Morning journal and courier., 1888-01-05
Fiftieth Congress-.First Session.

| GahG4 MT. sherman salC the Er6S1O6Qt
 extraordinary proposal to get rid of the su
 plus revenue was built on an exsggerate 2 danger. Instead of being danger a surplI
 was an indication of continuous increase
 the domestic productions of the country an r it's foreign and domestic qualities and of tI
 l steady Improvements of it's financial cond
 ! tion. When in 1906 President Jefferson ha
 the good fortune of surplus revenue he ez
 pressed his belief that the patriotism of th
 people would prefer the continuance of tn imports and the application of the money t
 the great purposes of the public education
 roads, rivers and canals. General Jackso
 had recommended the distribution of th
 surplus among the States and bill for tha
 purpose had been introduced by Mr. Cal
 houn, had passed both houses by large ma
 lorities and had been signed by Presiden
 Jackson. Why had not the President fol
 lowed the example of his predecessors I
 the President regarded this growing
 surplus as danger why had he no
 Congress to provide fora reduction of taxa
 auon! The only answer was that control \ ling majority of the Democratic party will
 not allow bill to be reported unless it con.
 ta1ned provisions which tin the opinion of
 majority of the House) would greatly injure I or destroy domestic production Even with | out a reduction of taxation the surplus reye-
 nue might have been applied for great na- tlonal objects but for the vetoes of the Presi- ! dent The President had on what he (Mr. Sherman) regarded as frivolous reason re- | fused his signature to the river and harbor Dill, which would have appropriated more I than S1O, ,OO0, GOO for necessary public works, ! and by his veto of the dependent pension bill he had withheld from the Union soldiers appropriations made for their relief The House toe had refused to provide for a system of coast defences, for a proper in- crease and building up of the navy and of fha al f<-, cation with the South American States and
 for the encouragement and support of schools
 It had also neglected or refused to appropri-
 ate for eight millions of deficiencies admitted
 to be due or to pass the Senate bill for the
 refunding to the several States of the direct
 tax levied in 1862 fourteen millions) The
 President had cast doubt upon the power of
 the Secretary of the Treasury to enter the
 market and purchase bonds. He spoke of it
 as 'pretense" or 8 supposition. But the second section of the sundry civil bill of March 3, 1881, gave the Secretary of the Treasury power at any time to apply the sur plus or so much of it as he might consider proper to the purchase or redemption of United States bonds, such bonds to be can celled and not to constitute part of the sinking fund. That law had been passed at his (Mr. Sherman's) request while he was Secretary of the Treasury to meet the very difficulty, and to operate at any time under
  and ought to have applied the surplus from time to time for the purchase or redemption of United States bonds. Besides, if the dan gers from the surplus revenue were so great and imminent as the President declared, why had not the President convened Congress during the last summer to deal with what he called the "precarious condition of financial affairs" and the absolute peril at hand? l What more extraordinary occasion could oc- cur for the exercise of the power to convene | Congressi But the President had not done 1 this and Congress (now in regular session) l was not to be driven peu nell by an outcry | to reverse the country's policy for thirty | years, that policy being to build up domestic | by reasonable and proper protection against foreign production, l The traditions and policy of the American | people were against internal taxes. Though l noJ necessity like bread and meat the use of tobacco was so general that it's tax was a 1 burden to the farmer and to the consumer The special taxes on rectiGers, special deal | srs, etc., yielding annually $5, ,200,0 ,000, ought 0 be repealed and their imposition left to he States, and the tax on spirits and beer | night be so modified that the States could make taxes on the consumption of these ar 1 icles bounteous source of revenue and a | proper means of relief from the burdens of | ocal taxation. If the object sought was only 0 avoid the accumulation of surplus the 1 asy, natural and logical course was to re- ! peal or largely reduce internal revenue. But the President proposed to continue hese taxes without diminutien so that he night strike a more effective blow at the l axes now resting upon foreign productions. The principle of protection demanded equal ty of benefits and of burdens. The object vas protection to labor, not to capital. No eason cos ] be given why wool should be made free and woolen good should be pro- ected. If there must be cheap wool there mat ha nhn md 4Ha 1aIo -e | he farmer in producing the wool was not protected against undue competition with Australia or Buenos Ayres, then that f the cloth maker should not be protected against competition with the ooms of Manchester or Lyons. If there were low duties on iron ore there would
 ave to be low duties on iron and steel in Il forms. The farmer performed as valuable abor as the artisan and the rights of every roducer should have equal and just consid- ration without fear or favor. And yet the 'resident had selected that class of produc- ions, under the name of raw materials, for estruction and had especially selected wool s an article not to be protected. His whole l rgument rested on the allegation that the ! rice of wool was increased to the extent of l he duty, and that but for the duty the mer- ant could buy this wool cheaper in South | America and Australia. This argument was allacious because the destruction of the l yool industry in the United States would at l nee advance the price of wool in foreign l ,arkets. MT. Sherman concluded his speech | t 2 o'clock.
 Mr. Blair then asked that the educational | i'll be laid aside to allow Mir. Voorhees, to eply to MT. Sherman. but intimated his un- 7illingness to yield further. Mir Voorhees took the floor for speech in l efense of the Presidents message and com lendation of the administration. He de- ounced the statements of Messrs Sherman, eller and other Republicans in criticism of ] f he Presidents message insincere and mis- ,ading, and asserted that by way of prepara-
 ion for the coming presidential election
 republican legislators and journals were en- eavorlng by gross misrepresentations to put ae President and the Democratic party in l D attitude of hostility to the American man ] facturer. Nothing could be more unjust or 7 nfair. Under the leadership of Grover leveland the Democratic party demanded l 1ch revision of the tariff, such reduc- on of the revenue and such reduction of | f 1e powers of government as was not bene- , cial to all interests and most fully iii har- 1 lony with the general welfare. The Presi- ent's message would bear the light of dis ussion and analysis. The frosts of Novem- <, CT would blight Republican misrepresenta- ons and rebuke the Republican snators who characterized as humbug the ( sarless, sound and statesmaR-like message { the President. MT. Voorhees, proceeded to i; efend Tn detail the Presidents theories of T riff revision. At the close of Mir. Voorhees, speech Mir. herman moved that the message be referred c , the finance committee, but action on that r lotion was withheld to give MT. Teller an opportunity to make some remarks. MT. eller spoke briefly in reply to Mir. Voorhees, riticisms. He stated that there had been 'equently greater accumulation of surplus in l le treasury than when the President sent his 8 lessage and that the assumption that the resent condition of affairs was threat gainst the country's prosperity was not ased upon an honest conviction. He denied lat the people were suffering under burdens taxation or were crying for relief When yer the voice of the people had been heard g declared it to be a fundamental American 2 rinciple that the public debt shall be paid. I here were $230, ,000, 900 to become payable sur years hence, and how, he asked, was lis debt to be provided for if the revenues 6 ere to be reduced to the level of current t zpensesa When some years ago it !, as proposed to exclude the Chi f ese because they came here to compete t ith American labor for wages, while their ( abits were such that they consumed little or s othing produced by American labor, nearly I Il the Democratic senators favored the prop- I