The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1888-10-20
THAT SENATE BILL.
A Comprehensive Crnshcr In the Minority
Report

Report
This educational campaign has produced
some telling documents in favor Of tsriK
reform, but few. II any, equaling the re-
port OF the Democratic minority Of the
finance committee OF the senate ON the
bill proposed by tho majority rs u substi.
tute for the Mills bill. Its language Ia
terse and plain. It's statements 60 straight
10 the heart Of the matter, and it contains
as much good, hard sense to the running
inch ~ any visiting extant, IL is signed
by Senators Harris, Vance, Voorhees, and
Mcpherson, Senator Beck presenting Q
separate report. Tho following extracts
are ''meaty:"
1T is safe to say that all the interests
benefited by high protective tariff have
been fully heard and have had much In.
fuence in shaping this substitute, while
the great body o: the people the tax
payers and victims Of this policy, have
not appeared and have not been heard
1.-THE essential difference between tho
house bill and the senate substitute Is
apparent and radical at the outset in the
matter Of revenue. The ono Is framed In
the interest Of the public treasury, tho
other In the interest Of private pocksts
The anc Is framed IN the interest of the
whole people. tho other in the interest Of
SOC. 900 manufacturers. The one 10 do
signed to reduce both government rcvs.
nue and taXation-tho taxation especially
which bears heaviest on the nscessaries
Of life; the other Is intended to raise
public revenue. indeed. but to maintain
private revenues BY increasing and retain.
t,,rv eos hn - -; g. ~
1.-THE advocates Of the substitute freely
propose to reduce duties or abolish them
on things which yield only government
revenue, but refuse to reduce or abolish
duties on those things which produce pd-
vate revenue. This purpose is avowed and
Is defended on the ground that it is all
for labor. When Ii Is remembered that the
average tariff duty on all manufactured
goods is Al per cent, and the average
share Of labor therein is 81 per cent, it
will be seen that their love for the work
ingman is based on the other 20 per cent.
which they pocket. Having robbed him
Of more than half of the bonus which
the law gives the workingman, they can
well afford to love him. and that love
will continue undated until he insists
on having all the law gives him.
But the minority think safe to say
that the chief reductions IN tariff taxa
tion, as provided by the substitute are
confined to the articles OF sugar and rice,
with jute, and q few other unimportant
articles put upon the free list, while there
h an increase of duties imposed upon the
multiform manufactures Of cotton, wool,
iron and steel-articles that the whole
y,apy>la and acy,a~ial lxy ha o,,I ~
needy classes, are compelled to use.
The substitute relieves the non neces-
sary, tobacco, in oil it's forms except
cigars, cberoots and cigarettes, from in
ternal taxation, and gives free alcohol to
the arts. Taking the tax off Of tobacco
will reduce revenue about S24 900, 000
and 1t is estimated that the tax taken
from alcohol for the arts will make fur
ther reduction of about $7,000,000. But
in view of the impossibility Of preventing
frauds upon the revenue that should be
derived from distilled spirits used for
purposes other than the arts, the loss Of
revenue may bs safely estimated at many
times $1,000, 600"
Practically the substitute offers to the
people FREQ whisky and free tobacco, leav-
ing all the expensive machinery for the
collection OF the revenue and enforcement
Of the law in full force, while 1t increases
taxation upon the actual and indispensa-
BILE necessaries of life and this, too, when
there is large surplus in the treasury,
and under existing laws that surplus IL
being increased III the rate of over &c.
0O0 600 per month; thus Withdrawing and
withholding from the channels Of trade,
commerce and business of the country
money absolutely necessary TO their sue
cessful operations.
I'm no single instance Is the policy upon
which the suN'titute WINS framed more
clearly demons rated than in that Of rail
way iron. The cost to produce rails at
leading mill in the United States in 1887
was less than $27 per ton, of which less
than S4.25 per ton was paid in wages.
The present rate of duty on steel rails is
ST. and by the substitute it is reduced to
$l5G3 per ton. The question arises
whether this will reduce the wages Of the
operatives 81 30, or whether 81 .43 bounty
above the whole cost paid for labor will
satisfy the manufacturers. The labor
cost in ton of steel rails being 1925, on
the pretense that this is so much higher
than the foreign wages, the burden of
$l5GS is thus laid upon every ton of steel
rails imported into the United States and
thus governing the prices help in order 10
equalize the difference in domestic and
foreign wages.
This burden is laid upon the transpor
tation of the country, on it's foreign trade
by the amount Of duty collect
ed, but where it is transferred to our IN
ternal commerce the burden is measured
by every pound of rails over which it has
to pass, and ultimately falls with crush
ing weight upon the agricuIturist whose
bulky products must seek foreign mar
ket over these tax laden roads and in
foreign ships, and when these foreign
markets are reached these products must
compete with the pauper products of the
cheapest labor to be found anywhere
under the sun. The house bill made a
great stride for the farmers relief whe,.
it reduced this tax to 81 per ton.
Cotton ties receive their careful con-
1t is not enough that the
most formidable and insolent trust which
ever laid it's hand upon the throat OF
honest labor, threatening every class, from
the poor colored cotton picker, whose few
pounds of crop he could not get to market
for lack of means to wrap it, to the mer-
chant and capitalist, who had advanced
the necessaries of life TO sustain that
labor through the season. To these come
the proposed revision, not with helping
hand hI1t nj bar hIrdanS opd tho cotton