Even if you try hard to ignore the political news — and believe me, I’ve tried everything but a medically induced coma — you will find it nearly impossible to avoid hearing about tariffs and President McKinley.

The desire to impose high, protective tariffs and to take over countries (equally difficult to avoid hearing about these days) invokes a nostalgia for the 25th president (1897-1901). McKinley’s presidency saw America become an imperial power by force (the Philippines, Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Samoa) and fraud (Hawaii). His economic policies caused a political realignment that crowned Republicans as the dominant party for decades, especially in the industrialized states.

The Geneva Daily Times printed McKinley’s Dec. 5, 1899, Annual Message to Congress — 23,000 words — in which he proudly proclaimed his administration’s economic success. There is no doubt that McKinley oversaw unprecedented economic growth, but it seems likely it was not so much because of his policies as despite them. McKinley proudly reported: “The combined imports and exports for the year are the largest ever shown by a single year in all our history.”

McKinley first promoted tariffs to protect American industry from competition in 1890, when he was a Representative from Ohio. The McKinley Tariff Act raised the duty on imports by 50%. The result was a steep rise in prices and swift political backlash. Republican seats in the House were reduced from 171 to 88.

In 1892, Grover Cleveland defeated Benjamin Harrison. With both houses of Congress and the Presidency under Democratic control, tariffs were reduced.

In 1893, America suffered its worst depression before the Great Depression of 1929. It continued until the spring of 1894. In December 1895, the economy entered a recession until the spring of 1897.

Foreign investors sold off their stocks in American enterprises and demanded payment in gold. This brought the United States to the brink of insolvency. By February 1895, the United States was within days of having no gold left in the Treasury.

J.P. Morgan bought $65 million in Treasury bonds in exchange for gold bullion. He and others in the consortium of investment bankers he created earned interest on these bonds, which led to a vast increase in investment banks’ power over the flow of capital.

Soon after McKinley became President in 1897, Congress passed the Dingley Tariff Act, the highest protective tariff up to that time. The act increased duties by an average of 52%, with some reaching 57%. This raised the cost of living by nearly 25% between 1897 and 1907. It also brought much-needed revenues in gold to the Treasury, which were used to pay off some of the bonds held by the investment bankers.

Signs of the effects of the McKinley economy in Geneva can be seen in what the Times revealed about the preparations for Christmas. J.W. Smith Dry Goods Store placed a notice in the Geneva Advertiser declaring that Christmas Day 1899 “will be the happiest, brightest holiday in thousands of homes” because of “the greater purchasing capacity of many pocketbooks” and “many greater purchasing opportunities.” As noted in last month’s column, J.W. Worth, Jewelers, advertised “gold safety pins,” for the baby who has everything, while the Shriners distributed 100 baskets of food to the so-called deserving poor.

Economic disparities grew even as unemployment fell and wages rose. In the title to their 1873 novel, Mark Twain and his co-author Charles Dudley Warner coined the term “The Gilded Age,” a satire of post-Civil War greed and political corruption. The PBS/American Experience documentary “The Gilded Age” (2018) describes it as a time “when the rich wore diamonds while the poor wore rags. In 1890, 11 million of the nation’s 12 million families earned less than $1,200 per year; of this group, the average annual income was $380, well below the poverty line.”

The Industrial Revolution was fueled by the low wages paid to immigrants seeking freedom from oppressive governments and crushing poverty, and to poor farmers who left the countryside to work in factories. The women were paid less than the men, and the children less than either.

While some economic historians argue that the protective tariffs helped fuel the economic recovery, most others argue they probably slowed it. Two main contributors to the economic recovery are the exploited labor force and “capital accumulation,” or the vast profits reaped by financiers and industrialists.

McKinley himself turned away from protectionism. In his last public speech, given to the people of Buffalo, N.Y., on Sept. 5, 1901, at the International Exposition, McKinley said that because of rapid communication and transportation, “Isolation is no longer possible or desirable. … The period of exclusiveness is past. … Commercial trade wars are unprofitable.” Instead, he advocated for reciprocal trade agreements.

All of which begs the question of whether we are entering a Golden Age, or another Gilded Age, when wealth and greed provide a thin veneer over base metal.

Linda Robertson is a retired faculty member from Hobart and William Smith Colleges, where she started the Media and Society Program. She has made several documentaries about the history of abolition in upstate New York, including Geneva.