National Republican., 1888-05-17
THE HOUSE,


The House then went into the committee
of the whole Mr. Springer, Of Illinois, in
the chair) on the tariff bill.
Mr.. Baker, of New York, spoke in sup
port of the protective tariff, cited the pros
porous condition Of Industries of his district
as attributable to high tariff, and declared
that the capital and labor OF the country
were seriously agitated by the recent devel-
opment of the free trade hereses of the
Golden Club In the ranks Of the Demo
cratic party.
He wished to give the committee the
benefit Of an object lesson, and, in order to
do SO, he produced three pairs of stockings
displaying, as he said, the colors of the
American flag, which were manufactured at
Rochester, and he invited the gentleman
from Texas (Mr. Mills) to visit that city,
promising to introduce that gentleman to
the woolen factories and to the fair hands
that turned out these stockings by the thou
sands daily. lie presented the stockings to
the gentleman from Texas with the sugges-
ton that he send the red ones to the Prcsi-
dent, the white ones to the Speaker, and
that he keep the blue ones himself as
typical of his own feelings at the end of the
session when he beheld the defeat of his
measure. [Laughter.]
He predicted that, on account Of the
hllls Dlil, an incrcuscu hepupiicun niuJoilty
in his district would be given for the Re-
publican candidate for the presidency,
provided he steered clear of alliterative
diyines. [Laughter.l
Mr.. Bound, of Pennsylvania, regarded
the Mills bill as a long stride in the direction
of free trade, and as an Inauguration Of
tariff policy which must eventually prove
ruinous and disastrous to many important
industries in which his people were largely
interested.
Mr.. Farquhar, of New York, commented
severely on the fact that the great CONNER
cial and financial questions were committed
to the ways and means committee, and he
called attention to the composition Of that
committee. OF the thirteen gentlemen COM
posing that committee, eleven were lawyers,
one was q cotton planter, and one was
railroad manager. The whole industries of
the country were ntrusted to the wisdom,
not of the capitalists, not of the bankers,
not Of the manufacturers, not of the wage
earners, but Of eleven lawyers, one cotton
planter, and one railroad manager.
The kernel of the whole matter was that
the committee on ways and means had not
taken into account the fact that within the
last thirty years there had risen up two
great powerful bodies of workingmen-the
Trades Union and the Knights of Labor.
These bodies aggregated over one million of
wage earners. Not II respectable petition
had come from either body in the line Of
the Mills bill-not one. On the contrary
those men had sent to himself, Foran, and
Gallinger, and other recognized representa-
tives Of labor on this floor, scores of petit
tions protesting In the strongest way against
the free list and good deal of the dutiabe
list Of the Mills bill.
While 1t might be possible to pass the bill
as q party measure, there were revising com.
mittees In all labor assemblies which would
pass upon its merits independent of politics
These men would stand like a wall of iron
against the free list and the cutting of
wages, and at the ballot box would decide
the Mills bill In toto or emasculated. ZAP
plause.
There was no politics in business. If
partisanship had kept her hand of; If fair
revision Of the tariff had been proposed; il
tariff bill had been framed-a tariff bill
which would have imposed on all European
manufacturers duties equal to the wages
that they have Irobbed their poor artisans
of at home-every man would have forcgone
his political prediction and stood for pro-
lection to American workmen first ana last
and forever. [Applausc.l
Mr.. Bayne, Of Pennsylvania, criticised the
President for not having permitted the
House to formulate proper bill for the re-
vision of the tariff. Instead Of doing this
the President had sent to Congress mes
sage on the subject of tarif revision which
was without a parallel IN the history of the
American republic. No other President in
any emergency of the country had sent to
the House a message so positive and so
nearly indicating a line of policy on an
economic question. The President had not
only done that, but II was said that, through
the influence Of the administration, eXerted
In various ways, Democratic nominations
In various districts had been controlled in
the interest of n free trade policy.
After referring TO the manner In which the
President had rewarded q rocalcitrant Penn
sylyanian for having espoused the cause of
the Mills bill on the floor OF the House, he
criticised the composition of the ways and
means committee, and compared the wages
paid in his own county of Allegheny with
those paid in the southern states represented
on TINT committee. To be sure, there was q
gentleman from Pennsylvania and gentle
man from Indiana on the committee, but
they were but the tail and could be wagged
ad libitum--he meant out voted.
Mr.. Laird, Of Nebraska, declared that the