By Scott A. Grant
mail@floridanewsline.com
Tariffs have been much in the news of late. You are either for them or against them, with a seeming majority of Americans coming out against.
The president has regularly lauded the McKinley Tariff, arguing that the years roughly encompassing the last decade of the 19th and first decade of the 20th centuries were a golden era for America and that the reason they were so great were the tariffs. The McKinley Tariffs were named for William McKinley, 25th president of the United States, but they were not implemented during his presidency; rather they were passed into law in 1890 when McKinley was in congress and Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd president was in the White House.
McKinley was the author and sponsor of the tariff act in the House of Representatives. Tariffs were a big political issue at that time. Democrat Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th president, opposed tariffs. In the election of 1888, Harrison, a Republican, attacked Cleveland’s stance and the public agreed. McKinley, who was sometimes called the “Napoleon of Protectionism,” introduced legislation enacting the new tariffs, arguing that the election had delivered a mandate in their favor.
The goal was to raise revenue and protect and develop native industry in goods such as tin plate. Tin plate was rolled steel coated in a thin layer of tin to keep it from rusting. Tin plate was a major import and McKinley and Harrison felt it was imperative for the long-term future of the country to develop domestic tin plate manufacturing. The act also radically increased the tariff on wool, another major import.
The tariffs were not well received either here or abroad. Prices rose for consumers. England introduced retaliatory tariffs or their own. The voters were so incensed that they voted the Republicans out of office in the mid-term elections of 1890. In the 1892 presidential elections, Cleveland soundly defeated Benjamin Harrison to become the first, and for a long time only, president to serve nonconsecutive terms.
The tariffs would lead directly to the Panic of 1893, considered to be the worst recession our republic endured prior to the great depression that began with the stock market crash of 1929. In the 19th century, recessions were generally called “panics” because they often featured panic runs on largely unregulated banks. Other factors that contributed to the 1893 depression were the collapse of wheat prices and the bankruptcy of a number of railroads including the Reading Line, made famous in the game of Monopoly.
Scott A. Grant is a local author and historian. He welcomes your comments at scottg@standfastic.com
