Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1892-08-11
The Record of Congress.

Inc RECORD OF congress.
The fifty-second congress has aiourn-
ed, and its work is summed up by the
World in the following review: The
Democrats of the house did their best to
tighten the burdens of taxation on the
people and industries of the country.
Under the lead of the ways and means
committee bill was passed making wool
free, in hope of reviving the dropping
woolen manufacturing interests and en-
couraging the wool-grower.
The same bill abolished the compen-
satory duty on woolen goods. The
result of this would have been the
cheapening of clothes which had been
made much more costly by the McKin-
ley law.
Another bill made free the binding
twine used by the wheat-growers and
the cotton-ties used by the planters of
the South.
Another made ore containing both
silver and lead free, the purpose being
to cheaper one of the most common
articles of domestic and industrial use
The bill to reduce the enormous
Mckinley tax on tin-plates would have
put an end to a contemplate fraud, and
would have saved the people of this
country from $l0,0O0,0OO to $1,000, 900
year.
When these tax-relief bills reached
the senate the Republican majority
promptly pigeon-holed them. In the
interest of certain manufacturers OF
cheap plushes, shoddy and certain kinds
of woolens, they denied the people
cheap clothes.
In the interest of the cordage trust
they refused cheap binding-twine to
the wheat-growers.
In behalf of the hoop-iron makers of
Pittsburg they insisted upon dear cot
ton-ties for the Southern planters.
To help the makers of plate they
refused to put an end to the robbery of
the people who buy dinner-pails, pots,
pans and rooting-tin, and retained the
tax that increases the price of canned
goods and has already closed up score
of canning factories, depriving labor of
its work as well as making food dearer.
In brief, all of the bills which the
Democratic house passed for the bene-
fit of the people were killed by the
senate.
The house dealt with the free
coinage measure honorably and man.
fully. The Democratic majority real
lzing that its first duty was to the
people who elected it for the purpose
OF reducing taxes, defeated the effort
to force it to the front.
Besides attending to its legislative
work the majority in the house ex.
posed Raums iniquitious administration
OF the pension office and showed the
president to be his protector.
The material results of the session
VIII not be of great advantage to the
country for the simple reason tina
Republican legislation of the billion
dollar congress, Republican senate
ana Republican president have pre-
vented the Democratic house from
carrying out the reforms desired by
the people.
The political situation is unchanged
ny the session. 1t semains what it was
III the campaign of 1890. The Demo
Gratis have tried to reduce expenditures
Dut they could not. They have tried
to drive the administration to reform
the abuses in the pension bureau. but
they have been met and overcome hv
the presidents obstinate adherence tc
scandalous administration. Above
all, the Democrats have tried to abolish
some of the evils and to Tighten som,
OF the burdens of the Mckinley tarif
law. They have attacked some of it
most fiagrant abuses and some of tn,
worst trusts it has engendered, but tn,
friends of trusts and monopoly con
trolled the senate and sat in the Whit,
House, and the efforts of the Democrati,
tariff-reformers were lost except as the,
show to the country that the party il
still bent upon accomplishing the tasl
which the people assigned to it in 1890
-------
WHILE the Republican organs ar,
prating about the prosperity of tn,
country Luzerne county Jail is crowded
to the door, and Warden Haines hal
notified the commissioners that he can
not find room for another prisoner.