Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-10-05
Here Follow Three Reports on
 the Senate Tariff Bill.
ARGUMENTS PRO AND CON.
Voices of the Majority, Minority
 and Mr. Beck.
POINTS FOR TARIFF STUDENTS.

itnN AhfS <Aie oA sAAo Inadequncy of the Mills Bill Remedial Ieasure-The Minority Say the Mills Bill Is in the Interest of the Public Treasury and the Whole People, the Senate Bill Is in the Interest of the Private Pocket and a Few Thousand Manufacturers They Recommend the Mills Bill as the Only Panacea-Mr. Beck Goes It Alone" and Says He Is Glad the Senate Has Gone to the Ex- treme of Protection.
 WASHINGTON, Oct. 5.-The majority and minority reports on the tariff bill were pre- sented in the senate Both are very long and explicit, and are intended for distribution as campaign documents. The majority report, representing the views of the Republican members of the committee finance, fills eighty nine closely printed pages, of which over twenty-five are tabular. There are de- tailed comparisons between the features of the Mills bill and also those of the present law and the bill upon which this is a report, making all of the essential points compre hensive to the average reader
 The majority report opens with the state ment that the demand for a care full and thorough revision of our revenue laws is i'm perative This revision, it says, Is necessary: to reduce the national revenues, which are now excessive: to remedy the defects, anoma Hes and ncongruities which have been from time to time discovered in the tariff schedules, or which have been created by erroneous de- cisions of the treasury department; to secure the proper req ljuotment and equalization of 6aritf rates. rendered necessary by modified NuciDaSS conditions. m mi uletbnH of production; radical changes in prices, or by new elements or sources of competition, and to g.Ve relief and protection to many in dustrieS which are now suffering on account of the inadequate rates levied on competing products
 The public demand, the report says, for a reduction of revenue is more urgent on ac- count of the ineXcusable retention ill the na- tonal treasury, or in the national banks, of volumes of money in excess of the amount required to pay the current demands upon the treasury and to meet maturing obliga- tions of the government.
 The existence of this immense surplus fur hisheS occasion for constant anxiety and ap- prehension of possible financial disaster The failure to prevent this dangerous accumula- ton melting, as it does, extravagant expendi- lures and constituting an ever present men, ace to the prosperity of all our people, cannot be too severely condemned; but it is a failure for which the executive department of the government alone is responsible
 This accumulation could and should have been profitably avoided, and the possibility of business disaster averted by prompt re- turn of the money collected from the people to the channels of trade through the pur- chase of United States bonds that could at all times have been obtained for prices which, to the government, would have been equal to an investment, if otherwise unprofit- able funds, at a rate of interest of not less than 2 per cent. per annum.
 It is probably true that the S6O, OO9 de posted in national banks cannot now be with drawn without peril to the business interests of the respective communities where the banks are located, and that this sum must re- main for an indefinite period a loan to favored institutions without interest This unfortunat, situation, however, must have been foreseen when the deposits were made and it should not be aggravated by further deposits; nor should it furnish an excuse for the failure to promptly dispose of tho much larger sum remaining in the treasury in the manner indicated.
 To amend the provisions of law which en- force the collection of excessive revenue and to remedy the defects which we have emu merated, are within the scope of legislative
  sponsible for any evils resulting from con- tinuance of existing conditions. It may, however, be fairly said that responsibility for delay in the adoption of the legislative remedies rests upon the party in control of the house of representatives, which by the constitution has sole power to originate rev enue bills The anticipation of the senate in any effort to cure existing evils by proper legislation has not been possible, from the fact that the bill under consideration is the first that has reached the senate in more than five years giving them jurisdiction over the subject.
 Criticising the inaction of those whose anxiety for reform has been manifested by repeated declaration" the report says: "It would have been easy at any time when con greSs has been ill session since the Sd o1 March, 1SS5-and its sessions have covered al ;east twenty months of that period-to have secured the concurrence of the two house. upon measure which would have reduced the revenue and amended the administrativ, featalres of our customs law in satisfactory manner
 ''It has been the evident purpose of those who have controlled the policy of the party In power to delay action, to magnify causes for uneasness and to multiply and intensif, evils until the people of the country shoult imperatively demand relief, and then to as sume that the evils and embarrassment from which we are suffering are the neces sary incidents of the protective system and that relief can only be fount tn the emasculation or destruction of tha system. The known attachment of the grea mass of wage earners of the country to a sys tenn which has been productive to them c unexampled prosperity, prevented the adoI tion of policy of open attack, and made necessary that some plausible reason shoul be found for the stealthy accomplishment 0 their destructive designs"
 The majority say that after that thoroug examination of the Mills bill, they have be come satisfied of its inadequacy as a remedis measure in view 'of the condition which COT fronts us" and in some general criticisms ( the bill reached these conclusions:
 Its adoption would probably result in a increase instead of a reduction of custom revenue.
 ''It provides no remedy for undervalu' \ tions, but, on the contrary, it invites an