McKINLEY’S LIFE WAS PROTECTION’S ERA.
It is a curious fact that the public service of William McKinley began
with the rise of the protective era, and ended with the passing of that
system as a dominant and paramount policy in the history of the American
republic.
His life embraces the era of protection to American industry. As he was
its most sagacious and successful champion, as he in his labors
expressed that thought as the controlling motive in governmental policy,
so his death falls in the year when a protective tariff is recognized on
all hands as having accomplished its great and useful mission. And the
passing of McKinley is the retiring-time of that issue which has, more
than anything else, made a mighty nation on the western continent.
It may be fairly said that there was no protective tariff, as such,
until the close of the war. Such efforts in that direction as had been
made under the leadership of Henry Clay and the earlier theorists among
statesmen never rose to the magnitude of impressing a national policy,
for the reason that the country was not ripe for them. In that formative
period which preceded the election of Lincoln, men might speculate and
debate and prophesy about free trade and protection, but the Union as a
nation was growing; and it needed the great issue no more than a boy of
fifteen needs the book called “Every Man His Own Lawyer.” The nation was
growing. It wanted farmers to broaden the plowland area, to lay the wide
and deep foundation of agriculture, which must be the first step toward
the construction of a great and permanent country.
Of course the Morrill tariff bill was not a measure of protection. It
was a war measure. The question of economics was by no means necessary,
and by no means invoked in that debate which preceded the enactment of
the great tariff measure of 1861, or the supplementary bills which
succeeded it in the process of raising revenue for the struggling
nation. But when the war was over men of all parties and of every
section were face to face with the greatest problem that has ever
affected civil government.
The time had come when a burdened people demanded a reduction of taxes.
It was no wonder. They had suffered grievously and with a splendid
patriotic patience through four years of war; had paid the mighty
demands of a government which needed the sacrifices of its people if it
were to escape sacrifice itself, and now, in the relaxation which
followed a disbandment of the armies, the public expected a lightening
of their burdens.
The tendency of thoughtless men was to return to the free trade
schedules of that formative period when the God of Destinies helped the
farmer and bade the manufacturer “Wait!” There were few men wise enough
to see the peril in that transition. Lot Morrill had said the tariff was
a war measure, and it was. But free trade would have been a peace
measure more disastrous than war. And Major William McKinley, returning
from four years’ service for a nation worth saving, knew that protection
was none the less the policy demanded by all the best interests of the
nation, now no less than when the national expenses were millions a day.
It required a brave man to face the storm of protest against a policy of
protection, and an able man to prove arguments for the fortifying of
that position. But William McKinley was both brave and capable, and he
was hardly home from the army when he was entangled in a debate with a
freetrade resident of Poland. It was a public occasion, and the speakers
were allowed half an hour each, with a board of judges to decide as to
who had won the debate. No election or other observable political
significance hung on the issue, but none the less it was a notable
night, a stupendous incident in the life of William McKinley. He knew
the nation needed a policy of protective tariff for the building up of
an industrial empire on the broad and deep foundation of agriculture
which three quarters of a century had laid. He knew that the time had
come when the mills were important if the nation would grow strong—and
that the mills could be summoned into existence only by the adoption of
a policy of encouragement and fostering care.
So far as the decision of the judges was concerned, William McKinley
lost the debate. Two of the three held to the untaught sentiment that
free trade was holy and the tariff a curse. The third saw and
apprehended the logic and the argument of Major McKinley; but he was
outvoted, and the public decision was that a protective tariff was
impolitic and unjust, and should be abandoned.
Probably no event in the life of this advancing young man is more
important than that. Probably no night of his life is so crowded with
national interest as was this when he gave his mature thought and the
rare powers of his young manhood to the discussion of this great
question. He could easily smile at the verdict in that little room, in
that little Ohio town by two little men who are now dead and forgotten.
For he knew that a greater verdict in a greater arena, by a nation that
shall never die and be forgotten, would abundantly and triumphantly and
gloriously sustain him.
