The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-07-29
WILL HISTORY REPEAT?

The New York Times editorially
predicts the women of the country will
defeat the Republican party at the
polls this fall in event the pending
tariff bill is enacted. The Times edi-
torially compares the conditions today
with those of 1890 when the McKin-
ley tariff was passed by a Republi-
can congress on October /, just lit
tie more than n month prior to the
congressional elections. The Times
says:
THE bill was passed on October 1,
1890. The retail prices OF goods were
put up at once. The Democrats had
everything their own way. The shop
windows were full of placards urging
customers to buy before Mckinley
prices began to squeeze them. Canned
goods went up Immediately on the
strength of the higher duty on tin
plate. Every price list was Demo-
cratic literature. The voter saw the
cost of the clothes of his wife and
and forks climb
The Times recalls that travelling
statesmen circulated over the country
the story of advanced prices that were
to come as a result of the Mckinley
bill However, according to the
Times:
THE most important factor in the
result of this election was the women
of the country. 1t was the women
who did the shopping, who kept the
run of prices, who had the keenest
sense for increased costs. They heard
in every store the clerks behind the
counters explain how this article or
that article could not be sold here
after at the former price because of
the Mckinley bill. They went home
and told their husbands and fathers
and their stories had a tremendous
effect at the ballot box"
Replying to the newspaper a friend
OF the pending tariff bill says:
1.-THE American people realized to
their grief within a few weeks after the
elections of 1890, that the propaganda
circulated in October, 1890, against
Mckinley prices was a propaganda
composed wholly of lies for the double
purpose of deceiving the American
public into voting the Democratic
ticket and of furnishing an excuse
for raising prices to the American
consumers for no other purpose than
to furnish enormous and unwarranted
profits to importers and jobbers."
1t should not be forgotten, however.
that whatever grief the American
people felt over being thus deceived
was short lived, for at the very first.
opportunity, they elected a Democrat
a.,
both houses of congress. Surely the
tariff advocates remember the polit-
ical landslide of 1892.
The propaganda put out by i'm
porters and jobbers in 1890. like that
being put out by them today" says
this tariff spokesman, had for
its sole purpose the creation of an
excuse whereby they could raise prices
to the retailers and claim they werc
compelled to do so by the Mckinley
bill"
But the voters apparently thought
1t good plan to remove this excuse
for advancing prices, SO they elected
a congress that re-wrote the tariff
law. The Democrats, however. in
stead of improving the situation
PeASSSN q OAAA N2AA Ing a AlSleE aver
age rate than the Mckinley bill and
were turned out of Washington, in
their turn. But they learned their
lesson, and, when they again passed a
tariff law. it was one which in the ten
years of its operation has aroused lit
tie complaint from the public. Those
who desire to change It are the special
interests seeking benefits at the ex-
fpense of the consumers