Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 November 1891 — Governor M’Kinley and Protection. [ARTICLE]

Governor M’Kinley and Protection.

In the entire series of recent state campaigns that of Ohio was the only one in which was prominently brought to the front the issue between Protection and selfstyled “reform.” In other /states the success or defeat of candidates can be traced to local considerations, which failed to align either of the great political parties on a distinct national issue, or to call from either its fullest possible vote.

Not so in Ohio. There the issue was boldly made by putting to the front the author of the avowedly protective law now in force, indorsing the spirit of that measure in the convention platform, and extolling its results by speeches in every neighborhood of the state. Opposed to Major McKinley was a prominent statesman who had avowedly severed former party affiliations by reason of his preference for the non-protective policy of Cobden, Cleveland & Co., and who proclaimed the virtues of his recently acquired faith with the proverbial earnestness of the new convert. . < ■.

And the result was the same that has invariably characterized the decision of American voters when ever the question of Protection for domestic industries or the free use of our markets for foreign competitors has been passed upon. A vast majority of American voters believe in Protection, and can be relied on to so vote when led to believe that the protective features of our tariff laws are in danger of repeal or such modification as will rob them of their recognized efficacy. The overwhelming majority for McKinley in Ohio is but additional evidence of a fact that finds emphasis in every page of political history whereon is recorded the untrammeled expression of American voters.

It would be impossible to secure for the tariff question more prominence in a political campaign than it was given by the platform aud canvas of McKinley in Ohio, and it seems equally impossible to ig_ nore the significance of the major, ity by which the policy of Protection to home industries was there indorsed.