The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1888-10-05


are under that roof. That is not the way
we have to do in practical life. The purpose
of the true statesman is TO ascertain where
the least harm is to be inflicted and the great
est good to be accomplished under the re-
duction of your taxes, doing away with un
necessary burdens cutting down duty which
Is too high, equalzing injustice so that, as
lie goes on N that good work, he will de-
stroy no relation, cause no financial revolu-
ton, make no strange and arbitrary change.
This is not party view that | am express
ing, it is the practical business view of every
man upon whom the responsibility is thrown
Of directing or participating in legislation. 1t
is just, fair, sensible and practical mode of
dealing with practical question. Millions
of dollars year are coming into the treasury
sevcnly-five millions, probably, next year,
more than is needed. We wanted to relieve
the people ofthis unnecessary taxation. We
decided, in the first place, to take something
of of the internal revenue, and so little from
the tariff that the change would he as slight
and mild as possible. In the internal revenue
we had whisky, beer, and tobacco from which
we might take the tax. We determined to
take it off of tobacco for reasons which are
obvious, and in that way we reduced the tax
alton about tweRsy mittieRs. We not only
took it off from tobacco, but we found that
over sixty per cent. of the prosecutions
under the internal revenue grew out of what
are known as special Licenses, and we repeal
ed these. We did not need the money which
was collected from that source, and we did
not want those prosecutions we did not
want our courts filled with citizens ar
rested for petty ofenses. Well, after that
much money had been cut of from the treas
ury, we found that we had relieved the
United States of many officers and had re-.
duced the internal revenues nearly twenty
five millions of dollars Fifty millions had
still to be taken from imposts.
No, we can never have free trade, the
brawler on the stump, the doctrinaire of the
schools and sometimes brave man, sensible
of his own absolute sincerity, will talk about
free trade, but any one who knows the situa-
ton of this country knows that there can be
no free trade in the United States in our day
Under the constitutional provision made for
direct taxes these must be apportioned
among the States according to population
not wealth The little State of Rhode Island
would pay much less than Alabama would
pay, and yet, that little State is worth three
times as much as the State of Alabama, and
Alabama would never agree to system of
taxation that would make her pay five dol
lars where Rhode Island paid one We
know, therefore, that free trade is not posi-.
BILE in our day. We are bound to continue
the system of raising revenue by impOsts on
imports. And we shall continue it, and yet
reduce taxation. We had to approach the
subject by good many steps. Four thous-
and articles had TO be passed upon, and we
had to approach the matter very cautiously.
1t was n Job that had to be undertaken as
cautiously as possible. We tried to proceed
upon one or two principles and one of those
principles is this, that the taxes ought not
to be too heavy on the necessaries of life,
that we should not burden the poor people
by taxing the neCessaries of life.
Food, clothing, medicines, the things that
you need SO from day to day, should be re-
leved as far as possible from unnecessary
taxation. The great mass ofAmerican people
live by labor. I'm the sweat of thy brow" is
not only the primeval, but the universal
curse. The great mass of these American
people are men who work for wages and for
hire, and whose families depend upon their
daily labor for their subsistence That is
what the man who lahors gets for doing it
call it hire, salary, or wages, in the last ana.
lysis it is simply his labor which he gives for
the necessaries Of life. Labor is necessity
of mankind; labor is that which means bread
for the children, raiment for the family and
something laid up for the day when night
shall fall upon the laborer's eyes and upon his
wearied arm Now, a man always has to sell
his labor at the best price he can get. He
must sell it in the markets of the country in
which he lives. He will sell it at higher
price if there is q demand for it. If there are
two bosses after one laborer, labor will be
high. If there are two lahorers after one
boss, labor will be low. There is no other
way; there can never be any other way by
which any change can be made in the simple
truths ofthis economic question. The man who
sells his labor sells it at the best price when
the man who buys it must have it, and he
sells it at the lowest price when the man that
buys 1t don't have to have it. Now, how can
we help to fix that in the tariff? The Re-
publican party answers by a high tariff They
say it means high wages to put up the tariff.
How does it do it? How can it do it? They
say it is by giving the American laborer
home market for placing his goods, and that
we know is untrue because you take up the
returns of the importations and in the main
they are finished products that we import.
We import forty-fOrr millions of dollars
worth of wooden goods, every yard made
abroad, and every yard could be made in
America. The wages for making 1t go to an
English wage-w0rker, the profit on the man.
ufacture to the English manufacturer, the
profit to the man that brings it over to the
English owner, the insurance on it to the
English insurance companies, and therefore
we know that of all the money paid as profit
on thet finished product, every cent goes
abroad. Why do you have strikes? Think
of it! We live in country only one hun
bred years old, and yet the labor that is pro-
nI to ha lohnr hat IN oh at,
justice from the men whom they have given
power to increase their taxes. In all depart.
ments, your iron, your amalgamated steel and
the rest, all your companies or unions orig
mated and grew out of the Industries that are
called "protected." Look around you and
ask yourselves who gets the best wages In
America. 1t is not the man who works in
the protected industries. 1t is your carpen-
ter, your brickmasOn, your tailor. II is the
man who is not protected, and not the man
who is. You will find that the average hours
of work for the same money are greater in
the city than in this beautiful village of yours.
The men who are not protected, the men who
work for the best wages, are the men who do
work that has to be done. So the man who
gets the best wages is the man who can do
the work best. Now, when we came to con.
slider the condition of these workingmen in
AmerlCh we lOunu lndI tuey were uOJ 5dll5-
fed OF course they were not satisfied, be-
cause everything that their money and their
sweat had to buy was too high in price on
account of this tariff. We saw that it was
not because their wages were low, but be-
cause their necessities were high. Well, we
tried to look at this thing justly and see if we
could not relieve them, to see If we could not
find way by which, il their wages could not
be made better, their burdens might be light
encd. According to the Republican doctrine,
these wages must go up with a higher tariff
and higher necessities of life But that is not
true. Yet it is possible to increase the value
of wages by decreasing the cost of the neces-
sares for which those wages must be ex-
pended. There were eight Democrats on
that committee, and they were not wholly
agreed as TO many of the tariff rates with
which we had to deal. But we were agreed
upon the general policy of giving the bust
ness and trade of this country room to grow
and allowing her to compete with every
other Now, those eight men, representative
men, gathered from the whole country, were
familiar with the history of the tariffs of
America, and they found an instance of one
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