And he worked harder after that, finding support for the position which
he recognized as essentially right and wise. He had enjoyed debates in
the old days of his boyhood, of his school and college experience; and
now he felt the impulse of a national summons to service as sacred as
that which led him into the career of a soldier. In the confusion which
followed war, men of all parties and from every part of the nation, and
of every degree of influence, were either openly declaring or tacitly
confessing that the protective tariff must and would be repealed. There
was an element wise as McKinley, which recognized the error of the
doctrine, but there were very few as brave. And the result was that in
the first ten years after the war a public sentiment was formed which
led inevitably toward absolute free trade. And even twenty years after
the war the courage of this strong young son of Ohio was so largely
wanting in the public men of his party that they dodged the issue; that
they continued to promise a reduction or a repeal; that they appointed
by presidential act, authorized by congressional action a tariff
commission which should devise ways and means for the reduction or
obliteration of the protective tariff. It is small credit to those men
to add that the general motive was delay—temporizing; that they felt the
wisdom of retaining the protective feature, and hoped “something would
happen” to convince the country without sacrificing the growing
industries. Braver men would have faced the truth as William McKinley
faced it, and have fought for a high protective policy as a matter of
principle.
Meantime, he went to the Albany Law School; for he had resisted the
temptation to adopt a military life, and had declined with thanks the
offer of a commission in the regular army. And at the Albany Law School
he studied with diligence, and fitted himself for the successful career
at the bar, and for that wider career as an advocate in the court of the
nation, toward which he had been unwaveringly moving from his earliest
boyhood.
He came back from the institution which had developed the talents of
some of America’s ablest jurists, and looked about him for a good
location. He chose Canton, the seat of Stark County, as offering the
best opportunities for a young lawyer. And because he had been a
soldier, because he was as modest as able, and as industrious as
orderly, he received recognition at the hands of that portion of the
public which finds litigation necessary.
He had all his life kept up his connection with the Methodist Church,
and the denomination at Canton was in a flourishing condition. He was
possessed of a pleasing address, and easily made and retained
friendships. He was a Republican, and while never fanatical, regarded
the success of that party as best for the prosperity of the nation. And
as he was in all ways deserving, he won favor in the eyes of Stark
County Republicans. The county was Democratic by more than a thousand
majority. But when the county convention was held at Canton in 1868,
William McKinley, “as a mark of recognition,” was placed upon the ticket
as a candidate for prosecuting attorney.
And he was elected. He had a genius for politics, and became a
campaigner whom his political opponents recognized as embodying danger
to him. So, when he had completed his first term, and was honored by his
party with a renomination, the opposing forces perfected their lines,
and he was defeated at the polls. That year of 1870 was not a Republican
year in Ohio, anyway. It certainly was not a favorable time for a young
man of ability, who sturdily held that the policy of a protective tariff
was theoretically right and practically a national necessity. So he
continued his private practice after the expiration of his term.
In 1871 William McKinley was married. His wife was the young and
beautiful daughter of J. A. Saxton, editor of the Canton Repository, a
weekly newspaper, who had made enough money out of his business, and out
of his talent for trading and real estate speculation, to establish a
bank in the thriving and growing town. The daughter, Miss Ida Saxton,
had received a good education, had enjoyed all the advantages that a
prosperous and generous father could provide, and had traveled abroad,
which was an unusual privilege even for wealthy women in the middle
west. Two children, both daughters, were born of this union, but the
privilege of bringing them up was denied the man who in all else
realized the accomplishment of all his purposes. For the children died.
But it was a natural outgrowth of this period of his life that William
McKinley should follow with a still more assiduous energy the path
opening before him. And in 1876 he had won a place of sufficient
prominence in the party to be nominated for congress. It was the old
Eighteenth district, and was represented by L. D. Woodsworth, of
Mahoning, a strong Democrat and an able man. But his young rival had won
a host of friends in Stark County. He could “carry his own party” to the
last man. And there were hundreds of Democrats who, on personal grounds,
gave him their support. Added to that, Poland was in the second county
of his district, and Poland people without regard to politics, had a
pride in William McKinley. He had been one of them. He had gone to the
war from their town. He had come back there on his furloughs through the
four busy years. And he had lived among them after laying down the sword
and uniform of a soldier, preparing himself for that wider field to
which they knew they must resign him. And so Poland people were for
William McKinley; and the Democratic majority of 1872 was more than
erased. For William McKinley was elected congressman by a majority of
1,300. And his career as a statesman had begun.
