St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-03-11
MIR. HUKD'S SPEECH.
An Entertaining and Practical
Talk Against Protective Tariff.


Mr.. Hurd came forward, bowed and
assuming an erect posture to the right
of the speakers stand, began abruptly:
The American people are confronted
to-day with an accumulation in the fed
eral treasury of a sum unneeded for
public purposes. Large amounts of
money needed by business in ordinary
channels of its trade are With
drawn from circulation to be locked
up in the receptacle of national taxa
ton. At the rate of S140,OO0,0O0 year,
money is taken from the incomes and
into our overlooking treasury.
Shall this continue forever?
If it shall, then soon will the time ar
rive when all the money will be locked
up in the federal vaults and none be
left for the business of the people. How
has this surplus occurred? What is its
source? A law passed quarter
of a century ago. No man in
any legislative body which would as
semble now would dare to tax the peo-
of tod ay to put surplus of $140 100000
year into the public treasury. 1t was
done by the law of 1862, of '63 and of '64.
Then there was a gigantic civil
war-a million of men were in
the field to be armed and
equipped, and all the expenses of war to
be provided for. Money must be raised
from extraordinary sources, and so Mr..
Morrill,, now senator from Vermont as
he was then, offered bill with its heavy
taxes, which he apologiZed for by the
exigences of the hour. with the promise
| that when the war was over the tax
should cease.
is THE WAR OVER?
How long is it since the last soldier en-
gagged in the prosecution of that Strug-
gle has returned to his home? The boy
unborn on Appomatox day is voter
this day. And to the large majority of
| the active young men of this generation
all the other occurrences of that event
| full era are mere matters Of history.
Twenty-Five years have come and gone
with their seasons, and over the graves
of the fallen dead the spring has dropped
its blossoms and the summer its splen-
| did flowers, and the autumn its
purple fallen leaves and the win
brave survivors of the conflict have been
re-absorbed into private life, as every
body, only to glory with their fellow
citizens over the magnificent results of
| their valor, and indulge in the remi-
niscences which befell them as soldiers.
All over, save the power of
| the tax-gatherer, and he who levied taxes
| in '62 is gathering them in 'SS. The
| law which imposed them then is the
| law which imposes them now. The
man who represents the federal au-
thority to get money for the
federal support, this. man is do
ing it to-day as it was done
when the battles were being fought
about Richmond. and when Sherman
| marched to the sea. That explains the
source of federal taxation, and that is
the reason for the surplus which
the public treasury. The people
sources of this money. They do not
understand the methods by which the
tax has been imposed, for no public
man, as my friend has suggested,
has come before an audience
of American people to explain it
| and discuss it. My friends, how
is this tax gathered? By the internal
revenue system, and by the tariff sys-
tenn. The internal revenue system, as
you all know, taxes whisky and tobacco.
| The tariff system taxes the necessaries
of life, which enter into daily cOnsump-
ton. If you agree with me that this
| TAX SHALL COME OFF,
that this surplus shall be diminished,
| then from either the one. system OF the
other diminution must be made. Shall
we take the tax from the whisky and
the tobacco? They are luxuries, those
who use them can afford to pay
all the tax the government can
impose, and even If they are not luxu-
ries. if the tax should be removed, neither
the whisky nor the tobacco would be
any cheaper to the consumer. But how
| can a man stand before an Intelligent
audience and say that he will take the
tax off the whisky and tobacco
which bad habits for the most part de-
mand, and leave the tax on the clothes
that the little children have to wear as
they go to SCHOOL,, [Applausel. How
much did you pay to support the fed
eral government, the government OF the
United States, last year. VIII
anybody in this audience in
this intelligent city be kind enough to
rise and inform me how much he paid?
Do you suppose that S149,000.000 of
surplus in the public treasury came there
without your paying, in this audience,
some part of it. If this audience paid
| no part of it, the audience in Minneapo-
lis, the audience in Chicago and the au-
| dience in New York paid no part of it,
| it must have come up ont of the bowels
of the earth in some volcanic erup-
| ton or dropped into the public treas
ury out of the skies. If you know
| nv fellow citizens how much you had
| paid into the public treasury to make
| this surplus l do not believe that the
| surplus would long continue. You are
! 1ooa:v ad even nv fine tariff for revenue