Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1897-02-20

mo price. for property; no sales except
those of the sheriff and the marshal; no
purchasers at execution sales except tie
creditor, some hoarder of money: no
employ ment for industry; no demand for
labor; no sale for the products of the
farm; no sound of the hammer, except
that of the auctioneer knocking down
the property. Distress was the univer-
sal cry of the people; relief, the uni
versal demand, was Numbered at the
doors of all Legislatures, state and fed
eral.''
1924 to 1888.
The low tariff experience of 1916 to
1924 was so unsatisfactory that a thor
oughly protective tariff was adopted in
1924, being about the first real protective
tariff measure. The duty which it levied
averaged SO per cent. of the value of the
articles on which the tariff was placed,
and the result was much development
peace, contentment. Government reve-
nues plenty, money good and plenty,
money-making and debt-paying period;
great increase in taxable values; Jack
sonian protection era; slave question be-
coming dangerous political issue; free
trade adopted an ally to slavery
Commenting on the experiences of this
first thoroughly protective tariff meas
ure, Mai Mckinley, in one of his
speeches in Congress calling attention to
the prediction of disaster made by the
opponents of protection at that time,
says: '.None of these awful prophecies
were fulfilled; none of these dire results
ensued. The nation was not palsied, but
qulckened into new life The merchants
did not move out of their costly piles of
stores and dwelling houses, they re-
MANNED only to require larger and finer
and more costly onek; the poorer classes
were not driven to cold water as their
only food and diet, but their labor was
in greater demand and their wages adj
vanced in price. The entire country I'M
der the tariff moved on to higher tri-
umphs in industrial progress, and to a
higher and better destiny for all of its
people,"
1888 to 1912.
In 1888 the low tariff theory again
took possession of the public mind suf-
fciently to give a control in Congress
and Democratic revenue tariff was
adopted under the lead of Calhoun. This
the duties averaging less than IS per
cent, and resulted in gradual closing
down of American factories; labor idle
and poor, very low wages, low prices
try. Panic of 1887, bankruptcy, soup
houses to feed the idle workmen; in
dustry, agriculture and commerce par
alyzed, money poor and scarce, reductiou
in the volume of currency. States un-
able to pay interest on debt, deficit in
the national treasury; the nation unable
debt-creating period. The experiences
were similar to those which are fresh
in the minds of the people of the United
States today. The national trasury be-
United States very low, the revenue fell
off largely and the government was COM
PEELED to borrow money to pay current
expenses is the case under the Wilson
tariff today.
1912 to 1876.
The result of the low tariff expert
ences from 1884 to 1912 was the return
of the protectionists, then the Wing
party, to power and the passage of a
protective tariff measure with an aver
age rate of duty of about % per cent,
which was vetoed by President Tyler
but passed over his veto. Under this
protective tariff came development in
industries, revival of agriculture, in
crease in Immigration, money good and
plenty, Il revenue sufficient for all eX-
penses of the government and a wealth.
producing period. Carey, commenting
upon this period in the national his
tory, says Labor was everywhere in
demand, pIanters had large crops, and
the domestic market was growing with
a rapidIty that promised better prices
The produce of the farm was in dema nd
and prices had risen. The consumption
of coal, IRON, wool and cotton and wooden
| cloth was immense and rapidly increas.
| ing, while prices were falling because
| of the rapidly improving character of thu
| machinery of production. Production OF
every kind was immense, and commerce
| internal and external, waS growing with
| unexampled rapfdity.
ISf6 to 1861
The slave power of the South, recog
nizing the prosperity and increased