The Aberdeen examiner. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1866-current, 1883-03-08
Every Congressman Directly In
tereSted in the Tariff.

tereSted in the Tarti.
During the debate on the tariff bill
Senator Davis, of West Virginia, who
favored on increase of the specific
duty on coal, was charged with being
interested in coal mines and retorted
by expressing his opinion that nearly
all the Senators were interested In
the duty on one article or another.
While so sweeping charge unsup>
ported by specification, must be held
as incredible, it is not without some
justification in view of the wild in
consistency Of the votes and incon-
elusive logic of the speeches OF many
congressman. Direct interest is no
disqualification, in itself, as there are
few subjects of legislation in respect
to which it might not exist, but those
Senators of whom it may truly be
affirmed are liable to close scrutiny
and ought not to be sensitive to crit
icsm.- Vichsb,~g.. Commercial.
This charge was made by Senator
Morgan of Alabama, but it must be
remembered that every Senator and
Representative upon the floors OF
Congress is directly interested in the
maintenance of some one or more
industries of importance to his State
or district. He may not have money
invested in any particular branch OF
business that appeals to Congress
for high or low duties, but he is there
as O State or a District, and not in
his individual capacity; and is direct
Ia interested in whatever most con
Germs the interests of that State or
District, and must speak or vote for
that interest without any reference
whatever to his private fortunes.
Senators Davis and Camden, of West
Virginia Brown of Georgia, and
Gorman of Maryland, are all inter
ested in the mining interests of their
respective States, but were they for
that reason to retire from the Senate
when the question of tariff upon iron
and coal was under discussion, or is
it not more reasonable to suppose
that they were sent to Congress with
view to the protection of the coal
pits, iron furnaces and rolling mills
as we'll as of the fields of wheat, corn,
rice and cotton, and can any one say
that they we're in any degree remiss
in the matter of caring for othol
great interests of their own States ol
other States because they looked
} after the welfare of those who owne(
! or worked the mines!
So far as West Virginia is con-
cerned, she is a great network o
: iron mines, coal pits, hard woc'
: forests, coal oil wells, and ston
= quarries, and every man within he
!: rock-ribbed confines who is possess
st ed of means has his money investe,
o in one OF the industries represente
7; by these natural sources of wealth
'e hence, if she sends wealthy man t
Ie Congress he cannot avoid battlin
n, for his own mines or quarries whe
y he speaks for his State, and if he
Oh choice falls upon poor man he
III false to the people he represents
Or he does not plead as earnestly in be
rs half of her industrial interests 9
~ though he owned them, so there
OF no more reason or justice in cor
or demning Davis, Brown, and Gorma
ct for contending for what they regar'
u.s. ed as adequate protection for ire
ut and coal, because they were interes
ol- ed in the ownership of mines al
nd furnaces, than there would be
tie condemning Jonas, of Louisiana, fl
od battling for the tariff on sugar; Blu
i'll ler of South Carolina for fighting f
,s protection on rice; George, of Mil
sissippi,for contending for an impo
YET duty on jute, or Morgan for insistil
he upon protection on silk cocoons al
,lv charcoal, when no one of those Sci
:, ators had dallor isvested in t
ny product for which he spoke al
IN voted. In the first instances as
an the last they simply contended {
76 the interests of the people they re
-, resented, and were not in o positi
JIG to represent their individual prefe
son ences if they had any, and were L
the sent to the United States Senate
trv represent their own preferences
interests, but as the embodiment
the interests, in a representa-
the sense, of the people of their respec
tbe i've States.
There are men upon the floors
III the two chambers of Congress W
ors are at heart 'free traders yet hf
$50 supported the theory and pract
,ou of "protection' in every debate a
' vote upon the tariff question duri
by its consideration and on the otl
ady hand, we know of Senators and RI
| of resentatives whose convictions O
, predictions were all in favor Q
AA- high protective tariff, who have vo
IN for every reduction in cert
S of schedules that was proposed;
.ho these men were not in position
' exercise their own free will or to
was press their individual wishes in
ned otesthey cast-they were there
roe guard the interests of their imme
ate constituents as well as to as
nan in making laws for the whole Rep
tive lie, and therefore could only c.
scientiously follow out their pre-
H. lictions in those instances where
'oio home interest could suffer from vc
red; to which our neighbours designat
,uld of "wild inconsistency" might Sc
oost justly applicable to those who do