[untitled]

THE speech of President McKinley at Buffalo is of transcendent importance to business interests, as indicating the probable course of the Republican party in regard to legislation affecting such interests. If the Republicans are wise enough to consult, from time to time, the needs and wishes of the great majority of the people, there is little danger that any administration representing the Chicago platform will be installed in Washington during the present generation; and Mr. McKinley’s address indicates that the most influential and popular man in his party, if not in the country, is determined that Republicanism shall not sink into indifference to the changes in popular needs and popular sentiment. That the public generally believes that tariff taxation, in behalf of American industries, becomes unnecessary and objectionable when the industries so protected have become so powerful, in consequence of such protection, as to be able to sell their products in foreign markets in competition with foreign goods, and at prices lower than those which their customers at home are compelled to pay, may be regarded as certain, and Mr. McKinley would be thoughtful enough, and sincere enough, to understand the reasons for this belief, and to try to correct the abuses of excessive and long-continued protection, even without the support of the large section of the Republican party which has come to hold these views. It may be taken for granted that our good President never felt the delight that some of his supporters expressed in the distresses of the starving button-makers in Vienna or the tin-plate workers in Wales, deprived of employment by the American protective tariff; and his clear comprehension of the importance of protecting our own people in such a way as not unnecessarily to injure others is likely to be of incalculable value to the country.