The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1886-04-15

ouiit UP III q ddS - has REQUIRED {
ahd cost 70 reach its present development,
and sound poilcy demands it's continuance and
encouragement 80 ~ " W
The minority endeavored to meet the reason
able expectations of this large class of their
fellowctizens and restore the duty of 1857 llnS,,
wool, but were prevented by the votes ~ liz
majority, and from the same cause ara onahie.
to maintain even the existing rates. Ne coniI
not believe that the majority would take from
there since 1921, and which even the Free q
law of Robert J. Walker, framed in 1916 hai
not made free, Ont the majority of the com.
lnitee has done it so far as it can. and nothing
is left for this great interest, which enrches
every State in the Union, but to appeal to Con-
gress and to the country to repudiate the work
OF The committee.
HEMP AND FLAX.
The minority discusses at considerablei length
the effect of placing hemp and flax on the free
list, and shows howsuch a course would strike
staggering blow at the farming interests
where these products are grown.
FISH.
Putting fish on the free list is an unexpected
blow at the fishing interests of the country. 1t
comes also at time when it Will be most
verely felt. Under the treaty of 1871 free fish
had been the price the United States paid for
little more than year ago it had become evil
dent to everybody that the price was too high;
that free-nsh importation from Canada, even
coupled with the right of fishery on the colon ial
coast, was steadily and surely running Ameri-
can fisheries. Fully convinced OF this fact, the
fishermen OF the Northern coast with the una
nimity born of thorough information, de-
manded the abrogation of the treaty of 1871,
sponded promptly by ordering notice of abro-
CATION, and the treaty ceased to operate last
July The President had the misfortune to be
SO misinformed as to propose convention with
Great Britain on the subject but the indignant
remonstranee of all interested has been SO
potent i'll reason, and so sound in foundation,
that by common consent the recommendation
of the President has dropped out of every mans
thought This bill proposes to enact the very
outrage the fear of the DOSSibilitV which
aroused the Indignation of the whole New Eng
land fishery interests without distinction of
politics. 1t does more; it proposes to give to
Canada for nothing what the Dominion is
longing to pay high price for. The bill pro-
have in it SO striking example of the folly
of theories which pay no attention to existing
facts
SOME FACTS ABOUT SALT
The committee, by the bill reported, fails to
grasp and deal with the great question of the
taxation of imports, either on the principle for
Protection to our industries. This is illustrated
throughout their bill, and in no case more
marked than In placing salt on the free list.
This article is manufactured i'll fifteen states
and territories, and exists in others. AS
it is as cheap sand. gravel or clay
Tor building purposes, and equally with them
prepared for use, represents labor, and is only
the more costly to the extent it is prepared for
higher uses. 1t was protected in 1919 at the
rate of two cents on each bushel the price to
the consumer was then S1.35 per bushel.S Under
the Protection policy of 1861, by the develop
fallen to cents a bushel, and neither as a
measure of relief to the consumer or to reduce
G revenues can the proposed action be justified.
seven thousand wage workers employed in this
industry are assaulted without Justification or
reason.
The minority cannot too earnestly protest
sgalnst the passage of this bill. They view it's
presence here, sanctioned as it is by the unan-
imouS vote of the majority, as first step to-
ward a eyersal of a revenue system founded
by the fathers, and the substitution of the
British system of tariff for revenue only. The
lD list hiah
many important productions of home make
and growth, warn us that the evident ultimate
purpose is to make dutiable only such articles
as we cannot produce in the United States and
release from customs duties such fore gn pro-
ducts. whether of the field, the forest, or the
factory, as compete with our domestic products.
We see in this the beginning of a system CT
Of ieyying duties upon foreign imports,
pernicious as 1T is unpatriotic; borrowed
from our foreign RIVALS, whose interest in de-
stroying American tariffs has never been con-
cealed; system destructive of our productive
industries and the home market for agricu-
tural products and degrading to Anne rican
labor, and which, when it has been tried in the
Government, has eventuated in falling reve-
nues. a furnished credit, and depleted treas
ufy.
