The Waco daily examiner. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 187?-1888, 1882-02-11
COKE ON THE TARIFF.
a Synopsis of Senator COlze's
Speech ON the Tariff.
Ne,o Orleans T,mss-Demoerat.

Neto Orleans T,mes-Demoerat.
Mr.. Coke was then awarded the floor
tor speech upon the tariff. the Merrill
commission bill being taken up to allow
him TO speak. He favored tariff revision
by Joint committee of the tWo hou- es
and hoped for a report from them, and
final action thereon, at the present ses
sion. Upon the general question ne adj
vocated a tariff for revenue. with Tree
list OF every article upon which tax tol
revenue is unnecessary, and charged that
the Morrill, system, by its monsrous lax.
alton. enriched few manufacturers white
destroying revenue, burdening the peo
pie, especially the agricultural ca~s.
He SAID that in carrying out the move
and dangerous theory that protection OF
itself is not revenue, is the legitimate
function of tariff. Incorporate capital IS
seeking to perpetuate indefinitely hlgh
war duties which had been tolerated
only as temporary expedients. he
dwelt upon the Importance OF more init
mate commercial relations with Mexico
and the removal of obstacles IN the way
of our sharing in the Mexican trade.
Mr.. Coke referred to the propositions
and appeals made by him in the senate
three years ago for government aid in
his (Coke's) object having then been to
attract private capital to the develop
ment of western Texas Since then the
San Antonio and Laredo road had been
built, and was now being extended into
Mexico, and the Galveston Camargo
line is rapidly going forward. At Ell
Paso and Laredo we already have rail
communication with Mexico, and at
Eagle Pass will have within three
months. These rail facilities secure to
us speedy transportation of troops and
supplies for the protection of our West
ern border, and open an avenue to a
| Mexican market for our surplus home
manufactures. But our tariff, in adding
d 40 per cent tax to the home market
price of our goods and cost of freight,
excludes our manufacturers from the
Mexican market, as they cannot possibly
make profit unless they can undersell
| their European competitors.
! He agreed with Morrill, as to the SUI
perior excellence of our manufactures,
and claims that this very fact was sutfi-
cient reason for doing away with the
| duties of from 80 to 80 per cent, with
which it protected such superior articles.
! The very necessities of our extraordinary
development made a foreign market for
our manufactures imperative, and III
/ order TO relieve an already glutted home
market we must undersell foreign COM
petitors. Our farmers, who furnish 50
per cent of our surplus for export, and
] who pay the protection tax on all they
| eat, drink, wear or use, realize less than
per cent on their capital, while our
manufacturers make dividends of from
and 10 to 25 and 10 per cent. The
claim that our alleged reproduction
of unsOld merchandise abroad would
have found market here IN the panic
of 1872 but for our protective power was
disputed by Mr.. Coke, who asserted that
but for tariff taxes our farmers would
have made three dollars where the man
ufacturer lost a half u dollar. He de-
nounced the protective policy as a con-
spicuous feature of that class OF legisl-
ton which had created a railroad arls-
tucracy by its tax on iron and steel
buricned farmers with high rates on lhcir
traffic: resulting from the increased cost
OF railroad construction. AS o the AS
sumption of Mr. Morrill,, that mnut c
turing towns and States furnished home
market sufficient to compensate our firm
ers for the burdens of the tariff. he cited
statistics to show that such localities, with
the exc ption of the New England states,
raised enough OF food products TO supply
their markets. and that the south WAS
only market for the surplus products OF
the northwest. Extensive manufactu, ing
in the south would bring about general
tree trade, because the proximity
to the raw material would give
southern manufacturers such an adVan-
tage over their northern coHpcnIOrs that
the latter would lose their home market
aud he compelled TO compete in foreign
markets. Coke then prOceeiel to sub
sfanhate. by reference TO tariff rates, his
genraliZatiOn that import duties increase
relatively the cost 10 the consumer of the
domestic article. and the excess Of the cost
of the latter goes into the pockets OF our
manufacturers.
The high Mexican tariff is prohibitory
on some of our manufactures, especially
on cotton goods and the like, and as
Mexican imports, being raw material,
are admitted free under our tariff, we
have nothing to offer as an inducement
for Mexico to reduce her high tariff
duties. Besides, if such reduction
should benefit our foreign competitors
equally with ourselves as 1t is probable, /
it wOnId, IN view of the feeling against
us in Mexico, not benefit us at all. These
were the obstacles in our way to a MeXi- !
can market, Que of great importance to
the future, and while urging that the
strongest efforts should be made to |
facilitate commercial exchanges with /
Mexico, Mr.. Coke read from Schlicher's |
report from the house committee on
foreign relations in 1873, to show that |
an outlook for their success was discour- /
aging, Our remedy for this condition of /
things as to Mexico is the same as to /.
other countries. We must have a tariff at /
home which will cheaper our goods /.
abroad, and will admit foreign products in |
exchange for our own. By no other means
could our manufacturers compete with !
or undersell foreigners. A reciprocity /
treaty with Mexico should be urged as |
means of abolishing the Zona Libra
with its smuggling facilities, of empow- |
ering our citizens to acquire and hold .
Mexican border real estate, of repressing |
border rutfianism and definitely arrang- |
ing the Rio Grande boundary. After .
an allusion to the near outlet of salt |
water and commercial distributing |
points of Texas for the golden stream |
of trade, which, If invited under wise |
policy, would eventually flow into the /
United States, Mr.. Coke proceeded to
review and reply to the points made in
the tariff apeech by Mr.. Morrill, as to
the CLAIM that the first tariff of October,
Of 1889, showed that the fathers We're
committed to the protective policy. He
presented the contrast of dependant and
colonies with our present
national superiority to show that the ar
guments and policies OF that day are
now inapplicable.
Mr.. Coke concluded at 4:I0, after
speaking for three hours