The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-08-28
Tariff INEQUALITIES.

contest in the Tenth district. The
tariff is a living issue, in which every
man, woman and child in the Union
Is interested. Going to the highest
en- the republican side, we
find that the platform partly con-
fesses that the present tariff is one of
inequ lities, and vague sort of prom
Use is madeto remove them. Such prom
isehas been repeatedly made betore,a and
it has been as often repudiated. Du-
ring the last session of congress re- |
publicans united to prevent the slight |
est reduction of excessive taxes on |
raw materials, though the grave con-
fession has been made for twenty
years by the protectionists themselves
that inequalities need correction. A
tariff if inequalities" is a mild way
to put it. but such a tariff is, in spite
of democratic authority TO
the contrary an unjust tariff.
The burdens of unequal
taxation are not equally distributed,
and unequal taxation is prohibited by
the constitution. In fact this system
of unequal taxation bears most heav-
lily upon those who are least able to
bear them; it imposes burdens upon
the many while it favors the few;and
the many are less able to bear taxa
ton than the few; it Expresses Ia
Dor, obstructs industry, and breaks
down commerce. 1t was a crime
against the country that the bill pre-
sented to the last congress by the
ways and means committee did not
become a law. This bill made
provision as to the inequalities
of the tariff, and in proposing a
moderate reduction of 20 per cent. on
textile fabrics it provided that no rate
of duty should fall below the protec-
| tive tariff of 1861. Upon iron there
| was a uniform reduction of Is per
cent. proposed. To such plain
provisions objections were urg
! ed, that custom house clerks
would not understand how to
compute rates, and by such fimsy
| pretenses the bill was defeated. Dur
ing the general tariff debate in the
last session the advocates of protec-
ton could discover no inequalities in
their boosted system. SO jealous of it
were they that they combined so as to
defeat every effort for it's amendment
Judge Kelley declared on the floor Of
the house that it was the result of the
gathered experience of twenty years
and "the perfection Of legislative
wisdom" Other protectionist orators
were equally loud in its praises. If
it were so uniform and equal meas
ure, then, the friends of tariff reform
urged, nothing could be more appli-
cable to it than horizontal reduction,
provided that the knife of revision
were not set too deep. Discovering
the fatal error into which the protec-
tionists in congress had fallen by their
Indiscriminate praise of the tariff,
the makers of the party platform in
Chicago were compelled to concede
its inequalities" Thus the iniquity
of the system stands confessed.
| Protectionists specify as tariff inc
qualities the duties on wool, tin plates
and barbed wire. 1t being contended
that these duties are too low, the mean
ing of the protectionist platform, alias
republican platform, must be that
they shall be raised to level with the
rest of the system. 1t may be con-
cluded, at all events, there is no hope
through the advocates of this plat
form for any mitigation of it's iniqui-
ties. Let it be understood how
the subject is treated by the demo-
Gratis. 1t is declared that the unjust
policy of boarding an enormous
surplus in the treasury is a needless
taxation of the labor, energy and en-
tecprise of the people, that the duties
should be removed from the raw ma
terials of industrial skill, and should
be made to bear ightest on the neces-
saries of life; and that federal taxa
tion shall be exclusively for the sup
port of the government. There is
no chance of making a mistake in re-
gard to the issue as presented in the
two platforms. If the democrats
elect majority IN the next congress
their platform pledges them to afford
substantial relief to the labor of the
people and to give new wings to their
languishing industry and commerce
by reducing the excessive duties on
imports. While confessing the Size.
qualities" of the tariff in one breath
and proposing to increase its burdens
in another, as in favoring an increas-
ed duty on wool, there Is nothing in
the platform of the protectionists or
in their public declarations from which
can be drawn the faintest hope of gen.
uine revenue reform. On the part of
the protectionists this is fight for
the present tariff, with more years of
industrial depression and ill-requitted
labor behind it.
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