OCR Text |
Show i f WHOLESALE EXTORTION. -1 i-a up' i.n,n.i.LEv uut uas a more important im-portant object than simply to pacify the farmer. It is intended as an aid to protected manufacturers that shall repay re-pay their contributions to elect Mr. McKini.ey and the gentlemen whom he commands, and what is more to the point, induce them to renew their contributions con-tributions this autumn and increase them in 1S!)2. The framers ol the McKixlev Mc-Kixlev bill know better than to try to fool the manufacturers, and so they have civen them real additions to the substantial bonus that the present tariff tar-iff already gives them to be extorted mainly from the farmer, just as the present bonus arc wrung from him, and for the same reason because the agricultural agri-cultural class is the largest class of our citizens, and therefore the best to tax to get certain and large returns because be-cause it has been so far the most patient pa-tient class, hence can most safely be imposed upon. So when Mr. McKix-i.ey McKix-i.ey rushes forward with beaming face to show the fanner how much he intends in-tends to do for him, he not merely i offers hi in sham protection instead of any that can possibly benefit him, but uses his benevolent pretenses as a cloak to hide him while he pays off the political debts of himsflf and, bis high tariff associates at the farmer's expense, not because he wants to hurt the farmer, r, indeed, really stops to think whether he hurts him or not; but because the "protected' "pro-tected' interests and trusts that have bought the election of a high-tariff Congress must be satisfied or they w ill never contribute to buy another. And thus we have the McKixlev bill, one that insults the intelligence of rural voters by offering them tariffs that can do them no good and drains their pockets pock-ets by raising the duty on many neces-tities neces-tities that they have to buy and for which this bill proposes to make them : pay more than they do now. There is j no room here to expose the petty steals j that are hidden in the McKixlev bill. I : Some of the larger ones are, how ever, worth Dothing. j That on all woolen goods is bad j enough. It will be remembered t hat the McKinley bill does not increase j the duty on any wool that a fanntrl raises; that its only increase is upon! carpet wool, w hich a few ranchmen j only raise, and of which we have to im- i port nine-tenths of all we use; so that the only result w ill be to make every farmer far-mer whose family has carpets, pay an enormous bonus lo profit a few owners of ranches in regions where a carpet is never seen. The extortion would be bad enough if it stopped there, but it does not. Farmers rarely contribute more than an occasional So to campaign cam-paign expenses. But great ranchmen, j squatting over whole townships of gov-1 eminent laud and employing gangs of j herders, can afford (for such legislation) j to give checks of thousands of dollars' each. Hence, they are '"protected," though every farmer in the land is taxed more to do it. The manufacturers, manufactur-ers, however, are men who in return for "protection"' can and do raise campaign cam-paign funds of hundreds of thousands of dollars, and not merely decline to be imposed upon, but insist on their share of any plunder that is being divided. So the carpet manufacturers as a condition con-dition of r;Qt objecting to the ranch-, )tfaMawaaaaaaMMwi threatened revenge if they did not get it. manufacturers of woolens, worsteds, plushes, flannels, hats blankets and j knit goods have been offered by the McKixlev bill, more tariff than they have now, in many cases the present rate being doubled, or worse. llepublicans may try and gull thp people all they please, but the more a person calmly and intelligently studies out the workings of the McKini.ey tariff bill, the more apparent becomes the fact that it was "merely a compromise com-promise -piece of legislation to return to the bloated monopolists and secure other result, the money advanced to help the Republican party win the presidential election. |