The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1884-04-24
Mr.. Morrison,s Speech.

cessity of reducing taxation To fail 10 reduce
taxation and relieve the people would be a ma
grant disregard OF public duty. The pending
I'LL might not be all that was required, but 1t
was an advance toward the promise OF more
complete tariff reform. Such reform and ADJUST
ment of the tariff were not believed TO be attain
able at the present session. II would create no
surprise that in the opinion of the minority OF
the Ways and Means Committee the measure
was not sufficiently harmonious TO secure their
approval. They found I'm IL no merit, because
IL proposed to reduce all duties al Ike. hori-
zontal reduction might not be tho best, but
none other was now practicable. The pro-
tectionists opposed IL, not because 1t was
horizontal reduction, but because IL was re-
ducton at all. The year 1860 was time OF
plenty. The laborer for wages was at least as
well and the grower of grain better paid than
they are in this year, 1884, and in that wear,
1900 OF bounteous plenty our importations OF
foreign goods were less 10 the person, or in pro-
portion TO the population, than in the years
lss0-'S2. To the list of articles imported
free OF duty, amounting to nearly one-third of
all our importations, IL Is proposed 20 ada salt,
coal, wood, and lumber. salt IL already freed
from tax for the fishermen, also for the exporter
of meats, TO lessen the cost Of food TO the people
OF other countries, not for our own. Coal Il UNI
taxed for use on vessels having by law the ex-
elusive right To the coasting trade or engaged in
the foreign carrying trade-a privilege denied 10
persons engaged III other pursuits. The rev.
enue from wood and lumber imported and
hereafter to be admitted free 'ot duty has in
ten years last past not much exceeded $4,000
600. The census returns show that domestic
wooden products exceed $500, 0UO,O0J per annum.
II the average duty of 20 per cent. on imported
wood adds but 10 per cent. 20 the price OF that
produced here its increased cost to the people has
been &c., 900 in ten years. In these ten years.
under pretense OF taxing this article 10 secure
slO,OoO,OCO revenue, we have comSelled the people
to pay $5000O0,0OO in bounty 10 encourage the de-
struction or forests and telling of trees and in
the same time we have given more than IS, co.,.
600 acres OF land under the timber culture act as
bounty TO encourage the Planting OF other
trees and other forests In the estimates made by
clerk OF experience in the Bureau of Statistic
which the actual payments on importations show
to be but estimates, though based official data,
the bill would leave, IL appears, in cottOns but
two articles, cotton yarns, not the finest, duti-
a Die above 40 per cent; in wcolens, but one
coarse carpet wool, which we do not produce,
above GO per cent, and in iron and steel but a
Few above 80 per cent. These rates have been
fixed as the limit, above which on these articles
no duty shall be collected. The present rate on
the hnest cotton 10 40 per cent, and yet IL is
unquestoned fact, as shown by the invoices and
payments made, that duties exceeding 100 per
cent Exceeding first cost are eXacted ana paid
on cotton goods, the duty upon which Is, in the
estimates referred 20. stated to be less than 20
per cent. The same is true OF iron and steel in
a different degree. In the wooden sschedue
these abuses most glazing. In all
they result from enorm1tics hidden and
concealed both in the classification of articles
and the rates OF duty. The limit of 40 50, and
60 per cent. on the cotton, metal, and wOolen
schedules Is intended to expose and remedy
these hidden enormities. Those really DESTROYS
OF afording some relief from existing abuses
will not fail to find their opportunity in remov
ing taxes yielding S8,OOO,OU0 on sugar, az much
on cotton and wooden goods. and Sl4.GO0,000 on
other articles used in every home. The insult
fcient not to say deceptive character OF the late
revision, the manner Of making ii, and the cir
cumstances attending it's adoption alike forbid
II should be permanent
The only security from agitation and change
is 10 contine the taxing power TO its rightfHl
purpose of obtaining revenue limited TO the
necessities of government When no more
revenue Is needed by the Government OF peo-
pie IL has attained the limit OF its power to tax
the people.
