The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1897-06-11
THE PROTECTIVE SYSTEM.
Mckfnleytsm ss Too slow for n
People.

|
McKfnIeyism IL TOO slow for shs
People.
The protective system is subject te
one peculiar disadvantage. Its benef.
cent effects are cut off at both ends
while by malign perversity of nature
the damning results of free trade ex.
tend themselves fore and aft, miracu.
lousy antcdating their cause and per-
sisting long after that cause has dis
appeared.
The Mckinley law was passed in Oc-
tober, 1890. The next month the peo-
pie rose up and smote il under mis-
apprehension, as its friends explained,
causedby the fact that il had not yet had
time to produce its intended effects.
In 1891 these effects had still failed to
arrive to sufficient extent to mollify
the popular resentment, and in 1892
the country was so far from recogniz-
ing their presence that ii elected the
celebrated Grover Cleveland, then a
statesman of much eminence as a tariff
smasher, to clear the protective incum-
brance out of the way.
1t was about this time. according to
the theories of the high tariff school.
that the Mckinley law Should have been
getting fairly 10 work. but the mere
threat OF its repeal in the future in
volved in the election of hostile presi-
dentandcongress. paralyzed it's delctae
mechanism. For more than 81 months
after the presidential election the Nc
,a1 f,,n l.
its usefulness was gone. The people
continued to pay the mountainous
duties, but their magical power to
compel prosperity had disappeared.
The vague shadow of possible but I'M
known low tariff in the distant future
was more potent than the actual work.
ings OF high tariff in the present.
Thus IT resulted that, although the Nc
kinley law was in force for nearly four
years, it never once got a chance. ac-
cording to its friends. to show what IL
could really do. 1t went to its grave, a
mute. inglorious Milton. with all its
brilliant possibilities buried under the
clods of adverse circumstances.
The Wilson tariff experienced no
such delay III getting under way. 1t be-
gan its deadly work, as the Mckinley
professors of economies have frequently
explained, more than year before it
was born, and ii has continued its bale
full activity ever since.
And now there is to be new and
more stringently protective tariff. but
it has none of the preliminary effects
that protectionists credited TO the Will
son bill when it was still without form
and void. Mr.. Dingley explains that his
tariff cannot be expected to bring good
times before 1t is passed. or even i'm
mediately after. He thinks that it will
take about q year after its passage to
get into good running order. And IL
by that time we have series of demo-
cratic victories, the melancholy his
tory of the Mckinley law may be re-
peated. The advance agent Of pros
perity works only by sample. and there
IS no assurance that he can deliver his |
goods in cloudy weather.
1t really seems hardly worth while to |
try to build up a protective system in
his country. The vicissitudes of poll
les are SO frequent here that a policy
whose usefulness is killed by an adverse
7erdict at the polls. and which can
never begin to produce its promised eff
ects until after the people have had
line to blast ii at the next election. is a
abric too delicate to be of any prac-
ical use. We might as well try to raise
'alm trees out of doors in Canadian
Y. Journal.