St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-04-18
MILLS ON The TARIFF.
A Complete and Mastery
Diagnosis Of the Whole
Question.
What Originated the High
Tariff and Why 1t Should
Be Abolished.
High Taxes Removed From
the Rich, but the Poor
Still Burdened.
Wages Not Advanced by q
High Tariff--Kelley In
Opposition.

WASHINGTON, April IL In his
speech in the house to-day on the tariff
bill, Mr.. Mills said: During the late
war the expenditures required by the
enormous military establishment de-
manded that the burdens of taxation
should be laid heavily in all directions
authorized by the constitution. The in
ternal revenue tax and the direct tax
had been called into reauisitiOn to sup
plement the revenues arising from Gus
toms to aid the treasury to respond to
the heavy demands daily made upon it.
The duties upon imports had been
raised from an average of 1884 per cent
in 1861, to an average of 1929 per cent,
during the five years from 1862 to 1866 in
elusive. This had been recognized at the
time as an exceptionally heavy burden.
1t had been stated by the distinguished
gentleman who presented the tariff
measure at that time, that this ''iS in
tended as a war measure, a temporary
measure, and we must as such give it
our support" More than twenty years
had elapsed since the war ended. A
generation had passed, and new gen.
Grafton had appeared Oh the stage since
peace had returned to bless our common
country; but
THESE WAR TAXES STILL REMAINED,
and they were heavier to-day than they
were on the average during the five
years of the existence of hostilities. The
average rate of duty during the last five
years amounted to 44.51 per cent. And
during the last year the average was
47.1O. After this large increase had
been made congress had imposed
slight direct internal revenue tax upon
domestic manufactures ,and that tax had
brought into the treasury in 1866 $127,
100000. That was but tithe of the
heavy burdens that were laid upon i'm
ports. 1t amounted to about 3 per cent
on the whole manufactured products of
the country in 1866. 1t was thought to
be reasonable tax to impose on manu-
facturers who were receiving large
bOunties from the government in the
enhancement on the prices of their
products. But that tax was gone. 1t
could not live. 1t was tax on wealth.
1t was tax that came out of the pOck-
cts of the manufacturers. 1t was tax
that came from those into whose pOck
cts the government had brought large
bountieS. Congress had imposed tax
on incomes to help carry on the war r,and
there were 460. ITO people in the United
States in 1866 that had S707, ,000, 900 of net
income upon which they were assessed
duty which brought into the treasury
in 1866 S22,000,000. But that tax had
gone. 1t was a tax on wealth. 1t was
said to be an enormous tax. 1t was said
- hot ,ic%o, ,nI Sfc Inv
said to be oppressive; it was thought to
be just by those who had charge of the
administration of the government.
TO TAKE OFF THOSE BURDENS
and place them on the shoulders of
those who the Official reports showed
had nothing but living. And tax Of
8 per cent on net incomes aggregating
$707,000,OO0 was swept away, but the
war tax on clothing, upon food and
upon labor still remained. Every effort
that had been made to bring the exac-
tions of the government down to peace
establishment had been resisted step by
step, and every effort had been de-
feated. There had been tax on rail-
roads. b. it was gone. 1t had not lived
long after the war. 1t had been tax
on wealth. 1t was said to be oppres-
sive to tax the wealthy. There had
a
was gone. Three hundred million that
had been paid by the wealth of the
country had been swept away, and the
burden of taxation had been made
heavier as it had been loaded upon the
shoulders of those who had to support
themselves and the government. Was
a tax of per cent to be paid out of the
pockets of the manufacturers of
blankets weight more enormous than
the tax of 10 per cent paid by the con-
sumer on imported and domestic prod
uctS? Was the tax of 3 per cent on
incomes more oppressive than the tax
of 100 per cent on wOmen'S and chill
dren's dress goods? Yet all these
TAXES ON WEALTH HAD GONE,
and the gentlemen of the minority
boasted that they had reduced taxes to
the amount of $3.50, 100000, while the
Democratic party had reduced it only
bagatelle. That was the splendid
column those gentlemen had erected.
All the tax On wealth passed away. and
all the burdens had been cast upon the
shoulders of the laboring man. In 1888
taxation had still further been reduced,
and this magnificent shaft which the
party then in power had erected to
commemorate its legislative wisdom
and the beneficence of its laws was
crowned with a stone taking off the
internal revenue tax on playing cards
and putting tax of 20 per cent on
Bibles. Laughter. The Democratic
party had been trying to reduce taxa
ton upon the necessities of life, and it
was charged by gentlemen on the other
side that it had not accomplished any
reduction. That would be a grave
charge if the gentlemen who made it
were not guilty OF having prevented the
Democrats from accomplishing the re-
duction. 1t did not lie in their mouths
to charge the Democrats with failing to
reduce taxation when they had mus
tered their whole strength to strike out
the enacting clause of the bills pre-
sented by the Democrats. Twice they
had accomplished that, and twice they
had refused even to consider the queS-
tion of
A REDUCTION OF TAXATION.
The tax on consumption was paid by
hard daily toll. Suppose laborer with
a dollar day could buy woolen suit
of clothes for $40. 1t required ten days
labor to purchase it, but when the tariff
put duty of 100 per cent the suit would
cost 500. Then it required twenty days
labor for the man to secure what he
could otherwise have secured for ten
days. labor. Had not ten days labor
been annihilated? Either it habsbeen an
initiated or the proceeds of ten days
labor had been transferred from the lab
Orer to some one else. But the greatest
injury inflicted upon the people in tax
alton of the consumers of the country
was in the destruction of the values of
exports. The great body of exports
were agricultural products. From 75 to