Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-07-30
SPEECH OF HON. SETH L. MILL
KEN.
In the House of Representatives Thurs
day. July 10.

In the House of Representatives. Thurs
day, July -.
THE House being in Committee of the
Whole on the state of the Union, and having
uuder consideration the bill III. r. 905l) 10
reduce taxation and simplify the laws in re-
lation to the collection of the revenue.
Mr.. Milliken said.
Mr. Chairman The double-headed propo-
sition made by our Democratic friends upon
the wool question is amusing in its absurdity
They tell US that to put wool On the free lisi
| will give the farmer higher prices for his
products and at the same time afford the
people cheaper wooden blankets and clothing
just how a finished article is to be made
cheater by increasing the cost of the mater
| ial of which it is composed they do not ex.
plain, though they have been many times III
this House challenged to do So Indeed, the
proposition would seem to the ordinary
| human intellect to be the climax of nonsense
| But our friends on the other side are in q
| desperate situation. They want the votes OF
| the laboring man, so they argue to him that
| the duty on wool is just so much added TO lis
| cost, and as consequence so much added
| TO the cost OF MS Ulduktis anu CiUtHeSs duu
hence in his interest it should be repealed.
| But our Democratic friends want the votes
| of the farmers and woolgrowers also, and SC
they argue that by striking off the duty which
protects them from competing with cheap
| wool grown by foreign cheap labor and on
cheap lands the price of wool will be adj
vanced.
You see how well they suit them to the
necessities of their condition. 1t is true
| they say this in defiance of all logic and
| common sense, but when was the time when
Democracy was not equal to the cheeky and
impudent task of endeavoring to make the
people believe that black is white and white
| is black if their case appeared to demand it?
There is no doubt that the repeal of the
duty on wool will make the price of wool
higher. but not to the American wool-grower.
1t will be the American consumer of wool,
the laborer, and others, who buy blankets
and wooden cloths who will pay the higher
price. For when the duty on wool shall be
| repealed the cheap woods of Australia and
South America will flow into our markets
and so reduce the price of American
| wool as to drive our farmers
to slaughter their fiocks. By that means the
| feeces of forty-four million American sheep
will be lost to us. That alone will necessa-
| rily enhance the price of wool. We shall
also by that means be left entirely to the
mercy of foreign wool-growers, who will
make such prices as they please.
| That is the true picture of what the free
| trade Democracy have in store for both the
| farmers and consumers of the countryside
destruction of the product of the one and the
increase of price to the other.
| But one serious question arises in this
connection. If the wool industry in Ameri-
ca is protected and our farmers are encour-
aged to increase their focks, so as to afford
us wool for our wants. where will the money
go which paid for it? 1t goes to our own
people. 1t remains here to be circulated
among our people and thus increases the
volume of our currency, while if the duty
is repealed and the industry destroyed we
shall buy abroad, send our money abroad to
pay, and SO decrease our circulating medium.
And what is true in this respect of wool is
true of all our products.
The more we produce at home the more
of the peoples money we shall
keep at home for their use. Every
new industry created among us is Il source of
wealth to the people. Every industry de-
stroyed leaves gap to be filled by foreign
producers and opens the way to sending the
peoples money out of the country.
This fact demonstrates the utter absurdty
of the declared purpose of the Mills bill
| that is, to reduce the revenue SO as TO pre-
vent any further surplus accommodating in
| the Treasury. This was the reason given
by the President, and is the reason or excuse
given by the free trade Democracy in this
House for assaulting the industries and labor
of the country.
When we have demonstrated against put
| ting lumber ON the free list we have been
answered that there is great surplus in the
| Treasury which threatens business panic
and general financial disaster.
| When we ask that building stone, vege-
tables, fish, and iftythree important indus
tries in the North be not sacrificed or given
over into foreign control to enrich people
not owing allegiance to our flag nor paying
any of the expenses of our Government, we
have been met with the same reply, and so
have we been when we have resisted the re-
duction of duties upon our manufactures and
farm products in the North to so low a figure
as to place our people in unequal competi-
ton with cheap labor on our northern border
and across the sea. Although when we
have raised our voices against taxing the peO-
pie S6O,O00,O00 to maintain small industry
in Louisiana which has never produced more
than one-tenth of the sugar the country con-
sumes, and when we ask why we should pay
a duty of 100 per cent in order to protect a
few rice-growers in South Carolina and
Georgia, though it is shown that by placing
these two articles on the free list the reve-
nues would be sufficiently reduced to pre-
vent any further accumulation of surplus in
the Treasury, the only reply we get is a solid
vote of the Democracy in the House to re-
tain these extraordinary dutips
The truth is that the reduction of the sur
plus is not the purpose, but the pretense of
the Democratic free trade party. 1t is made
a cloak to cover the attack of that party upon
Northern industries except in some few fav-
ored democratic districts. The surplus has
grown up under a Democratic administration
| PurpOsely it has been allowed to accumulate
when under existing law it might have been
applied, and now it is sought to be used as a
menace to brighten us into the ranks of free
traders.
But this scheme will not work, for every
intelligent man knows that the Mills bill will
augment to definite dimensions the very dan
ger which its friends pretend to fear.
| What danger is there in the accumulation
of surplus of revenue in the Treasury?
| What is the hurtful effect which it may have
upon the country? How can it produce bus
mess panic and financial disaster? Only in
ore way certainly, that is by keeping out of
circulation the money which should be among
the people.
81 would like to see the surplus disbursed
ard | would gladly vote for sensible bill
which would accomplish that purpose without
in]uring our industries. But such bill will
have to be framed by the friends of America,
by men who believe In her institutions, in the
independence of her position, in the genius
of her people and the power of her working
men, in all pursuits, to make her the pro-
Queer of all that her wants demand Yes
by men who know better way to distribute
her surplus than the Mills bill provides,
which is to send it across the sea to fill the
treasures of foreign nations and the pockets
of foreign manufacturers; for all that the
distribution of our present surplus would in
crease the volume of our circulating currency
would be but fraction of the amount which
the Mills bill would send out of the country
TO purchase foreign manufactures and pro-
ducts to take the place of those which the