Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1888-05-09

to the level of foreign competition. L
warn this House against the fatal step.
Rather let us stand by the policy which
has made us so great and made this the
grandest country in the world. l
reach these conclusions only for the
owe of my country, as whole There
is not state I would not assist, nor an
inch OF soil [ would not protect"
GUENTHER SPEAKS.
Mr.. Caswell was followed by Congress-
man Macdonald (Dem.l of Minnesota,
who argued in favor of the Mills bill.
He was Immediately followed by Mr..
Guenther, of Wisconsin, who said
MIR. CHAIRMAN: My friend and col
league, in bis tariff speech the other
day, unqualifedly endorsed the Mills
tariff bill. He swallowed the whole
dose prepared by the Democratic side
OF the committee on ways and means,
and seemed to greatly relish it; endeav-
lcal sophistry of which he is capable,
to persuade the people of his dis
trict in particular and of the
state of Wisconsin in general, that it is
the great panacea, the cure of all cures,
the longlooked for Democratic st. ia
cOb's Oil, that will heal all the evils with
which the body polite is afflicted.
Knowing my genial and esteemed col
league as dc, I was not surprised that
he dealt severely with the Republican
party; while with loving and poetic elo-
quence he sang the praises of the Dem
ocratic party. He went so far as to be-
grudge us our very name, saying that
we borrowed it from the Demo
Gratis; but my dear friend, what's
in a name? The name does
- IL - ii
on ideas and principles. MY colleague
takes the ground that because our in
come now exceeds our expenditures by
about $50, ZOO, 900 per annum, that re-
duction must be made on customs duties
solely, which he calls war taxes, arra1gn-
ing the Republicans for favoring anoth
er method, that Is reduction of another
and different war tax, the internal reve-
nue., and the reduction of certain GUS
toms duties If / understand the tenn
per of the Republican side Of the House
[ am safe in asserting that the Repub-
licans generally are in favor of abolishing
the entire tax on tobacco, amounting to
$30,0O0,000, and the tax on spirits used
in the arts amounting to $4,000, 900.
They also propose to put sugar on the
free list, and in order to stimulate and
foster sugar production at home pay
ing nearly to the present duty.
This would result in $50,000,-
600 reduction, and would give the
people free sugar, which would be a
great relief to every citizen and not de-
stroy nor interfere with any established
industry nor prevent the extension Of
any of the n. This would make
total reduction of the revenues
of about 85,000,0O0 certain and
absolute, not predetermined, as the one
the Democratic party proposes by tin
kering with the tariff when nobody can
say whether an increase or decrease OF
revenue will follow After we have
reduced our revenues to the actual
needs of the government-and l wish
to say right here that the Republican
party has always done that-for during
the eleven years succeeding 1866, the
Republican party reduced the reve-
nues 1852, 504, 569, while during the
eleven years democratic control of the
House, the revenues were only reduced
Sc, 1868, 935. What has the Democratic
party done in the way of tariff reform
during the past five years? Nothing
absolutely nothing. Your party has con-
troll and has had control of the House in
which all revenue bills must originate
and you have been impotent. My col
league juggled with figures. He ad.
dressed Farmer Goodman to tell him
that his wife ''has to pay a tax on her
shawl, IS cents on the dollar while the
rich mans wife only pays 20 cents tax
on the dollar. He does not always
confne himself to facts, for [ find
that the duty on sealskin sacques is not
20, but it is 80 per cent. and consequently
Mrs. Banker pays on her garment tax
of $40 to the government, against $3.07
on the farmers wife's shawl"
Mr.. Guenther here appended an ex-
tract from a speech delivered at the
meeting of the Farmers Congress, at
Chicago, November 1887, by Thomas
III. Dudley, formerly United States
consul at Liverpool, England.
"My friend is very solicitous also
about the sick unexpectedly the sick
Democrats-Who he says, are put under
contribution for the good of the Re-
publican party. Castor oil carries 102
per cent. he tells you. I see by the
tariff law that it is 80 cents per gallon !;
ter to his Democratic ear. But he wants
to tell his indignant Farmer Goodman
that while he denounces tax of 80 per
cent. on Epson salts, he approves of the
item in the Mills bill which still leaves
castor Oil at 40 cents per gallon, or at
81 per cent, according to his way of fig
uring. If 80 per cent. on Republican
EPSON salts is outrageous, is not 81 per
cent. infamous on Democratic castor
oil? leave the answer to this conun-
drum to any costive Democrat in my
friends district. But, when we propose
to my amiable friend, the champion of
the sick Democracy, to abolish the
internal revenue tax on alcohol used
in the arts and manufactures he shakes
his ambrosial locks and says: oh, no
because if we do, we cut Off $6, 100000 OF
revenue, and lose our chance to slash
into the diabolical Republican tariff, and
we should thus be farther removed
from our political Mecca, Free Trade
81 take it for granted that my col
league has sent at least one copy of his
speech to Wisconsin to his friend Farm
er Goodman in Kewaunee County. Old
man Goodman was formerly constit-
uent of mine when | had the honor to
represent that county in the Forty-sev-
enth Congress. / know him we'll. He
is a nice old gentleman, great sufferer
with rheumatism, as SO many farmers
are in that portion of my state,
which is not noted for the mild