THE ADMINISTRATION DOCTRINE,
THE meaning of this measure cannot be mis-
understood. Secretary Manning, in his report
to Congress, made in December last outlined
the coming policy when he said
The preference OF the axpayer for duties upon
articles not produced in the United States is
justified by the fact that such duties cost hi n
no more than the treasury of his country gets
AS for duties affecting articles that also pro-
duced in the United States, the first to be safely
discarded are those upon materials used by our |
The committee have accepted and adopted |
the Secretary's political creed, ''that the first to
be safely discarded are those upon materials |
used by our manufacturers and it's free list
discards wool. lumber, flax. hemp, ana all the |
duties upon imported articles competing with |
our own. and then at last duties only will be |
levied upon articles not produced in the United |
States, among which are tea and coffee.
We must dissent wholly from this doctrine |
and and, it's conclusions and insist that the true
method OF levylng duties upon imports to raise |
the requisite revenues for the Government is
to impose Them upon the imported articles
which compete with the products of our own
industries and labor. and while such duties
will secure the necessary revenues, they will at
the same time encourage home productions,
create a home market and furnish employment
for American workingmen, without Increasing
than luxuries not produced in the United States |
except in the case of great national necessity, |
should be admitted duty free.
The bill is opposed to this principle: In fact |
it recognizes no just principle, and proceeds |
upon no system OF equitable revision or reGuc |
terests because believed to be the weakest, yet
some of them the most deserving and Ieas
and strikes them down. The committee feels
impelled to do something, and this bill is the
result. 1t is born of party necessity there ap-
pears to be other reason for it,. 1t is here be-
cause the Democratic party is here in control,
The people of the country are not asking for 1t.
1t is in response to no public sentiment or ma
tional requirement. In the judgment of the
minority it will increase ra ther than diminish
our customs receipts, so that it will answer. no
sentiment for a reduction of the surplus 1t
will help no.American interest; it will Grip pie,
If not Destroy all it touches.
CHEAP Goops AND CHEAP LABOR.
With salt at eight cents per bushel and the
highest grade of wool selling at thirty-tWo
cents per pound, the worn-out cry of cheap
food and cheap clothing will fail of its force and
country know from sad experience that cheap
goods. so called, mean cheap labor, and that
things are the dearest when they are without
the means to buy them.
The people are tired of congressional inter-
ference with the business of the country, tired
of legislative 'nagging," and the laborers are
duties, which they realize means to them re-
duced wages and diminished comforts.
In our opinion, this is most unfortunate
time to disturb the tariff, when prices are alb
normally low. when business IS iii the unsatis-
ers without employment. The nv present indus
trial, agricultural and labor depression should
not be extended, as it inevitably will be, by a
measure like the one proposed, which If passed
Will only widen and intensity the distress. All
have been looking for better prices and better
times and it was confidently believed they
were to be realized in the very near future but
for the presence of this bill. and the agitation
already had and yet to come
IL there be an honest desire upon the part of
the committee and the House to reduce taxa
ton, avoid a surplus in the treasury and leave
luaG Surplus WIFI Iu0- people,, we respectfully
invite their attention to the internal revenue
laws which last year collected in taxes from its
own citizens more than $l12,000,000. Here 1t
will find field for labor where it can diminish
the revenues and reduce ''war taxes without
hurt to any American interest.
If they would give attention to one single
suggestion alone, which concerns the use of I'M
taxed alcohol in the industrial arts, they would
find ample field fer all the reduction the reve-
nues of the United States would bear. would
release some manufacturers of great burdens
and much encourage home industry. Such en-
cGnr1Cpmpnt hOWnVnP milit9fa
against the real purpose of the bill that any
attention to this suggestion could hardly be
expected.