Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1888-10-19
Minority Report.


the minority makes a document o.
twelve printed pages. 1t begins with q
statement that in the preparation ol
the substitute for the House bill nc
member of the minority of the com
mittee was consulted or informed as tc
its provisions until it was reported te
the full committee on the 25th of Sep
tember. The minority recite the work
of the subcommittee in hearing state
ments, arguments and appeals of man
ufacturers and others who demand
that the present high rate Of tariff tax
alton shall be maintained, and in most
instances prompted, not by revenue
necessities, but alone for the purpose
of increasing their own profits at the
expense of the 100000 taxpayers.
A ONE-sIDED HEARING.
Continuing they say: 1t is safe tt
say that all the interests benefited by
high protective tariff have been fully
heard and have had much influence in
shaping this substitute, while the great
body of the people, the taxpayers and
victims of this policy, have not ap
peared and have not been heard
THE BILLS COMPARED.
1t is then said that the short time
the substitute has been in the hands OF
the minority committee has made it
difficult to ascertain its effect, but the
essential difference between the House
bill and the Senate substitute is appa.
rent and radical at the outset. In the
matter of revenue the one is framed in
the interests of the public treasury
the other in the interest of private
pockets. The one is framed in the in
terest of the whole people; the other
in the interest of the manufacturers.
One is designed to reduce both the
Government revenue and taxation, the
taxation especially which bears heavi-
est on the necessapes OF life; the other
is intended to raise the public revenue
indeed, but to maintain private reve-
nues by increasing and retaining taxa
ton on all the necessaries of life.
The minority continues: The advo-
Gates of the substitute freely proposed
to reduce duties or abolish them on
those things which yield only Govern
ment revenue, but refuse to reduce or
abolish duties on those things which
produce a private revenue. But the
minority think it safe t0eay that the
chief reductions in tariff taxation as
provided by the substitute are confined
to the articles of sugar and rice, with
jute and a few other articles put upon
the free list, while there is an increase
of duties imposed upon multiform
of cotton, wool, iron and
steel articles that the whole people,
and especially the poor and most needy
classes are compelled to use.
FREE WHISKY AND TOBACCO.
The substitute relieves a non-neces-
sary, tobacco, in all its forms, except
cigars, cheroots and cigarettes, from
internal taxation, and gives free alco-
hol to the arts. Practically the sub
stitute offers to the people free whisky
and tobacco, leaving all the expenses
of machinery for the collection of the
revenue and enforcement of the law in
full force, while it increases the taxa
ton upon actual and indispensable
of life.
DUTIES INCREASED.
The minority continues: The rods
out of which the farmers wire fence
are made are not apparently changed
in the rate, but by various changes in
the classification, actual and import
ant, additional burdens are imposed.
A reduction in the dutiable value from
81 to cents per pound weight accom-
plishes this; an additional size, No. 6,
added without apparent change Of rate,
does adroitly increase the rate paid on
wire rods of this size from As per cent.
to 81 per cent, and is an increase in
the tax on wire rods of nearly $780,
600, upon the basis of the importations
of 1887, and there is added proviso
by which rods smaller than No. 6 are
classified as wire, and thus effect a
third double increase in tax in one Sec
ton, and this is called part of "sys-
tem," and rightly so-called.
Steel ingots, cogged ingots, billets,
bars. etc., now pay As per cent. duty if
valued at less than 4 cents per pound.
By this substitute, if valued, at cent
or less, they are dutiable at ! cent per
pound, and as some of the items were
valued at ITO of a cent per pound in
the imports of 1887, the rate of I cent
is an increase from As per cent. to over
10 per cent, and nearly million dol
lars tax is to be added by this one sec
ton.
Cotton ties also received their care
full consideration. 1t is not enough
that the most formidable and in
solent trust is unrestrained which ever
laid its hands upon the throat of hon.
est labor, threatening every class, from
the poor colored cotton picker, whose
few pounds of crop could not get a
market for lack of means to wrap it,
to the merchant and capitalist who
had advanced the necessaries Of life to
sustain that labor through the season.
but to these come a proposed revision
not with helping hand, but to theil
burdens and cotton ties, which they
the Republicans-i,ad reduced to 35
cents in the tariff OF 1883-One of the
bright oases in desert of iniquity-
they omit by name. but include in .
new classification, 80 that instead ol
36 cents the importer must pay, &C