Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-08-07
VEST ON THE TARIFF.
Senator Vest vigorously Attacks the Pend
ing Bill I'm the Senate.

Senator Vest vigorously Attacks the Pend
ing Bill In tho Senate.
WASHINGTON, July 29.-After some de-
lay the Tariff bill was taken up in the
Senate yesterday and Mr.. Vest spoke In
opposition to it. The advocates of high
tariff taxation, he said, were confronted
by great peril For years the farmers
had been told that the home market was
all they needed, and that the foreign
market was a baeatelle. almost worth
less Now a great change had come.
The depression in agricultural interests
and the emphatic demands of the farm
ers for something beside lying statistics
and frothy defamation had caused Pres
ident Harrison and Mr.. Blaine to urge
upon Congress legislation for subsidies
for steamships and for reciprocity treat
les with the South American States in
order to- obtain a foreign market for
American products Very little was
heard now of the home market, but
great deal of the South American mar
ket and of the rascally methods by
which England had robbed the United
States of valuable trade. Mr.. Blaine
now deprecated the putting of raw sug-
ar on the free list, orr of increasing the
duties on wool, and suggested that the
duties on sugar and wool should be util-
lied to secure free trade with the South
American States Thus at last the pro-
tectionists had been driven from their
pretentious humbug about the home
market and were forced to adopt the
principle of free commercial intercourse
which they had SO long opposed and de-
rided. The high priests of protection
were now burning incense on the affairs
of free trade and were yelling for re-
ciprocity treaties, subsidies to steam
and sailing vessels, Pan-American con-
ventions-any thing to bring about free
trade with the South American States
so as to enlarge the foreign market
for American products.
Mr.. Vest criticised the provisions of
the pending bill that were supposed to
be for the benefit of the farmers and
said that what the farmers wanted was
the opening and enlargement of foreign
markets for their surplus wheat, cattle
and pork and the decrease of the tariff
duty on clothing, hardware, tin and
other necessary articles of daily and in
cessant use by the farmer and his fam
lily. The time for soothing sirups and
emollient applications was past and
the full grown men who had been for
years plundered under the pretext of
home market would be no longer
satisfied with garbled statistics or
with the purring official assur-
ance that the farmer would be relieved
by higher taxation. OF the proposed
| increase of duties on wheat, oats, bar
| ley, rye and other farm products he
asked how it was possible to protect
| American farmers against competi-
ton which did not exist The whole
thing was nothing but pyramid of
fraud and humbug. AS to the proposed
reduction of the duty on rice and rice
| -four he referred to it as an evidence of
not only the unjust and wicked, but
sectional character of both the House
and Senate bills. Why, he asked, was
that brutal discrimination made against
4 the rice planters of the South? There
could be but one answer-they voted the
Democratic ticket The pending bill
was to repay the mill owners
their contributions to the campaign
fund of the Republican party dur
ing the last Presidential canvass, and
as the planters of the South were Demo
Gratis and the negroes were regarded by
the Republican managers as mere polit-
| ing, the duties of Northern manufact-
ures were increased while the duty on
rice was diminished. The proposed in
crease OF the duty on cattle, while no
cattle were imported except for breed
ing purposes, he characterized as the
baldest and most disgusting piece of
humbug ever exhibited even in politics.
Referring to the proposed increase of
duty on tin-plate (of which S21, 600, 600
worth was imported from England last
year)9 Mr.. Vest said that it was for the
purpose of forcing the people of the
United States to use Pittsburgh galvan-
lied iron. And this Nation, then, said
he, asked Great Britain to remove her
quarantine restrictions on American
c@ttls and stood, with sword in hand, to
prevent the importation of British
| goods while ID expects her to take
american products without o word of
| objectioa. The farmer who could not
see that he was che victim under the
high t@riH system was q hoSeless par
tissn. The farmer furnished nearly
| @Our-fSths o9 the exports OF the
country end i9 the foreign market
was ungrieadly % absolutely closed
against him he would have to keep his
| surplus produces at home and help to
lower prices by Cutting the market It
was claimed that the tag on wool was
for the farmers protection. but all that
he asked was that every farmer would
| put face to face all . at he received for
I, his wool and all that he paid for wooden
clothing by reason of increased taxation
and then turn to the faces of wife and
children for an answer. He asserted
that the consumers of the United States
we're being Systematically plundered
under the preteAse of protection to
| home industries. No further conceal
ment vas possible. The truth was at
| last revealed. The manufacturers who
were persistently asking higher duties
+: to exclude foreign competition wers
! availing themselves of the monopoly
| given by the exclusive tariff to charge
1 the noonla of t},;s country from, On <o IN