Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-07-24
THE TARIFF BILL.
The MCKINLEY Bill Taken Up IN
the Senate.
VOORHEES, VIGOROUS ASSAULT.
Rkilanthropist Carnegie Gets Severe
Haking-The Bill Declared to Be
Monster Born OF Polit-
Ical Corruption.

teTdsy took up the Tariff bill.
Mr. Voorhees, addressed the Senate in
opposition to the bill, which he charac-
teriEed as a financial monster, every
claw and tooth of which had been care
fully inspected in the lobbies and found
TO be sound and reliable. 1t was only
10 an impure political and moral atmos-
phere, generated by corrupt monopoly
Of wealth, that financial measure like
the one now pending would dare to show
the hard outlines of its guilty face;
much less would it expect to be treated
with respect spoken we'll of and passed
ss a Law.
Passing to a criticism of the details
Of the bill Mr.. Voorhees, spoke of it as
An astonishing fact that in the fourteen
schedules OF dutiable articles, the only
reductions made were in the schedule
relating to sugar and molasses (which
In the light Of the proposed bounty to
sugar planters was no reduction at all
end In the section relating to wines,
spirits and other beverages In every
one Of the twelve schedules the tariff
taxes had been increased In regard to
WOolen goods that increase amounted to
e15, ,OoO,oO a year. There was TO pre-
tension that tho increase was put on for
the sake of revenue. 1t was simply an
instance Of protection run mad and de-
veloped into a Chinese wall of prohibi-
tion.
Mr.. Voorhees, referred to the recent
Stanley wedding in London, attended
by members OF the royal family and by
the representatives of the highest
ATistocracy Of England and to the we'd
ding presents of fabulous price show
cred upon the hero of the dark conti-
nent and his bride An American pro-
tected manufacturer, he said, was there
and bestowed upon the bride a gift
richer and rarer and far more costly
than any that could be afforded by the
Queen of England or the King of Bel
gium. 1t was Carnegie's, he said. His
gift was an uncut diamond of such size
and quality that neither the chest of
the GROWN jewels of England nor the
mOonstone of India could surpass it in
value. And how, he asked, came this
American king of steel and iron to have
diamond beyond the reach of the other
kings of the world and to be able to give
1t away? Was it an inheritance, an
heirloom? Had he hunted and found it
in the diamond fields of Africa? Had
he toiled from day to day, economical
and saved the earnings of a lifetime to
buy 1t? Nothing of all that The
farmers of the United States had paid
for that diamond ten thousand times
over in the last twenty years by paying
On average duty of over 3S per cent on
every article of iron and steel that they
used and by paying increased rates of
railroad freight made necessary by the
high duties on steel and iron rails and
rolling stock. For the farmer at last
paid for all II the pending bill became
law they would have an increase of
duty to pay on iron and steel from 3S "a
per cent. to 81. IS per cent
Mr.. Voorhees, passed on to the discus
sion of the proposed increase of 100 per
cent on tin-plate in order to protect an
infant industry, as yet unborn, and in
order to give employment to $4,000
workingmen now idle. 1t would be far
cheaper, he said, for the country to paw
$4,000 idle men their average wages
than to tax every square of tin roof,
every dinner pail, tea pot and milk can,
simply to build up half a dozen million
aires and to enable them to give coach
ing parties TO protection leaders and to
found libraries from the savings of Is
per cent reduction of the wages of their
workingmen. Tin-plate, he said, had
che first right to be on the free list,
and he would at the proper time |
move to put it there. There was
no manufacturer of 1t in the country |
and. therefore, nothing to protect even |
II protection were right 1t was a /
material in universal use, Q common /
want with laboring people, and Il ought.
therefore, to pay no tax. Might he not |
with propriety in leaving the tin-plate
schedule, call on all the men and women
who use tin pans. pals, cups, strainers
tespots, cofieepots, ashbasins, cooking
pans, pie plates, cans for fruits and
vegetables and tin for roofing their
houses to Join in pronounciue andtherna
nlordndthd against the bill? The doc
trine Of q high protective tariff was
here, he said, carried to its full limit
and displayed without further attempt
at disguise all its frightful capabilities
for evil It might well exclaim with
the false prophet of Khorassan, when
be unvailed his hideous face to his ip-
norant worshipers:
Here, Judge II hell, with all its povers IN
ldamnl
Can add one curse to the vile thing lam
As he believed in the Justice of God
Mr.. Voorhees, said he believed in the
overthrow of such a government He
haifornd that he /
nal system Of tariff protection in this
country was racing TO swift destruction.
1t was destined soon to encounter the
stern spirit of retEibutive Justice and to
feel the desolation which it had in
hicted on Others He reioiced that there /
was . spirit in the land which would not
down at the bidding of spectators.
Whether that spirit was of his party or
Of the opposite party, or of an alliance
embracing honest people of both parties,
IL WIS most welcome to him, and his
prayer was that 1t would have a giants
strength In its arm so as to strike down
che mail clad robbers who were
riding over and trampling down the
iaboring poor. The title of the bill was
IAN act to reduce the revenue and
squaliEs duties on imports and for other
purposes" the only truth in the title
being 'for other purposes" than those
declared With sugar on the free list
IN annual revenue of SS6, 900, 600 was
abolished, but other schedules increased
duties 20 the amount OF S65, DOC, 600 But
II the bounty on sugar produced in the
United States should result (as fits
iriends urged 1t would) in the produc-
ton Of all sugar Consumed here. then |