Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-01-15

reciprocal negotiations with a for
eign country, and for the purpose of
extending American commerce by
the simple expedient of reducing not
to exceed 20 per cent of the duties as
sessed by the tariff law Of 1897 and IL
it was infamous for Governor Dingley,
and il 1t is reproach to his memory
to have suggested that such thing
was in his mind or in the mind OF any
body else, what shall be said OF that
great body of both houses of congress?
If it is necessary for learned and able
| men, honored in public service to rise
| in this chamber and defend the mem
DRY of Governor Dingley against an
| infamous charge like that, where is
| the advocate who shall defend the
memory of the congress OF 1897?
Il say to you, Mr.. President, that
that portion of the tariff law of 1897
is as distinctly part of the tariff poll
cy of the United States as the coal
schedule or any other schedule within
it, and 1 undertake to say here, that
| more violence has been done to the
| protective system of the United States
by the folly, and quiet and uncommni-
cative failure of the senate to take
action upon the treaties that we ne
1 gotiated under the authority of the act
of 1897 than by all the noise that has
been made on the other side of this
| chamber about the coal schedule or
other so-called eXtortions of protective
tariff
4 '"The republican party in the United
4 States has an interest in this contro-
versy that is not altogether represents
led by the senator from Missouri (Mr.
i Vest), or the senator from Tennessee
n (Mr. Carmack)
Tor one stand for the whole pro-
1 tective policy of the United States, the
I law of 1897 modified as it may be in
i the wisdom OF congress from time to
time to meet the changing conditions
of American business.
. 1T would be reproach to the
j craftsmanship OF the United States
< to say that there is no way of chang
I ing the tariff schedules OF 1897 with
: out agitation and hostile explosions.
For forty years we have had no mech
;. anism for changing tariff schedules.
! President Mckinley's Views.
!. "1t was in the mind of the late Pres
ident-and speak not without person
al knowledge of his purpose and of
his convictions-that we had at last
! reached period when the protective
. system as a system was without Or
ganized opposition anywhere in the
!, United States, and feel sure that I
: do not misrepresent his purpose and
his convictions when | say that he
looked forward to the gradual extern
sion of American commerce, not by
: hostile agitation of the tariff question
in the United States, but by a quiet
: and orderly extension of the principle
g of reciprocity, renting duties from
7 time to time that could be spared in
4 the United States and gathering in the
d commercial good will of all the great
S countries of the world.
"If McKinleys last public appear
L ance before the American people and
x before mankind has any moral signifi-
d canoe at all, it is that the future Of
i American commerce depends in a
IL large measure upon the gradual, prac.
i teal business-like relaxation of some
> of these tariff schedules of 1897, many
M of which are no longer needed and
ID might be dispensed with to the ad-
r. vantage of American commerce.
1t! 81 for one have made up my mind
al that the time has come when some
s., body whose convictions do not lie
til along the path of silence and quietude
e. and ease in our political science
N, should rise here and say that the
of whole future of the protective system
RI in the United States depends upon the
of wisdom with which congress fulfills
is the aspirations that may be found in
ASH the last public utterance of William
tell Mckinley"