The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1883-02-14
CONGRESSIONAL.
Mr.. Flower Advocates Reduction
of Revenue and Lower Taxes.
Mr.. Lamar Declares the Protective Policy
DeIuslve and Protection and Low
Taxation Impossible.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1.-THE Senate held
brief executive session to-day and then
took up the tariff bill. Mr.. Beck moved
to strike out the paragraph embracing
wOmen's and children's dress goods and
other WOrsted stutfs the warp of which
is made wholly of cotton or other Veget-
able material, and the weft of wool or
hair, and to substitute for it the classi-
ficatiOn of the existing law with a re-
ductiOn Of cent per square yard in the
rates of duty.
Mr.. Morrill, opposed the amendment as
incOngruOus with the rest of the bill,
and said that the classification of the
existing law applied to goods now out
of fashion.
Mr.. Beck in support Of his amendment
read again the statement which he read
on Monday from a New York merchant
charging that the effect of the provis-
ion in the bill would be to lay the high
est duties upon low priced goods.
SENATOR LAMAR's SPEECH.
Mr.. Lamar made an argument to
show that the protective policy is de-
lusive and that its maintenance is not
necessary for the existence or the deVel-
Opment of American manufactures. The
discussion and the votes on the peuding
bill showed clearly, he said, that it was
impossible to make any material Teduc-
tiOn of taxation and at the same time
to maintain the protective system. The
two things were incompatible, and one
or the other must be given up. The peO-
ple's demand for a reduction of taxes
had put upon the party in power q deli
cate and difficult task to the perform
ance of which that party had admitted
itself unequal by the creation of the tar
iff commission. This eXpedient need
nok ha, faH ~ ff L.
question had been the reduction of tax
alton to revenue. There could be no
easier or more grateful task than that
of lifting from the people burdens uni
veTsally admitted to be unnecessary, and
probably no other people in the world
were ever needlessly taxed for series
of years merely because their rulers
were unable to devise q method of re-
ductiOn. All through the present de-
bate the Senate has been concerning
itself not with the relation of taxation
to revenue but with the relation Of
American manufactures to the mode of
collecting the reVenueSuand as each ar
ticle came up the question: asked was
not how low duty could be laid upon
it but how high a duty was needed to
protect our manufacturers, The adVO-
Gates of protection had been, for years
insisting that it increased the profits of
capital, raised the wages Of labor and
cheapened the prices of manufactured
products, and they could n0Btake step
in the direction Of the popular demand
without cOntraVening the doctrines up
on which their system rested, for If it
did produce all these beneficial results
then to repeal or modify itwQuld be to
diminish these blessings. The time had
come to deal explicitly with the Amer
ican people on this subject--tO tell them
plainly that protection d,lOW taxation
are incompatible; that a Pr6t8etiVe lax
is high tax, and that tax so low as
not to check Importation issnOn-pfotect-
i've. The people of this country were al
ways willing to be taxed in proper
manner for any legitimate object.
Therefore, why not say to them
you must consent to pay the cost or
maintaining that system and scOrn the
allurement of low taxes and cheap for
eign goods" The Chairman of the Com
mittee on Finance in introducing this
bill to the Senate had stated thai 1t was
based on the report Of the, Tariff Com
mission. That report, with the accom-
panying testimony, vas an interesting
document, presenting a striking exhibit
of the progress OI manufacturing indus
tries IN this country, but 1t also con-
Idlubu luu1ChblOnb bllftb 1ul5 kIOH Ill WAS
not quite healthy and that the protect
i've system had, after all, disappointed
the hopes Of its advocates. 1t was re-
markable fact that all the accredited
representatives of the manufacturing
industries most eager for protection who
appeared before the Tariff G0mmission,
cOncuTred In testifying that those indus
tries were depressed, languishing, or on
the verge Of insolvency, and similar tes
timony was borne by every advocate of
the protective system on the floor of the
Senate. This raised a suspicion that
the protective system, which exhibited
our manufactures in such grand and
stately procession was at best system
containing some Inherent vice which
blighted these industries in all their
branches. Here was q vast organization
of capital and labor prOclaining itself
as not planted in the material and nat
ural conditions of the country, but de
pending for existence upon the taxing
power of the Government. 1t was i'm
possible to Overestimate the importance
and gravity. of this fact. The great evil
in our unrefOrmed civil service, as point
ed out by Messrs. Calhoun and Webster,
was the dependence Of so large a class
of the people upon the direct action of
the Government; but here was a declara
tiou by the advocates of protection, that
the Government, through the protective
tariff, had got hold Of the manufactur-
ing capital and labor OF the country,and
made them dependent upon it for their
existence. Such relation must affect
seriously and dangerously the action of
the Government upon this question. If,
as result Of this discussion, Congress
should at last reach the conclusion that
commercial freedom would be the true
policy for this country, they would hard
ly have the nerve to BRING upon all our
manufacturing industries the disaster
which these gentlemen said must follow
such a change. The demand of the peO-
pie for reduced taxation might become
80 imperative that it could not be disre-
garded. Yet how could any decided step
in the way Of reduction be taken in the
presence Of these great industries, W hose
very principle Of existence consisted in
high taxation, 3 plethoric treasury and
extravagant expenditures? The great
question, therefore, was whether the
protective system is really essential to
the existence and maintenanceo Of Amer
lean manufactnres-Whe neither diversi-
fed industry is otherwise unattainable