The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1889-01-31
THE SENATE TARIFF BILL.
BY A STRICT PARTY VOTE.
Senator Morrill, on the General Subject OF
the Tariff.

Senator morrill, on the General Subject of
the Tariff.
Mr.. Morrill, made some general re-
marks. He had sought the floor, he said,
mainly for the purpose of preserving the
symmetry of the Republican record in
relation to its action on the tariff. He
criticised the course of Democratic Sen
ators in opposition to the bill, who had
assailsd it, he said, by chorus of vitu-
perative epithets as harsh to the ear as
the discordant tones of a calithumpian
concert. He was persuaded, however,
that the American people, prosperous as
they would be under the continuance OF
fair and reasonable protective policy
with a reasonable reduction of revenue)
would be able to appreciate the fact that
it was "a condition and not a theory
that now most troubled his Democratic
friends. He enumerated the various
tariff reductions made by the Republican
party as sufficient evidence that the Re-
publicans, so long as they held legisla-
tive power were neither idle nor mat
tentive to any proper reductions OF the
war tariff and of the public revenue.
He contrasted with that the work of the
D, mocratic party while having major
ity in the House of the Representatives,
and which was confined, he said, to the
lean and gaunt picture of one tariff bill
(repealing the duty on quinine which
had produced $l25, 553 revenue,) and of
one internal revenue measure, reducing
the tax on tobacco eight cents a pound,
and that reduction, led by one who was
IN danger Of being accommodated
from his party in consequence of his I'M
belief in the Mills tariff bill. He spoke
of the effect of free trade in Great Brit
ain, and said that VIGOROUSLY it had
proved disastrous to all landed estates
tEere, but that the sacrifice had to be
made, or British supremacy in foreign
trade would have been lost. If 1t were
asked, "What is the matter with the
Mills bill p the answer ives
that it was an abandonment Of protec-
ton, and that every change proposed in
1t was either absolute free trade or q
step nearer to free trade. 1t was bald
withdrawal of protection t. agriculture
in almost every direction. 1t was reck'
less and false to all the interests Of the
former. IL was all right for Canada, but
all wrong for the United States. The
large manufacturing towns of Great
Britain were exuberant over the pros
pect Of having larger and better mar keI
opened to their products. On the othel
had it was conceded that the Senate sub
stitute would make reduction of rev
enue of about $73 900 900, including
nearly 1874 900, 900 proposed to be remov
ed from tobacco and cigars. Out of AL
paragraphs in the substitute, there wert
reductions proposed in ITO or in one
fourth of them. The tariff reduction OF
sugar would reduce the cost to the con-
sumner not less than cent per pound
and the proposed bounty on sugar would
multiply the crops of the farmer by thu
introduction of permanent and profit
able crop. The Senate amendment pro
posed over forty additions to the fret
list, and it also proposed to ascertain
and remedy practical defects in existing
law. If the substitute became a law i
would cover the country, and every par
of it, with blessings.