Daily Kennebec journal., 1884-04-12

i ed courpe to eyery one and leave each to be
responsible for his own undertakings, to resp
their fruits whether of succeas or failure.
| As temperance movement / do not be-
lieve this bill will receive many proseiytes.
1t does not provide against taking this 20.
O00, 600 gallons of whiskey ont of bond. IL
only defers the time of taking it ont and
placing it upon the market. Its to strengthen
the whiskey interest BY . loan of an enor-
nous sum Of s7O, ,OOO. 900 for two years In
the mean time the whiskey-men, relieved of
their present embarrassment. reassured and
| restrengthened,w will continue TO produce their
commodity.
1t needs not that . man shonld
be what gentlemen are pleased to style q tenn
perance crank, it needs not that he should be
a teetotaler or a prohibitionist- it needs only
that he should be an intelligent man, observ-
ant of what is transacting in every commun-
| ity to know that the whiskey traffic lntilets
upon our people one of the greatest of all
their misfortunes. and it needs only that one
should be patriotic man and lover OF his
race that he should most deeply depiore it,
| And when the gentleman from Kentucky was
depicting in colors so vivid the tears and
sorrows of the wives and children of the
whiskey dealers to be made bankrupt BY pay
ment OF their taxes, l could not but think
how much broader field he might have had
for his eloquent description had he attempted
a recital of but a small fraction of the pains
and sorrows, misery, degradation, and crime
of which whiskey has been the prolific
parent.
Whiskey pleading for sympathy is like a
boy who having murdered his father and
mother, when convicted Of the crime and
asked why sentence of death should not be
pronounced upon him, appealed with tear
full eyes to the court to have mercy upon
poor orphan.
The gentleman from NewYork, (Mr. Hew-
itt) says he desires the repeal of the whiskey
tax because he wants free raw material, and
following the example of his colleague Mr..
Cox in discussing this bill treats US to Il
speech upon the tariff What does he mean
by raw material?" Will he please define
the term as he understands it? If whiskey is
not manufactured article will he be so kind
as 20 inform US what is? The whiskey may
be raw enough. to be sure, but every item of
its cost from the sowing of the grain to its
production in the market for sale, except the
interest upon the value of the ground in
which the grain grows and the machinery bv
which it is made, is for labor. Raw mater
al iudeed! You may as well call cotton or
wooden cloth, boots and shoes, silk dresses,
and suits of satin raw material as whiskey.
hOES IMAM ~ per CCub VI us 'oAuS 10 thC
result of labor. Herein lies the error of the
gentleman and those Of his school They
call wool raw material, yet who does not
know how largely labor enters into the
product of wool? Those of that school who
are builders speak of bricks and lumber as
raw material vet there is nothing of raw ma
terial in the one except the clay of which
they are made and the wood with which they
are burned, nor of the other except the trees
standing in the forest. All else of their
value has been contributed by labor. Indeed,
there is no tax or duty levied upon any raw
material in this country by the Federal Gov
ernment. There is no raw material except
the earth and what is within and grows upon
it, the waters and what they contain, the air
and its forces. and upon these the Govern
ment lays no duties.
A protective tariff should be equal at least
to the difference between the price of labor
in this country and abroad, Will the gentle
man who talks so learnedly of free raw ma
terial tell me why the farmer who produces
wool should not be protected in his payment
of that difference to his employees as well as
the manufacturer who makes it into cloth, or
why he who converts growing trees into man.
ufactured lumber or ore into pig-iron should
not be protected by sufficient duties in paying
American workmen as we'll as he who pur-
chases their product and employs labor upon
it for its further manufacture?
The fact is that they who so gilbly advo-
cate free raw material are believers in free
trade in all manufactured articles until they
come into their own possession for further
manufacture. at which boundary they COM
mence to be protectionists and so continue
up to the point where they dispose of their
goods.
But will not follow what regard as a vi
cious practice of this House and make tar
if speech upon bill to extend the time of
payment of taxes due upon bonded whisky. /
have done this only so far as to answer the
gentleman's assumption that whiskey is raw
material. The tariff l prefer to discuss up
on another and more appropriate occasion,
if shall do so at all l desire to call the
attention of the House to one other point in
connection with this subject. and then l will
not further occupy its attention. Gentlemen
declare that we must repeal the whiskey tax
to prevent the continued accumulation of a
surplus of revenue in the national Treasury
They profess to be greatly alarmed by this
surplus. 1 must confess that it does not
frighten me at all. / think that a govern
ment which owes nearly 81 800 900 need not
be obliged to search far to discover a place
for the proper and judicious investment of its
surplus Income. If that investment can not
be favorably made to-day it may be so placed
as to meet the liabilities Of the Government
at their maturity. The surplus revenue may
be in part wisely used to educate the illite-
rate we may now have among US, and those
who are continually flocking to our shores to
become citizens and makers. Indeed, l
would prefer rather that every soldier whose
brave deeds and generous sacrifices have con-
tributed to save the nations life and secure to
US this magnificent reunited country, proud,
powerful, and grand as it is, should receive
a generous pension from the surplus reve-
nues of the Government than that they should
be given to an industry which has wrought
among the people so much sorrow, degrade
ton, and ruin as the manufacture and sale
-.