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The Tariff: real issue or diversion?

Republicans for it Helps manufacturing Helps workers keep their jobs. Democrats against it Hurts consumers Raises prices on farmers. The Tariff: real issue or diversion?.

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The Tariff: real issue or diversion?

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  1. Republicans for it Helps manufacturing Helps workers keep their jobs Democrats against it Hurts consumers Raises prices on farmers The Tariff: real issue or diversion? But the Populists say the tariff debate is just a diversion from more fundamental issues, such as regulation of railroads, telegraph, and access to credit.

  2. Democrats: tariff weakens the autonomy of the white male farmer and consumer; emasculates him Republicans: tariff enables male wage earner to support his wife, who then can protect the domestic hearth the gendered tariff

  3. Grover Cleveland: home-wrecker? • Accused in election of 1884 of having fathered illegitimate child • Cleveland had “foraged outside the city [Buffalo, NY] and surrounding villages, a champion libertine, an artful seducer, a foe to virtue, an enemy of the family,” according to one newspaper • Once in office quickly marries Frances Folsom Mr. Cleveland on a less successful day of foraging

  4. 1888: Cleveland v. Harrison (r) • Tariff remains key issue to the campaign • Harrison wins majority of electoral votes, but loses Congress in the election of 1890 to Democrats and Populists • Populists win women support in western states with their advocacy of suffrage Benjamin Harrison “reminds me of a pig blinking in the cold wind.” –Theodore Roosevelt

  5. Alliance St. Louis platform, 1889 • Abolition of national banks • Substitution of money issued by the U.S. Treasury • Government ownership of railroads and telegraph • Progressive taxation • The sub-treasury plan

  6. “Bleeding Kansas,” 1854

  7. Faux populists “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman of South Carolina James Hogg of Texas

  8. Tom Watson of Georgia “Here is a tenant – I do not know, or care, whether he is white or black. He knows perfectly well that he cannot get goods as cheap as cash.” The system “tears a tenant from his family and puts him in chains and stripes because he sells his cotton for something to eat and leaves his rent unpaid.”

  9. Election of 1892 • Populists elected three governors • Five U.S. Senators • Populist presidential candidate gets 1,041,000 votes • 8.5 percent of the total vote • Grover Cleveland (D) defeats Harrison (R) by 300,000

  10. Coin’s Financial School, 1892 • Advocated the unlimited coinage of silver to create a more deflationary currency • Adopted by William Jennings Bryan

  11. Interstate Commerce Act, 1887 • Shipping rates have to be "reasonable and just" • Rates must be published • Secret rebates outlawed • Price discrimination against small markets illegal.

  12. Sherman Anti-Trust Act, 1890 • Trusts “in restraint of trade” made illegal • Punishable by fines of up to 10 million dollars • Individuals who “conspire to monopolize” guilty of a felony • Attorney General empowered to enforce the law

  13. U.S. vs. E.C. Knight Company, 1895 • E.C. Knight produced 98 percent of refined sugar in U.S. • But Supreme Court declared it wasn’t violating Sherman act because it was involved in manufacturing, not trade • Nyah nyah nyah . . .

  14. Supreme Court: Income tax unconstitutional • 1895: by 5 to 4 in Pollock v. Farmers Loan Supremes say that “direct taxes” may not be imposed directly, “unless in proportion to the census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.” (Section 9, para 4 of Constitution) • Furthermore: “Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states.” • Court narrowly (5-4) construes this to mean that Federal government can’t directly collect taxes

  15. Showdown for the People’s Party, St. Louis: 1896 • “Fusionists” want to ally with Democrats using free silver issue, and endorse William Jennings Bryan • “Mid-roaders” want to stick to issues like the sub-treasury plan • Bryan says he will not fuse with People’s Party unless they accept pro-gold standard Democrat Samuel Sewall as well • Populists endorse Bryan, with Tom Watson as their Vice Presidential candidate

  16. Bryan’s 1896 political program • A graduated Federal income tax • Direct election of United States Senators • Greater regulation of the railroads, telegraph, and monopolies to protect consumers • Lower tariffs to protect consumers • Backing the dollar with silver as well as gold for a more flexible currency

  17. Mark Hanna: Mastermind of the McKinley campaign of 1896

  18. Frank L. Baum, Wizard of Oz, 1900 • Dorothy = average American citizen • Scarecrow = farmer • Woodman = factory worker • Lion = William Jennings Bryan • Mark Hanna = The wizard of OUNCE (aka .OZ)

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