Morning journal and courier., 1888-05-19

!
 Randall, Mckinley and BreckenrIdg
 Give Their vIews-A Strong Pfotec
 tiOn1st Plea From a DemOcratt | Leader-BriIliant Efforts Which Gre ated Great Interest and Enthusiasn l in the House.
 WASHINGTON, May IS. HoUsE.-The House went into committe on the tariff bill, and after Mir. Anderson, o
 Iowa, and Mr. Cheadle, of Indiana, had spokel l on the bill, MT. Randall took the foor MT
 Randall said he had introduced, and had re ferred to the committee on ways and means ! bill to reduce and equalize duties on i'm | ports and to reduce the internal revenu l taxes. Some provisions of that bill showed 1 that the remedies he would apply were a 1 variance with those recomme nded by tn,
 President. We ought to prevent the contin
 uation of the surplus through the repeal O
 internal revenue taxes as well as by full re
 vision of the tariff, as promised to the people by the Democratic convention of 1884. Int reduction provided for in his bill aggregated
 SIT, ,000, 900 on internaltaxes Those taxes hac
 always been the last to be levied, and the first
 to be repealed when no longer necessary
 Jefferson had given the death blow to excise
 taxes, that most vicious of all taxes; and
 among the things for which he received the Ithanks of the legislature of his native State
 for doing was having the internal taxes abol.
 ished. The first tax also to be repealed after the war of 1S12 was the excise tax, which
 was recommended by Madison and was the first law enacted under the administration of ! Monroe. The Democratic convention of \ 1884 declared that the aMternal revenue was war tax and this declaration, taken in cons ! nection with the other declarations of the platform, clearly established the fact that the opinion of the convention was that some of the internal revenue taxes should first go, and that they should all go whenever suff- cient sum was realized from custom house ! taxes to meet the expenses of the gov | ernment, economically administered. ! The country was practically in l such condition now, and the true response ts those declarations warranted the repeal of the internal reyes | nue surplus revenue by resorting to changes I in the customs duties only. The remedy he proposed was taxes to the extent proposed \ by his bill. He favored now, as he had | always done, a repeal of the internal revenue l taxes. In the bill which he introduced he proposed to sweep all these taxes from the statute books except a tax of fifty cents on l whiskey and he would transfer the collection ] of that tax to the customs officials if that was found to be practicable. With Albert Gal latin he had regarded excise taxes as offen- sive to the genius of the people, tolerated 1 only as a measure of emergency, and as soon as the occasion for them had passed away they should cease to exist. Certain provisions of the metal schedule, he I said, had been very sharply assailed and he devoted some time to answering the speak CTS who had attacked his measure. He took up the schedule relating to steel rails and quoted figures at length to sustain his action ! in fixing the duties at the rates he proposed in his bill. He then proceeded to criti- cism of the committee bill as follows:
 A declared purpose of this bill is to se- cure 'ffree raw materials to stimulate manu- factures." In the execution of this idea the bill places on the free list a large number of articles which are really manufactured arti- cles, such as salt, sawed and dressed lum- Der, glue, various oils and chemicals china, clay, etc. These constitute the products of large and useful industries throughout the United States in which many millions of cap- ital are invested and employing many thou the bill leaves or puts upon the 6utia- ble list lead, iron, zinc and nickel ores and coal which might be called raw materials. Further than this, the bill not only makes so called raw materials free but places on the free list the manufactured products of these materials. Thus the manufacture of such articles is made impossible in this country except by reducing American labor to a worse condition than that of labor in Europe. It goes even further and places or leaves dutia- ble certain so-called raw materials such as iron ore, lead coal, paper, paints etc, while
 
 from these materials, such as hoop iron and cotton ties, tin plates, machinery, books and pamphlets. In other words, the bill leaves or makes dutiable the raw material and puts on the free list the articles manufactured from 1t, thus not only placing an insurmount- able barrier in the way of making such articles here, but actually protecting the foreign manufacturer and laborer against our own and imposing for their benefit burden upon the consumer in this country. Again the bill places lower rates on some manufactured articles than on the materials used in mak- ing them. For instance, type metal45 per cent, pig lead A per cent, carpets 30 per cent. It leaves internal revenue tax of more than 300 per cent. on alcohol used in the arts, amounting to as much as the entire amount of duty collected on raw wool. This article enters as a material in a vast number of important and needful articles which the committee have either made free or have so reduced Sthe rates thereon that the duty would be less than the tax on the alcohol consumed in their manufacture In some cases the difference between the duty im- posed by the bill-o the so-called raw ma- terials and the articles made from them is SO small to destroy these indus tries except upon the condition of levelling the wages of home labor to that of Europe. This was SO in the case of pig lead, and of red lead which is made from it, and of pig iron. Such legislation would leave
 
 smelling works, or the pig iron to rust at the furnaces, while foreigners would supply our market with these manufactured products In large number of articles throughout the schedules the reductions proposed by the | bill are so large that the effect must be to destroy or restrict home production and in- crease enormously foreign importations, thus I largely ipcreasing the customs revenue in stead of reducing it as claimed by the advo- l cates of the bill. Particular mention in this | connection is made of earthen and china | ware, glass, leaf tobacco, manufacturers of | brushes, leather gloves, manufac- | pipes. @ MT. Randall Randi % asserted that mat | instead of the bill reducing the | customs revenues $54, 1000, 900, as it was claimed it would be fair to estimate that it's | effect would be largely to increase the rev ] enue instead of reducing it. Those support l ing the bill he said hold themselves out as | the champions of the farmer, while they take | from him the protection duties on his wool, hemp, flax, meats, vegetables, etc. And 1 what do they give him in returne They pro- l fess to give the manufacturer better rates | than he ROW has. If this be so how is the | farmer to be benefited or where does he get l compensation for the loss of his protective \ dutiesa Much has been said about removing | taxes on necessaries and imposing them upon | luxuries. What does this bill proposes It | SlfcS lIo0 OllVo Olk tO LAo OPACuAo anu tdA6S | castor oil 97 per cent. it gives free tin plates to the Standard Oil company and to the | great canning monopolies and imposes duty 1 of 100 per cent. on rice. It gives the sugar 1 trust freebone black and proposes prohibitory 1 duties on grocery grades of sugar; | it imposes duty of AS per cent on the poor l mans" blanket, and only 30 per cent. on the | Administer carpet of the rich. It admits free 1 of duty the animals imported by gentlemen | of the turf, makes free the paintings and 1 statuary or the millionaire and coal baron.
 MT. Randall said he yielded to no man on his side of the House in his desire for con- tinued Democratic control in the administra- tion of the federal government. He did not believe the adoption of the committees bill would make such result certain, and added: CT cannot be coerced into any particular &C., tion upon economic questions by the direction of party caueus. The period of the political caucus has departed never to return, and yet we should confer and have unity if it is pos sible. On these matters I speak only for myself. My convictions on the tariff are strong and founded. as think, upon prinei- pie, and upon information and intelligent