Later on he delivered a longer address to
the State League of Republican Clubs at the
Exposition building, and was received by the
1000 delegates present with the most tumul-
tuous applause.
Everywhere it was taken for granted that
this was the formal opening of the Mckinley
campaign for the Presidency. The glee clubs
sang it at the Ohio statesman from every
coign Of vantage, the people applauded the
sentiment, and Mckinley smiled acquiescence
to their aeclaims. At the Exposition building
Gov. Mckinley said, in part:
Mr.. President, gentlemen of the Republican
League of Minnesota, and fellow-citlzens-The
past year has been a long one. the longest since
the war. II has been full of changes and expe-
riences which have been impressive and instruc-
tive, but expensive. All kinds of business have
been seriously disturbed Investments
have been sacrificed; capital has been de-
spoiled Of its earnings, and labor, more
than all and dearer to us than all, has
change by which industry has been cheated Of
its Just rewards Everything has suffered but
the Republican cause Everything has been
biighied but Republican principles. They have
escaped the mildew which has settled upon
everything else. Even the Democratic party
has sutfered-a calamity we could bear with
resignation, If it had not also carried in its train
the vast and sacred interests Of the people.
The Democratic party won in 1892, as in every
contest since the war in which it has succeeded,
by a campaign of profuse and glittering prom
isea Ii stands temOFaliZeU the field of
performance, and has. SO FAR, signally failed TO
redeem a single pledge II made to the people.
1t has been for many years denouncing the tariff.
because some men became rich under its opera
tions and others poor. The first year of Demo-
cratic control has cured all that, and the pre-
s:ription has proved quite as effective on the
poor as the rich, for 1t has involved them all in
a common loss What devastation and distress
have been wrought in single year.
To add to the perplexities OF the situation
under the menace of free trade, here described,
the Wilson hill, which recently passed the
House of Representatives at Washington and
is now in the hands OF the Senate, proposes
ostensibly to reduce the revenues S76,00OUC0.
The real decrease would eventually, after we
became more and more impoverished, be far
greater. this is 1T time when the expenses
of the government far exceeds its re-
ceipts and when by reason of such con-
dition the Secretary Of the Treasury has
been compelled to sell s5o,0o0,o0o of government
bonds, with the belief in many quarters that this
is but the beginning of bond issuing to relieve
the daily wants OF the government The sum OF
S1ip0J0 900 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 re-
ieye the people of burdensome taxation.
Whether ii does not depends. But of one
thing We are certain: 1t has relieved the people
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 TO be desired than the pro-
posed relief from so-called ''burdensome taxa
ton" Such relief is no relief.
The Wilson bill turns to the past; away from
the present II is for the plantation. not for the
farm and the factory As it passed the House il
had for its foundation principle free raw
material Its authors argued that with free
coal, free iron ore, free lead and free wool
the manufacturers of the United States would
be placed on equality with the nanufact-
urers of free trade countries, and we there
fore could not only retain our own markets,
but control 1.-THE markets of the world"
Based upon this argument which believe TO be
false, they declared that with these great
primary products free We would have steady
employment for all the workingmen of the
country at good wages. And so in this form the
bill passed the Democratic House of Representa-
tives and is now the dread subject of angry con-
tention in the Democratic senate.
An examination of the bill by the Democratic
members of the Finance Committee of the Sem
ate evidently convinccs them that Mr. Wilson's
bill and his argument in support of the same
are alike based upon false principles So coal
gees back TO the tariff list. iron to the tariff
list. and Iced TO The tariff list, leaving free
wool alone, the cnly product of agriculture,
to support the false theory of the House bill
Even Mr. Cleveland is disregarded, for
in his Madison Square garden speech,
after his nomination in 1892, he said: 1--WE
believe that the advantage of freer raw mate
rial should be accorded to our manufacturers.
We propose, therefore, TO stimulate our domes-
tic industrial enterprises by freeing from duty
the imported raw materials which, by the en-
pioyment of labor. are used in our nome manu-
lectures, thus extending the markets for their
sale and permitting an increased and steady
production with an allowance of abundant
profits
have looked with some degree of care through
the lii find nothing but irritation and ag-
Erayation to the great industries of the country.
No interest suffers by il more severely than agri
culture, and labor OF all kinds seems TO have
be en- singled out as its foremost victim. have
examined Ii carefully to find some section, para
graph, clause or line removing the great bur-
den OF tariu taxes from the shoulders of the peo-
pie" about which we have heard so much for so
many years from the Democratic orators and
have read so frequently in Democratic news
papers and platforms, but have been unsuc-
cessful in finding any such provision.
/ not here to discuss tariff rates or
schedules These are subject TO change up or
down, rs new conditions require ii, but my in
sistence is that these changes must ever be
governed by the protective principle, and within
that principle rates may be, should De, and will
be amended as time, new processes OF manu-
Guire, but they must not fall below a
rate which will adequately measure the
difference between the American scale of wages
and that of competing countries and must al
ways he in favcr Of the labor of our own country
and the home market for our people The prin-
ciple uponswhich they were made is not subject to
amendment The tariff policy of this country
must be protective. Thai j. what contend
for, that is what the American people mean TO
have
The advocates of tariff taxation are divided