Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 November 1890 — Republicans on Cheapness. [ARTICLE]

Republicans on Cheapness.

Now that the elections are over and “McKinley prices” are becoming higher, and tho Democratic newspapers have no motive in the world to continue their “conspiracy to put up prices,” it would be well for Republican voters to remember their party doctrine on the subject of cheapness. The following extracts from the utterances of leaders of the G. O. P. are worth preserving by those innocent people who fancy that the tariff is not a tax, and when they are made to pay “McKinley prices” they should turn to these words of wisdom to strengthen their faith in the “American system of protection. ” Here are some of the choicest gems of wisdom that we owe to our high-tariff statesmen: I cannot find myself in full sympathy with this demand for cheaper coats, which seems to me necessarily to involve a cheaper man and woman under the coats. — Benjamin Harrison, in an address at Chicago in 1888. We want no return to cheap times in our own country. * * * Where merchandise is cheapest men are poorest— Hon. William McKinley, Jr., in House of Representatives, Mag 7, 1890. Into this contest tor cheapness the Republican party docs not propose to enter.— Hon. Julius C. Burrows, in House of Representatives, May 8, 1890. The cry for cheapness is un-American. —Henry Cabot Lodge, at Lowell, Oct. 13, 1890. The curse of cheapness! The vulture loves his carrion not more than the freetrader longs for cheapness.— Bulletin of the Protective Tariff League, Oct 17,1890. The attainment of cheapness of commodities is not the best purpose of the protective system.— The Manufacturer, organ of the Pennsylvania Manufacturers' Club, Oct. 10,1890. Cheapness is the fetich o! the Englishman. Let us then have done with this cheapness and with its advocacy.— Henry Carey Baird, in Philadelphia, Oct. 16, 1890. Cheap! I never liked tho word. “Cheap” and “nasty" go together. This whole system of cheap things Is a badge of poverty, for cheap merchandise means cheap men, and cheap men mean a cheap country, and that is not the kind our fathers builded. Furthermore, it is not the kind their sons mean to maintain. — William McKinley, Jr., at Kalamazoo, Oct. 14, 1890. “These bo your gods, O Israel!”