Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-04-17
XIV. NO. 1877.


TO avoid legal duties. The report gives
an increase of duty on wool and the con-
| struetion given TO the worsted clause OF
| the existing law as reasons for increasing
! duties on wooden goods to protect manu-
! facturers. The existing law gives, It is
| said, protection of 50 to As per cent. The
| bill gives q range of 80 to so per
cent. Mills bill gave a uniform
| rate OF 40 per cent. more than was
| required on low grades, and less than
| was needed for fine grades. The adj
| vance in these fine grades will, it is be-
lieyed, diminish impOrtatiOns and there
| by reduce an increase of revenues and
! transfer to the country the manufacture
! Of from Sl5 200, 600 TO $40, 900, 900 of
| wooden goods Low made abroad. The
| average rate of the wooden goods sched-
! ule proposed, including specific duty Of
! wool used and manufacturers duty, IS
| 9I78 per cent. The average rate
| at present is 67.I5 per cent,
! but if the wOTSted decision
| had been made at the beginning OF the
| year it would have been increased 10 per
! cent. aud 10 per cent. more would have
| been added if worsted yarns had paid the
| duty of wooden warns at the same price,
| so that if these manifest errors in the
| constructions of the law had been earlier
| corrected the average rate OF last year
| would have been nearly so per cent.
| OF lumber the report says that any re-
| ductjon of light duties would have dis
( cOuraged the proper care of our tim er
| lands, and have injured to the benefit or
Canada without diminishing the market
prices.
THE MINORITY REPORT
is signed by all the Democratic members
of the committee. 1t says the minority
contends for the principle OF just and
equal taxation upon all according TO
their ability to bear the burden. While
the majority has in this bill thorou ghly
committed itself to the policy of unjus {
and unequal taxation of many for the
benefit OF the few, we see no excuse IS
the majority can possibly be to promote
and encourage American industries and
advance the interests of American labor
ers and those who impute to US any other
purpose or design, either to misunder-
stand or mIsrepresent our position, but
we believe that both these objects can be
accomplished by reducing the burdens Of
taxation and not by increasing them,
and that the benefits thus secured will
be far more permanent and far
more satisfactory to those d.
rectIv concerned than any sup
pOSSu duFduthSS LudI Ctti ICSulh AAOHA
O. different policy. 1.-The majority after
months of patient and laborious investi-
CATION, has been able to satisfy part
only of demands made upon it. The
only remedy is to remove as far as posi-
BILE the artificial burdens and re-
strictionS and give to all our
industries an equal chance in
the field of competition at home and
abroad. According to statements made
before the committee the protected in
dustries of the country have never been
at any time in our history in such de-
pressed condition as they are now. After.
nearly thirty years of continuous protec-
ton BY government taxation for their
support a great many of them are re-
ported to be on the very verge of bank
ruptcY and ruin, while very few OF them,
according to testimony, are yielding
fair profit upon amounts invested.
A great many of the parties engaged
in these industries have declared in the
course of our investigation that slightest
reduction in rates of duty now imposed
upon competing foreign products
would compel them to close up
their works and discharge their
employees, and others have gone so
far as to assert they will be forced to go
out of business if the rates of taxation
are not increased. At the same
time the labOrers in those in
dustries are complaining of insufficient
wages, repeated suspensions OF work and
q general condition of uncertainty and
insecurity IN their relations to those who
give them employment. Leoorers fully
realizing the facts that this system hes
wholly failed to increase their earnings
or improve their condition in any way
have been compelled to organize trades
fO h.
DDS of combination and coop
Grafton for self-protection, and these
various organizations now afford suf-
ficient means at their command for the
preservation of even the existing rates or
wages. When capital and labor unite in
declaring that our protected industries
are not prosperous under that system,
although it was designed and has been
ma intained for their special benefit, the
conclusion is inevitable that there is
vice IN it somewhere that ought to
be removed, for there is no
reason to doubt that in country like
this every productive industry would be
reasonably prosperous if a wise and just
revenue and financial policy prevails.
The report states that the remedy pro-
posed by the majority is the imposition
of more taxes upon every article OF for
eign origin which the people of this
country desire TO buy, and Tor Wnlcn
they are ready and anxious to exchange
cotton, which they cannot spin, corn
and wheat which they cannot consume,
oil and coal which they cannot burn, and
many other products of our farms, our
forests and our mines. These surplus
products must find market somewhere
outside of the United States. The i'm
ports last year were S74 ,511 ,65l, paid for
mainly in our surplus agricultural pro-
ducts. 1t would be impossible for the
people of the United States to send
out of the country that sum IN cash and
every one knows they did not do it. 1t
is argued that our money should be spent
at home. In fact, it is spent there in
the production, preparation and trans
portation Of articles we send abroad to
pay for importations; and il they were
not sent abroad the money could not be
expended here, because there would be
no market. Under our unwise system or