778 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
OCT. 31 
major McKinley 
HAS THE FLOOR AND TALKS 
Tariff and Free Sliver. 
Note.— The following Is based on two brief Inter¬ 
views with Major McKinley. I showed him the ques¬ 
tions previously prepared, about as here presented. 
He replied briefly to each or referred me to his pub¬ 
lished utterances and asked me to submit the Inter¬ 
view to him for revision. This I did, but he has been 
so overworked, with of.en three speeches a oay and 
much travel, that he has been unable to revise It. 
I have done my best to give bis exact views, and in 
the main his exact words. I regret exceeilngly that 
he could not find time to revise the manuscript.—W. 
I. Chamberlain. 
The Tariff Question. 
Q Are you willing to tell The Rubai, 
Nkw-Yobkkk why you think farmers 
should vote the Republican ticket in Ohio 
this fall. 
A. Certainly, but it is a national ques¬ 
tion in Ohio this fall. 
Q Why do you regard it as such. 
A First, because the legislature elected 
this fall will choose a United States Sena¬ 
tor to succeed Senator John Sherman. If 
a Republican legislature elects one, he 
will at least b? a citizen of Olio and not of 
New York, and will help hold the Senate 
Republican until last year’s tariff legisla¬ 
tion has been fairly tried. Second, the 
wicked “gerrymander” of the last Demo¬ 
cratic legislature should be corrected. That 
legislature so districted Ohio that, while 
the State has been Republican at every 
Presidential election and was so by 11,000 
majority last year, yet the Democrats under 
that gerrymander elected 15 out of the 21 
members of Congress. Tnat great wrong 
against the Republican franchise must be 
corrected. It can be corrected only by the 
election of a Republican legislature. 
Third, it is well known that if a Demo¬ 
cratic legislature is elected it will “ Mich- 
iganize” the State, so that our Presidential 
electors shall be chosen not by popular vote 
as from the birth of the State, but by these 
gerrymandered congressional districts, and 
thus Republican Ohio will be disfranchised 
in all national matters. This is so abhor¬ 
rent to all sentiments of fair play that not 
only farmers but all honest men should de¬ 
test and oppose it. Fourth, the issues in 
Ohio are national this fall because both of 
the great parties have pronounced clearly 
on two great national questions, silver coin¬ 
age and the protective tariff, and taken op¬ 
posite sides. 
Q. Do you think farmers who believe In 
the general Republican doctrine of pro¬ 
tecting and increasing home manufac¬ 
tures, and securing increased home mar¬ 
kets for farm products thereby, have just 
ground to complain of the McKinley law ? 
A. Certainly not. They might have com¬ 
plained of the old doctrine, which was that 
agricultural products needed little protec¬ 
tion ; that our unbounded area of fertile 
soil with the Increased home markets 
gained by fostering manufactures were 
enough protection. 
Q How does the McKinley law compare 
with former tariff laws in its attitude to¬ 
wards agriculture ? 
A. It is far more favorable. They fos¬ 
tered agriculture only incidentally, to any 
great extent; this fosters it directly. For 
the first time in tariff legislation the prod¬ 
ucts of agriculture have been treated by 
the same rule as those of manufactures. 
If they were Republicans under indirect 
protection, I do not think they should or 
will leave the party under direct protec¬ 
tion. 
Q. Did representatives of the agricultural 
interests have a fair hearing before your 
committee ? 
A. Certainly. Col. Brigham, Master of 
the National Grange, the President of the 
National Alliance and the heads of other 
agricultural organizations, and leading 
agriculturists like Columbus Delano for 
the wool men, were not only “granted a 
hearing,” but we were in frequent, earnest 
conference with them. 
Q How far did your committee accede to 
their views ? 
A. Substantially on all points; and here 
is a list of some eighty agricultural prod¬ 
ucts and provisions, with the tariff so 
scaled as to protect farmers in their home 
markets and induce them to extend their 
production to all farm products, animals 
and textile fabrics suited to our latitude 
and climate. 
What About Wool? 
