Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-02-22
"TAX REFORM. "
Henry WattersOn's Address Before the
Tennessee Legislature-"A Tariff
for Revenue Only"
The ''New Issue'' Declared Receivable
for Taxes and ALI Other Moneys
Due the State.

Special to the Appeal
NASHVILLE, February 21.-Mr. Henry
Watterson, of the Louisville Cotrier-Journal,
delivered his long advertised address on
"Tax Reform" before both houses OF the
Legislature, in the Hall OF Representatives.
His arguments and illustrations were those
current in the newspapers that have so ably
discussed the tariff question, and he made
copisus extracts from the speeches of lead
ing members of Congress and leading jour
mails to sustain his ultra position. 10 expla-
ton OF the "taiiff for revenue only" plank in
the Democratic platform of 1880, he said:
Until the words which one Of your houses has
adopted into resolution, now pending in the
National Democratic Convention, they are Demo
cratic law. They were not words of my choosing.
! am as innocent OF their authorship as Of the
letters of Junius. But very much as certain
humble, and, as learn by recent historic re-
searches, very modest and worthy Spaniard by the
merit or consent, to be saddled with the name Of
the greatest OF continents, has 1t fallen to my
happy lot to be saddled and bridled: to be booted
and spurred by the words "a tariff for revenue
only" was not a member OF the Platform
mode U 81 exprSssion o but had the misfortune
TO be chairman of the Committee on Reso-
lutions in 1850 and to report the platform.
AZ q partial exculpation / may say in pass
ing that that particular sentence is about the
only sentence among the other unassailed SEN
fences OF the platform OF 1850 for which am not
responsible; and 1t is far from being good plat
form At It's best. It was, TO- be put
cold day for platforms, a hot one for rash judg-
ments and needless enterprises. have said in
another place that Iwould as lief issue the New
Testament without the Lords prayer as Demo-
cratic platform without the doctrine of revenue
only" found the words in the platform OF 1876,
and adopted them as matter OF course. IL was
not until there arrived defeat-which the party
had richly earned and had done all in its power 70
achieye-that any one heard dissenting voice.
and 1t being my duty to defend the assailed of my
Asusshsia. ], fenAa tho most sxReSsd @ he the
this personal reference, pardonable, let me hope
since am in q manner come home for talk TO old
OF nv offending are, and have been, that stood
by the last OF the great Democratic hulhs,
which, surviving the period of Democratic
ascendency, is left US intact and indebted. To
deal in terms which fear you will understand
but too we'll, 1t is as the remnant of great for
tune; q piece of stock not squandered because
considered valueless; which has come into the
market and which the spendthrifts would hypoth-
eeate for mess OF potage they WIZ not get. The
gambling upon margin nor pressed for time.
and propose TO cliug TO this inheritance We let
we lost the government We tried by letting
Jeckson's doctrine Of honest money go 10 regain
what we had lost. The result was continued dis
aster Finally, this last OF the old heirlooms is
brought, as IL were, under the hammer. The
question is, shall we sacrifice it, and in order to
decide that, my business with you is to take an
inventory 10 examine what 1t is and to determine,
If possible, what it is worth.
"a TARIFF FOR REVENUE ONLY"
What, then, il "a tariff for revenue only" and
what is proposed by those who advocate the re-
duction of customhouse taxation to the revenue
standard? "a tariff for revenue only" cannot
mean free trade, is often charged, because it
is admitted that full $500 900 900 must be collected
on impost duties. Nor can 1t mean revolution
because the exigency of this vast sum makes con-
sentative action imperative. But some rule must
be applied to the regulation of customs dues, and
the only rule which can be made general in its
operation is that which rests upon the doctrine
that which il designed exclusively for the govern
.ment. This doctrine may be variously expressed,
and Democrats may differ to forms and phra ses
but who is there here prepared to contend that
taxes shall be levied not for the government, but
for the benefit OF private enterprises and individ-
uals? Every dollar SO diverted is bounty. II Is
money wrested from the hands of the many,
and, under forms of law, transferred to the
pockets of the few. 1t is subsidy, which, ii
directly proposed, would arouse universal resent
ment, but which has been so artfully framed and
masked as to strut about the country in the pre-
tended character Of public benefactor. There
are two sides to every questionable theoretical
aud the practical. To consider measures Alright
both sides must be taken into account. The tariff
is practical question certainly; it is question
of business, and it is full of detail but 1t is also
rights; question in the science of taxation anC
the ethics OF human freedom. And he discussed
| the question from these standpoints.