Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-02-27
M'KINLEY AND THE TARIFF
How the Ohio. Candidate Will Profit Ac.
cording to His Friends.
Protection to BE Played Against Sill
yer at st. Louis and May Save
the Party.

AS his friends view the matter, Mr.. Nc
Kinley loses nothing by the throwing of
the whole tariff question into the presi-
dental campaign. He may even gain by it.
The Deficit Growing.
The argument runs like this: In the first
place. the longer the government is made
to depend On the present tariff law the
greater will be the necessity for change.
The deficit in the treasury now is large
By June-convention time--;t will be larger
and discomfort with the tariff Jaw all the
greater. There will be demand for q
return to systematic protection, and that
VIII bring up the policy as it was inter-
preted by Mr.. Mckinley in the Fifty-first
Congress. The Ohio candidate, therefore
Will be more conspicuously In evidence than
ever. and his work TO be brought out in
strong comparison with the democratic
work that superseded it. Ought not this to
heIp him in the convention?
Protection ASnfnst Silver,
In the second place, protection will be
played at st. Louis against free silver.
The western men are not to have every
thing their own way. They are quite as
much dissatisfied with the present tariff
law as are the eastern republicans-just a
little bit more SO. it is thought There is
nothing in the law so Injurious to eastern
interests as free wool is to western inter-
ests. The west is very anxious to have
wool put back on the dutiable list, and at
a good stin figure. The east will help to
do this, and TO do other things desired by
the west. but not at the cost of the free
coinage of silver. The west must abate
something of thai demand in order to get
what she wants in the line of protection.
To Save the Party.
Protection, therefore, according to this
reasoning, is to play a most important pa TT
at St Louis. 1t Is to save the party from
disruption. If silver alone were to be at
stake there, disruption might take place
The east and the west are very far apart on
that subject. But the two sections must
hang together IL protection Is to be saved:
What would il profit the west to secure free
coinage by an alliance with the populists
or the democrats and at the same time bring
about free trade? And If protection is TO be
saved-and most particularly a return
effected to so vigorous an expression of 1t
as Will again cap a duty on wool-the re-
publican party must be fully restored to
power. The election in November of either
I. democratic or porulistic President would
defeat every protection aim by whomsoeyer
cherished.
what NchfHley's Friends Say.
While the Mckinley people concede that
all OF the aspirants for the republican pl esi-
dental nomination stand for protect ction,
they yet insist that their favorite stands
more conspicueEsly for 1t than any of the
others he is the one leader of the party
whose name Is always suggested when the
shibboleth of protection is invoked. He is a
platform la himself, proclaiming q hisi,
duty on raw materials as well as on finished
products. Nominate him, they assert, and
wherever protection sentiment exists it will
respond with enthusiasm to the call for
support.
The greater the part protection is called
upon to play at st. Louis, therefore, the bet
ter the Mckinley people will like 1.-THE
more out of the contest will, they think,
inure to the benefit of their candidate. Pro-
lection cannot be magnified without his can
didacy benefitng by il, and when it comes
to a discussion which shall 20 into the whole
subject, the Mckinley bin and its operations
must, 1t is insisted, overshadow every Other
feature connected with 1t.