Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1888-02-03
THE NATIONS
Senator Kenna CritiCiSeS Senator
Sherman's Tariff Speech.
Dennis Kearney Advocates a Re-
StriCtiOn Of Chinese I'm
migration.
Three Hundred Tariff Bills Before the
Ways and Means Committee.
Senator Frye, Chairman OF the Pacific
Railroads COMMUNICATIONS Men
Made Captains in the Reve-
nue. Service,
WASHINGTON. Feb. 2.
Senate.

The presiding officer announced as spec
ial committee on the Pacific railroads, Messrs.
| Frye, Dawes, Hiscock, Davis, Morgan, But
Ter and Hearst.
| Mr.. Riddleberger made several attempts to
| expedite business so as to reach his resolution
! for consideration 10 open session, of the Brit
/ ish treaty but the resolution for the investi-
CATION of the condition of the postal service
took precedence, and debate on this was
resumed.
| Quay obtained the unanimous consent for
the consideration of the bill to increase the
pensions of certain soldiers and sailors ut
terly helpless from injuries received or dis
eses contracted while in the service of the
United States. The bill passed. 1t pro-
vides that such persons shall receive pen
sion of S72 per month. After its passage,
kenna secured the floor to reply to the tariff
speech of Senator Sherman
Mr.. Kenna said that the Senator from Ohio
dismissed with solemn warning, the Pres
ident by wave of his hand. He had
treated the large growing surplus as a matter
neither requiring attention nor justifying ap-
prehension He declared that Senator Sher-
man had garbled the words quoted from Pres
ident Jefferson, so as to justify his own opin-
ion. Jefferson, rather, had solemnly invoked
a change in the organic law of the land to
avert the danger of a surplus. Gen. jackson,
Daniel Webster and the successive republi-
can Presidents and secretaries of the treas
ury had shared the apprehension expressed
by President Cleveland The republican
statesmen voicing such opions had not been
denounced as free traders. The voices of re-
sposible officials of the government united in
expressing an apprehension of the dangers
which the President called Congress to avert.
No patriotic American, excepting possibly
Senator Sherman, himself, calmly contem-
plated the unnecessary boarding of money.
Senator Sherman had protested vigorously
against the Presidents declaration that the
internal revenue should not be done away
with. In 1867 Senator Sherman himself ex-
pressed much the same opinion he now so
severely critcses. In 1880 and 1882 he
eloqueutly and forcibly maintained much the
same views. Senator Sherman has charged
that the treasury surplus was due to the
Presidents failure to exercise his legal func-
tons. These charges, kenna said, were
based mainly upon the fact that the Presi-
dent was opposed to shipping subsidies. Up
on such criticism the President could well
afford to meet the issue The Senator's
policy would continue to drive American
ships from the ocean while he subsidized a
few that were able to continue in the service.
Mr.. Cleveland had refused to sign the river
and harbor bill and had been criticised there
for, although no other course was Opeh to
him.
kenna proceeded to discuss in detail the
effect upon the revenue and upon the domes
tic interests, of a judicial revision of the tar
| if, dsputing almost every economic propo-
sition advanced by Senator Sherman and
maintaining that the Presidents suggestions
pointed the way not only to relief from the
burdensome taxations and the dangers of an
excessive revenue, but also to the increased
prosperity of the country and the correction
of innumerable evils, without any disregard
for any established interests. He argued
that it it was true that we have no ships be-
cause they are prohibited together with OBJ
scene literature, counterfeit coins and conta-
! glous diseases these constituted the exclud-
ed class yet, he said, obscene literature finds
admission and so does counterfeit coin, and
contagious diseases. He declared that repub
lican protection succeeded only in excluding
ships. He said that the Senator from Ohio
who viewed with complacency the surplus,
perhaps congratulated himself that there is
no surplus in ships. He considered that the
policy of subsidies which he advocated could
not correct the evils pretended. He affirmed
that the policy of protection which drives
commerce from the sea confines our pro-
ducers to a home market, and prevents them
from carrying the fruits from their indus
tries to the world. He further said that the
Senator from Ohio complained of
the failure of the democratic House
to pass the Blair educational bill. When he
invoked the Blair bill in opposition to the
relief of the burdens of taxation, to hold it
up as menace to the demands of the coun-
try for REFORM for a reduction in taxation,
he adopted most practical and sure way to
defeat the passage of that bill.
When he asserted that it will interfere
with the taxation of the country and contrib
ute to the perpotuation of the intollerable
burden, he compelled many of its friends to
abandon it.
Kenna denied the assertion that reducing
the duties means anincrcase of the revenues.
Protection might be SO high to prevent i'm
portation and yield no revenue; the other
extreme is free trade which no body asks.
He thought the true position is a fair just
and me I'M one, producing just tie nets s'>ary
revenue in the spirit of fairness 10 all.
Senator Sherman had referred to the pro-
posed degradation of the workingman. The
President proposed only to lift his burden
and to give him equal opportunities In the
struggle for life He declared that the free
dom, intelligence aud manhood of American
labor. cxerted at the polls, would not allow
the present conditions to exist any longer.
He said that the President stands squarely by
the platform upon which he was elected and
he wished to express his hearty corporation.
He expected from the House a bill framed
in the spirit of conservative fairness to all
sections and interests. The system which
the senator from Ohio championed caused
more strikes, distress, discomfort starvation
and death thansany other system, the country
had ever seen. 1t was time for change.
| The President gravely confronts the require
ments. There is nothing in the recommen-
dation TO alarm the country. II contained
the spirit of fairness and justness to ali, and
would cause to prevail all benefits, and taxa
ton, internal and external, would be fairly
( distributed He had no doubt that the to-
I bacco tax would be reduced or repealed; !;
that iron. coal and wood would be allowed
I their fair share in the benefits of revised
system: that monopoly, fortified and re-
/ trenched behind twenty years of exactlon
and misrule. would have to go; its citadel
would be stormed in this Congress, and the
mask of republican protection would be torn
| from its face of deceit and extortlon
Senator Sherman congratulated his friend
from West Virginia at having proclaimed the
fact that the ranks of the democratic party
were closed and that distinct issue was to
be presented to the people. He said LET
the democratic proposition to reduce the tax