Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1894-03-08
M'KINLEY AS A STATESMAN.
Ono of the Smallest Politicians Who Eve
Reached National Distinction.

Ono of the Smallest Politicians Who Ever
Reached National Distinction.
Gov. William Mckinley is flying from
one part of the country to the other on
a speech-making tour, and is showing
himself to the people with as much in
dustry as a ward candidate for Office
displays in the spring campaign. He
is keeping himself before the public
with the persistence of a patent medi-
cine advertisement on dead walls and
board fences. Evidently he does not
mean that the voters shall forget Him
for day.
Gov. Mckinley is one of the smallest
distinction in this country. He is not
a statesman. He is not scholar. He
is not an orator. Accident, that is, his
luck, has boosted him into a conspicu-
Gus place, and has ''blazed" for him a
track through the political woods
toward the presidency.
Gov. Mckinley was not the real
author of the tariff bill which bears his
name. The bill was framed, in sub
stance, by the agents Of the protected
monopolies for their own benefit Nc
kinley simply presented them form
skeleton of the measure, and each
protected interest filed in the figures
for itself. How much do you want?"
was, in effect, the question asked of
each monopoly, and according as it
was answered the tariff was fixed The
completed bill, as il received McKin-
ley's name, was mere indication, in
the various scheduled items. of the ex-
tent and intensity of monopoly greed
in establishing the amount of .'protec-
ton" that it was to enjoy.
There is no measure of government,
except the highest and most uncon-
scionable tariff ever adopted by civ
ilized nation, with which McKinley's
name is associated His only title to
eminence is that he was the lputative
author of an enormous and extortion-
ate tax on the people Of the country,
levied for the benefit of the limited
class of baron manufacturers-cloth
barons, iron barons, glass barons and
other monopoly barons of all degrees.
He is not identified with the cause of
a sound currency, with any great ma
tional policy, except the pernicious tax
policy. with any great public reform,
with any great improvement. with any
work of progress and American devel-
opment. The chapter of accidents gave
his name to an outrageous tariff bill
which he did not frame. and it has be-
come his stock in trade-his capital in
MISUNDERSTANDING for the first offices
in the nation.
1t may as well be admitted that early
in this year, 1894, after twelve months
of power, the democrats have not made
rs much progress as they ought to
have made in securing a successful is
sue to the presidential campaign Of
1896. A victory then, which ought to
have been a certainty now, has been
placed in peril. But there is abundant
time and there will be plenty of oppor-
tunities to retrieve the errors that have
been made and to enter upon winning
campaign.
To that end it is probably best that
the republicans should nominate Nc
Kinley for president The republican
platform, properly interpreted, reads:
ZIP with taxes; death to commerce"
and man should stand upon it who
represents that principle. Chicago