Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1888-04-06

= Kill y. I~~S,
will veto these two bills, but it is probable
that he will hardly dare to do such
thing.
-.
The republican members of the WAYS
and Means Committee are very naturally
indignant at the breach of courtesy of
which the democratic members of that
committee were guilty in making public
the majority report on the Mills bill
before the minority report was ready to
be reported. And the underhanded man
ner in which it was made public only added
to the discourtesy. 1t was sent from here
by the Washington correspondent of the
Louisville, KY, Courier journal, and
sent out from Louisville by the Associated
Press agent. All of the democratic mem
bers of the committee are emphatic in
their denial of having furnished the
report to the correspondent 1t is not at
all likely that any member of the com
mlttee personally gave out the report,
but 1t is probable that one or more OF
them could make an intelligent guess as
to how the report was gotten by the
correspondent.
The political situation in the House of
Representative is just now such as to
require great care and wisdom on the
part of the republican leaders-more than
they have of late given any indication OF
possessing. There has been up to the
present time entirely too much wranglinu
during this session in the party. The
extremists refuse to cOncede ANYTHING
IN TACT there are some republicans in the
House who seem determined, unless
everything is allowed to 20 their way, to
make trouble in theparty. THIS is a new
situation for republicans to find themselves
in, and the sooner they get out of it, the
better for the party Several things are
abs olutely necessary to secure party har-
mony Ia the House, the first and most
important OF which is to derose those
leaders whose widely diverging and
extreme ideas prevent their working
UNANIMOUSLY together replace them with
conservative men, and the rest will
follow naturally.
The report of the democratic majority
OF the Ways and Means Committee is not
remarkable fer its sound argument or
consistency. For instance this paragraph
I'm the progressive growth of our manu-
facturers, we have reached the point
where our capacity to produce is far In
excess of our home consumption. AS a
consequence many of our mills are closed,
and many of those still in operation are
running on short time. This
vicious condition of business could not
exist with low duties on imports"
Surely the democrats cannot seriously
think that Intelligent workingmen can be
gulled with such stuff as this. Our mills
are shut down because the market is
kets to European manufacturers, whose
labor costs about one-half of what it does
III this country, and the flooding of our
markets, which Il low tariff is sure to
bring, with their products, is to make US
all right. Was more absurd argumen
ever put on paper In another section of
this remarkable document we are gravely
informed that 1.-THE workingmen must
have constant employment to obtain for
themselves and families the neces saries
and comforts OF life" How flooding
this country with the products of Euro
pean pauper labor, which "A low tariff will
unques .ionably do. is to help our working
men to constant employment is more
than ordinary mortals can see. 1t is
much more likely to help them to constant
ldlenesS and consequent suffering for
themselves and families. These gentle
men left out one argument that should by
all means have been put in their report, if
1t WAS possible that the Mills bill should
become law, undoubtedly one of the
first results would be general lowering
of prices in all the articles affected by il
Now, when the manufacturer has to lower
the price of his goods in order to compete
with his rivals, whether at home or
abroad, who suffers the worst on account
of it and who eventually bears the entire
burden of the reduction ? The employees
in his mandatory But, the free trader
will argue, the employees get the benefit
of the reduced prices in the products of the
factory, when they purchase them for
their own use. So they do, but saving
two or three dollars d year hardly makes
up for the reduction of - a week in their
wages. Low prices can never be made
to apply to goods and not to labor. This is
one of the interchangeable laws of the
business world that should be constantly
borne in mind by the workingmen of this
country.
Senator Edmunds bas named the fol-
lowing as members of the republican eau
Gus committee of the Senate to consider
the bond purchase bill and other meas
ures: Mes-rs. Morrill,, Allison, Stewart,
HiScock, Sherman, Keller Chandler
Plumb, Aldrlch, Jones of Nevada and
Hoar.