The herald., 1897-07-22
BUNCoED

Those citizens who call thens elves Ma
tional Democrats, and who were bun
coed into supporting Mckinley and the
single gold standard by the promise of
the Republicans that any tariff legis-
lation they might enact would be mod
crate in character are now supposed to
be kicking themselves for exhibiting
such gullbility and lack of common
sense. They will repent in sackcloth and
ashes when the effects of the new law
are felt.
The average ad valorem rate under
the Mckinley law of 1890 was 49.5S per
cent Under the Wilson-G law of
1894, now in force, the average rate is
SO "a per cent. The average rate under the
Dingley bill as it came from the house
was 57.3 per cent and it is estimated that
the rate will not be less than 55 per cent
when the bill finally becomes a law.
And this is the moderate" tariff meas
ure which the Republicans promised
their confiding Democratic allies!
The Mckinley law was the highest
tariff legislation we have ever had in
force, and it was so obnoxious to the
people that they elected low tariff
house of representatives at the first OPP
portunity and Democratic president at
the next presidential election. There are
in the new tariff bill as it comes from the
senate 109 items-and the list is incom-
plete-where the rates of duty are above
those in the Mckinley act. There are
really about 14O such items, but the 1919
are set forth in the congressional rec
ord by Senator Vest, who employed an
expert to go over the bill With the ex-
ception of tobacco, every schedule in the
bill has some increase of rate above
the corresponding rate in the McKin-
ley bill
1t has been denied, first that the Re
publican tariff bill favors the trusts,
and second, that such a thing as trust
really exists; and it is affirmed by the
apologists that the bill is entirely phi
lanthropic and beneficial in character
AS a matter of fact, there are in the
under the protecting care of the so-called
American system of protection, the ma
jority of which are favored by an in
crease of duty under the pending tariff
rails, for instance, the duty is reduced;
in few others the duty remains the
same, but increase is the general rule.
Senator Vest. in submitting the list
said:
1t is not claimed that all of these
combinations are now in existence; but
with the exception of the few which the
present tariff law weakened, and which
the trainers of this bill have been I'M
able to rehabilitate, as cotton ties and
few other items, there is not one in
the long list of trusts here given which
this bill does not help by placing new
weapons in the hands of those who
grind the faces of the poor" If any
of these trusts have slept in the last
three years, it is because the present
tariff law, inadequate as it was in its
measure of reform, hampered in its
making by the same influences which
have fashioned the pending bill, had at
least enough of the leaven of virtue
to curb something of the unbridled
license which the trusts enjoyed be-
fore and will again. Not one which was
in existence but will rise again.
Is it strange that the tariff for-revenue-
only Gold Democrats feel that they have
been buncoed and befooled by the prom
Use of their ancient political enemies?