The tariff question in the Gilded Age
Subtitle: the great debate of 1888
By: Joanne Reitano.
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press
Published: 1994
Place of publication: University Park, Pa
Language: eng
Number of pages: 190
Subjects: Tariff -- United States -- History -- 19th century.; Protectionism -- United States -- History -- 19th century.; United States -- Commercial policy -- History -- 19th century.
Other titles: Tariff question.
Description: Protective tariffs were part of American life long before the era of NAFTA and GATT. In the late nineteenth century, the "tariff question" was one of the most controversial issues of the day. As Joanne Reitano shows in this far-reaching study, the ensuing debate was anything but an empty exercise in political rhetoric occupying only politicians and lobbyists.

The tariff was of central concern to a broad cross section of people because of its perceived relationship to immediate economic problems, such as wages, prices, and trusts. In fact, it became a means for many Americans to wrestle with the implications of the country's rapid growth and the impact of industrial capitalism on American life.

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Reitano focuses on the election year of 1888, when the tariff was adopted as a cause celebre by President Grover Cleveland, Congress, the two major parties, and the press. At the heart of the debate was the Mills Bill for tariff reduction. Although the bill failed to pass, Reitano finds in the rancorous public debate a barometer of changes in the American mind in the Gilded Age.

She carefully blends intellectual, political, economic, and social issues through analyses of the Congressional Record, press coverage of the debate, academic and polemical literature, political cartoons, and the presidential campaign. Ultimately, Reitano contends that ideas about political economy have always been central to the American mind. They were so in the Gilded Age as they are today.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [179]-183) and index.
Spine title: The tariff question.