Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1888-04-30
A UOLLOQUIAL DEBATE.
THE HOUSE TALKS TARIFF IN eo-As-
You-PLEASE STYLE.


Feminine Two-Wheeiers.
WASHINGTON CITY, April 9O-Tariff is to
Occupy the attention of the house, not only
constantly during this week, but for the next
month. An arrangement may be entered
into by which the tariff bill will be set aside
for day or two, in which to further consider
or complete the river and harbor bill but at
present the friends of the Mills bill refuse 10
permit anything to stand in its way. The
general debate will run about ten days yet,
| aud the interest will then I've materially m
| creased as the measure will be debated under
the five minute rule when amendments will
be considered, and when individual members
will look specially after the interests OF their
local industries and their constituents. The
prospects at this time are that the bill will
not be finally voted ON till the middle of
| June.
The debate on Saturday was the liveliest
that has taken place There was a very slim
house--only thrty-fve members present
but those on hand made discussion interesting
by running fire of questions and answers.
| Kerr of Iowa approved the reduction of the
revenues by the abolition of the internal rev.
| enue tax. The time had come, he thought,
/ for the nation TO declare that henceforth st
would take no share in the profits of the sale
| Of alcoholic liquor.
| Tarsney of Michigan said that the gentle
men on his side Of the house were not free
traders, but fair traders They proposed TO
| continue custom house taxation, but they
would bring taxes down to the base line OF
| necessary revenue, and so revise the law as
| to place the duties highest on the Injuries of
life, and lowest on life's necessities The pres
ent tariff was oppressive upon the farmers.
Tarsney was constantly interrupted by
his colleague, OrDonnel, with statements as
| TO the prosperity of agriculture and manu-
| featuring in Michigan under protective
| tariff, and the colloquies between the two
gentlemen upon the subject of the condi
| ton of Michigan afforded much amusement
| to the other members present.
O'Neill of Pennsylvania said that Friday
| morning he had received letter from young
| lady about to graduate, in which she had said
that she had been designated to speak at her
commencement exercises on protection to
American industries.
Richardson of Tennessee--Did the young
lady ask you for protection!
Milliken-lf the young lady had asked you
for protection would you have been free
trader thenf
O'Neill then declared with emphasis that he
was a protect:onist all over, a declaration
which was received with laughter and APP
plause
Ford of Michigan characterized Phila-
delphia as an overgrown country village and
contrasted its slOwness with the busting
activity of New York This condition of af-
fairs, he said, arose because the citizens of
Philadelphia had not depended, as the citizens
of New York had, on their own enterprise,
thrift, and frugalty, but had been fed on the
public pap.
O'Neill suggested that the gentleman must
have been in some remarkable condition
when he visited Philadelphia. The manu-
features of Philadelphia amounted to many
more millions than those of New York.
Bayne declared that the wages paid for
labor in the county of Allegheny alone were
annually more than the entire wages paid in
all the states represented by the southern
contingent on the ways and means commit
tee
BTeckinridge said that the concrete rep
resentation of the protective system was
guard of Pinkerton detectives at the Edgar
Thomson steel works for the purpose Of en-
ablng Hungarian immigrants to work, while
American workmen were kept out at the
point of the gun.
Bayne said detectives were there, but the
men they sought to protect were not Hungar-
ianS
BreckinIiiage inquired what wages the
workmen of tho Thomson steel works had
been receiving.
Bayne replied that they had been receiving
S. day.
Breckenridge said the average wages of
paid PinkertOn detectives was IS day to
prevent breach of the peace by men who TO
ceived 50 day
Reed Of Maine said that the gentleman
from Kentucky had drawn n picture with tho
American workman in the cold and the Hun
garian protected by Pinkerton detectives
That was only an incident in the great dis
pute which went on either under protection
or free trade. Reed thought that it ought to
be pointed out that such methods Of arguing
this question of free trade or protection was
petty. One of these workingmen appeared
before the ways and means committee-a
ways and means committee better consti- |
tuted than the one in this house, because it
had heard the workngmen--and he had been
asked: do you get the benefit of the tariff"
He replied: THAT is quarrel between our |
selves. Give us a market, and we will try to
get our wages" And he [Reedl believed they
would.
Breckenridge said Allegheny county had
been depicted as the scene of protective de- |
velopment, and he had shown the result of
that development. A man did not have to |
eat a whole leg Of mutton to know that 1t was |
spoiled. He denied that it was an incident |
that he had depicted, and asserted that it was |
the necessary consequence of an unnatural |
system of taxation, under which an organized |
body of armed detectives was used in guard |
ing convict labor to undersell American labor. |
As to what the gentleman said about the ways
and means committee, either in the present |
or last congress, he treated 1t with the con-
tempt it deserved.
Reed replied that when there was fear of
discussion of the actual situation it was ale
UNIV he Of
in the use of parliamentary language in which
to express their feelings to use'langnage that
was not parliamentary.
Breckinrid ge-If my language is unparlia-
mentary | retraCt it, That it is true an d de-
served there is no doubt
Farquhar of New York said that the men
outside the gates of the Edgar Thomson Steel
works would win il it took twelve months,
of Pinkerton men and men who
took scab wages He warned the members
of the house that they were walking on thin
ice when they took one cent from the wages
of American mechanics and laborers With
in the last seven years there had risen up a
lion of an organization of which even the old
est organization stood in dread because it
had the power to vindcate its rights That
power had been felt on the floor of the house
more than once, and if there was need it
would regulate tariffs for itself and sobody
else The organizations of skilled labor had
kept up wages and stood ready to protect
them now
Smith of Wisconsin said that the question
Of monopOlies was one calling for attention
now.
Faruuhar replied that the gentleman meant
the monopoly OF transportation-the mono
poly which would make all the shoes of the
country in Massachusetts,. That state had
iquinted toward free trade because she had
all the benefits Of protection