Probably no one thing contributed so much to his success in this
instance as the rise and development of manufacturing interests in and
about his home. Because of the encouragement afforded by the protective
tariff, the mills there had started; and already the impetus of a wise
economic policy was felt in his native state. And he had but to point to
the smoke from multiplied chimneys, to summon the laboring men who were
busy and well paid, to remind the farmers of their better market and
higher prices—he had but to present these, his credentials, and his
fight was won. He was a young man—a congressman at thirty-three. But he
was recognized from the first as one of the best informed and least
timid of the advocates of the Republican policies. James A. Garfield was
the member of the Ways and Means committee from Ohio, and the younger
man was at first assigned to positions of less importance. But there
never was an hour from William McKinley’s appearance on the floor of the
House at Washington when his counsel was not sought. Fresh from the
people, rooted and grounded in the soundest policy, able to express
himself in a forcible, convincing and yet pleasing manner, he occupied
from the start a position of importance in congressional circles.
So that it was with a sense of genuine loss that his confreres learned
he had failed of re-election in 1878. But the Ohio legislature was
Democratic at the time, and it redistricted the state, so that Stark
County was placed in a district hopelessly opposed in politics; and he
could but make a losing fight.
Yet the hope that this rising prophet of protection for protection’s
sake was removed from the field of political activity was destined to
disappointment. In 1880 he accomplished the impossible, and was returned
to Congress, where he resumed his labors, and renewed his march to the
very leadership of the greatest legislative body in the world. In 1882
he was re-elected, but by only eight votes. And it will be remembered
that 1882 was not a Republican year. The Republicans, on the one great
national policy which should have inspired them, were apologetic,
defensive, full of excuses and promises. They could not catch the
bravery of William McKinley’s policy, nor adopt the frank
straightforwardness which seemed to him not only the best policy but the
most creditable statesmanship. And in 1882 the Democrats, rising to a
courage and vigor hardly to be expected and rarely found in that
organization, with a unity of purpose in its assaults on the tariff, had
carried the country by storm. Cleveland was made Governor of New York
State by the astounding majority of 192,000 against Folger, a consistent
Republican of the most unexceptional character. Factional quarrels
between the “Stalwart” and “Mugwump” branches of the party had given the
opposition its opportunity. Congress was Democratic, and McKinley’s
opponent in the campaign of 1882 brought a contest into the house, for
the elimination of those eight votes. And toward the end of the session
the Canton man was unseated, and his place was given to the Democrat.
But it was the destiny of this man to do a great national work, to
correct the national conscience, to fix a national policy of economic
truth. And when his party in the Eighteenth district met in
congressional convention in 1884 no name but that of “Major McKinley”
was thought of. He was elected by the greatest majority ever accorded to
a candidate there. He remained in the House through the Forty-ninth,
Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses. In 1890 his district had again been
gerrymandered with a view to his overthrow, and he was defeated at the
polls for the Fifty-second.
But his work in the Lower House was done, and nothing could undo it. He
had made a record as the champion of the protective tariff, had called
back the leaders of his party to their duty, and had reinspired them
with a courage which has never since faltered nor diminished. In his
second term he made a national reputation as a tariff debater, and when
James A. Garfield was advanced from the House, William McKinley
succeeded him on the Ways and Means Committee, the most valuable man on
the most important group of men in the nation.
In 1882 he began a systematic movement for the enactment of a tariff law
which should be the expression of “the American idea,” and four years
later that idea took form and effectiveness in the McKinley tariff bill
which went into effect Oct. 6, 1886.
