The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1882-01-14
SENATOR MCDONALD ON THE TARIFF.

delivered yesterday in the Senate by MI
Beck brings the question of the tariff t,
the front of current political discussion
and emphasizes the political sagacityas vel
as the political soundness of Ex-Senato
Mcdonald, of Indiana, who delivered
most telling address on tariff last Thurs
day at the meeting of the Democratic Ed
torial Association of that state. There
an obvious need for the incubation of sount
doctrine upon the tariff to the democratic
editors of Indiana if Senator Voorhees,
| supposed to represent the sentiment of tn
democrats of this state. Senator Vorhee
was so affected by the detection of tn,
glass makers of Floyd county last yea
that he has gone about since the election
of Garfield announcing himself as con
vert to the theory of protection. Whethe
Senator Norhees's conersion is a matter o
principal or matter of policy it seems
equally unaccountable. If light shone
round Senator VoThees by reason of thu
votes of the artisans of Floyd County upo1
question which it washis business and not
theirs to understand, his conversion is Ger
tainly proof of modesty. If he only pre-.
| tended to yield his opinion to those of men
presumably more ignorant of the subject
than himself, it is not necessary to charae-
terize his conduct. But it would be inter
esting to know what Senator Voorhees, ex-
poets to gain. as a matter of politics, for
the democratic party by trying to make it
more protectionist than the pTotectionists
voter whose vote is decided by his belief
i'll the advantages of high protective tariff
is republican voter, and democrats who
undertake to WOO him over to the demo
cratic party upon the tariff issue will not
win his vote and will lose their own self
respect, unless they are honest converts, as
we are bound to assume Senator Voorhees,
to be. In that case they had perhaps best
follow their convictions into the republican
party.
Senator Mcdonald, it is gratifying to
observe, has not the slightest intention of
abandoning his confidence in the truths of
the multiplication table because any num-
Der of voters in Floyd county or elsewhere
fail to apprehend those truths. His
address to the Indiana editors is a
model of the popular exposition of
a complicated subject. He begins by
setting forth that the power to tax inn
ports, like the other taxing powers of Con
gress, is simply power TO provide neces-
sary pulic revenue. Congress has not by
the constitution any charter to make the
people wiser or better or richer in any
manner that may occur to the majority of
its members. 1t has power to tax imports |
precisely so much and in such way as |
may be necessary to provide revenue; no
further and not otherwise. The phrase Of
The denlQcratic platform OF $780, "a tariff
FOR revenue only" is a corollary from the |
language of the Constitution, and the at |
Jack upon it in the canvass oflast year was
As disgraceful to the good sense of the
country as the abandonment was disgrace
'ul to many of the speakers and to many
IF the organs of the democratic party |
Practically, an observance of the intention |
If the Constitution would have settled the |
of tariff legislation long ago
Senator Mcdonald sums up his objections
% a protective tariff as follows:
Il. Such tariff is in no just sense a
AK and to the extent that it excludes for
ign merchandise from our markets 1t is
10 tax at all. 1t is bounty, and the con-
titution does not authorize Congress to |
impose burden of that kind upon one
lass of our people for the benefit of
~
q 1t is unjust and unnecessary event
considered from the standpoint of the pro-
In support of this latter proposition
senator Mcdonald goes on to show that
While our infant and struggling industries
we're really in an infantilc and struggling
condition they neither required nor received
o much pap as they have been receiving
ince, and that, in fact, their demands for
he bottle have grown with their growth
nd strengthened with their strength
The tariff of 1899, which was levied in
part for protection, did not average more
than 90 per cent. on fabrics and Clay's
famous tariff act of 1912 only averaged
dDout Ou per cent, White the average sau
yalorem rate of the present tariff
on the same class of goods is overl
0 per cent" And now the protection
its have almost committed the republic I
an party to the proposition that the vast !
nrden laid upon the taxpayers of the K
ountry by the Morrill, tariff should be in !
reased, and that the expenses of the gov ,
rnment should be SO Unfortunately increas- ,
as to make a pretext for the increase of :
ne public burdens.
One of the neatest passages in Senator j
leDonald's address is that in which he I
nnctnres. the pretense that the present
riff is necessary for the protection of 7
merican labor. lie shows from the Off 9
al reports that in the cost of textile fab t
cs in general the element of labor is 191 s
er cent; material, 623, and that the high t
1t proportion of labor to the completed e
reduct is % per cent. while in the pro
action of silks labor is only 16 per cent.
$ % per cent is the highest proportion =
labor, duty of % per cent would be $
IL e.. -, u