The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-10-10

tences and determinations are perpetrated III
this sO-called revision.
In the wooden schedule the substitute not
only retains duty on raw wool, but increases
the duty from 10 TO IL cents pound on cloth
ing and common wool, and the existing duty is
retained on carpet woods, which all parties
agree are not produced in this country, and
the changes made in the manufactures of wool
increases the taxation and to that extent in
creases the cost of the manufactured article,
and especially the cheaper grades-the cloth
ing OF the poor.
The minority criticises in a similar manner
the lumber, salt and provision schedules, and
then discusses the subject OF trusts" as fol-
lows:
The present tariff is the nursing mother of
trusts. 1t is the wall behind which these CON-
binations formed by which the people
plundered Tariff keeps out the foreign COM
petition and the combination suppresses the
domestic, and the whole people are at their
mercy and must pay whatever is demanded.
Language is inadequate TO describe the iniquity
OF these corporations against the rights or the
people or to depict their disastrous effects upon
the general welfare. AS the tariffs, which render
trusts possible, are established and maintained
at the special instance of those who form
them, 1t would seem but simple justice as well
as good policy to tear down as much as posi-
bic of their cover and refuse to longer aid
them in wrong-doing. They are not private
affairs" has been asserted, but public
evils of the gravest character, affecting the
price of every article which contributes 10 the
comfort and support of the people. The pro-
visions of the substitute favor them greatly,
and will serve 10 encourage their formation In
still other branches OF manufacture.
Many of those belonging to the trusts APP
peared before the finance committee clamorous
for such legislation as would promote their in-
terests They are all opposed to the house bill
which should commend it to all who condemn
their methods 1t is bad enough to permit
those VINO most Observation-Disclosures
TO appear before committee and suggest
the legislation they WISH but surely we should
not listen to the trusts and aid them 10 rob
with both hands.
The report then continues: THE minority
can not pass by in silence the absurd accu-
sation that the house bill means "free trade"
the ruin of Industry" and the degradation %
American labor" These charges are as false
as they are misleading. How the flow of sur
plus money into the treasury can be stopped
without reducing the taxes which produce it
man can devise; how these taxes can be re-
duced without taking of from the top toward
the bottom no Imagination can conceive.
Therefore, it would seem, no man can propose
10 cut of excessive taxation without subjectng
himself to the charge of free trade" because
any reduction whatever looks toward free
trade" True government revenues might be
reduced by making duties so high as TO pro-
hibit importations altogether; but that is the
other end of the road, which increases the taxes
paid TO private persons. II the first method
of reduction leads to free trade the, other leads
to free plumber, which is worse
Republican presidents and secretaries of the
treasury for years past have warned congress
OF the accommodating surplus and advised the
reduction of taxes. Were they all free-traders,
advising the destruction OF industry and the
degradation of labor? The finance committee
based its bill, which is the present law, upon
the report of the tariff commission of 1882, and
announced that it would reduce duties at least
. fotl Cd, go h. III
which reduces only per cent are free-traders,
so denounced by those who in SO proposed
cut in duties four times as great. 1t Is safe to
say that there Is not a senator III this body, or
a man IN any way prominent In any way In the
cOunsels OF the republican party in the United
States, who at one time or another had not
admitted the necessity of reducing taxes in
order TO stop the surplus They are, therefore,
free-traders, and desire the ruin Of industry
and the degradation of labor.
The minority report respectfully submit that
these are the enemies of American labor who
supplant it with the labor of unnaturalized
foreigners, whenever that can be obtained
cheapest and who receive by the law of A. per
cent. from the consumer in trust for the Ameri-
can labor which makes their products and
fraudulently withhold more than half that
trust fund from its owners, and who also lessen
and restrict the amount of labor by limiting
production and markets by tariffs and trusts;
and that those are its true friends who seek to
enlarge its products and markets and to lessen
for il the cost of the necessaries of life. The
minority deny that tariff revision will reduce
wages and conclude their report with the fol-
lowing remarks concerning free wool:
''The minority are firmly convinced that be-
sides the incalculable advantage to the whole
country which would result from the placing
of wool upon the free list. il is easily demon
strable that no class will suffer, but that each
will reap his share of the benefit. With a con-
sumption of 600,000.000 pounds of raw wool in
1887 and population of 60,000O00 the average
per capita consumption is easily reckoned at
ten pounds, or fifty pounds to the average
family of five persons, and the north
ern farmer constantly exposed 10 the
rigors of our winters, consumes something more
than the average. 1t requires from three to four
pounds TO make pound of cloth so that from
twelve TO sixteen pounds Of wooden clothing
for the family will be seen to be a low average
This is now the taxed from IS to nearly 90 per
cent The manufacturer is not benefited, be-
cause his finished product comes into cOmpeti.
ton with the foreign product made not only
from untaxed wool, but cheaper wool. If the
tax be taken off wool. we will import more
wool, of course, and in no other way can our
great factories prosper, because their capacity
is beyond our own wool production. When
the factories are turning out more product the
employees have steadier work and better wages
and Indirectly, of course, the whole country is
benefited.
Under the house bill the manufacturers,
with free wool, secure evena higher COMPETE
tive advantage over the foreign than under the
present law or substitute. The manufacturers
will export wooden goods as we now export
cotton and leather, and the demand for
the wool VIII better the wool market and en-
courage increased production, while the
average wool-grower himself will reap from
cheapened clothing more benefits than he ever
did from tax on his product, which he must
himself pay.
1.-THE minority, therefore dissenting from the
report of the majority, commend to the senate
and the country the bill of the house of repre-
sentatives, No. 0,05l, as a measure for the re-
duction of taxes based alike upon justice and
good policy. IsHAM @. HARRIS,
III. b. VANCE,
I'D. w. VOORHEES,"
81 concur In the above report, indorsing the
house bill in respect to articles placed upon
the free list, but desire some notifications in
the dutiable list. j. X. MCPHERSON.
Senator Beck, in q supplemental and individ-
ual report, eulogizes the Mills bill and says
hstthe senate substitute aims In every feature Of