St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-03-16
TALK OF TARIFF TAX.
Though the House Wearies,
McKinley's Monstrosity
Will Be Riddled.
Members From All Sections
Take a Hand in the Dis
euSSion.
Lord Salisbury May Be Re-
quested to Hurry His
Answer.
Commissioner Raum Cues
toned Sharply as to His
Methods.


discussion is beginning to tire the house.
and there was lack of interest in the
proceedings today until Mr.. Walker, OF
Massachusetts,, who has very strong
personality and expresses his views in
a radical fashion, took the floor. A
number of Democrats stirred him up
with a continuous cross fire of ques
tons. During his speech he alluded to
the decline in the price of watches, and
drew out his own timepiece for the pur-
pose of making an Illustration, and laid
it OH his desk until the time should ar
rive for him to make his point, but
some fun-loying member appropriated
it, aud, when Mr.. Walker desired to re-
fer to it, it was missing, and he was
greeted with the suggestion that he was
fortunate enough to retain his chain.
Mr.. Sayers, of Texas. presented the
conference report on the urgent de-
ficiency bill, and it was agreed to. AS
finally passed the bill appropriates
$479,641, being Apps more than wa
carried by the bill as it passed the house,
and S23.244 less than it carried as it
passed the senate.
The house then went into committee
of the whole (Mr. Blount, of Georgia, in
the chair OH the free wool bill, and Mr..
Coombs, of New York, concluded his
speech in favor of the bill. The time
had passed, he said, when there was
need for
Extravagant Tariffs.
He favored a tariff policy by which
the financial condition of this govern
ment could be so arranged that we
would not be forever collecting more
than we spent-coliecting for one pur-
pose and expanding for another. 1t was
Tor the interest of all departments of
manufacture and business that the tar
if question should be taken out of poll
tics. They would be relieved of the
strain consequent on the uncertainty
involved in political contests with a re-
ductlOn or abolition of the tariff on raw
materials.
No matter how this congress cut down
expenditures it would not relieve the
taxpayers Of their burden so long as
the present high taxation remained. In
response to questions pat by Mr.. Ding
ley, Mr.. CoOmbs said that the cotton
manufacturers of this country had so
much to do to meet our ever increasing
trade that they had not paid proper at
tention to the foreign demand. Mr..
Blaine, while member of President
Garfield's cabinet, said that the cost of
labor in cotton goods was as cheap In
the United States as in England. The
reason why we could not expect more
prints was because we could not supply
them to the consumers when they
wanted them.
Mr.. Walker (Mass.) said that the
manufacturers of this country had not
the slightest interest, directly, in a
tariff. They were satisfied with free
trade or protection. IL the tariff was
not in the interest of farmers and wage
workers then he would vote to repeal it
and adopt free trade Mr. Dockery
(Mo.) asked whether the gentleman
meant to say that manufacturers would
be as
Prosperous Under Free Trade
as under protection, and Mr.. Walker
replied in the affirmative.
Mr.. DOckery-Then under the theory
of protection the manufacturers merely
become discussing agents. Mr.. Walker
That is mere fiction. Mr.. DOckery-
1t seems to be the logic of your position.
Mr.. Walker replied that the manufact-
ureas of the country what was left of
them) would De more prosperous under
free trade than under protection. But
congress was not legislating for the
manufacturers. 1t was legislating for
the farmers and the wageWOrkers. The
United States was the lowest taxed
country on the face of the earth.
Mr.. Harter, of Ohio, asserted that in
Canada the taxation was 25 per cent less
than it was in the United States. Mr..
Walker replied that Canada was coun-
try which had failed to collect its taxes
for its expenditures and was burdened
with debts. We bad collected our taxes
and paid our debts. Mr.. Walker was
proceeding to cite authorities in sup
port of his position, when he was ad-
vised by Mr.. Harter to consult Mr..
Blaine.
Mr.. Walker-Y You may consult Mr..
Blaine as much as you like; [ choose
the man 1wish to consult. Laughter. I
On business questions l consult bust
ness men, not politicians. Mr.. Walker
entered into a general defense OF the
Mckinley bill, declaring that under it
i'll one year our foreign trade had in
creased S406,000,000, or 81 per cent in
crease. Mr.. Scott, of Illinois, attacked
the Mckinley law. He held up it's
Injustice and Inequalities
as bearing on the consumer, and laid
special stress on the unconstitutionality
of the sugar bounty provision. Mr..
Chapman, of Michigan, criticised the
recent speech of ex-Speaker Reed, and
said that Notwithstanding the decision
of the supreme court he was still of the
opinion that the counting of a Quorum
under the rules of the Fifty-first con-
gress was unconstitutional. Turning
his attention to the tariff, he denounced
the system of protection as being pa.
ternal system which built up the few at
the expense of the many.
Mr.. Dockery, of Missouri, followed.
He said the Mckinley bill only in
creased the burdens of the farmer, and
the Blaine reciprocity scheme would
prove fallacious. 1t proposed that the
natural laws of trade should be disre-
garded and that commerce should be
regulated by correspondence between
state departments. The committee then
rose and the house adjourned.
At conference Of the Democratic
members of the ways and means COM
mittee today it was decided not to press
a vote on the wool bill in advance of the
taking up of the silver special order, but
to resume consideration of the bill after
the special order relative to the Bland
bill is disposed of.