The Kinsley graphic. [volume] (Kinsley, Kan.) 1890-1940, 1890-08-01
VEST ON The TARIFF.
sesatorSe Vigorously Attacks the Pend
ing Bill i'm the senate.

sesator Vest Vigorously Attacks the Pend
ing Bill In the 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
tarin taxation, he said, were confronted
by great peril For years the farmers
had been told that the home market was
ali they needed. and that the foreign
market was a bagatelle, almost worth
less Now 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 foreign market for
American products Very little was
heard now of the home market but 9
great deal of the South American mar
ket and of the raSca1ly 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, or 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-
teetionists 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 a
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 a pyramid OF
fraud and humbug. AS to the proposed
reduction of the duty on rice and rice
| flour 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
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
ical chattels who could contribute moth
ing, the duties of Northern manufact
ures were increased while the duty OF
rice was diminished The proposed in
crease of the duty on cattle, while nc
cattle were imported except for breed
| ing purposes, he characterized as the
baldest and most disgusting piece o.
humbug ever exhibited even in politics.
Referring to the proposed increase Of
duty on tin-plate (of which $21, 900, 00(
worth was imported from England las
year,, 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, saiG
he, asked Great Britain to remove hel
quarantine restrictions on American
cattle and stood, with sword in hand, tx
prevent the Importation of British
goods, while it expects her to take
American products without a word OF
objection. The farmer who could no
see that he was the victim under the
high tariff system was a hopeless par
| tisan. The farmer furnished nearly
four-ffths of the exports of the
country and if the foreign marke
was unfriendly or absolutely closed
against him he would have to keep hi;
surplus products at home and help Il
lower prices by Cutting the market Il
was claimed that the tax on wool was
for the farmers protection, but all tina
he asked was that every farmer would
put face to face all that he received fol
his wool and all that he paid for wooler
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
were being Systematically plundered
under the pretense of protection t.
home industries No further conceal
ment was possible. The truth was a
! last revealed. The manufacturers whG
were persistently asking higher duties
to exclude foreign competition were
availing themselves of the monopoly
| given by the exclusive tariff to charge
the people of this country from 20 to Il
per cent higher. for their goods thar
they could sell the same article for in
the unprotected markets of the world.
1t was no longer protection, but pure.
simple naked plunder.
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SCIENTIFIC SUNORIES.