The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-04-13
M'KINLEY REVIEWED.

Major Mckinley is now looked upon
in many quarters as the man most
likely to secure the Republican party
nomination for the presidency The
Herald, however, does not share that
belief. Had the Republican con-
vention of Ohio drawn UP a finan-
| cial plank incorporating the senti-
ments of either the New York state
platform, or that of Massachusetts,. the
Ohio favorite would have been ir-
resistable at st. Louis, but his con-
temptfble straddle of the financial
question has materially weakened him.
and the Republican party is very likely
to look further for its standard bearer.
But Notwithstanding The Herald is of
the opinion that Ohio's favorite will
/ not be the Republican candidate for
president, still we admit the possibility
| of his being the candidate, and there
fore anything which relates to Major
Mckinley, his views, his past political
record, are all of interest, and there
fore, we give place to the following
trenchant analysis of his position on
the tariff by Mr.. ]. F. Gibbs, who
writes to The Herald as follows:
/ Inasmuch as Hon. William Mckinley
| is prominently before the people of the
United States as presidential posi-
! bility,' involving the possibility that
the people of Utah may be called upon
to choose between him and a Demo-
cratic candidate for the executive
! chair an impartial criticism if the
! great apostle of protection will not,
! it is believed. prove untimely.
Mr.. Mckinley is generally regarded
! by his protectionist friends as being a
profound statesman. The impression
that he is a great man is doubtless
owing to his having been the father
step-fat Their or godfather of or to, the
Mckinley bill. There is no other Incl
dent in his career that even his adj
! mirers can point to, that will indicate
! the possession on the part of Mr.. Nc
/ Kinley of anything more than a
mediocre intellect
That he is not a sincere man is
proven by his having been on both
sides on the question as to who pays
the tariff tax, and which is now con-
| ceded by every man and woman not a
natural born prevaricator, fool or
ignoramus, to be paid by the con
sumers of the articles upon which the
tariff tax is collected. Three years ago
last fall, 1T is believed, Mr. Mckinley
delivered one of his so-called great
speeches" in Minneapolis In the course
Of his remarks. by implication, he as
serted that the foreigner paid the tax
on American imports In substance
Mr.. Mckinley said. that he did not be-
lieve in taxing the people of the
! United States as long as the foreigner
can be taxed on his exports to this
country. In giving utterance to the
falsehood indirectly conveyed in that
statement Mr.. Mckinley wrote himself
down as a trickster or imbecile AS the
former term is very likely less often
Sive than the latter, it is conceded that
Mr.. Mckinley knew he was uttering a
falsehood and that he then knew, as
he now admits, that every retail mer-
chant in the United States is a COL
lector of the tariff tax, and that, by
virtue of the increased cost to the con-
sumner of protected articles usually en-
HANGED in price to the exact amount of
the import duty, those same merchants
are collecting money from the con-
sumers and sending it east to swell the
profits of the manufacturers of pro-
tected articles That Mr.. Mckinley has
since been forced by the dissemination
of truth among the people to admit
that his MINNEAPOLIS speech was false
and misleading, is proved by remark
able statement he made during one of
his characteristic great speeches" de-
livered in Chicago, February u. this
year. The following excerpt is clipped
from a press report of his great" eff
fort:
BY this system (the protective) the
man who contents himself to live upon
the products of his own country pays
nothing at all. Surely our country is
extensive enough, and it's products
abundant and varied enough, to answer
all the real wants of it's people. In
short, by the protective system
the burden of revenue falls almost en-
tirely upon the wealthy and luxurious
few, while the substantial and laboring
many who live at home. and upon home
products, go entirely free"
Even a. casual reading of the fore
going will convince the reader that Mr..
Mckinley not only conceded the falsity
of his former declaration that foreign
ers pay the tariff tax, but that he ut
tered another falsehood by implication,
in asserting that ethe man who con-
tents himself to live upon the products