The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1888-06-23
Aolhital.
TARIFF REFORM.

TARIFF REFORM.
Speech of Hon. Knute Nelson, of
Minnesota, in the House of Rep
resentatives, March 80, 1888.
| will put free sugar, free coal, free salt,
and free lumber against free whisky and free
tobacco, under all circumstances, and SO will
the great mass of the American people.
| The House as in Committee of the Whole, having
under consideration the bill (H. R. $3.50 making
appropriations for the current and contingent ex-
penses Of the Indian Department and for fulfilling
treaty spuatons with various Indian tribes fOrthe
year ending June 80, 1889 and for other purposes
Mr.. Nelson said:
Mr.. CHAIRMAN: With a surplus of over
500, 0,00O,O 900, taken from the people by taxa
ton, of which over $50, 600, 900 is now being
kept and used, without any recompense or
revenue, by certain national banks, termed
Government repositories, and with this sur
| plus steadily and ever increasing, so that by
the end of the fiscal year, unless Legislative
relief from taxation is given, there is certain
to be a surplus of upwards of Sl60, ,0OO,O 900,
it seems to me to be idle, uncaled for,
and unfair to enter into any mere theo-
rizing or platitudes on the advantages or
disadvantages of free trade or protection.
This seems to me TO be too much like Nero
holding high carnival while Rome was burn
ing This is not the practical issue now joined
by the logic of events. Neither is it exactly
relevant, while the country is in this state of
overtaxation, to indulge in epithets or to call
every honest friend of tariff tax reduction a
free trader or an enemy of American labor.
| This style of argument is too much like that
of Fagins pupil, when, having picked some
ones pocket, he Justify shouted "Thiefl' to
draw attention away from himself, the real
culprit
You men who now practically oppose all
form of tariff tax reduction are not the only
friends of American labor, nor have you
monopoly, nor are you the sole guardians of
honest, fair and reasonable protection to
American industrial enterprises, nor can you
set up a man of straw nor raise false issue.
The question of protection or free trade is not
fairly involved in this controversy. The real
questions are few and simple: Shall we get
rid of our surplus by extravagant expenditures
or by reducing taxation; and if BY the latter
method, shall we reduce tariff taxes or inter-
nal revenue taxes? This is all there is in it
While there are few whose main sugges-
tions for reducing the surplus consist in point
ing out ways and means of expenditure, the
great body of the American people are agreed
that the surplus can be best and most justly
reduced by reducing taxation.
1t is only when we come to consider the
mode of reducing taxes that we discover much
disagreement and diversity of opinion. Those
who are in favor of retaining the present high
tariff taxes intact, at all hazards and under
all circumstances, believe and insist that the
internal revenue taxes on spirits and tobacco
should be dispensed with and removed.
Some of this class are little more moderate
and would be satisfied with the abolition of
the tobacco tag and the tag on spirits used
for mechanical purposes and in the arts. On
the other hand, those who favor tariff tax re-
duction are opposed to any change or abate
ment in the tax on spirits and tobacco.
There are, however, in this class some who
are more moderate, and who would by way of
compromise consent to partial or even total
removal Of the tax on tobacco.
Aside from the small matter of fruit bran
dies there are but two classes who seriously
ask for the repeal of the tax on spirits-the
ultra protectionists and the ultra prohibi-
tionists. Neither class is very numerous, nor
can be fairly regarded as representative in
any enlarged or national sense. We may
therefore dismiss the consideration of this
tax as not q practical question, at least at
this juncture, for neither the manufacturers
nor the consumers are urgent for repeal.
In respect to the removal of the tobacco tax
there may be said to be a broader and more
enlarged diversity of opinion. Tobacco, until
quite recently, has pretty generally not been
considered one of the necessaries of life, but
has, on the contrary, among all civilized
nations in E;pderp times, been almost univer
sally regarded as a luxury, and one of the
most legitimate and certain sources of taxa
ton, and one that has been as cheerfnlly
borne as any ta4 well can be.
In France, Spain, Italy and Austria Hun
gary the governments take the manufacture
and sale of tobacco into their own hands and
prohibit its importation by private persons.
In 1887 France, with population of 49,
600, 900, derived from tobacco revenue of
$74, ,99l, ,1sO, and Italy, with a population of
80, 600, 900, $51, 100000. Great Britain, with
a population of $4,000, 900, collected during
the year ending March 81, 1887, from taxes
on spirits, beer and tobacco, $lsl, 100000,
more than one-third of her entire revenue;
from the tax on tobacco there was received
S46, 49,, 900.
The other nations of Europe obtain large
amount for the support of their respective
governments from tobacco taxation.
The statesmen of all these countries, having
considered this question of the taxation of
tobacco, must have found good and justi6able
grounds for taxing it, or they would not have
so universally imposed such tax.
1t is to be observed in this connection, too,
that aside from Great Britain and the Scandi-
navian countries, the protective" policy
exists to a greater or less degree in all of
those countries.
This is yhat the great statesman and politi-
cal economist. Senator Sherman. said in 1889
about the tobacco tax, in speaking about the
tax on spirits and tobacco:
These taxes ought to be left part of our per-
manent system of taxation as long as any other
taxes internal or external, more oppressive remain
on the statute books.
do not hesitate to say that there is general de-
sire among all classes of people, without regard
to party that the remnants of the internal system
shall be swept away, except on whiskey, tobacco
and beer
This tobacco tax of all Others is the easiest col
leefed the most certain increasing constantly from
year to year, dependent upon appetite that will
be INDUCED no matter What may be the tax tax
that has been more stable fhan any other. No
amount of tax likely to be put upon tubacco viii
prevent lis being chewed and snoked and snnffed.