Q. But why has wool gone down ? 
A. Weil, that troubles the farmers. Dem¬ 
ocrats are making a handle of it. Now if 
the tariff brought it down, then the “ tariff 
isn’t a tax.” No, our wool is lower in spite 
of the tariff, because the world’s wool is 
lower. Wool with a tariff of 11 cents per 
pound is from three to six per cent lower 
than a year ago, and cotton with no tariff 
is about 20 per cent lower. It Is the world’s 
relative supply and demand that have made 
wool lower. But if it is lower with the 
tariff, what would it not be without a 
tariff, as the Mills Bill and the Democratic 
party desire? Take an example : an Eastern 
manufacturer now buys wool in England 
at 17 cents, adds ocean freight, one cent, 
adds the tariff, 11 cents, and lands it in his 
Lowell mills at 29 cents, and he must pay 
you 29 cents or you will not sell. But if 
there were no tariff it would cost him, as 
before, 17 cents in England, one cent ocean 
freight—total 18 cents—and you must sell 
for 18 cents or you can’t sell. Do you see 
that ? Ye3 ? Well that is the reason why 
I don’t think the wool men of Ohio will 
bolt the ticket this fall. 
Q. But if the tariff makes wool higher 
to the farmer does it not make clothing 
higher to the workingman ? 
A. Yes it does; it makes woolen clothing 
slightly higher, and it makes the working¬ 
man’s wages higher so that he can pay it. 
His labor in manufactures has been pro¬ 
tected for many > ears. He should not ob¬ 
ject now that the farmers’ labor is protected 
by the same rule. I think he Is too just and 
fair to object. 
Why Free Sugar? 
Q. Since you favor a tariff on wool why did 
you favor free sugar ? 
A. Because we can't raise our own sugar. 
We have tried it long and faithfully, and 
we raise only one-tenth of the sugar we 
use. So we removed the tariff which cost 
the consumers $55,000,000 per year, and 
then so as not to kill the industry we put 
on a bounty which costs about $10,000 0G0 
per year, a saving to consumers of $45,000,- 
000, or about two cents per pound. 
Q. Does not this prove that the tariff is a 
tax on the consumer ? 
A. Yes, on articles that we cannot pro¬ 
duce. Sometimes it is on articles we can 
produce; but as a rule where we can pro¬ 
duce enough the tariff stimulates produc¬ 
tion till we have enough and competition 
regulates prices. Then if the foreign pro¬ 
ducer wan's to sell in our markets he must 
pay the tax. This has been proved true in 
the case of scores of articles ? 
Q. Then what things would you tax ? 
A. The things we can produce, and let in 
free all articles of prime necessity that we 
cannot produce profitably or in sufficient 
quantity for home use ; such, for example, 
as tea, coffee, sugar, spices, etc. On such 
articles the tariff is always a tax on the 
consumer and from the nature of the case 
it bears almost as heavily upon the labor¬ 
ing classes, per capita, as upon the rich. 
These things a revenue tariff taxes, and a 
protective tariff does not, but taxes instead, 
articles of luxury that we caunot produce. 
Under the McKinley act nearly one half of 
the goods imported are free from all duty, 
more than 50 articles having been added to 
the free list. There never was a time when 
a bushel of wheat, corn, or oats, or a pound 
of butter or wool, that is, the average of the 
farmers’ products, would buy so much of 
hardware, machines, Implements, clothing, 
groceries, all things the farmer needs, as 
to day, after 30 years of Republican protec¬ 
tive tariff. 
Why Protect At All. 
Q. But why do American industries need 
protection at all ? 
A. Because our plane of living is higher. 
Our workingmen, mechanics and farmers 
have culture, education and comfort for 
themselves and increasing education for 
their children. Meat diet, commodious 
houses, carpets, pianos, schools, books, 
papers, these things cost money. They are 
essential to the perpetuity of the Republic. 
They also create a better market. The 
foreign producer is on a lower plane. He 
does not help pay for our schools, asylums, 
civilization. We cannot tax him here in 
peace to provide these things nor draft him 
in war to protect them. If he wants to 
enter these, our better markets, with his 
goods let him pay for the privilege. Then 
is the time we can tax him as the city taxes 
the wandering peddler that wants the mar¬ 
ket its streets afford, but does not pay for it 
in taxes. 
Q. Do I understand you that you think 
agricultural labor should be protected on 
exactly the same basis as manufacturing 
labor ? 
A. On exactly the same basis, and that is 
what the McKinley Bill tried to do. 
Q What tffects do you think a “revenue 
tariff ” or free trade would have upon our 
farmers ? 
A. First, it would increase the number 
of farmers and the amount of agricultural 
products. Those thrown out of manufac¬ 
turing would become farmers. Producers 
would be increased in numbers. Second, 
his former customers would thus become 
the farmers’ competitors. Agriculture is 
always depressed when manufacturing is 
diminished or suspended. 
