The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-09-23
THE TARIFF.
JUDGE TERRELL'S HILLS
BORO SPEECH ON THE Is
SUES OF THE DAY.
SOME STARTLING STATISTICS ON
LOCALIZED ROBBERY---TIE
LABOR QUESTION.
Special Telegram to the Statesman.

spoke here last night TO a large crowd.
Judge TerTells voice, which had been affected by
speaking too much in July, had not recovered it:
usual strength. He spoke to an attentive audience
and gave special prominence to the tariff aRt
| transportation questions. There was NJ blinking
of issues for his views OF evils and OF remedies
direct and plain.
Two evils he said, threaten civil liberty in these
| United States Each of these evils sits like
nightmare on the productive and commercial ener
gieR of the great body of the people, and there can
be no returning prosperity until both are rooted
out.
In the present tariff which robs the many under
the pretense of protecting the few, the cen
tralizatiOn of political power in the federal gov
er1ment which mas thus male wealthy and priyi-
legged classes. Financial power is also centralized
in the hands of few, by first perverting the au-
thOrity of government to make men wealthy, and
then investing them with charter rights to gather
tolls public enter prises, with hardly any other
limit than their own appetite for plumber This
Capitalization of political power at Washington,
under pretense OF taxing the general public, is
really less to be dreaded than the concentrated
power of cash, operating under charter powers,
which pools its gains to prevent competition, and
which now deiles the government that incOrpor-
ated it.
Under this two fold oppression, agriculture,
whose labor is the prime source of all
wealth, now languishes, and while cities and
manufacturing enterprises have developed with
unnatural growth prosecuted industries dictate the
policies of government Now, against these evils
the spirit of true democrats must protest; and yet
we have a class of men VINO, while protesting to be
democrats and opposed TO tariff projection, al
ways talking about inviting capital to Texas and
seem only anxious to protect it in its plundering
methods behind its corporate charter after il gets
here. It matters but little to me whether | am
swindled in the price of my clothes to enrich a
New Jersey manufacturer or am robbed in freight
rates to benefit the New York owners of Texas
roads. The worst demagogue is he who through
interest fear, ConCeals political truth to please
wealth and power, and who deceives the people,
while pretending to instruct them
THE CITIZEN 5 DUTY.
The duly of every taxpayer is to understand the
indirect way in which his labor pays taxes to the
general government Through labor all wealth
must come, and the only reason why the hands
that create all wealth retain so little of it is be-
cause, in all ages, he who improves his mind has
been able to distance in the race for success the
man who labors much and reflects but little.
Public apathy on economic questions has been
the cmse of our people From this tOrpor we must
arouse and if the mission of organized labor is to
break this torpor, it will in the end reinforce the
democratic party with host that will deliver civil
liberty from the grasp of organized monopolies
The tariff is "A tax called duty, imposed by con-
gress on all goods landed in our ports The goods,
when landed, plss through a custom house, where
they are inspected and weighed or measured by of
iCer5, who receive the amount of this tax tariff
This tax or tariff at first paid by the importer. must
at last he paid by the people; for If wooden cloth
be worth a dollar yard in England, and the i'm
porter wants profit of 10 per cent, he must now
add to the cost price not only the 10 cents, but 40
cents more, which has been paid tariff, SO that
the country merchant must pay one dollar and fifty
cents in New York for cloth which, but for this
tariff, he could have bOu int for a dollar and ten
cents.
The tariff iron is average of 45 per cent, so
that all the iron we must use in thousand ways,
which is worth bnt one dollar in the markets of
the world, costs the Ameri an citizen an additional
45 cents. Now, but little OF this tax benefits the
government for the manufacturers of iron, work
ing imported pauper labor on long tiHle contracts
combine and fix the prices so as measurably exclude
foreign iron. Thus the American consumer is de-
prved of a cheap market and pays the amount
fixed rs tariff, not to his government, but to the
who are protected and enabled by
law to combine, raise the price and monopolize
the market If this were necessary to sustain gov
eminent no one could complain, but the taxing
power of government should be limited to its
necessities; whatever tax is imposed beyond this
is without and is robbery. Yet this is called
protection Now, fellow citizens, let lis see
who are protected and who protect them. Let lis
take the articles of Ion and steel and cotton
fabrics.
now PROTECTION OPERATES.
There are in the United States two hundred
and eightythree thousand persons laboring ia cot
ION, and in iron and steel manufactures. TO pro-
ect these laborers we are told that all the rest of
our tltty-tive millions of people should pay this
average of forty cents for every dollars worth of
iron and cloth they use. OF all false pretenses
This pretense of protection is the most shallow and
unjust But if it were true that these aboreTs
that it is mOnstrous for government
that has millions of vacant land to compel one
hundred and fifty men to be despoied by the tax
ng power that one manufacturing lab0rer may
prosper.
This protection is really for the manufacturer,
not for the workman who is displaced by the in.
ternal system of free trade, in imported European
labor The manufactures of iron and cotton
fabrics are owned by five thousand men, and these
are the men who reap the fruits of this monstrous
tax in other words, every eleven thousand of our
people are compelled TO pay to one manufacturer
an average of 40 per cent more than 1t would cost
to buy imported goods that this one man NAV
prosper.
Why should we wonder that discomfort is abroad
in the land, when the government thus makes it.
self party to establishing financial ineuuaities
among men? Randall and his thirty-four follow
ers, misnamed democrats, stand in the way to pre-
vent reform, and Pennsylvania and New England
aud New YORK Will profit by our dissensiOns and
perpetuate this tyranny until the producing classes
of the south and west unite in a common interest
why, this Pennsylvania leader attempted in the
last congress to increase the duty tin plate from
one cent to two and one half cents to benefit iron
in Pennsylvania This tin, in a
thousand ways is especially the metal for the poor
and yet to increase the profits of our manufact-
urers, tax was proposed by way of tariff that
would have placed an increased burden of over
eighteen millions of money on the people who pur-
chase tlnware. Does any man claim that the pres
ent tariff tax is necessary: IL has placed surplus
of over two hundred millions i'll the treasury after
lhS al tlc NWlltuI eNptuses VI u NastttUl gov
Under democratic rule in 1856, when Wal street
did not dictate national policies this government
but sixty millions of money In 1888
under republican rule il required two hundred and
htty-One millions To sustain the government Now
does any one say that the interest of the national
debt required that vast sum? Let me answer him
that but fifty mine millions was required that wear
as interest on that debt That year this govern
ment collected an internal revenue tax on liquor
and tobacco alone of one hundred and thirty-two
millions OF dOllars-enoEgh money to paw interest
on the national debt, besides defrayiny all of its
other expenses as they were paid in 1870 under
RUE and still have twelve millions left
But we are told that pensions must be paid Yes
your government spent just ffty-seven millions in
pensions in 1891, raised by tariff tax of about two
dollars on every man, woman and child This
money gathered in a ceaseess drain
from the labors of the south, is
never dsbursed TO us and vet your congress gravey
considered whether il was not proper to increase
this pension tax to over hundred millions more,
as back pensions. Reasonable pensions our south
ern men have voted, but the pretense to give pen
sions has become the means of fraud and plunder
Why gentlemen, the United States collected from
us by tarif taxation and in other WAYS over three
hundred and forty millions of money In 1884 or
over six dollars for every man, woman and child in
the country Out of this vast sum not one dollar
in every ten is paid back TO the men of the west
and south. Yet our people toll unrefecting in the
turrow and divide about trifes, while the tariff
vampire sucks the fruits of their labor for the bene
ft of manufacturing states.