Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1886-07-12
MORRISON ON RANDALL
The Report on Samuel ]. RandalTs Tariff
Measure.
MORRISONS ACRIMONIOUS WORDS.
Mr.. Randall Charged With a Lack Of
Patriotism.

Patriotism.
WASHINGTON, July 10. misrepresentation
Morrison's report on the Randall bill says
The bill proposes to remove all interna
taxes on tobacco, snuff and cigars, amount
ing on the basis of last years receipts II
SIS, OOO, 900; ON apple, peach and craps
brandy, to 81, 400, 900; on spirits for use IL
the arts, variously estimated at from
81, 900, 900 to SIS, OOO, 900, and believed t.
be at least $40, 600, 0O0, making in the az
gre2ate of internal revenue taxes to be re
moved 500, 900, 900. In the appendix o
estimates submitted with the bill rs par
of il, the reduction Of revenue from Gus
toms on tariff taxes to be effected by it L
estimated at So, $40, SIG, making the aggre'
gate proposed reductions, S4S, 600, 900
The bill to so reduce excessive reve'
nues, and the statement that there were
no excessive revenues to be reduced, were
submitted to the House by the same mem
Der in the same half month. If the state
ment that the revenues will not exceed
appropriations and estimates Of the bill in
Guiding loss of receipts from brandy and
from spirits for use in the arts, may be
credited, the enactment Of bill into alaW
will leave the Government S4s, OOO, 900
short of the sum necessary to the admins
tratiOn of the Government and require
ments of the public debt authorized by
law, including debt incurred by payment
of pensions already allowed, the validity
of which we may not question and the
payment of which is ~enjoined upon US in
the oath we have taken to support the
Constitution.
Your committee, unwilling to credit n
purpose so lacking in patriotism, so forget
full of the public faith, must believe these
and other provisions of the bill to be the
result Of
FISCAL DISTEMPER,
hindering a Just comprehension and intel
ligent treatment of the subject. In view
Of its effect and purpose, so far as 1t has a
purpose affecting the revenue Of the Gov
eminent, the bill might well be left to that
neglect which, no doubt, it was expected
to receive. But, in the hope that even so
unwise a measure may open the way for
the majority of the House TO redeem its
pledges by the removal and reduction OF
unnecessary and therefore unjust taxes,
yOur committee report the bill back with
the recommendation that it do not pass.
THE bill changes the duty or ratio OF
tax on articles yielding less than one-tenth
1917, 900, OOO) out of the SlS1, 000, 600 re-
ceived from customs in 1885. 1t increases
those which yielded S11, 600, 900 and de-
creaSes or remOves those which yield ST.
OO9, 900 on the basis of imports for 1885. 1t
does not reduce the revenue from customs
$500 $40 ut all, but does increase II
S., 800, 900.
Besides the articles added to the free
list, the duty or
IMPORT TAX
is reduced on castor beans, castor oil,
starch, iron and steel rails, beams, girderS,
lead, and other articles, yielding $780,
600 of revenue, and the revenue is estimated
on the bill to fail off in proportion to
the reduced rate of taxation recon-
mend. The tax on all clothing, whether
OF silk, linen, cotton, or wooden, and other
wooden goods, of tin plates, cotton ties
and other articles, yielding, rs already
stated, Sl1, GOO, 600, is increased, and the
revenue is estimated to fall off in still
greater proportion than on articles upon
which the rate of tax is reduced. Appa-
rently the bill was presented i'll the belief
that a necessity existed for a reduction,
not of taxes, but of revenues, and that the
desired end is reached both through higher
and lower taxes. The estimates, with the
bill, are made on this arbitrary assump-
ton, and are entitled to no respect what
ever"
The report then proceeds to codsider the
Randall bill in detail, and says: THE
estimated and intended
EFFECT OF TIL BILL
are believed to mako plain the methods by
which taxation on the basis of imports and
revenue receipts in 1SS5'would yield Sl4,-
OOO, 900 OF revenues, and be made to divert
that sum from public purposes TO private
gain. The introduction of this bill would
be considered the first avOwed attempt III
our legislative history to empty the Treas
ury by the use o. the taxing power. < y y
If this measure may be supposed to have
any purpose, relating to system of finance,
il points TO direct taxation, for, when
internal revenue taxes are taken of and
custom house taxes are laid on so high
that the people get the burden, the
~monopolists the benefit, and the Treasury
nothing, new sources of supply will be in-
evitable. The measure is not supposed to
foreshadow any such system or to do more
than indicate a mind unlearnedi in methods
and unmindful of results"
In treating of the proposed reduction and
removal of the internal revenue taxes, Mr..
Morrison says they are the most lightly
borne and cannot be relinquished in the
face of the 81, 600, 0OO, 900 war debt yet I'M
paid. The report then says: This We do
knOw-that of the %, 000, O09 people who
do something, some work orare engaged In
painful pursuits-l0, 000, 900 of these earn
on the average, not more than $500 a year.
which is necessarily consumed in means OF
subsistence, while substantially the savings
90 to the other one-tenth. And now we are
overtaken by and are in the midst OF in
dustrial paralysis. A million OF wOrkmen
are idle for want Of work to do,and capital
in still greater proportion than unempioy-
ed labor lies died or unproductive Our
hills and mountains are full OF mineral
wealth. Millions of acres of ~unproductive
lands wait for the plows, Homes for the
homeless millions are to be had for the tax
inc. Favored with plentiful harvests, blest
with health, the only plague that affiicts
us is idleneSS. What VT need is
PROFITABLE EMPLOYMENT.
There is an apparent puny effort in the bill,
through On increase of taxation, to shut
out goods from abroad that they may bt
made ut home. If this effort was so sue
cessful as to prevent the importation Of all
manufactures we would have direct taxa
ton and three-Quarters of a million mel
vet unemployed. Their profitable employ
ment amounts to nearly the differences be,
tween what is popularity known as goodand
IN HAA