The new North-west., 1888-04-20
THE BATTLE BEGUN


Pennsylvania, the father of the House, fred
promptly back 1t him, responding in .
speech Of two hours. Both presented their
case we'll, going over the ground thoroughly
and outlining the arguments that from now
to Noven ber, in all their amplifcations,
will be thundered in the ears of the Amevi-
eau people. ..=. .....
Mills claimed that the Republicans in the
past 25 years bad repealed the tax on in
comes, on railroads, on insurance and
express companies and on banks, which
effected the rich, and had not decreased the
tariff duties, which effected the poor.
High duties prohibited and limited i'm.
port atious and expectations. We we're feed
ing the people Of Europe, and when we put
high duties on the goods they sent Us in ex-
change for food it amounted to taxing our
own agricultural exports. Reductions of
duties would not, as asserted, check manu-
features and cramp labor. We always i'm.
ported more goods when prices were high.
Under lower duties We could export more
goods. Manufactures would run steadily;
labor would be constantly employed. Not
more than 10 per cent. of the goods con.
Sumeu III tuc OuAICo 0tosSS "OuAN w AN
ported if all the custom houses were torn
down and the Cove nment supported by di
rect taxes. Protectionists argue tha: manu-
featured articles we're cheaper here than in
any other country as q result Of protection.
It was not so. But supposiDg tina: it was,
why then should they resist SO strenuously
any effort TO lower duties if they were able
to undersell European manufacturers? Did
manufacturers pay higher wages because
protection enabled them to do it? No.
Jay Gould was able to pay his bootblack
$500, but did he do 1t? He paid the market
price. He paid his nickel like little man.
Higher wages were made by coal, steam and
machinery, and higher wages meant lower
cost of production. This accounted for the
fact that free trade England paid higher
wages than protection France and Germany
and yet controlled the worlds market. He
quoted tables to show that the tariff was not
intended to benefit the laborer; that the ben
efts of the tariff pass into the pockets of the
manufacturers and never come into the
pockets of the laborers. Taking up the case
of pair of blankets where the tariff exceed.
ed the labor cost by $1.52, Mills declared
that every dollar of excess was reaped BY the
manufacturers.
Congress had intended to benefit the
laborer by the tariff. 1t had failed and not
dollar of protection afforded got beyond
the manufacturer. He, however, hired his
labor at the lowest rate in the market. The
committee had left in the bill more than
enough protection to pay for all the labor
and bonus besides. The present policy
was making vast reduction in the country
between two classes-one poor and numer-
Gus, the other small and powerful and rich.
The concentration of the wealth of the
country in the hands of few men would
overthrow our government. In conclusion
yet it wonld send comfort and happiness
into all the homes and bosoms of the poor
laborng people of this country, and he asked
the House, in behalf of these people, to con-
slider their claims and help to reduce the
burdens that had been loaded upon them.
In reply Kelley said: 'The enactment Of
this bill would paralyzs the enterprise and
energy Of the people, overthrow our manu-
featuring supremacy aud reduce our COM
manding commercial position to Colonial
one. It was studiously designed to produce
these direct results and nicely adapted for its
ure and was framed in the interest of the
party whose leaders appeared to be oblivious
to the overwhelming social and economic
changes wrought by the abolition of slavery.
The gentlemen who framed this bill and
could brook neither modification nor discus
sion of its provisions by their associates in
committee were with but two exceptions the
representatives of what was slave territory.
The bill was All anachrOnsm. II had no
relation to this era. It belonged to the sad
dest epoch in our national history. During
that period slavery dominated our national
councils and guided the administration of
national affairs in hostility to national iD-
terests, and in the interest of free trade twice
threatened war. By putting wool on the
free list the bill would abolish the sheep hus-
bandry. destroy the immense capital EN-
barked therein and impoverish more than q
million men who own flocks or are employed
In their care, and by working this ruin it
'heelthful animal food now furnished by the
ool-growers and manufacturing laborers of
the country. 1t would also render produc-
tion Of American tin plates and cotton ties
impossible by placing these articles on the
free list with wool. By the transfer of those
and other products of coal and iron ore to
the free list and by reducing the duties on
steel rails, structural iron aud many other
forms of iron and steel, it would, though 1t
maintained the existing duties on coal and
iron ore. close ma ajority Of the hitumirOus
coal fields aud ore lands which are now Civ
ing profitable employment to hundreds of
thousa sands of laborers, not only in the North
ern States, but in the Southern. But while
protesting to have abandoned their purpose
to put coal and ore on the free list, the farm
ers bad ingeniously continued to check their
importation by such measures of indirection
as might enable them to saddle the Treasury
Department or the judiciary with the political
consequences of their deliberate tergiversa-
tions. To illustrate the puerile absurdity of
President Cleveland's assumption that the
duty was always added to the cost not only
of imported commodities, but to the price of
like commodities produced here, Kelley
invited the Presidents attention to the fact
that though the duties on sugar when reduc-
ed to an ad valorem standard were never so
high as now, the price of sugar was never so
low in this country as now. The progress Of
sugar making in Louisiana since 1868 might
be cited as an illustration of the vitalizing
influence of protection duties. Coming to
the subject of surplus Kelley said he would
so legislate on the question of surplus and
sources whence it flows as to increase the
wealth, power and dignity of the country by
promoting the development ofits national
industries and thus diminish its dependence
upon foreign importation upon which duties
are collected. He would derive national rev.
enues from customs duties so adjusted as
to stimulate and defend home production
while preventing combinations, trusts and
monopolies of any kind. Reduction of tax.
alton should be effected Immediately by the
abolition of the sources of income receipts,
which may be computed month by month,
If not absolutely day by day. The politics
of this country are now dominated by the
whikey trust as absolutely as they we're by
slavery before the war, and king alcohol is
proving he is as hostile to national develop
ment as king cotton ever was. In conclusion
Kelley said: "The perpetuation Of internal
taxes is the issue presented to the American
people by the President in his free trade
message and by the five Southern gentlemen
who have dominated the councils of the
Committee on Ways and Means. For myself
I will stand for the protective system and
the maintenance of such rates of duties as
will insure the development of all the re-
sources Of the country, increase the number
of its industries and perpetuate its national
Independence, commercial and industrial,
as we'll as political. This cannot be done If
the internal tax system is to be maintained,
for the surplus is in condition that cannot
be perpetuated with safety to our republican
institutions. The purity Of government, the
safety of business and morals of public de-
mand an abatement of the surplus by the
F. - R-yH