The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-05-12
Yesterdays Work in the
House of Representatives.
&
SCOTT on POLITICAL ECONOMY.
The Jrish-ConductOrs Condemn the
stijSe-Sent to theIWorkhouse
A Sneak rhiefs Work.
HOUSE

reported resolution, providing thai
the hour for the daily meeting of the
House shall hereafter be IL O'Clock
and that after the general debate on
the tariff bill shall have closed, the
House shall adjourn each day at pm.
Adopted.
The House then went into commit
tee Of the whole on the tariff bill. and
was addressed by Scott, of Pennsyl-
vania. He began his speech with
economy and the correctness of its
conclusions. He asked whether this
great country of 60 1000 600 strong, with
inventive genius keener, with labor more
skilled than any other people on
the globe, should decline to compete for
supremacy in the marts of mankind
and continue forever to trade among
ourselves, under the insane delusion
that we were growing rich by the pro-
ceeds2 Our friends, the enemy, said,
Eyes, let us build a Chinese wall around
this young and vigorous people, whose
eager enterprise already chafes under
the bounds of nature; and if we cannot
make IL wholly impervious, let US make
it as nearly so as we can" They were
Bourb ,ns-Bour IONS all and of the
densest kind. Their faces were turned
backward, not forward: they were
looking through the dismal shades of
tia dead past, not through the glow
ing day OF the living present. The bill
was framed in the interest OF the
whole people. 1t was intended in
the first instance to stay the mounting
surplus in the treasury, threatening
an overwhelming and possibly immedi-
ate disaster, even now Wv dly lmpend-
ing; and second, TO relieve, as tar as
prudence would permit at this time, the
-OVerDurd eneJ industries of the country
from excessive taxation, the proceeds
of which do not pass into the treasury
but 60 directly to the support of grasp
ing monopolies, which were for the
most part combined in utterly indie
fensi BILE and atrociously oppressive
trusts. a bill has been introduced by
member of the House (RandalD and re-
ferred to a committee, which provided
8 large reduction of internal taxes and
de alt very curiously indeed with Gus
tom duties; but taxing the iron and
steel schedule as a fair index of the
genius OF the proposed bill, and one
with which the member introducing
it was supposed to be most
familiar, and passing judgment on
the whole. From this IL was safe to
say it was not in line with revenue re
form; not in the interest of the con-
sumner, nor the middleman, nor the
manufacturer, but in fact increased the
burdens On every occupation, on every
industry, the iron yorker as well as the
farmer. Taking it item by item, it gave
the astounding result that for every
dollar of reduction of duties in the iron
schedule $26 were added to the burdens
OF the public already too onerous to be
borne. Instead of reducing taxation,
this bill actually proposed to increase
them. The majority of the committee
on ways and means had sought first to
relieve manufacturing industries by
placing on the free list as far as pos
sible such articles as were essentially
necessary for them to enable them
home markets, but in the markets
of the world. Second, in the revis on
and readjugtment of various schedules,
under the existing tariff, to leave ample
duties on all merchandise that could
possibly be imported from abroad, in
competition with home products, and
to protect home manufacturers and the
labor employed by them. Protection,
so-cslle1, would add no penny to the
wage-worker' pay, or give one days
additional labor in year, but it would
rob him of an undue proportion of his
earnings to purchase the necessaries of
life and keep him a trembling depend
ent, since recent history of this coun-
try showed that the tendency of pro-
6ected industri 8 was towards a oombi-
nation in the form of trusts. under
which production was arbitrarily sus-
pended, raising prices to the
consumer and throwing the work.
man out of his job. A monopoly
more terrible. more dangerous
to the liberties of tn country, and
more oppressive to the laborer could
not be imagined. Upon no class of
people does the present fiscal burdens
bear so heavily as upon the farming |
class. One of the strong arguments the |
protectionist made to the farmer was |
the home market that protection was |
alleged to insure for his produce. 1t |
was a fallacy and fraud, and in
telligept farmers would not be |
longer deceived by it. He |
called attention to natural gas,
and said manufacturers who |
were so fortunately situated re |
quired nothing more 10 enable them to |
take the start of this majestic world |
and bear the palm alone; but free raw |
material, open markets around the |
globe, no unnecessary restriction here |
or there; cheap food and cheap cloth
ing. Another vexed question is wool. |
This bin put wool on the free list, not |
only in the interest OF the wool manu- |
fscturer, but in that of sheep husbandry |
itself. To enable the manufacturer of
this country to compete in the home |
market and to export the surplus |
abroad, he must be able to purchase his
wool as favorably, not only as to |
price, but as to the selection of qualities |
and kinds, as does his foreign com
petitor. Immediately wool was free
our manufacturers would begin to
draw upon the markets of the world for
raw material to meet the American
demand. The result would be
an advance in wool in forelen
markets, ard an advance ABROAD woulc