Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1890 — A PROTECTIONIST DENUNCIATION [ARTICLE]

A PROTECTIONIST DENUNCIATION

[Philadelphia Telegraph (Rep).] A justly protective tariff, one which piotects the American workman in his better wages against the worse wages of his Old World competitor, and which stops short at that, and does not foster trusts and monopolies, or which does not decrease work and wages while increasing the cost of living, would require no defense. The whole country would approve it; but the McKinley act is not a protective tariff, it never was intended to be; it is a betrayal of the wholesome and judicious policy of real protection; it is, as it was intended to be, repayment of a political debt due to the manufacturers, and a bid for the incurrence of another similar debt in the future. It represents a vast fund returned to the manufacturers in acquittance of the most gigantic corruption fund ever used in American politics. It is a measure which makes the rich richer and the poor poorer. It increases no man’s wages; it increases every man’s living expenses.