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Show HIS DUTY IS PLAIN. VTlndom Has Nothing- to do With the Constitutionality Con-stitutionality of the McKinley Bill. Washington, Oct. 23. Secretary Windom said this morning that he knew nothing officially about the protests pro-tests against the legality of the McKinley McKin-ley tariff bill. "I do not," he said, "regard it as the " province of the executive officer to ques tion the constitutionality of the acts of congress. It is for him to enforce the law as he finds it, and not to determine jqnestions affecting Us legality. .1 am, (therefore, executing the McKinley tariff tar-iff act as I find it, and shall continue to Ao bo unless a competent legal ' tribunal, ' such as the supreme court.declares the law unconstitutional. t is not for me to question the validity ) any of the signatures to the bill as i drolled. ' Neither is it for me to de- maine whether the bill, as signed by be president, did or did not, in fact, ' laa the lower house; much, less is it of me to determine whether the mission of the tobacco draw or" any f the provision of the bill invalidates the law. As I understand it, the act of potober 1, 1890, is the law of the land. My duty therefore is plain and I shall Execute its provisions to the1 best of my billty. Its constitutionality is for the Courts to decide, and until they dicide against it I shall be governed by it. |