Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-10-06
THE OTEER SIDE.
MINORITY REPORT ON THE NEW
TARIFF BILL.
The Democrats Of the Senate FL
nance Committee Attack the Re-
publican Tariff Measure.
ESPECIAL DISPATCHES TO THE RrooRD-us1os. !

statement that in the preparation of a sub
stitute for the House bill, no member of
the minority of the committee vas COLI
suited or informed as to its provisions until
1t was reported TO the full committee, on
the 18th of September. The minority re-
cites the work of the subcommittee in
hearing the statements, arguments and ap-
pealS OF the manufacturers and others who
demand that the present high rate of tariff
taxation shall be maintained, and ID most
instances prompted not by revenue neces-
sites, but alone for the purpose OF increas-
ing their own profits at the expense OF Co.
100000 OF taxpayers.
Containing, the report says: 1t is safe
to say that all the interests benefited by q
high protective tariff have been fully heard
and have had much influence in shaping
this substitute while the great body of the
people, taxpayers and victims of this policy,
have not appeared and have not been
heard
1t is then said that the short time the
substitute has been in the hands of the
minority has made it difficult to ascertain
It's effect, but the essential difference be-
tween the House bill and the Senate substi-
tute is apparent and radical at the outset in
the matter of revenue. The one is framed
in the interests of the public treasury the
other in the interests of private pockets.
The one is framed in the interests of the
whole people: the other in the interests of
100000 manufacturers. One is designed to
reduce both Government revenue and taxa
ton-the taxation especially which bears
the heaviest on the necessaries of life; the
other is intended not only to raise public
revenue. but to maintain private revenues
by increasing and retaining the taxation On
all the necessaries of life"
COMPARING THE TWO BILLS.
The minority then continues The ad-
vocates of the substitute freely propose to
reduce duties or abolish them on those
things which yield only Government rev.
enue, but refuse to reduce or abolish duties
on those things which produce private rev.
enue. But the minority think it safe TO
say that the chief reductions in tariff taxa
ton, as provided by the substitute are
confined to the articles of sugar and rice,
with jute and few other unimportant arti-
cies put upon the free list, while there is
an increase OF duties imposed upon multi
form manufactures of wool, cotton, iron
and steel, articles that the whole people.
and especially the poor and most needy
classes, are compelled to use. The substi-
tute relieves unnecessary tobacco, in all its
forms, except cigars, cheroots and cigar
cites, from internal taxation, and gives free
alcohol to the arts. Practically, the sub.
stltute offers to the people free whisky and
free tobacco, leaving all the expensive
machinery for the collection of revenues
and enforcement of the law in full force.
| while it increases the taxation upon the
actual and Indispensable necessaries of
life.
1.-THE rods out of which the farmers
wire fence is made are not apparently
changed in the rate, but by various changes
III the classification actual and additional
burdens are imposed. A reduction in duti-
able value from 81 to cents per pound
weight accomplished this. An additional
size, No. 6, added without an apparent
change of the rate, does adroitlv increase
the rate paid on wire rods of this size from As
per cent. to about 154 per cent. and is an in
crease on wire rods of nearly $500 900.
upon the basis Of the importations of 1887.
and there is added proviso by which rods
smaller than No. are classified ms wire.
| and thus effect third or double increase
OF tax in one section, and this is called
part of a SYSTEM and rightly SO called
Steel ingots, cogged ingots, billets, bars,
etc, now pay 40 per cent. duty if valued at
less than cents per pound. By this SUBJ
| stitute, if valued at per cent. or less, thew
are dutlable at cent per pound, and as
some OF the items were valued at 2 10 of
cent per pound, the rate of cent is an in
crease of from 40 to 20 per cent, and
nearly 81 100000 tax is added by this one
section.
| THE DUTY ON COTTON TIES
Cotton ties also receive their careful
consideration. 1t is in the interest of the
most formidable and insolent trust which
ever laid its hands upon the throat of hon
est labor, threatening ever class, from the
poor colored cotton picker, whose few
pounds of crop could not get to market for
lack of means to wrap, to the merchant and
] w ar cd fl,o
Of life to sustain that labor through the
season. To these comes proposed revision
not with helping hand, but with other
| burdens, and cotton ties which their own
| friends had reduced to 80 per cent. in the
! tariff of 1888 lone of the bright cases in a
desert of iniquity, they omit by name, but
include in new classification, so that in
stead of 30 per cent it must pay, according
to the valuation of 1887, over 100 per cent,
adding nearly quarter of g million dol
lars tax on imported ties, all of which is G
loss to the cotton producers.
Even with this they are not content,
but still further tax the struggling agricult-
urlst in this schedule by raising the duties
on trace chains and all other kinds less
than thTee-eights of an inch thick, from q
| cents-which is equivalent to A 81 per
cent.-to 3 cents per pound equivalent to
8 rate of 53.57 per cent. Can ingenuity 90
| III tASA 1udt tdSScIS lTOu SHOULD De
raised from 80 per cent. to 65 per cent:
that table cutlery for the poor should be
raised by specific rates added to ad valo-
rem; that knives for the poor should be
| heavier taxed and made cheaper for the
rich that breach-loading shotguns should
| be made cheaper for $500 grade and dearer
for SIS grade, by making each pay $40 and
% per cent. ad valorem-all these and
more are no longer startling, and prepare
the mind for thousand other inconsist-
encies and determinations hidden by the
new and obscure classification that only
time and patient investigation will reveal.
In the cotton schedule again, the great pro-
cess of leyeling up is called into requisition,
to what end or for what purpose who can
say?
| Changes in the classification and by new
| subdivisions, still further complicating the
administration, and by changes in the
rates, In effect principally increasing taxes,
the most glazing inconsistencies and dis.
examinations are perpetrated in this So
called revision.
| THE WOODEN SCHEDULE.
In the schedule the substitute moi only
retains duty on raw woods, but increases
the duty from 10 to IL cents a pound on
clothing and combing wool, and the exist
; ing duty is retained on carpet woods, which.
| Oil paItleS agree, are not produced IN this
country, and the changes produced in the
manufactures of wool increase the taxation,
and to that extent increase the cost of the
manufactured articles, and especially the
cheaper grades-the clothing of the pot r."
The minority critieise in similar man
ner, the lumber salt and provision sched-
ules, and then discuss the subject of trusts;
as follows:
THE present tariff is the nursing mother
OF trusts. 1t is the wall behind which the
combinations are formed by which people
are plundered. The tariff keeps out for
eign competition, 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 of the people, or 10 de-
| pict their disastrous effects upon the gen.
eral welfare. AS a tariff which renders
trusts possible Is established and main
tanned at the special instance of those who
form them, it would seem but simple lust
ice, as we'll as good policy, to tear down as
much as possible of their cover and refuse
to longer aid them in wrong doing.
1 f4c,- L. L