Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-05-01
The Tariff Discussion.
The Debate on the Mills Bill Goes Mer-
 rily On.
A LIVELY DAY IN THE HOUSE

MT. Grosvenor, of Ohio, Doesn't Like the
 Bill, and Says So-Mr. Rayner Cannot
 Agree with Him-Two Other Opposition
 Speakers.
 WASHINGTON, May 1.-The house went into committee of the whole on the tariff bill. and MT. Grosvenor, of Ohio, took the floor in op- position to the bill. He said that the internal revenue system ought to have been the first to have disappeared after the close of the war, and he claimed that the Morrill, protection tariff bill was a political measure, and was passed in 1860, made by the Southern sen- ators, whose absence from the senate in 1860 made it possible for the senate to pass the bill in that year, and it was signed by President James Buchanan and Vice President John c. Breckenridge, and it was the irony of fate that the gifted son of the latter was one of the men who to-day denounced it in most eloquent language MT. Grosvenor said that the representatives of the same states that opposed the passage of the Merrill tariff bill in 1860 were those who few days ago stood in the way of and defeated just measure for the adjudication of the financial question which followed the war. Mr. Grosvenor had no fear or anxiety in regard to the surplus. If the government would to-day pay it's honest debts there would not be a dollar of surplus,
 In reply to remark from Mr. Hemphill, Mir. Grosvenor said that if the internal rev enue system was abolished the present tariff would not produce more revenue than the government needed. The proposition of the Republicans to remove internal taxes was not in the interest of free whisky or free to- bacco, but was to remit to the states the of fo1y ox,I <0 to take the place of the general government.
 In concluding his argument, MT. Grosve- nor insisted that under the administration of the Republican party the country had grown in wealth and prosperity in a ratio never witnessed in this or any other country, while under Democratic administrations the country had stood still or retrograded
 MT. Rayner, of Maryland, in supporting the bill said the Democratic party has issued tariff reform notes to the people, and the question was whether it would pay or repu- diate The people wanted the government to stop robbing them. The government did not require the surplus to pay its debts. The contest was one between protected monopoly and capital on one hand and unprotected people and taxpayers on the other, and he stood with the unprotected people for revenue reform.
 MT. Rayner criticised severely the trusts of the country, especially the Standard Oil, which he pronounced one of fraud, corrup- tion and oppression.
 MT. Cameron, of Illinois, asked Mir. Rayner if he did not know that the president had ap- pointed one of the principal representative of the Standard Oil-a representative by re- lation if not otherwise-secretary of the navy, and another representative of that trust was the senator of his party from Ohio.
 MT. Raynor replied that the fact of mans being the son-in-law of somebody connected with the trust did not mix him up with the fraud
 Concluding, MT. Rayner denied that any man could be a Democrat and remain in favor of the protective system. If the party broke its promise now to the people they would never again believe it. If the pressure of local interest was regarded now, the party was doomed, and doomed it deserved to be, for the party did not deserve to live that had not the moral courage of convictions
 MT. Henderson, of Iowa, opposed the bill. The Democrats, he said, snapped and snarled at the tariff laws, and none of them had a kind word to say about the revenue policy which had taken bankrupt treasury and i'm poverished country out of the hands of the Democratic party, and made the country the imperial, incomparably happy and prosper ous country of the earth. He criticised the bill as crippling where it should support, and tearing down where it should build up
 MT. Gallinger, of New Hampshire, in oppos- ing the bill, said that the pending struggle was one between England and America and he characterized the bill as wicked assault upon the industries of New England. It should, he said, be entitled bill 7to reduce New England to the position of dependency of Great Britain"
 MT. Gallinger preferred the protective to the destructive policy, and so, he said, would the south when it came to know the benefits of protection. As to raw material much talked about-what was it? It was not pig iron or even the water we brought into our houses. Each and all represented labor. He knew of DO raw material except the Demo- cratic statesman. Coming to the surplus question, he said the surplus was large, not because of the tariff laws, but because of the niggardliness of the Democratic party The Republican party desired the house to pass a general pension bill, to provide for fortiica- tions and armaments, and for extending en- couragement to the American merchant marine; but the Democratic party shouted "No!" with an unanimity which was at once suggestive and startling.