The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-05-11

| genuine HhlnSS ana lnCllndtloHS, Is
chewing false and petty motives, they
are likely to work in the best way.
Mr.. Mckinley and Tariff Reform.
Only a few days since President Nc
Kinley started on his travels. his OBJ
ject being TO get better acquainted with
the American people, and to feel the
pub ic pulse in connection with sew
eral ideas of statecraft he has in mind.
Ore of them unquestionably has been
ventilated in the now famous aphorism
| of his, to the effect that what this
country wants is markets and not
maXims.'
| As might be expected, this expression
has given great satisfaction to the
American public, but it has sown the
| mushroom spawn of a sudden alarm
among the irreconcilable protectionists
of the Presidents party. and they are
wild to get him back to Washington
| for purposes of admonition and pres
sure. We do not imagine that they will
derive much comfort from his CONVEX
sation on the subject when they shall
get him back. Mr.. Mckinley is prob
ably as strong believer in the basic
principles of the protectianist theory
as he was when Chairman of the House
Ways and Means Committee: but he
is also sensible man and monu-
mentally clever politician. 1t is not con-
ceivable, regarded from that viewpoint.
that he should elect to insist upon the
perpetuation of a policy which, having
outliyed such usefulness as could be
claimed for it, has now become in
tolerably oppressive at home, unneces-
sary to its beneficisries, and menacing
to our relations with foreign countries.
Mr.. Mckinley is by no means bigot
or a fanatic. He is able TO realize, if
the Home Market Club canrot, the
truth that the tariff is neither ques-
ton of morals nor ethics, but is strictly
a matter of economics. From his own
position, and having due regard for his
past as the chief apostle of the Chinese
Wall fiscal policy, it is not hard to un-
derstand why he should consider the
time ripe for the removal or modifica-
ton of those restrictions upon interna-
tional trade which have enormously en-
riched few Americans at the expense
of the great mass of American cOnsum-
ers.
Certainly he believes as much today
as ever he did that it was not only
right but the imperative duty of the
United States to protect native indus
tries yet unable 10 stand unaided
against foreign competition in our own
markets, by giving them the advantage
Of practically prohibitive tariffs. While
always opposed to protective tariffs,
on principle, as unscientific and sub
versive of correct commercial doctrine,
we may admit that the protectionists
of the Presidents stripe have color
able case 60 present in justification of
their past position. For example, it is
true that in 1872 there was not an
American made steel rail in the mar
ket. 1t was not until 1873 or 1874 that
the Edgar Thomson Steel Works began
to make rails. Heretofore we were de-
pendent upon England for rails, and
prices confined us generally to English
iron rails, with which practically all
of the Western. boom" railways built
between 1866 and 1873 were supplied
Some steel rails were imported, but in
1901 the best of them cost hundred
and sixty dollars per ton in gold. de- |
livered f. o. b. at New York, and gold |
was still at a high premium. Now |
American steel rails are laid down in |
Liverpool at twenty-four dollars a ton, |
or whereabouts. The change is per- |
haps sufficient TO make it appear to an |
honest mind that when American steel |
makers are able to lay track for the |
railways of The United Kingdom in |
successful competition with their Eng
lish rivals, 1t is no longer necessary to
protect our steel plants from the pau
per labor of Europe" Thirty years ago
We were Importing great quantities Of
cheap silk. We now export more.
Within the same time we have ceased |
TO import French, Belgian, and Ger
man shoes, and are capturing British
and European markets with our own
and vastly superior wares.
Mr.. Mckinley is a keenly observant
student Of economic as well as political
conditions. We will give him the credit
of wishing the prosperity and great
ness Of his country as much as the /
continued success and domination of
his party. And he knows that in its
trade relations with other nations the
United States has come 20 the parting
Of the ways He is not likely to ignore
the dangers which threaten the future
Of our commerce under present tariff
conditions. lie and all men capable of
attention TO current world
know that unless the dog
in the manger basis of our fiscal sys-
TEN is changed. there soon will be
European coalition against US. and an
economic war waged through the inn
position of prohibitive tariffs on ali
American goods. The situation, indeed,
is one in which, as he expresses IT in
his epigrammatie way, what We need
is markets and not maximsi"
May Day Festival.
Following the example OF those time
IGNORED Harvard clubs which give elias
-f.oH T.va.tr % DID,, l