The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-05-23

exceeds the demand or II capital Is enabled TO
combine TO prevent competition, then labor
must be sold at the price fixed by the en-
ployer.
"Now our present system does both-it re.
stricts the market 70 be supplied by our labor,
and it enables the manufacturers to fix the
price. they will pay 10 labor. Whenever the
duty is high enough TO prevent foreign COM
petition, then the operative making and the
consumer purchasing these protected fabrics
are in the power OF the manufacturers No
organization OF labor. no Knights of Labor
can break such shackles; the strikes give only
assistance to the trusts who own the market.
The only relief Is in congress by the reduction
OF duty TO the competitive point. We arc in
morals the partner OF every combination rem
dered possible by the tariff. Whoever desires
TO dissolve his partnership will support this
bill; and per contra, those who wish the trusts
TO continue will oppose any amendment of re-
vision OF the present tariff law which could en-
danger their perpetuation. 1t is a contest be-
tween the revenue reform and the tariff trust
party"
Turning to a consideration of the bill he
said: The bill now reported is incomplete in
that It does not remove all burdens. The whole
extent to which il does relieve by putting upon
the free list the raw articles which are on the
dutlable list is S22,0O0,000. Ii does, however
reduce the burdens as to S17OOOOO0 of duties
so far as the committee felt il could do at pres
emf, for some of these articles which are I'M
ported and are put under the classification |
have indicated come into competition with
articles manufactured in America. And the
committee has left duties, in some eases, I'M
altered and some altered, as in their best judg.
ment the interests of each individual case re-
CURED, giving the doubt to the industry which
claimed that IL could not survive unless duty
was LETT.
''The principal items put upon The free list
nave been wool and timed plate, and the real
issue beWeen us and our opponents cannot be
better illustrated than BY the different PROPOSE.
tons concerning duty timed plates. Not
one pound OF this is made in America; not one
pound of 1t can be used except in helping some
other industry; it enters into many of the
most important of our native industries. Our
fruits. our hsh, our vegetables, our meats, our
milk, are canned in these timed plates; it
enters into the domestic economy of every
housewife: There is hardly any material of which
the distribution IS 80 wide and the use so va
rious and the burden imposed by the tax levied
on it so heavy. 1t viii relieve in more ways,
and 10 a greater extent, more of the minor in
dustrles OF the country than almost any repeal
OF tax. upon our whole schedule. It's repeal
does not injure single human being; il affects
no Interest, no industry"
Passing to a consideration of the wool sched-
ule, he referred 10 the meeting OF the wool
growers association and the wool manufacture
ers' association, and to the resolutions adopted
by them. Their idea OF ways and means COM
mlttee was one, he said, composed OF gentlemen
who represented such associations, which belief
seems to be shared by representatives on this
floor, whose Indignation at the spectacle of a
committee framed to represent the taxpayers
and the consumers, struggles with the proprie-
ties of life TO find utterance. Yet the same fierce
charge was made in the Forty-eighth and Forty
ninth congresses.
This Kentucky speaker seems to be pos
sessed with the absurd idea that the people who
pay taxes and purchase goods, who raise wheat
and cotton, who live on farms and till the soil,
really ought to have some voice in legislation
concerning the weight of the burden of taxa
ton which they are to bear, and some repre-
sentatiOn on the committee whose duty il is to
report bills for raising revenue. The idea may
be absurd, but, gentlemen, 1t Is growing in
popularity and we are ready to Join issue with
you in your clamorous plea that the tariff must
not be revised except by the friends of the in
dustries protected by it, and | assert that il
must be revised by the representatives of all
the people who are taxed by it. l do not hest
tate to declare that the schedule agreed upon
at that meeting is simply Ubiquitous. 1t will be
borne IN mind that we raise in America
about 265,OOO000 pounds of WOOL that
IL requires more than oOOOOO,OOO pounds
put in our country under our climate. BY rea-
son OF climatic influences, over which congress
has no control, the hair necessary 10 be used in
certain manufactures can be grown only out
side OF our territory; and also certain woods not
produced in America, are absolutely needed TO
required. Therefore, to utilize the 265,0OO000
pounds of American wool and to produce the
amount of wool and foods absolutely necessary,
there must be imported, either in its raw state
or in its manufactured state, over 300000O00
pounds of wool. The duty on wool has, by
the experience OF the last twenty-Seven years,
been demonstrated not 10 be OF advantage 10
the wool grower, because it has not given to
him constant profitable and permanent mar
ket. The manufacturer has had apparently
bn I'D 4la
for existence. He has had TO produce his goods
at so large a cost of production that he has
been constantly on the verge Of being unable
TO dispose OF those goods at price which rem
dered their manufacture Iemuncretive. lie
has had to compete with foreign manufacturers
who had an absolutely lintaxed material, in the
use of which, by the uery necessity of the ease
selection of different sorts OF wool was neces-
sary. No duty could be made so high as 10 pay
the American farmer for raising the sheep
whose woods are necessary to be mixed with
our wools and no law could relieve the manu-
facturers from the necessity OF using those
woods. II has been a hopeless fight against the
elements.
'The clamor against free wool which has
frightened some is absolutely without iuStifica-
ton. The proportion that the wool interest
bears 10 the agricultural interests Of America
is 50 small and the difference, even II all our
opponents say could be true, between its value
now and its value under free wool is so inap-
the vast wealth OF America and of all the in
vestments which the farmer holds, that the
clamor for its protection demonstrates what
skillful organization can do, backed with the
aggrossiveuess OF private gain and urged with
conscientious fidelity. IL this bill goes into
operation one OF It's bcncficent results and
not the least will be the emancipation OF
American politics from the domination OF the
so.called wool growers and the freedom of the
wool growers and the freedom OF the represen-
tatveS OF the people from the control of those
who profess 10 speak in the name OF the million
flock masters"
Discussing the protective system he said:
which has been produced by American toilers
and accumulated by American economy has
given TO certain individuals fortunes greater
sky or any other system. The law OF primo.
geniture, operating through the centuries, 10.
gether with the growth Of wealth in Great
Britain has not been able 20 give 70 any human
being such fortune a. the protective tarlil OF
within a score OF years. Colossal fortunes,
made ~ II In day, bear testimony 20 the vic
iousness of a system which enables 30 few men
20 absorb tho surplus accumuations OF n ma
ton, and that too, without adding anything TO
the growth of the country or 10 is happiness.
IL has laid the foundation OF caste Ia creating
classes and distinctions between the classes
created by H. III we will persist IN class legis'
lation we must submit 90 accept its necessary
conoomitnnt, discomfort. exhibited first In pro.
test by murmurings, then In resistance only by
ORGANIZATIONS and then by whatever
force the rfr,uItprfanees nro1uce We