His enemies tried to see the rejection of his policy when he was
defeated for re-election, after his bill became a law; but his return to
Congress two years later was sufficient answer to that. And the law
which he imprinted on the statute books of the nation was the
crystallization of his people’s sober judgment as to a national policy,
as to the wisest course in an economic system.
Remember that no tariff before that of the bill of 1890 had been openly
and frankly advocated and adopted as an expression of the policy of
protection to American industries. Every other bill of like nature had
been devised with a view to raising revenue simply. Protection, the
encouragement of industries, was a mere incident.
But this man stood for the policy which, he was confident, would bring
the greatest good to the greatest number; would, both for the present
and the future, be of most benefit to the nation.
The two systems are essentially different, though the purpose in each
case, both by protectionists and free traders, was, of course, the good
of the country. The aim of all men contending in that twenty-year debate
was to achieve the best results for the people of the United States. But
the forces for which William McKinley spoke held that the era of
agriculture had passed, and that, while the farming interests might in
no wise be neglected, the period of the factory had arrived. This man
recognized the fact that a nation has definite eras in its life, as
there are distinctive periods in the life of a man. St. Paul said: “When
I was a child, I thought as a child. But now I am a man, and have put
away childish things.” The childish things are none the less needful and
important IN THAT PERIOD; but when another period comes a different
treatment will appeal. And as the ante-bellum era was the era of opening
the new land, of reducing the forests and reclaiming the prairies, so
now had arrived the era of manufacturing the raw material produced. And
for this era of the mills, a protective tariff was an absolute
essential.
That bill increased the tariff rate on most articles of foreign
manufacture, with a view to discourage their importation and insure a
market for the goods of American making. It was prophesied by his
opponents that the result of that bill, which went into effect in 1890,
would be the instant paralysis of all the industries of the nation, the
crushing of labor and the impoverishment of trade. But an exactly
opposite effect resulted. Though the McKinley bill was permitted to
remain in its entirety through but four years of life, the industrial
interests of the nation went forward with an amazing advance, and the
material wealth of the country—farming, manufacturing, labor, both
skilled and unskilled, together with commerce by both land and sea—was
vastly increased. It was the master work of William McKinley’s life. It
was the crowning achievement of his labors. It was the expression of his
best statesmanship. It stands to-day and it will stand to the end of
time as the wisest revenue measure within the possible power of the
country’s securing. He had fixed upon the world a recognition of “the
American policy.” And the commerce of the world demonstrates to-day the
wisdom of that schedule.
It was said at the beginning of this chapter that William McKinley’s
public life embraced the whole era of protection. It began with his
first election to Congress. It closed with the sudden and lamentable
closing of his career by the bullet of an assassin at Buffalo. The
existence of the era of protection was co-extensive with his civil
service to the nation. It is identified with him, and will so remain
forever. When the passing years evolved new issues—when “new occasions
brought new duties”—William McKinley was ready for them. He had finished
his earlier work, and was ready for the newer demands.
No one who witnessed that session of the House in 1890, when William
McKinley was at the height of his congressional career, and no one who
followed the published accounts of it can ever forget the great
occasion. The sentiment in favor of protection was clearly the dominant
sentiment of the nation. But there were conflicting interests. And the
man’s masterly leadership was never more signally shown than when he won
over all opposition within his party by summoning representatives of
each industry, and skillfully guiding them into agreement upon a series
of schedules which should be fair to all interests, and just to the
people of the country. That essential unity of support having been
secured, the McKinley bill became a law. Men said no agreement could be
arrived at—that the rival interests were too strong and insistent to be
adjusted. But the man who saw in 1866 the justness and wisdom of tariff
protection as a national policy, won in 1890 the victory toward which
his best abilities had been guiding him for twenty-four years.
Ten years more, and the policy he had supported, defended and glorified
with his genius had accomplished its work. And with the transition into
another era, this great man laid down his life.
There is something approaching the sacred in that view of the case which
marks him as the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end, the prophet
and the champion of “the American system.”