Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-30
The Discussion of the Free Wool Bill
Resumed in the House.
HARTER'S ATTACK ON PROTECTION
Psrried BY Western Man Who Asks Him a
Pertinent Question.
AN EARLY ADJOURNMENT ANTICIPATED

yer controversy uurlHS tiic past WIN. liz
deed, it is considered doubtful by the lead
ing members of the House whether it will
be possible to revive public interest in
tariff debates again this season, and the
leaders are in favor of closing general de-
bate on the tariff bills within a week and
sending one or more of these measures to
the Senate without delay.
As there is a concurrence Of opinion
among the Speaker, the Committee on
Rules and the Democrats of the Ways and
Means Committee that the House should
adjourn about the 1st of June, or as soon
thereafter as possible, it is deemed by them
but a wise precaution to send one or more
tariff bills to the Senate without delay, in
order that the Republicans of that body
may not be able to assert on the stump this
fall that inadequate time was afforded the
Senate to consider the tariff bills before the
summer adjournment.
The attendance both on the floor and in
the galleries to-day was small, and the sill
yer and anti-silver leaders relaxed their
.actiyitv. Mr. Bland and his lieutenant,
Mr.. Pierce, were absent, and the only lead
ers of the antis who were present when the
Speaker called the House to order were Mr.
Tracey, of New York, and Mr. Harter, OF
Ohio, whose faces wore an expression of
perfect content
Mr.. Mills No Longer in the House.
The Speaker laid before the House COM
munication from Roger @. Mills, stating
that he had sent to the Governor of Texas
his resignation as Representative from the
Ninth district of Texas, to take effect to-
day. The communication was spread upon
the journal.
On motion of Mr. Hull, of Iowa, Senate
bill was passed, with slight amendment to
establish port of delivery at Des Moines,
Ia. The House then went into committee
OF the whole, Mr.. Blount, of George, in the
chair, on the free wool bill.
Mr. Harter, of Ohio, in speaking in favor
of the bill, said the only Legitimate method
of raising revenue was by taxation, and
when legislators entered upon the question
of taxation they entered upon ethical as
well as economical ground. The only justi-
fcation for taxation was the necessities of
the Government. The Government that
took from the citizen any portion of his
earnings that was not absolutely de-
manded by its expenditures COM
mitted wrong-doing For his part he
believed that direct taxation for the support
of the Government was the more equitable,
the more Just and the less burdensome form
of taxation. Indirect taxation was wrong.
A Hit Right From the Shoulder.
Mr.. Funston, of Kansas, inquired whether
the gentleman was not manufacturer of
machinery protected by patent right.
Mr. Harter replied in the affirmative.
Mr. Funston inquired why the gentleman
was not in favor of taking off that protec-
tion.
Mr.. Harter said he understood the gen.
tleman to intimate that there was a SINH
larity existing between the protection men
got under the patent laws and the protec-
tion thev got under the Mckinley bill.
Was that the gentleman's position?
Mr.. Funston suggested that both were
protection.
Mr. Harter replied that the difference be-
tween patent protection and protection
under the tariff was this: The man who Sc
cured protection under a patent must do
one thing, and that was condition prece-
dent He must, out of his own head or BY
purchase, secure a useful creation that was
a blessing to all about him. But protection
under the tariff came to a man absolutely
without any benefit to the nation coming
from him.
Mr. Harter then proceeded to criticise the
Mckinley act. Addressing himself to the
wool question, Mr.. Harter strongly at
tackled the wool schedule of the Mckinley
act, summing up its effect in a paraphrase of
the nursery rhyme:
Ba, ba, black sheep, have you any wool9
Yes, kind sir, I've three bags full;
One for protection, two for the same,
But none for the farmer who cries in the
lane.
Laughter
McCreary Makes a Sweeping Attack.
Mr. McCreary, of Kentucky, made gen.
eral attack upon the protective system all
along the line. Under it combinations and
trusts sprang up, and the members of those
trusts became millionaires, while the labor
Of the country had to struggle harder for
existence and the necessities of life. The
people were asking why it was that the
iron and steel used in this country for the
construction of railways, farming imple-
ments. etc., cost in the past few years $780,
000, 900 more than the same amount cost in
England, where there was no protective
tariff They were asking why it was
that the wage-worker in England
was paid one-third more for his
labor than was paid to the wage-earner in
the protected industries of Europe; that the
wage-earner in England was paid double as
much as he had been paid before Great
Britain abolished the protective tariff; why
it was that in this country, in the last ten
years, the increase of wealth in agricultural
States was only one-ffth of the Increase of
wealth in the manufacturing States. He
personally would have preferred to attack
the Mckinley act as whole, but he had de-
ferred his judgment to the judgment of his
party, which had decided to bring in eepa-
rate bills. He thanked the Committee on
Ways and Means for having brought in the
pending bill, which would save nearly $780,
200, 600 to the taxpayers.
Fun Poked at the Mills Bill.
Mr.. Dolliver, of Iowa, in opposing the
measure, criticised the Mills bill, which he
said merely reduced the tariff from AZ per
cent to AZ per cent. The bill proposed to
make a compromise with cannibals to COM
pound felony, to associate with robbers, to
accept the apology of pickpockets, and to
accept slavery-for what? For the reduc-
tion of per cent. Laughter. The fact
that this House, almost unanimously Demo-
cratic, sent here Gt was claimed) as a pro-
test against the Mckinley act, with its
prominent candidate for the Presidency
asking for Its repeal, mad not dared to touch
it, except in acts of child's play. was evil
dence that the argument of free trade was
demagogic proclamation, secretly discovered
by people who were pasting it up on the
barn doors of Iowa and Nebraska.
The pending measure would make no inn
preston. His friend from Nebraska (Mr.
Bryan) said that a general tariff bill would
not pass the Senate or receive the sigma
lures OF the President Neither would these
bills. Two years ago the Republican party,
under tempest of false pretenses, had gone
down, carrying the Mckinley act on its
back. This year the Mckinley act car
ried the Republican party, and the gentle