St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-08-16
THE TAXING POWER.


In his analysis of the selfish and haphaz-
ard way congress has OF exercising the
taxing power. Prof. SUMNER says il has
never had any plan or purpose in its tariff
legislation. Congress has simply laid itself
open to be acted upon by interested parties,
and the product of its tariff legislation has
been simply the resultant of the struggles
Of the interested cliqueS with each other,
and of the log-rolling combinations which
they have been forced to make among them
selves. 1t even ignores the report of the
tariff commission which was appointed IN
der the act of 1883, and which, with one ex-
ception, was composed of protectiOnists
This commission became satisfied from its
investigations that the best conservative
opinion of the country demanded a reduc-
ton of tariff duties, and that excessive
duties are 4 positive injury to the
classes which they are supposed
TO benefit. So far as the report
Of this commission and its recommended
kicked under the table by congress just as
the prosperity of the country has been
kicked around the floor of congress, Tariff
legislation is accomplished without any in
telligent knowledge of the industry and
what tax any given article will bear, but is
shaped entirely by the power behind it. As
an illustration of this fact, Prof. SUMNER
says when 4 tariff bill is before congress
the first draft starts out with certain rate
on certain article. say 30 per cent. 1t is
raised by amendment 10 so. the article is
AIKEN into a combination and the rate put
up to so per cent, the bill is sent to the
other house. and the rate on this article cut
down again 10 40 per cent, on conference
between the two houses the rate is fixed at
60 per cent He who believes in the pro-
tectioniSt doctrine must if he looks on at
that proceeding, believe that the prosperity
OF the country is being kicked around the
floor of congress, at the mercy of the
chances which are at last TO determine with
what per cent. of tax these articles will
come out"
The professor makes very pertinent in
quiry when he asks: IF congress can exert
the supposed beneicent influence on in
duStry. ought not congress to understand
the force which it proposes TO use? Ought
it not to have some rules of protective
legislation so as TO know in what
cases, within what limits, under what con-
ditiOns. the device can be effectively used?
Would not that be reasonable demand to
make Of any man who should propose a
device for any puTpOSe?' Prof. SUMNER
says that congress has never had. and
never seemed TO think il needed to get. any
knowledge of the mode OF operation of
protective taxes. He says lit passes taxes
as big as the conflicting interests will allow,
and goes home, satisfied that it has saved
the country. What a pity that philoso-
pliers, economists, sageS and moTaliStS
should have spent so much time in elucdat-
ng the conditions and laws of hui
man prosperity! Taxes can do it all.
If. now, it were possible to devise a
scheme of legislation which should, ae-
cOrdiDg to protectionist ideas, be Just the
right jacket of taxation to fit this country
to-day, how long would it fit? Not week.
Here are So, 600, 600 people on $500. 900
square miles Of land. Every day new lines
of communication are opened, new discov-
cries made, new Inventions produced, new
processes applied, and the consequence is
that the industrial system is in constant
fiux and change. How, if a correct system
OF protective taxes was practicable thing
at any given moment, could congress keep
up with the changes and readaptations
which would be required. The notion is
preposterous, and it is n monstrous thing,
even on the prOtectiOnist hypothesis, that
we are living under a protective system
which was set up in 1864. The weekly tariff
decision by the treasury department may be
regarded as the constant attempts that are
required to lit that old system to present
circumstances, and as tits not possible that
new fabrics. new compounds, and new pro-
ceSSeS should find place in schedules which
were made twenty years before they were
invented, those decisions carry with them
the fate of scores of new industries which
figure in no census and are taken into ac-
count by no congressman. Therefore, even
if we believed that the protective doctrine
was sound, and that some protective system
was beneficial. and that the one which we
have was the right one when it was made,
we should certainly be driven to the con-
clusion that one which is twenty years
old is sure to be injurious to-day.
There is nothing, then, in the legislative
machinery by which the tariff is 10 be made
which is calculated TO win the confidence of
a man of sense, but everything 10 the con-
trary; and the experiments of such legisla-
ton which have been made have produced
nothing but warnings against the device.
Instead Of Offering any reasonable ground
for belief that our errors will be corrected
and our productive powers increased, an ex-
animation of the tariff as piece of legisla-
ton offers Us nothing but a burden, which
must cripple any economic power which we
have"