Estimates based on census statistics show that
as many as ls,0oo00O of our people do some
work or are occupied in some business, and that
the average annual earnings of at least 1900 900
of these do not much exceed $500, and are wholly
consumed in the means OF daily substance
Thtse too, are millions who, in shop
and field, strike the blows of all pro-
duction. All the accumulations OF and
boosted additions to our national and individual
wealth go 20 one-tenth of those VINO earn it md
OF these a few appropriate the great mass OF the
savings OF the people, AID are enriched by the
profits OF the labor Of other men. Like esti-
mates will show that the few who profit most
from the labor of all contribute little under this
system OF unequal taxation-not more than 2
or cent OF their savings-while the great mass
OF workers, including the dependent poor, pay
the bulk OF the taxes, all OF which II subtracted
from their too scanty means of comfortable liv-
Ing Ours Is n very free country Of very free
men, both very freely taxed.
In the same sense that free men I'm a
ice country, freely taxed we may he correctly
named free traders when weinsist that the trade
and the commerce of the country and the neces-
sltes OF comfortable living shall be freed from
ell taxes not sential to a Government for pub
lie uses.
The amount required from the customs is de-
pendent upon what may be received from inter
MAJ revenues. The alb Jlition OF internal revenue
means free and cheap liquors, but with heavier
taxed and hgher-priced sugar and other articles
essential In every household. / am not called
upon to defend a sN stem which has many abuses.
Oh the two systems, however, 1t is cheaper in the
administration, immensely cheaper in its re-
suits. The repeal OF the internal revenue
means more than the additional cost OF living
and privation to the poor. 1t means a rerma-
nent public debt, which the few owe and the
many pay, and wnich corrupts the administra-
ton. While we cannot doubt the existence OF
great wrongs in the execution OF the internal
revenue laws, especially in the South Atlantic
States, many OF these may be cured. Neither is
IL because OF these abuses Of administration
that the abolition of liquor and tobacco taxes is
demanded in those States, for the North il sub
stantially free from these fiagraut abuses.
Mr.. Morrison said that during more than half
OF the last ten years wages had been az low or
lower than before the adoption OF the taxing
policy as a pretended means of making wages
higher. And, he continued, there is but one hOri-
ZOntal reduction for which our opponents are
willing to legislatc. the reduction of wages,
and this their favorites, with OK without re-
gard 10 legislation, are now executing day
by day with cruel regularity. in the opinion
OF the minority members OF the committee.
representing as they do the friends of
the prevailing policy. the cure for what
ever national ills exist, so far as they
result from taxation, IL 70 be found in higher
priced clothing and other articles useful i'm the
fields, mines, and homes; for that Ia what Is
meant by higher-taxed wool, fence rods, cotton
bands, and tin-plates. Some of our friends
here would cure the ills of overtaxation with the
declaration of a purpose the execution Of which
they would carefully avoid. And here Is the
declaration. 1t is called the Ohio platform
We favor n tariff for revenue limited TO the
necessities of the Government economically adj
minstered and 80 adjusted in application as TO
prevent unequal burden, encourage productive
industries at home. and afford just compensa-
ton to labor, but not to create or foster monop-
oly."
A tariff for revenue limited 20 the necessities
of the Government is demanded by this plan OF
relief IL the tariff 80 limited2 III not then why
refuse to limit it2 Who among the representa-
tives of the goodly people OF that Safe who
made this declaration believes it II limited?
Who among them believes the pending bill will
reduce the revenue below the necessities OF the
GovernmentY These are questions TO which
the plain people of the country want an answer.
They will demand TO know why the tariff taxes
were not removed in the past. IL they are beyond
cape responsibility because the rates are not
rightly adjusted? The adjustment will be the
same when the reduction 10 made, but what
ever monopoly belongs to it will be fostered by
% per cent. less than 10 now is 4 this platform
has an honest meaning 10 IL that the tariff shall
be lowered 70 n revenue basis.
And gentlemen but deceive themselves who
expect the people will be deceived by a refusal
TO lcgislate in accordance with this declared
purpose III the protection policy IL TO be the
continuing policy of the Government IL will he