Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1888-02-09


answer him by reading what l have just
read from him, and then in order that the
Senate and the country may under
stand precisely what the Senator's
views really are on this question
l shall proceed to read further from what
he has said at various times: These taxes
ought to be left as a part OF our permanent
system of taxation as long as any other
taxes internal or more oppressive remain
on the statute books"
And again in 1882, the honorable Sena-
tor growing eloquent on this subject, de-
clared in the Senate:
81 do not hesitate to say that there is
general desire among all classes of our
people, without regard to party, that the
remnants of the internal system shall be
swept away, except on whisky, tobacco
and beer. This tobacco tax, of
all Others, is the easiest collected, the most
certain, increasing constantly from year to
year, dependent upon an appetite that will
be INDUCED no matter what may be the
tax; a tax that has been more stable than
any other. No amount of tax likely to be
upon tobacco will prevent Its being chewed
and smoked and snutfed. In all other
] tdAdblOn pACNdAAo tnAo 10 a
favorite subject OF taxation. /
say the tax on tobacco does not diminish
the price to the farmer who raises it.
And say we are all throwing off
tax, which by the Judgment of all nations,
is the best source Of taxation"
SUDDEN CHANGE OF HEART.
What, l may again ask, has brought
oh fhfo obov Of haarf ord IF
ton on the part of the honorable Senator?
Is it a change in the method OF producing
tobacco? We know better than that. Is
it change in the method of taxing it?
There has been no change in that process.
Is it n change in the condition which con-
fronted US in 1882, and which confronts us
now? The conditions are practically the
same Has the change in the political
complexion of the administration affected
the honorable Senator, or have we reached
that happier period when men decline to
smoke or to chew or to snuff? / leave
these questions to the consideration of the
honorable Senator from Ohio.
But the Senator has undertaken to say
that the surplus in the Treasury is due to
the failure and refusal of the President
and of the House of Representatives to
permit the application OF public funds to
objects of necessity and legitimate demand
upon the Treasury. shall not go into all
that he says upon the subject; two instan-
ces will suffice to characterize the whole
argument. He denounces Congress for its
failure to provide subsidies for postal COM
munication with South American States,
and IN the same connection denounces the
/ President for his failure to approve the
river and harbor bill. The question Of
subsidies is familiar to the whole people.
The antagonism of the Administration and
of his party to the substituting of special
interest or classes needs no defense at my
hands This invention of the Republican
party has never found favor with the De-
mOcracy. 1t is against the fairness and
spirit and genius of our institutions.
Subsidies to ships! We have no ships!
Your pretended policy of protection has
driven our commerce from the high seas.
You con6ne our producers to the limita-
ton of their home market, and you deny
them the agencies to carry the fruits OF
their industry to the markets of the world.
Sir, we have no ships! A line to Brazil,
does the Senator say? Perhaps. Another
straggler here or there? 1t may be. But
like the ancient parrot of the Attures,
which sat erOaking the language of the
people who had taught it after the last Of
| that tribe had been gathered to his fathers,
they serve but to make more plaintive the
appeal for recall lof the cruelties OF our
commercial fate. We.have no ships We
cannot build them to compete with the
continent OF the Clyde, and your obsttuc-
tive policy will not allow us to sail them
under our flag.
RUINED SHIPPING.
The report OF the present Secretary Of
the Treasury shows that our carrying trade
has gone down from rs per cent, in 1856,
to Ia per cent. in 1887, and this in the
face of the development of a Continent,
and in spite of the energies ofthe most en-
terprisiDg people in the world. And so
the little army of American citizens who
might be engaged in carrying our products
"a service for which last year we paid
more than 500, 100000 to foreigners
have been left ashore to enter into compe-
tition for livelihood with those who are
expected to Join in the universal hallelujah
| to republican protection, to American ships.
The honorable Senator has spoken of
Schedule and of Glass ID Of our tariff
laws. But, Mr.. President, there is another
class to which the Senator has failed to al
lude. Where is your Glass "Ships?"
Turn to that! But ships are prohibited,
you say. So they are. They have their
classification in fact nevertheless. Ships
and obscene books, they are prohibited!
Ships and counterfeit coin, they are pro-
hibited! Ships and contagious diseases,
they are prohibited! There, sir, contem.
plate it, There is your Glass Ships"
grim monster of national injustice and OF
commercial sickness and sorrow and death.
But if the honorable Senator views with
complacency the surplus in the Treasury
he may likewise congratulate himself that
- - M nnrnlns in ahina We have