Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1883-05-02
THE TARIFF.
Remarks of Hon. NJ. H. Dunnell, of Min
nesota, In the House of Represent
tatives. Saturday March 3, 1883.

Mr.. DUNNELL said:
Mr. Speaker: If l have labored for
anything through the Forty seventh Con-
gress, in word and vote, it has been to
secure Il reduction of the tariff and of tax
alton. felt it my duty to take position,
in the last session of Congress. in which
I was followed but by few on the Re
publican side of the House. thought
then discovered purpose to resist to the
end any revision OF the tariff. 1t seemed
to me that the appointment of commits
sion was for the purposes OF delay. 1t
did not then appear to me possible that
out of a revision, made by Il tariff COM
mission we could secure, as we have not
at last. indeed, a proper revision of the
tariff. now find myself, Mr.. Speaker,
in strait bctwixt two. am compelled
to vote for this bill, but yield to it with
tho utmost reluctance. 1t is no such bill
as the people had right to expect and
their interests clearly demanded.
1t would be easy to follow along in the
line indicated by the gentleman from
Kentucky MIR. Carlisle and the gentle
man from Ohio Mr.. Robinson in point
ing out the inconsistencies that exist
IN the bill We are, US the gentleman
from Illinois Mr. Springer] has just in
timated, taking leap in the dark. We
are voting for bill which has not yet
been considered at length in Committee
of the Whole. We were compelled, as
an outcome and an outgr0wth of the
Tariff Commission, to adopt new rule,
revolutionary in its character, hostile to
all conservative, just legislation, 10y which
we have got at last bill for which, with
out amendment, we must vote yes or no.
The bill does not meet my appreciation;
ND IF If tic nrNViSinnS
| shall vote for it, though under most
solemn protest. Let me allude to some
items. We are asked to make a reduction
Of sea, 100000 upon tobacco. That we
are compelled to vote for this large re-
duction is because of policy, that was
foreshadowed and attempted in this
House, to make only reductions in the in
ternalrevenue system and not in the tariff.
Two weeks ago to-day, perhaps not in
tentionally at the time, precipitated in
the House an action which had not been
anticipated by those who had then been
going on from day to day, hopelessly re-
viewing the report of the commission
here in Committee of the Whole. As a
result of my declaration that l considered
that action as delusive and deceptive, as
misleading the people and in no way
honoring the House, an attempt was
made the very next Monday to pass
through the House an internal-revenue
bill I was one of the eighteen who on
this side Of the House by our votes, pre-
vented the passage OF the bill: But for
the defeat Of that bill We should not now
have even this poor result of all these
| labors for which we are called upon to
vote.
We are making a reduction of S23, 900,
600 on tobacco and but $11,OOO,O OO on
sugar We are taking off this large
amount from what in properly denomi
mated luxury and refusing to take it oil
from sugar, the grand necessity of the
people. have said and say now to this
side of the House that if we had had the
courage and the pluck to have taken of
| $25, UOO, 600 from sugar at the last session
| of Congress, and reduced the duty on
steel rails from twenty eight.to fifteen dol
lars ton, with other needed and just re-
auctions, we would not now be forced to
witness the incoming of a Democratic ad
ministratien in this House.
Now, Mr.. Speaker, I insist most re-
spectfully that this is not a proper way
| to legislate upon so great subject as the
revision of the tariff laws of the country.
| Yet because it does reduce rates on iron,
because steel rails arc reduced from SIS
to ST.. 1850
Mr.. KELLEY. Seventeen dollars.
Mr.. DUNNELL. l accept the cor
rectien. Because they are reduced to $17,
though this House decided on SO, and
the Senate upon lower figure; because
we do get some reduction on sugar and
some other articles must swallow the
bill and vote for it, protesting that it is
not what the people ought to have had
and what this Congress ought to have
given to them.
Mr.. KELLEY. / ask the gentleman to
correct his statement that the Senate rate
was lower 1t was higher than the House
rate.
Mr.. DUNNELL. Higher than the
House rate, but lower than the rate as
fixed by this report.
Twill here read what said in the House
on the 18th of last month, when'in Com
mittee of the Whole the House had under
consideration the bill reported by the
Committee on Ways and Means, but which
dropped out of sight from that very day.
| said:
have been surprised that the House in
Committee Of the Whole has so well kept up
its interest to this hour in the pending bill,
with the overshadowing fact upon it that the
bill has no earthly chance of passage. We
nave Oeen UoOdLlu8 tue pEOS1SlOuS VI CuC UlAl
and at the same time substantially admitting
that it would not have passage:
We have now reached u provision in the bill
which to me- has been Of
were to find some relief to the people. This
paragraph of tue bill does provide reduc'
ton Of about $ll, 100000 The very men, how
ever, who advocate the passage of the bill
and urge that it ought to pass, because it Sc
cures that much of reduction Of taxes on the
people of the country. are themselves admit
and elsewhere, that the bill Is not to be passed
| at this session OF Congress.
The next few days will verify the truthful.
ness of my statement.
In the last session of Congress it was admit
ted by every body ON either side of the House
that the present tariff, now nearly twenty
years old, ought to undergo radical revision.
Gentlemen on this side Ut the House who
urged the appointment Of a tariff commission
! announced that the tarif needed revision.
| pointment Of tariff commission meant what
| is to be a fact in the history of the Forty
| seventh Congress.
Now, what we ought to have done In the
| but was turned over to the Tariff Commission.
We are now within few days of final ad.
journment of this Congress-; one.third of this
! large and vOluminous bill has been passed
! over. Everybody is pressed with the convic
| ton that this bill can never pass, The cOun'
| try demands its passage. and yet we are stand.
clause. while at the same time we arc bound
| to admit that the present tariff will get nc
| revision.
the ways and means by which the people are
| to be relieved from burdens: l1,0OO, 900 from
sugar, with reduction upon steel and iron
Poor as this bill is. unsatisfactory as 1t is, II
would if passed relieve the people OF $4,000
Yet this bill can not pass; it is utterly beyond
the expectation OF its most sanguine friends
| <ho< xuilI WQ ma " q hepn 6a1n6ino NJ =.