The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1883-02-24
THE TARIFF.

EXTRACTS FROM SPEECH OF
HON. L. Q. G. LAMAR,
OF MISSISSIPPI,
In the Senate of the United States
Wednesday, February Z, 1888,
On the bill (H. R. 553S) to reduce
Internal-Revenue Taxation.
Mr.. Lamar said:
Mr.. President: l have taken no
part in the debate on this bill, but
have listened to it with great at
tention and have noted the votes
on the various amendments which
have been proposed to the meas
ure under consideration. The
progress Of the discussion and
the votes together show that it is
impossible to effect any large re-
duction or any material reduction
of the taxes and at the same time
retain the system of "prOtectfon
for projections sake.n One or
the other must be given up. The
demand for the reduction of taxes
which has of late years become so
urgent, has imposed a hard and
delicate task upon the party in
power, and they confessed their
inability to perform it by creating
a Tariff Commission. This expe-
dent would have been entirely
unnecessary had we nothing else
to do than to settle the relation of
taxation to revenue. Indeed, il
would seem that with o too abun-
dant revenue no task would be
easier to perform, and more agree
able and grateful in the perform
ance, than that of lifting from the
people the burden of taxation
which they felt to be unnecessary
and therefore oppressive;. and |
suppose history does not furnish
another instance of a people be-
ing heavily and needlessly taxed
for a long series of years for no
other reason except that their ru-
lers were unable to devise a me-
thod of reduction.
But, sir, the cause of this has
been manifested in the progress of
this measure through the Senate.
This body is concerned, not with
the relation of taxation to revenue,
that would be a simple matter, but
with the relation of manufactures
to the method of collecting the
revenue. Hence ii is that upon
each article of taxation the rate is
determined here by the question,
not how low q duty can be laid
with a view to reduce revenue,
but how high q one is needed to
maintain the manufacture of the
corresponding article in this coun-
try. The Senator from Maine in
an able speech at the last session
made this very clear. After de-
claring himself in favor of "pro-
lection for projections sake,' he
says:
"If there was no public debt,
no interest to pay, no pension list,
no army and navy to support, |
should still oppose free trade and
its twin sister, tariff for revenue,
and be in favor Of protective du-
ties"
Well, sir, we have been living
twenty three years-eighteen of
them years of peace-under tar
iff for protection, whose duties
are universally admitted to be too
high with respect either to reve-
nue. or to taxes. 1t has been re-
tanned on the statute book and en-
forced upon the people during that
long period not because it was
needed to pay the public debt or
the interest upon it; not because
it was needed to support the army
and navy or to defray the other
expenses of government. but be-
cause it was q system of protect
i've duties which could not be dis
turbed without also, as it was ur-
ged, disturbing the manufactures
which it had been designed to
build up and shelter from compe-
tition.
There is therefore this conflict
between the public demand and
the convictions of the party in
power. The people demand a re-
duction of this burden of taxation,
but the party in power has for
twenty years insisted that it was
no burden at all but blessing to
the whole country. They assert,
and have done SO repeatedly in
this debate, that the duties upon
imported articles do not go into
the price of the articles at all, but
that their effect is simply to put
upon the market the correspond
ing products of homo manufac.