THE MCKINLEY TARIFF.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3097, 21 May 1892, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE MCKINLEY TARIFF.

The American • people have had a years experience of the M'Kinley tariff, find tbe recent State elections show that tkey are no more reconciled to it than they woie in the first month after its enactment. The two chief bulwarks of American protect tion have been the conviction among the artisans that it raises wages, and the difficulty that farmers have had in understanding- that it raises prices On these two points, however, experience is proving to be a most effective school. The rise of pric?s which followed the passing of the Act was palpable, an d could not be ignored nor explained away. Nearly everything became dearer, and the advance is equivalent to about two-thirds of ihe increased duty. A list carefully prepared iu Boston of the prices of 112 avtieles in common u-o showed that things en -which the duty was increased 30 percent, are 20 p<?r cent, dearer than they were a year a ago. It is the same all over the Union; and all pu'vhascrs have thus an object loson in Frcetrade. They cannot help seeing that it is they who pay the duty, and not the L foreigner. The farmer*, who are taxed on t everything thoy buy, and have to sell in a : freetrade market nearly all that they produce, naturally feel this increase of the I burden more th ai others. 1 hey have in 3 these twelve months made the discovery i that they are the worst sufferers from • tariffs, and will not unlearn the lesson, j But others are feeling it. Boston and New York people pay more for their clothes, r their furniture, their bedding their cutlery and all tho manufactured articles they J use. They might be content to pay this . increased price if it was universally felt 1 that the industrial classes wero better 1 off. But wages have not increased ;in some industries they have diminished. e The new tariff has, in fact, entirely failod t to revive industry.