Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/350

 328 THE ECONOMIC JOURN.L whose hands the remodelling of the tariff was put, could not resist the temptation to increase the duties on certain articles which were most affected by competition from abroad. But the unmis- takable feeling of the public, and the undoubted expectation of public men, was that the duties should be reduced. In 1884 came the election of President Cleveland. The cam- paign of that year was conducted by the Republicans on the tariff question, which then, for the first time, was put forward by them as the main issue on which they wished to stand before the com- munity. On the other hand, the Democrats and a large number of independent voters made the campaign turn largely on the per- sonal qualifications of Mr. Blaine, the Republican candidate for the Presidency. The final election of Mr. Cleveland was no doubt due in large part to dissatisfaction with the personal character of Mr. Blaine, and to an expectation that his opponent would adopt a high standard in his administration of the Civil Service. Mr. Cleveland, however, was not indisposed to accept the issue which Mr. Blaine had endeavoured to make the decisive one in the cam- paign, and, after having been in office for two years, he sent to Congress, in December 1887, his well-known message on the tariff. In that he put himself squarely upon the ground that the existing duties were excessive and should be reduced, and, more particu- larly, that the duties on raw materials should be done away with. Mr. Cleveland's unqualified attitude committed the Democratic party more fully to the policy of reducing the duties, while, oi the other hand, it compelled the Republicans, almost in self- defence, to cling more closely than ever to the policy of high pro- tection. During the session of Congress in the winter of 1887-8, the Democrats pushed through the House of Representatives, i which they had a majority, the so-called Mills Bill,  making a general reduction of duties. There was no expectation that this Bill would be enacted, because the Senate still contained a majority of Republicans; it was meant mainly to be a concrete expression of the policy of the Democratic party. The election of 1888, therefore, in which Mr. Cleveland was the Democratic candidate, and Mr. Harrison the Republican can- didate, turned mainly on the tariff issue. The contest was close; and the Republicans won by a narrow majority. Mr. Harriso  These measures get their names from the gentlemen who are chairmen of the commlttes preparing them. Mr. Mills, a member of Congress from the State of Texas, was chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, which prepared the tariff bill in 1888. Hr. McKinley, a member from Ohio, is chairman of the same conmittee in the present Congress.