The Sunday globe., 1901-08-04
MAIN 57l-2,
THE TARIFF PROBLEM

1t is now a little more than four
years since the Dingley bill became a
law. 1t was enacted and approved
amidst a salvo of oratorical artillery
and hyperbole ecstasy Of the press.
1t was ito be all things to all men,
and all the ills the flesh is heir to-
were to suddenly vanish from the
earth and be no more. The acme Of
legislation had been attained and man
who wants but little here below was
TO want no more forever. The Dingley
bill had done it all. The way to reach
universal prosperity had at last been
found, and that way was to tax the
citizens beyond what was needed for
honest and economical maintenance Of
the Government,
It is true, a few feeble protests were
made, and some old-fashioned student
Of history woutf occasionally attempt
TO show thai ,u vas not made hap,
pier by pilihs burdens Of taxation up,
on him, but he was speedily sat down
upon and relegated to the rear as an
antiquated specimen Of the olden time
But the times were propitious for the
Dingley bill The country was just be.
ginning to recover from the effects Of
the Sherman purchasing act, under
which silver was bought and then coin.
ed at is to /, and from the Mckinley
bill. It must be remembered that the
panic Of 1893 occurred while both of
those laws were in full force and on
the statute books unrepealed and it is
just as well to remember that the
country began to recuperate under the
Wilson-Gorman bill,
The Spanish War broke out, and
with il came the purchase Of supplies,
and then the increase in internal rev.
enue taxes, without the latter the
Dingley bill would have been a wretch
ed failure.
The increase Of gold derived from
the Klondike, and Alaska, and from
South Africa, came next and to that
fact prosperity is indebted somewhat.
None Of these things. however are
taken into account Boy protectionists.
They have but one principle upon
which 10 conduct great monetary
system, and that is by taxation Of the
many that the few may prosper.
The purchase Of mules and supplies
by the British government for use
against the Beers, was another impor
tant factor, but that was not at all
considered. IL was an protection.
While. therefore, there was apparent
prosperity in spite Of protection there
We're causes which led mp TO it with
which protection had nothing to do.
In that day, and now even, it was
said that prosperity had come to stay,
and Mckinley prosperity was alone re.
sponsible
FIippant interviewers rushed to the
newspapers and glcefully exclaimed
nour people are too busy gathering
good crops and rushing 10 the rail.
roads with their produce to talk poll.
tics" plentiful rains, abundant har.
besrs unity all we have ever claimed
for the benefcence of protection"
Has there a change Gomez or Is there
any promoniton of approaching
trouble?
IT is true within the last month "a
terrible drouth has afflicted the West
and is now affecting the cotton belt
of Texas. While one member Of Con.
gress was joyfully telling one Of our
contemporaries that in the two Da
kotas and Minnesota the tales Of short
crops were exaggerated, good Mr.
Dockcry was calling upon the people
Of his State to assemble in their
churches and pray for rain. We be-
lieyed at the time Of the rosy story
that if Mckinley prosperity was ro
spouable for the good crops and huge
railroad profits in Minnesota that it
was very uuHnd and ungenerous in
that same Mckinley prosperity to
withhold the rain from suffering Mis-
souri,, and from Iowa, and Idaho
which were under the same torrid sun