The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1888-03-21
CALLING THE ROLL.
Premier MiIIs's StatesmanIlke Meth
cd of Conducting Business.
How the Revenue Bill Has Been
Handled In Committee.
The Memorial of New England Man.
ufacturers to Congress.

| WASHINGTON. March 20.-When the ways
and means committee settled down to busi-
ness yesterday, Mr.. Reed meekly asked for
| information as to the reasons which lad in
duced the majority first to place cements on
the free list and then to restore them to the
| dutiable list ar one-half the present rate Of
duty. A Democratic member OF the commit
tee remark ked that the majority did not pro-
pose to explain the reasons for its change of
| heart on the cement question. Mr. Reed re-
sponded that he had heard 1t strongly inti-
mated that the change was due to Demo-
cratic politics in some way. There was no
reply to that and the Premier exclaimed,
'sThe clerk will call the roll" The roll was
| called. A motion by the minority TO retain
| the present rate was met Wltbs The clerk
| will call the roll >" The honorary members"
one after another, moved to strike items
| from the free list Each motion brought
| from the ''Premiers" lips the statesmanlike
utterance, THE clerk will call the roll" To
| every request for information came the same
response, "The clerk will call the roll." Thus
| when Judge Kelley wanted to know about
the effect of free flax, flax seed. hemp, ETC.,
| upon American farmers who raise such pro-
| ducts, and moved to strike each one from the
| free list, he was met with, "The clerk will
| call the roll" This is the sort of eonsidera-
| tion which the revenue blu has been receiving
| at the hands of the ways and means commit
| tee.
A Memorial from New England.
The memorial which was presented in the
| House by Mr.. Reed and referred to the ways
| and means committee, reads as follows:
'The undersigned manufacturers in New
England, recognizing the principle of pro
lection as national and not provincial and
/ llxr fn oil fba in
dustries oflthe United States; repudiating
| any distinction in this connection between
so-called raw materials of domestic produc-
| tion and flushed products whether the out
| put of mines, farms or workshops; claiming
that the American policy should benefit
| alike all citizens whether engaged in agricul-
| ture, manufacturing or mining; that the IN
| dustries of the country are interdependent
and naturally sustaining and the people OF
| the different sections co-cust0mers and co.
consumers; do, therefore, respectfully sub
nit that no article raw or otherwise, OF home
production, should be added to the free list
or ineQuitably changed in the tariff rates:
"The undersigned also submit that Tor
due understandings0ft the premises the follow
| ing official records of the Government
should be kept in mind to wit: Free Inn
| ports, increase in 20 years, 1868 to 1887, from
500 600 900 to S233 000, 900, or 700 per centum;
| dutable imports, for the same period, in
crease from 1929 oOO, 900 to $3.50 O0O, 900, or 81
| per centum; customs duties, for the same Pc
riOd, increase from S164, 100000 to S2l4,OOO,-
| 600, or 80 per centum also that the expendi-
| lures of the government including the sink
| ing fund for the last fiscal year, we're about
500, 600 in excess of the customs receipts.
Believing that the existing tariff policy, both
| free and dutiable, is working in harmony
| with the industrial and productive interests
| of all sections of the country, the under
| signed deprecate any departure from this
| policy whether directed against raw or fin
| ished American products"
The memorial bears the signatures of 324
| manufacturers in New England, many of
| whom are officers of manufacturing corpora
| tions. The list is headed by the name of L.
| jefferson Coolidge, treasurer of the Amos
| keag Manufacturing Company, and includes
| the signatures of many other well known
| Democrats and Mugwumps, as we'll as of a
| large number of Republicans. With this,
| Mr.. Reed received from c. H. Dalton of Bos-
ton, who transmitted it, the following letter:
By this mail l send you parcel containing petit
| tions TO Congress from the manufacturers of New
England, expressing their confidence in the policy
Of protection as properly applicable to all the in
| ton to the character of the names. 1t is in no
| sense popular petition but is, in its signatures
Industrial establishments of Nsw England, many
of the concerns employing rom 1000 10
to HooS 5000 '0oS and even ssoooo0o capital.
| No such petition has ever before been presented
| to Congress from manufacturing New England,
representing at this day every variety of industry
dred millions Of capital. The Industries ate Us,
| follows: Cotton cloth, silk, fiannes, paper knlt
| goods, starch, machinery, nets and selnes, hosle-
| Ty bleaching and dyeing, elastic fabrics chem-
| Gals, calico printing, lumber, twine and thread
wooden cloths, worsted goods, felting caIps,ts, p,,
| rubber threads wooden ware, wire clotn, aye
| woods, edge tools, underwear, plated ware, wooe
| extracts, boilers, suspenders, paper boxes, cut
iery, silver ware, yarns, hardware, iron works
| leather boots and Shoes binding, bunting, dies,
/ tapes, envelopes, straw goods, betting, steam
/ hair CLOTH soap, stores, steam engines, buttons;
iewery, cordage, rubber boots and shoes, fax and
hemp tWine.