The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1888-05-19
Randall Speaks at Great
Length Yesterday.
UPON THE TARIFF QUESTION,
breckenr1dge-Grea Enthu-
Riasm-NeWB Notes.
HOUSE

Ou dSs0LuDlAuSI AhIuCoAhIoiS hSh" AH'>
committee of the who.e on the tariff
bill.
Anderson, of Iowa, spoke briefly in
opDosi ion 10 the principle OF prot c.
ton and at the close OF his remarks,
kandall took the floor. He opened his
speech by referring to the Presidents
recent message, III which the executive
ADVISED Congress that the surplus in the
Treasury, at the end of the present
fiscal year was expected to reach $140, :
600, 900. he tnen quoted from the
Presidents message, defining his posi-
ton on The Jarid and internal revenue
questions, and said that, from the
utterauces of the President, he under
stood the executive to be averse TO any
reduction of internal taxes, as that mode
of taxation afforded, in the opinion of
the President, no just complaint, and
that nothing is well able to bear tae
burden With hardship to any portion of
the pc. D e. The President further said
that the tariff law Vas vicious and IL
logical source OF inequit able tax, aud
ought to be revised and modified. and
the President had urged upon Congress
an Immediate expression on the matter
to the exclusion of al others. The Pres
ident had ass arted, in substance, that
the reduction necessary should be made
by additions to the free list and lower
ing the rates Of duty.
La the presence of such language,
emansting from the executive, it was
imperotiVely required of the represeu-
tstlVes of the people to give fair, in
telligent and prompt attention to the
sQgg astions. He had done so. He had
introduced a bill, some of the pro-
visions of which were at variance with
those recon mtnded by the President.
The President sought to prevent con-
tinuation OF the surplus revenues by
resorring TO charges in the custumS
duties only. The remedy he RandalD
proposed was through repeal of the
internal revenue taxes as well as by q
full revision Of the tariff, as promised
the people by the Democratic conveu.
ton of 1854. The reduction provided
for in his bill aggregated ST. 900, 0Q0
on internal taxes. Those taxes had
always been the last TO be levied and
first to be repealed. when no longer
necessary. Jefferson had given the
deathblow to the excise of that most
vicious of all taxes and received the
thanks OF the egislature of his native
State for having the internal taxes
abolished. Tue first tax also to be re-
the excise tax, which was recommended
by Madison, and the first law enacted
under the administration of Monroe.
The Democratic convention of 1884
declared that the internal revenue was
a war tax and this declaration, taken
in connection with the other declara-
ton of the platform, clearly established
the fact that the opinion of the conven-
ton was that some of the internal
revenue taxes should FIRST go, and that
they should all go whenever sufficient
a sum vas realized from custom house
taxes to meet the expense
of the government, economi-
eally administered. The country
was practically in such a condition
now, and the true response to these
declarations warranted the repeal of the
internal revenue taxes to the extent pro-
posed by his bill.
He favored now, as he had always
done, the total repeal Of the internal
revenue taxes (spplause). In the bill
which he introduced, he proposed to
sweep all these taxes from the statute
books, except the tax OF 50 cents on
whisky, and he would transfer the COL
lection of that tax to the customs Off
Gals, if found practicable.
With Albert Gallatin he had regarded
the excise taxes as offensive to the
genus of the people, tolerated only as a
measure of emergency, and as soon as
the occasion for them had passed away,
they should cease to exist.
Randall then entered Into an expla-
nation OF the principles upon which his
bill had been constructed and said that
if any instance of rate was too low to
cover the cost of production, he was
ready to raise it, and if more than
needed, he would lower it. Monopolies
existed without the tariff. He was for
the protection of labor, not in one
State. but in all.
Randall then analysed thu metal
schedule of the Mills bill and declared |
that it would bring about incalculable |
injury to the industries of all America. |
He could find nothing in the bill which |
gave q return for free wool. He found |
many inequalities in it and discovered |
q few features intended to relieve the |
poorer laboring man. He referred to
the declarations of his colleague |
(Scott) as supercilious. He pleaded |
with his Democratic friends to not undo |
the good which had been done 10 the
manufacturing industries by the pro-
tective tariff, and read from
Jefferson, Monroe and other Demo-
cratic forefathers to prove that pro-
lection was the fundamental Demo
cratic principle. He closed with
tribute to the results and principles OF
protection and asked that they be maiu-
tanned through the efforts of the party
that lie stituted them.
It not only makes the so-called raw
materials free, but places on the free
list the manufactured products of these
materials. Thus the manufacture of
such articles is made impossible in this
country, except by reducing labor to
worse condition than that of Europe
He criticized the leaving of an internal
tax on alcohol used in the arts amount
ing to as much as the entire amount of
duty collected on raw WOOL In some
cases the difference between the duty !
imposed on so called raw materials aud
articles m ,ia fr lm them SO small as 10
destroy these industries except upon
the coalition CT IeTeiiog wages to those