The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1888-10-11
MINORITY.
The Democratic View of the Re-
publican Tariff Bill and Its
Provisions.
1t is in the Interest of Monopoly.
Protection the Mother of
Trusts.

WASHINGTON, October 4.-The report of
the minority makes document OF III
printed pages. 1t begins with the state
ment that in the preparation of substi-
tute for the house bill no member of the
minority of the committee was consulted
or informed as to its provisions until it
was reported to the full committee on Sep
tember %. The minority recites the work
of the sub committee in hearing the state
ments, arguments and appeals of manu-
facturers and others who demand that
the present rate of tariff taxa
tion shall be maintained and
in most instances prompted, not by any
revenues necessities, but alone for the
purpose of increasing their own profits at
the expense of 6OOOo0OO of taxpayers.
Continuing, they say: 1t is safe to say
that all the interests' benefited by a high
protective thrift have been fully heard and
have had much infuenoe in shaping this
substitute, while the great body
of the people, the taxpayers and
victims of this policy, have not
appeared, and have not been heard 1t
is then said that the short time that the
substitute has been in the hands of the
minority has made it difficult to ascertain
its effect, but the especial difference be-
tween the house bill and the senate substi-
tute is apparent, and radical at the out.
SGT in
THE MATTER OF REVENUE.
The one is framed in the interest of the
public treasury, the other In the interest
of private pockets. One is framed in the
interest of the whole people, the
other in the interest OF 100000
manufacturers. One is designed to reduce
both government revenue and taxation,
especially that which bears heaviest on
the necessaries of life; the other is in
tended to raise public revenue indeed,
but to maintain private revenues by in
creasing and retaining taxation on all of
the necessaries of life. The substitute re-
lieves non-necessary tobacco in all its
forms, except cigars, oheroots and cigar
cites, from internal taxation, aud
gives free alcohol to the arts.
The substitute offers to the people free
whisky and free tobacco, leaving all the
expensive machinery for the collection of
revenue and the enforcement of the law in
full force, while it increases taxation upon
the actual and Indispensable neeessaries
of life.
THE MINORITY CONTINUES:
Cotton ties also receive their careful
consideration. It is not enough that the
most formidable and insolent trust which
ever laid its hands upon the throat of
honest labor ia threatening every class
from the poor colored cotton picker,
whose few pounds of crop he could not
get to market for lack of means to wrap
it, to the merchant capitalist who had
advanced the necessaries of life to sustain
that lahorer, but to him these proposed
revisions come not with the helping hand,
but other burdens. Cotton ties which
their own friends had reduced to 80
per cent in the tariff of 1888, they
omit by name, but include on the new
classification SO that instead of 80 percent
cent they must pay, according to the
valuation of 1887, over 100
per cent, adding nearly $250OO0 to the
tax on imported ties alone, all of which is
a loss to cotton producers.
THOUSAND OTHER INCONSISTENCIES
and determinations are hidden by new
and obscura classiications that only time
and patient investigation will reveal. In
the woolen schedule the substitute not
only retains the duty on raw wool, but in
oreases the duty from 10 to IL cents q
pound on clothing and combing wool, and
the existing duty is retained on carpet
wools, which, all parties agree, are
not produced in this country, and the
changes made in the manufacture of
wool increases taxation and to that ex-
tent increases the cost of manufactured
wool, especially the cheaper grades of the
clothing of the poor. The minority
criticizes in similar manner the lumber,
salt and provisions schedules, and then
says on
THE SUBJECT OF TRUSTS:
the present tariff is the nursing
mother of trusts. IL is the wall behind
which these combinations are formed,
by which the people ars plundered.
The tariff keeps out foreign competition
and combinations, suppresses domestic
competition, and the whole people are at
their mercy and must pay whatever is de
manded.
Language is inadequate to describe the
iniquity of these corporations against the
rights of the people, OF to describe their
disastrous effect upon the general welfare.
They are not "private AFFAIRS" as has
been asserted, but public evils
of the gravest character, affecting
the price of every article which contrib.
utes to the comfort and wants of the peo-
pie. The provisions of the substitute favor
them greatly, and will serve to encourage
their formation in still other branches Of
manufacture. Many officers belonging to
trusts appeared before the finance COM
mittee, clamorous for such legislation as
would promote their interests. They are
all opposed TO the bill, which should
commend itself TO all who
condemn their methods. It is bad enough
to permit those who are most interested
the msnufacturers--to appear before our
committee and suggest the legislation
they wish, but surely we should not listen
to trusts and aid them 10 rob with both
hands,"
Rascality in Chicago.