Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1890-08-20
eENATOR DANIEL.

Mr.. Daniel spoke of the proposed in
crease of duty on tin.plate as another stet
in the relentless and inexorable war ii
which the republican party was engaged
against the agricultural and producing
classes Of the country. 1t was so mon.
strous grab of a monopoly as yet un.
created, but pleading for a charter from
Congress to plunder the people. that il
should not go unchallenged. The tin
plate tax was one element of the conspiracy
and combination of monopolists against the
tilers of tho soil. He had no doubt that il
the Western farmer who burned his corn
for fuel because he could not find market
for it, and who was told in an official report
of the Department of Agriculture that that
was legitimate use of the corn, paid $175
for the tin used in the roofing of his house
or barn, and learned that SIS of that sum
went into the pocket Of some capitalist
who had rot yet appeared, that farmer
would be entirely content tC pay the
bonus.
The bill indicated that monopoly had
ridden so far in the country that it no
longer felt it necessary to carry a counter
sign or to show its pass when it trod the
peoples highway. 1t looked on agricul-
ture as its legitimate spoil.
When the Roman empire, Mr.. Daniel
continued, was devastated by civil war,
Virgil had tuned his pipe, and by his songs
in praise Of pastoral life had won the
husbandmen back tn their fields, their
cattle and their humming bees. But when
the pending bill became law and had the
offect Of scaling up the foreign market TO
American farm products, it would take a
bngle louder than Virgil's pipe to summon
any man who could do anything else to the
devastated fields of American agriculture.
At the close Of the debate, fittingly wound
up in the silence of republican Senators,
they should invoke the spirit of the dead
Dante TO paint for them again the frozsn
region of hell, and among its icebergs he
shonid paint also the farmers OF the west
burning their corn in vain for little ame-
Iteration of the climate, and they should
write over the 'home Market" which they
proposed to construct, the line of the Ital-
ian poet, HE who enters here leaves all
hope behind
be gagged like Gulliver, and were told to
speak their five minutes and go home.
"Shame ~ be exclaimed, ''upon you Amer
ican Senators, if you can her such sugges-
tion with pleasure or without indignation.
American people was deaf to the cause of
patriotism. He appealed to the Pharaohs to
'let the people co. and give the farmer a
fair chance for wealth. If they denied it
to him they would hear from him again,
and he would see them later"
SENATOR VANCE.
Mr.. Vance spoke of the canning business
as the largest industry In the United States,
and as being increased daily among the peo-
pie, as the farmers alliances were epcour-
aging the establishment of small canneries
wherever the situation and surroundings
aud farm products were favorable. The
United States was the largest consumer of
tin plate in the world-the quantity import
ed last year having been $50, 900 TONS And
yet, Instead of a reduction of duty on tin
plates, the duty was to be increased from
cent to 2 10 cents pound. That would
make an annual tax on the people of the
United States Of SIS, 900, 900. If it took five
years to establish the business in the Unite 4
States that would amount to tax of $75,-
600, 600. He submitted that the tin-baby
was not worth so much. It was too much
to pay for a little tin god on wheels. If the
Pittsburg tin-plste trust could not be satis-
fed in any other way, and if Mr.. Aldrich
would bring in bill to pay its member a
reasonable pension, he would promise to
vote for 1t.
SENATOR VEST.
Mr.. Vest read from treasury report the
prics of tin-plate in England in several years
The price of tin per hundred pounds in 1S7t
was 26s.6d, and in 1886 12s.6d., a fall of III
per cent, while tin-plate was worth in 1875
4 1-10 cents pound. and in 1892 Sill
cents pound. This fall in price had tskel
place without competition, although tn,
Senator from Rhode Island had stated th'
other day that the reason why the decreas
in commodities abroad had taken plac
was the existence of competition in tn
| United States. But here was an article O
which not pound was produced in th