Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1888-05-04
The Thrift i'm Conr,r.u.

provoked DN PRESIDENT LleNelanu Tree
trade message and the introduction of the
Mills dark lantern tariff measure has be.
come the all absorbing question before the
country, and bids fair to be the chief topic
of discussion in the presidential campaign
soon to he inaugurated The newspapers
are supposed to he the proper channels
through which information upon public
questions is to be brought home to the great
mass Of the people. But few people read
the Congressional Record which is issued
from day to day and contains the entire pro
ceedings of Congress, including all that is
said in debate. Our city and country news
papers contain but brief resume Of the
debates in Congress- and therefore it is that
what little they do reproduce, or undertake
to give, ought in fairness to the reader to
be reasonably accurate. Editorial com
ments, prompted by strong partisan feeling,
will hardly suffice and are altogether mis-
leading. 1t is not cause for complaint that
the Democratic free-trade newspapers, like
the Springfield Republican and the Reform
err, for instance, publish more copious eN-
tracts from the speeches of their free trade
orators than from protectionists but in
what they profess to quote from the oppu
stion they ought to he fair and candid
Last week the Reformer, after quoting
from the speech of Mr. McMillin free trad
err of Tennessee, gives its readers twenty
six lines from the two hours speech Of Mr.
Burrows of Michigan in reply. The edito
riol c,,r,n.ntso f the Reror,ner oro nc fol
I,,.s
,,,fr purr,y,s WIN is n fine orator ,no,. tl,a
more effective speech. though the poorest argu-
I'n , ne tmv t'S',etI ueCl',
enhanced by the amount Of the duty (which the
President never said merely pointing out that
when protection amounted 70 any lhng a. an II
H. reviewed. the Working Of the various taritT,
which the country has had, and the conditions Of
hr1sPerIy or depression when nave ATTENDED
i"wrd hi',h taritTs ,ihiis in every instan,s M,
proach to free trade or revenue tariff" has
brought depression ana disaster
The fact is that no better argument has
ever been made in Congress than that of
Mr. Burroys II was well ARRANGED clpnr
;.i t:i r.. a. ::
Inv 30 '''' Tvs '1' '''''' 7''''''s W
uhe emu
did say, the assertion of the Reformer To
the contrary notwithstanding. as follows
,.Onr pr,.s.nt tarir laws tb, ycions ineouit,.
bile and illogical source of unnecessary taxation,
| ought to oe al once revised ana amended. These
nr t S th "ns,,, "" "f p ali arts
and subject to duty, 10y precisely the sum paid
for such duties Thus the amount of the duty
, nii1 "a PaiI ~ tl,''e "no PURCHASE LOT
| NJ. p,,,n,,,.. a.. ,.,..l A.. r.1
|
iao9 Vi Uuls al uiiieH'' WHICH nau peen re
lterated and elaborated by Mr. Mills and
Mr. McMillin in their speeches He gave
example after example showing that the
duty levied upon goods imported and of q
kind produced in this country. actually de
creased the price thereof to the consumer
instead of increasing it, among them
being one which he said the President should
have known about Down to 1884 not a
pound of soda ash was manufactured in
the United States, although about 10, DOC
tons per annum was consumed In 1888 a
duty of 50 per ton was imposed. Prior 20
| 1884 the American consumer had been com
| PEELED to paw S4S per ton If the President
was right, the consumer should have paid
S53 per ton after the imposition OF the du-
ty The fact was that plant for the man.
Syracuse, n. Y. in 1884, with a capacit,
of 30, 600 tons per annum, and since that
time the cost of soda ash to the American
consumer had fallen as low as 500 per ton
This meant "A saving in one year to tn,
American consumer of 81. 500, 600
He also showed that three fourths of all
the deposits in the savings banks of New
England and the Middle states are the de
posts of men and women who live by their
daily toll, conclusively demonstrating that
the wage worker now enjoys a larger shar,
than ever before of the Joint product Of
labor and capital, a condition of things thai
does not and never did exist under FIRE,
trade or tariff for revenue only" in any
country or under any form of government
Further than this Mr.. Burrows showed tina
in thirteen years preceding 1861, under I
low tariff, there was only one year in which
the balance of foreign trade was not agains
the United States, and the net balance for
the thirteen years was 1896, 900, 900. Ii
the last thirteen wears the balance of trad,
has been against us only one year, and tn,
aggregate balance in our favor has been
81 900, 0OO, 900.
A part of his speech was devoted to I
thorough exposure of the fallacies of Mill
and McMllin, who asserted that what the,
called "war taxes, meaning customs duties
are heavier today than during the war, an,
that the average duties ION dutiable good
amounted to A! per cent from 1888 to 1887
| al l,,.;,,,, e.. L.. 80, .. ~ 1 IN -
cent Mr. Burrows called attentisn I.
the fact that they confined their calcula