The Sliver Question. 
Q. But do not you think many of our 
farmers favor the free coinage of silver ? 
A. Not wisely, I think. 
Q. But why ? Were they not more 
prosperous during the war inflation ? Did 
they not pay debts faster ? 
A. Yes, chiefly because of war; partly be¬ 
cause of inflation and injustice to the cred¬ 
itors. First, war. It diminished the supply 
of food and clothing and t e like because it 
diminished the number of farm workers, 
producers, and enormously increased the 
consumption or destruction of farm prod¬ 
ucts, food, clothing, etc. Hence ready 
markets and higher prices due to war. 
Do farmers want home war again to give 
better home markets ? Second, inflation. 
Debts, contracted when wheat was $1, wool 
25 cents, butter 10 cents, cheese 4 cents and 
$1 was worth 100 cents and so on, were paid 
with money from wheat at $2 50, butter 45 
to 50 cents and wool $1 25, or rather with 
the greenback dollar worth only 40 cents. 
The creditor had a right to exp c ; 100 cents 
for each dollar. The government forced 
him really to take 40-cent dollars instead 
of 100 cent dollars. It did this in iti time 
o' peril and awful agony, as a war necessity. 
Do you think our farmers want the gov¬ 
ernment to do now, in time of p=>ace and 
prosperity, what was done then only when 
rebellion was trying to throttle it, viz , 
issue a depreciated currency ? If so then let 
them remember what It cost us to “ sober 
down” from this financial intoxication. 
He who unsettles values by making money 
plenty (depreciated) is an enemy to real 
prosperity. 
A Result of “ Free Coinage.” 
Q. But will free currency inflate the sil¬ 
ver currency ? 
A. Free coinage means that our govern¬ 
ment shall buy the world’s silver and pay 
$1 for each 75 cents’ worth. Why not buy 
the world’s wheat, paying the price of a 
bushel for each three pecks ? How long 
do you think any man or any government 
can endure that sort of speculation ? The 
Republican law of 1878 authorized the gov¬ 
ernment to buy from $2,000,000 to $4,000 000 
worth of silver each month, a total amount, 
up to date, of $450,000,009, bought at an 
average price of 79 cents for the silver in 
each coined dollar. That is, the govern¬ 
ment made 21 cents on each dollar thus 
coined, and this went into the public Treas¬ 
ury, $67,000,000 in all. Free coinage would 
give this in future to the silver men of the 
world. The law of 1890 authorized the 
purchase by government of 4 500,000 ounces 
of silver per month (a little more than the 
silver product of the United States) at 
market price, and to i-sue for each dollar’s 
worth of silver, 520 grains now instead of 
12%, a Treasury note for$l; and there is 
behind it in the Treasury $1 worth of sil¬ 
ver. 
The Present Silver Dollar. 
Q But if the present silver dollar is 
worth 100 cents for only 412% grains, why 
not under free and unlimited coinage ? 
A. If I remain solvent while I buy what 
wheat I need at its real value, why should 
I not remain solvent when I undertake to 
buy the world’s wheat at 33 per cent above 
its value ? Can you see ? 
Q But, how can the Government’s “ fiat ” 
make the present 79 cent dollar worth 100 
cents ? 
A Because the Government has the re¬ 
maining 21 cents in its vaults to back it. 
But what if it had paid that out to the sil¬ 
ver owners of the world ? Money, to stay 
at par, must either contain its face value 
or immediately represent its face value, 
and be conveitible at the will of the holder. 
The world’s h story shows this. Our war 
currency and the Confederate currency 
showed this. Our present silver “dollar” 
is worth 100 cents because it contains, say, 
79 cents and represents the other 21 cents 
in the government vaults. Oar Treasury 
notes are worth 100 cents. They contain 
not one cent, but they represent 100 cents 
in our vaults, and are Immediately inter¬ 
changeable for it at the holder’s option. 
When specie redemption is suspended, pa¬ 
per currency always depreciates according 
to the probable time and certainty of re¬ 
sumption. 
Q But would not money be more plenty 
to the farmers under free coinage? 
A Yes, depreciated money; but the real 
money would be retired—the $500 000,000 of 
gold would go out of circulation as during 
the war. Then the $346,000,000 of redeem¬ 
able greenbacks would be retired and we 
should have left the “free silver” depre¬ 
ciated. I tell you a 100-cent dollar will not 
associate with an 80 cent dollar. It never 
has and never will. 
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