You're Invited: William McKinley and the Apex of the American System

In 1880 Steel production in the United States was 1.3 million tons.

By 1910 it was 28.3 million tons.

Tin-plate production, the key to making cans, went from zero tin-plate mills in 1889, producing no tin-plate, to 200 tinplate mills in 1900, producing 13,000,000 pounds of tinplate per year.

In 1870 America produced no plate glass.  By 1890, 97% of all the plate glass used in America was produced domestically. By 1910, America was the largest producer of glass in the world.

During the peak tariff years of 1897 to 1901, while William McKinley was President:

• Steel production increased 111%
• Electrical equipment production increased 271%
• Farm equipment increased 149%.
• Coal production rose by 800%
• Railway track mileage by 567%
• Wheat production by 256%

By 1900, America was producing more steel than Germany and Britain combined.  America was the world’s leading energy producer and consumer. 

There were 245,000 miles of railroad track, and even 14,000 automobiles on the road. McKinley was the first president to ride in an automobile (it was a Stanley Steamer).

By 1900, there were over 1.5 million telephones in use, and McKinley was the first president to have a fully electrically wired White House.

All of this was propelled by a dizzying rate of scientific and technological progress. 

The number of patents issued increased from 12,903 in 1880 to 24,644 in 1900.  

George Westinghouse's introduction of alternating current revolutionized electricity delivery systems.

The Bessemer process revolutionize steel production.  Advances in oil refining revolutionized the petroleum industry.  And scores of other examples could be given. 

But something else also happened.

Technological innovation cut prices dramatically.

Bessemer steel rail price dropped from $68 a ton in 1880 to $32 a ton in 1890. 

Under the tariff system, companies poured money into new technologies, new equipment and new modern factories. 

Tariffs resulted in lower, not higher, prices. At the same time employment and wages both went up. 

Imagine that: an economy in which wages are increasing while consumer prices are decreasing, something which most university-trained economists would today declare to be impossible. 

Societal wealth increased for all, but most particularly for the working class population.

That is why McKinley was dubbed the "Champion of Labor."

This is the potential, the promise, of what President Trump is doing right now. 

Establishment media hacks and economists yell that he doesn't know anything about economics. Guess what? 

That is exactly what they said about McKinley in 1890. But he created the greatest peacetime economic revolution in human history. 

And we can do it again today.