Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1894-04-14
ATTAcKs eY RepusLloANs.
shifting the BlAms Due to the BlightinE
Mckinley Act,

] ATTACKS BY REPUBLICANS.
{ shifting h BlAms Due to the BliEhtinI
Mckinley Act.
The ~etfrontery of the republican lead
ers and organs in charging upon the
democratic ~party=hid especially upon
the administration the stringency
! through which we have passed and the
resulting consequences to the business
of the country is the most brazen thing
of the kind the country has ever wit
messed. II these leHdcra and organs
had any sense Of responsibility or of
shame they would be doing penanee In
sackcloth aud ashes for the sad effects OF
the conduct and reckless ~mismanage-
ment 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
he 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 experienced extravaganza aud
o~ver-contdence in business and to the
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.
ly predicted; and it was because 1t 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
g~rudgingly, 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. 10 it can
be traced directly the falling of in our
expectation of breadstuifs and other
staples which has been so important Il
factor In the ~diminution of our trade.
ms vas clearly foretold. The trainers
OF the Mckinley act were distinctly
that the imposition which that
act contemplated on our purchases of
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 IL not :
commercial. She buys of those to ,
whom she can sell. Finding that she =
not sell to us she bought her '
Wheat as well as she could of Russia c
md the Argentine Republic, and her =
'otton of India, sending in exchange |
What she had to sell. 1t was not senti. r
nent, but business. She has bought of c
Is what she was compelled TO, but she =.
las bought no more; and the conse l.
Iuence has been an enormous falling y
II in u trade, sufficient alone to nc. q
cunt for half of the disaster which has ,
our business interests. Z
The Mckinley act was responsible
$50, very largely, for the overproduc- e
IN manufactures which has glt1tted p
ur markets and brought about starna- st
ION 1t has been the result of protec. q
We tariffs from their first inception, u
ne hrst effect is to unduly stimulate u
manufacturing and thereby COMPETE. "
Then follows that falling In
over which the short.sighted al
gloats as the fruits of his al
policy. The next step is the scrnm- u
'e TO unload and this soon results in III
agnation. There is nothing new in o'
he process 1t is as old as protective al
riffs are.
l,he most absurd of the pretenses by III
1t is sought TO justify the attack W
the democratic party is that the q
undation of the trouble has been
cad OF tariff change. 1t is undoubt-
~ true that the inaction and delav vi
congress has produced, and is pro-
'cing n feeling of uncertainty which
'litates against the revival for which OF
9 are all waiting. But 1t is arrant al
'nsense to talk of the panic. SO called, oa
wing been produced by anxious M. M
OF tariff changes. Aside al
I'm the fact that the blightinr effect OF
the Mckinley act is a~bundantly suf- sa
lent to account for the mischief done.
is notorious that because of the evils al
from that act the countrv TIL
tea overwhelmingly for those very en-
IN changes which 1t is now repre- ell
tied AS looking forward TO with an
'om and foreboding.-Detroit Free cia