The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1894-10-19
w THEY FULFILL
PROMISES.
THEIR
HOW

The one great claim of the free
trader is that the sugar trust tariff law
has greatly reduced duties and made
the necesSaries of life cheaper. They
have declared time and again that it
should be the Injuries which should
bear the duty and not the poor mans
necessities. Let us examine into the
matter little. No man in this
country is better fitted to analyze
their work than is Gov. Mckinley. In
his speech at Bangor, Maine, last
month, he showed how, in making
their reductions of duty, they had
kept their promises to the poor man.
He said:
Let us examine briefly the free list
J of the new law. 1t has taken from
the tariff list of the law OF 1890 and
put on the free list articles the value
of which, as imported in 1898, was
S41 1893, 000.71. Now OF what does this
new free list consist?
Nearly one-half of it-Or, to be cor
rect, SlS, 1876, 553. 92-waS the farmers
wool; then $40, 198, 391.1l was lumber
and 81, 512, SAB agricultural products:
Flax and hemp, the importatlons OF
which last year amounted to 81, 49,
23l.6O, are transferred from the dutl-
able and placed upon the free list.
Your free list, therefore, consists
chiefly and almost exclusively OF the
products of the farm and the forest,
which amount in all to S31 1897, 5000
l. IL, e hi N WI frnn
list, amounting to So, 46O, 249.77, con-
sists chiefly Of manufactured articles,
although nearly one-fOurth of it, or
Statuary and other works OF art.
Now let us see what constitutes
their boosted reductions of duties:
On the basis of impOrtations of last
year they have reduced the tariff on
leaf tobacco and Havana cigars ST.
434, O12.
On liquors they have reduced duties
more than 1922, $50. The duty on
brandy, for example, is reduced from
81. so per gallon under the law Of 1890
to S1.S0 under the new tariff law.
On laceS and embrOiderieS they have
reduced the duties based upon the i'm
of last year 81, 237, 800.
VII DIN ulCoS SOOuS, pluoiICo, NOlNOUo,
ETC., S2,720,605.
On ostrich feathers and flowers
S255, $50.
On kid gloves SS75,000.
On chinaware 81, 233, 987.
On paintings and statuary 1882, 65I.
On pearl buttons 1924, 900.
On plate and cut glass $205, 667.
On opium for smoking S4OO,O73.
On jewelry $4,000.
How the reduced tariff on these
articles will relieve the poor man!
What arelief these changes will bring
him! Every one is an article OF luxury.
Not one has any place in the list of
necessities. All are articles which are
chiefly used by the wealthy and Opu-
lent, the best conditioned of our cOun-
try.
And in return for this they put
sugar, an article used by every poor
man in the country, on the dutiable
list. AS the poor workingman sits
down to his breakfast table and puts
his taxed sugar in his coffee, he must
be thrilled through and through with
patriotism at the thought of the privi-
lege Democracy has given him to pay
a tax on sugar, in order that the
wealthy may get their Havana cigars,
brandy, laces and embroideries, silk
dress goods, pushes and velvets,
ostrich feathers, kid gloves, china
ware, plate glass and jewelry at re-
duced duty. What glorious privi-
lege. And still he kicks because his
wages are reduced as consequence.
How ungrateful-from a free trade
standpoint.
And yet who can blame him. He
was told it would be different. He
now realizes the imposition which was
put upon him.