Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1884-08-01
Mr. Randall, the Platform, and the
Morrison Bill

The Hon. Samuel Randall is reported
as saying that the tariff p ank OF the recent
Democratic Platform is equivalent to an
endorsement of his entire record upon the
tariff question in Congress. This is not
an opportune time to quarrel with the
Hon. Sam about his tariff record and il
may be well to let him for the present have
all the consolation he processes to derive
from the platform. Il is not difficult to
see, however, that the tariff plank of the
platform does not endorse the honorable
ex-Speaker's efforts to repeal the internal
revenue laws, or his action in combining
with he Republicans 10 strike The exact
ing clause from The Morrison bill. but i'm
plies rebuke upon his action in respect
to both of 'hese measures.
The tariff plank expressly says that the
Internal revenue law, shall be retained to
hep bear the remaining burdens Of the
war and it SAYS that all taxation shall be
exclusively for public purposes, and limi-
ted to the necessary revenues Of the Gov
ernmen' Now the New York san, Mr..
Randall S especial organ and apologist
blames the Morrison bill chiefly because
oy the 30 per cent horizontal reduction it
augment tie surplus, If it he thus conce-
ded that the present tariff is so lar above
the revenue poin' that a horizontal reduc
ton OF 20 per cent. will serve to isersas
lfie recenue, then that bi ! was the most ra-
tional and pr ,ctical stepimaginab'e toward
p anFppe5 pffa5Ticaf, ~ A.: tiaeing
the crude and chaotic tariff 10 a revenue
basis. which il the nature Of things mus,
be first attained before he "incidentu! pro-
lection" the Platform recognizes can be
begun.
The artisan who sets out To- turn OF a
delicate impl. ment from the unknown log
does not begin to fashion the article on
the rough outlines of the crude timber
He first commences by cleaviug huge slices
from the rough log to bring it down to
the proper size and dimensions md 1t is
not until he has thus reduced il that he
commences to trace and fashion the deli
cate curves and outlines Of the nice work
manship.
Thus it WAS with the Morrison bill -
Recognizing that the existing tariff was a
huge and distorted mass Of iniquity, Mr.
Morrison sought to begin The work OF
bringing it into reasonable dimensions by
cleaving a horizontal 20 per cent. slice
from its outer exterior; and this was all
the Morrison bill proiessed to do. as Mr..
Randall was we'll aware. This prelimi-
nary measure was deemed necessary 20
prove to the consuming masses that the
Democratic party was sincere in its pur-
pose of reforming the tariff. If it had re
suited, as Mr.. RsndalI's organ claims, that
this slice taken off would serve to increase
the revenues, then the next step would OBJ
viously have been to take off another hor-
izontal slice until the diminishing reve-
nues should prove that the revenue line
had been reached. Then it would have
been time to commence to adjust the deli
cate lines of incidental protection"
Careful statisticians estimate that the
cost of the articles affected by the present
tariff. which are consumed in this coun-
try, is increased S50O,000,O00 in every
year, while on'y about S250,0o0,00O has
gone into the treasury annually, and
large portion of this has been an unneces-
sary surplus. Such being the case, it
would probably have required several hor-
izontal slices to bring the tariff do wn to a
revenue basis.
The platform, therefore, does not vindl-
cate Mr.. Randall's rreacherous action in
combining with the Republicans at crit
ical time to defeat the just and proper
measure of preliminary tariff reform advo-
Gated almost unanimously by his party,
and his vindica'ion will be slow in COM
ing.