AN AMUSING DEBATE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1767, 24 July 1888, Page 3

AN AMUSING DEBATE.

The New York correspondent of the Melbourne Age, writing under date May-25, says' Mr Mills, the fattier of the Freetrade Bill now before the Congress, bad drawn a pathetic pietnre in bis opening address of (be troubles of the working men under the Protective Tariff, He showed (hat in Freetrade countries a man could buy an all-wool suit of clothes for lOdols or £2, while in the United States, under our present system, tie was obliged to pay double that amount for the asms thing. This suit of clothes has been one of the stock arguments of the Free* traders and they have put it on whenever occasion offered. On the day in question, the .debate bad fallen into the hands of Major M'Kinley, a Protectionist whom the Freetraders fear as well as respect, and on.whom the Protectionists always lean with entire confidence. One of the Freetrade members of Congress is Leopold Morse, of Massachusetts, an 1 at Home he is the principal member of a large warehouse for the sale of clothing. During the debate Major M'Kinley took up Mills’ story about the poor working man and bis lOdols suit of clothes. • The trouble with (bat

-lory,’ M'Kinley said, ‘was that the lOdols suit does not cost 20iols, as Ml- - slated, ft can be bought at retai here lor lOdols.’ ' Not at my store,’ quoth Leopold Morse, the clothing merchant Congress man, who stood neat by. Whereupon Major M'Kinley drew a bundle from beneath his desk, opened it, and displayed a suit of all wool clothing. Then be read a bill showing that this suit of cloihes was bought from Mr Morse's store in Boston, (or 10do>, within the last fortnight. ' I never knew that Mr Morse sold clothes without making a profit,’ added Major M'Kinley, whose voice was drowned in roars of applause and laughter, amid which the Boston clothing merchant slunk away, • This suit of clothes,’ continued Major M'Kinley, * would have cost 40 per cent more in 1860 than it did in 1888.’ It was an object lesson that ought to sink deep into the Freetrade heart if anything, and the advocates o( Freetrade are not likely to hear tbe last of the lOdols suit of all wool clothing for a long time to come. In regard to the last remark of Major M'Kinley, •bout the cost in 1860, it should be explained that in 1860 we were under what was practically a Freetrade tariff, and clothing was dearer then than it is at present,”