The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1888-01-04
PoIHrPLBAsAHT. WEST VIRGINIA
RepnbIIcana and the TarifE

fir in the Senate by such Republi-
cans as HamIinton, Fish, Lafayette
S. Foster, William II. Seward,
Charles Summer and Henry viii
son. and the House by thirty-eight
Republicans. among them, James
Burlington, Arson Burlingame, Lew
is D. Campbell and Isreal Wash
burn
On July 9. 1866, Congressman
John A. Kasson said in the House
of Representatives; what you
call protection amounts to a system
of legal robbery" On the next
day, speaking on a tariff bill, he
said: aThe fundamental error of
the bill is this: You endeavor to
make the people of this country
grow rich off each other"
Senator William B. Allison, then
a Representative, said in the House
on March "a, 1870: @The tariff of
1916, although confessedly and pro-
fessedly tariff for revenue, was,
so far as regards all the great in
tercsts of the country, as perfect a
tariff as any that We have ever
had"
Representative Eugene hale in
trodueed at the beginning of the
FOrty-second Congress a bill to re
peal the coal and salt duties, and
upon the latter he said on March
9, 1871: "The monopoly which
has obtained heretofore for the
onondaga salt works-as great and
complete as any monopoly ever
granted by the Tudors in England's
most dcspotic times-ought to
cease" These bills passed March
II, 1871, and Ellis II. Roberts, of
New York, was among those who
voted for free coal, and James A.
Garfield, Charles Foster William
p Frye, Eugene Hale, Henry l..
Dawes and George F. Hoar voted
for both free coal and free salt.
Speaker Blaine took the floor on
March Is, 1871, and in reply to
Gen Butler said: az was in favor
OF the repeal of the coal tariff and
the gentleman was not"
President Chester A. Arthur, in
his annual message in 1882 recon-
msnded an enlargement of the
free list, : = x simplification of
the complex and Inconsistent sched-
uIe of duties upon certain manu-
features, cotton, iron and steel, and
a substantial reduction of the du-
ties upon these articles, and upon
sugar, molasses, silk, wool and
wooden goods"
President Arthur, in his final
message to Congress, in December,
1884, said that even if the internal
taxes except those on distilled spirits
were abolished, 1.-the revenues that
will still remain to the Government
will, in my opinion, not only suffice
to meet its reasonable expenditures,
but will afford a surplus large enough
to permit such tariff reduction as
may seem to be advisable"
Secretary McCulloch in his &c
companying report said: "As relief
from the present burden of taxation
is urgently and justly demanded, 1
deem it my duty to suggest that
something in this direction should
be done without delay.
This much, however, it may be
proper for me to recommend: First,
that the existing duties upon raw
materials, which are to be used in
manufacture, should be removed.
Second, that the duties upon the ar
ticles used or consumed by those
least able to bear the burden of tax
alton shall be reduced"
In the face of this record the Re
publican National Committee, in
the call for convention and with
reference to the Presidents message,
invite those "who are opposed to
the attempt now moro openly
avowed than ever before to establish
a policy which would strike down
American labor to the level of the
underpaid and oppressed workers of
foreign lands"
President Cleveland said in his
message: "The reduction in taxa
ton demanded should be SO meas
urcd as not to necessitate or Justify
either the loss of employment by
the wOrkingman or the lessening of
his wages; and the profits still re-
naming to the manufacturer, after
q necessary readjustment, should
furnish no excuse for the sacrifice of
the interest of his employees, either
in their opportunity to work or in
the elimination of their compensa-
tion -