The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1892-03-17
THE TARIFF DEBATE.
Mr.. Mcmillan, OF Tennessee Makes
Great Speech.


logical presentation of the Democrat
ic position against the Mckinley act
has been made by any Democrat
since the passage of that act than
Mr.. McMilIin made in opening the ,le-
bate on the wool bill. 1t was an ar
raignment all along the line of pro-
lection gone mad as crystaIlized' in
the Mckinley law.
In commencemencing his speech Mr..
McMillin struck the keynote of the
Democratic policy. He stated by
drawing q vivid picture of the result
of the last Congress, which had in a
time OF profound peace imposed the
highest tariff taxes and made the
most extravagant appropriation in
the history of the country. The bill
ion-dollar Congress h d appropriate
ed over one third of all the money in
existence in the United States, with
from one-third to one haf of all the
money going each year through the
hands of the Federal tax-gatherer,
besides taxes for State, county and
municipal purposes, and the insidous
indirect taxes collected by the pro
te:tive manufacturers through the
agency o! the Mckinley bill. Mr.. Nc
Millin laid down the conclusion that
with such a state of affairs there
could be no permanent prosperity,
and that the only remedy lay in less
taxes and the appropriation of less
money.
He then went on to review the his
tory of the tariff legisla ton of the
country, as the rates were increased
from time to time to appease the in
s,ltiable gree d of the protective inter
ests until the rates of the Mckinley
bill were fix times as high as they
were when their forefathers were
fighting for independence and free
dom, three times us high as they were
in the war of 1912, when the Capitol
underwent it's baptism of fire, two
and half times as great as were re-
quired to carry ou the Mexican war,
and sixty per cent. higher than were
required TO prosecute the great war
of the rebellion to d very successful
termination.
In this gradual elevation OF the
rates of tariff taxation he showed
how the poor man had been discrim
mated against and, in the Mckinley
bill, the rates had been made lower
on the luxuries and higher on the
lower necessaries of life; lower on silk
and higher on woolens; lower on Jew
elry and higher On cutlery; lower on
diamonds and higher on TIA BILE knives
and lower or chanipage and higher
on linens.
The result, he said, had been the
formation of all sorts of pools and
combines. He furnished an analysis
of the tax on sugar, which the Repuo-
licans love to exploit as one of the
great blessings OF the Mckinley tariff
law, which showed that under the
guise of saving $5O.00O,0OO to the
people bounty of $12, 100000 has
been given to the sugar producers
and 100000, 900 additional has been
levied on the other necessaries of life
While eighth -ninths of the old sugar
tax went directly into the Treasury,
the articles upon whicn the Mckinley
law had raised the rates yielded but
one fourth of the laws enactions to
the Treasury and three-fourths to
0,00O,OOO which free sugar restor-
| ed to the pockets of the people in the
neighborhood of 5000, 100000, were
removed.
He announced this as system OF
constituencies favoritism for the
few and merciless oppression of the
many" He paid his respects to re-
ciprocity and the power it conferred
upon the President of levying $5O,-
| 600, 900 of taxee without convening
Congress, practical abrogation, he
said. of the old doctrine of taxation
without representa- ton, for which the
fathers of the Revolution fought.
| Getting down at last to the bill fol
the removal of the duty on wool and
the compensatory duties on wooler
| goods, Mr.. McMillin asked where the
magnificent price the farmers anG
woolgrowers were to have realized
under the Mckinley law was.
He showed that the result had beer
the general decline in the valuation
of wool of from 2 to cent per ponnd
and that upon many of the classes O
wOOlen goods the consumers wer,
now oblighed to pay 100 per cent
taxes, 93 per cent. on yarn, 16O pc
cent. on worsted shawls and owe
LAT per cent. to 323 percent. on kni
Egoods. From the statistics of tn
last year he showed that $64, 900,
900 had been collected on woolel
goods on valuation of $21 ,OOO,O
in other words that $119 in take
had been levied on every 500 wort
of wooden goods. In conclusion b
called attention to the peoples vel
diet in the great popular uprising i
the elections of 1890. which had re
legated the leaders who conceive
J and framed the Mckinley law to tn
rear and had elected a Democrati
majority of such overwhelming Pre-
portions that, if every Democrat b,
low Mason and Dixon's line was tai
en- away the Democrats of the Mort
) would still be in a majority.
THE MINE DISASTER.
Two Hundred and Forty Bodies Reco
/