One very important feature of the McKinley Act was the section added through the influence of James G. Blaine, then Secretary of State, and known as the reciprocity section. This provided that whenever the President shall be satisfied that the Government of any country producing and exporting sugars, molasses, cof fee, tea, and hides, or any such articles, imposes duties upon products of the United States which in view of the free introduction of such sugar, molasses. etc., into the United States, he may deem to be reciprocally unequal and unreason able, he shall have the power to suspend by proclamation the free introduction into the United States of such sugars, etc., from the country in question. See CUSTOMS DUTIES; RECIPROCITY.
On the return of the Democratic Party to power in 1893. an effort was made to carry out its promise of tariff reform. A bill framed by William L. Wilson passed the House, and after much amendment by the Senate became a law without the President's signature, August 27, 1894. It made a considerable reduction in many duties, admitted wool free, and provided for an income tax. It was still in the main, however, a protective measure. As a revenue law this act was a failure, partly because the Supreme Court declared the income tax feature unconstitutional and partly because of the busi ness depression which began in the summer of 1593 and caused a marked falling off in imports, The dominant issue in the next Presidential campaign (1806) was the silver rather than the tariff question, but the election of the author of the McKinley Act was naturally construed as a popular verdict in favor of the policy with which his name was identified. A special ses
sion of Congress was called in March, 1897, and after prolonged debate the Dingley Act, copied closely in its leading provisions after the McKinley Act, became a law. The duties on wool, woolen goods. cutlery, pottery, and a few other articles were made even higher in this act than they had been in the act of 1590. Lumber was restored to the dutiable list, and hides, which had heretofore been admitted free, were taxed, out of deference to the wishes of the so-called `Silver Republicans' in the Senate, who made this concession a condition to their adhesion. The sugar bounty provision of the McKinley Act was not revived, but the reciproc ity provisions were, in modified form.
In 1898 (June 13th) the so-called 'War Reve nue Law' was passed to supply the revenue re quired in consequence of the war with Spain. An interesting feature of this law was that it relied increased internal revenue duties and a purely revenue duty of ten cents a pound on im ported tea rather than on changes in the general tariff to secure the additional revenue required. The war taxes were repealed by the acts of March 2, 1901, and April 12, 1902 (except those on 'mixed flour'). During the session of 1902 to 1903 earnest efforts were made in Congress by members of the Republican Party represent ing sonic of the States of the Middle West (e.g. Wisconsin) to effect a revision of those clauses of the Dingley Act supposed to he favorable to the 'trusts,' but without success.