Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1892-08-26
SIX TARIFF BILLS.
Democratic Fouse Does It's Best
to Ann nd the Mckinley
Monstrccity,
But is Baked in It's Efforts by
a Hostile Sen
ate.
Fair Review Of The Work OF Con
gress Economy Practiced
Whereer Posaivbie

The work IF the recent session Of con
gress has been ably summarized by Hon
William L. Wilson, Of West Virginia, a.
follows:
The fundamental creed of the Demo
cratic party Is that we are TO work out oul
prosperity more by Individual effort than
by law8 of congress 1t IS not believer in
high government or in plentiful legislation.
It seeks to confne federal legislation In
the field prescribed for it by the constitu-
ton, and it seeks to confne all legislation
In limits where it cannot invade the ind
vidual freedom Of the citizen. To Judge q
Democratic house, therefore, we must coa.
slider not the quantity but the quality of
the work it has DONE
With an adgcrsn senate and an unfriendly
executive, it would have been mere lrava.
do for the Democratic house to enter upon
any thorough course 0 reformatoTy legis-
htion. II sought to relieve tho burdens OF
the taxpayer and to stimulate American
Industry and commerce by repcaIing the
most oppressive taxes e. the Mckinley bill.
Having decided through it's committee to
attack that BIZ in Gc.ail rather than by
general revision, it passed in turn six
tariff bills as follows: Putting wool on the
free list and reducing the duties on wooden
goods; putting binding Irvine. cotton ties
and cotton bageing, Us also machinery for
making cotton bagQing, on the free list;
repealing duties on silver-lead ore and tin
plate, and limiting the amount of wearing
apparel THAI can Ice brought into the coun
try free Of duty. These SIX bills make up
l substantial measure Of relief, and they
81 4 IN lnr,f[34y ,,Ft I.
the working people Of the country. They
would have been followed by other bills
had not the senate shown it's determination
10 ignore al OF them. They led to de-
bate, especially the wooden and tin plate
bills, that evoked o large number Of very
good tariff reform speeches. excellent con
srihutions T. the campaign Of e<lucation
Any attempi TO throw ritlicnle on them as
not being .tbstantiai fulfllment of Dem
ocratic prom ises to the people is met by an
assertion Of = prominent Republican mem
Der Of the ways and means coramitte that
they amount to q virtual repeal of the
Mckinley bill.
In the amount OF it's expenditures this
house hes not been able to reduce as much
az it expected the appropriations of the
Fifty first congress, because it could not
70 enormously to Our annual budget. To
be frank, the dependent pension bill of Mr.
Reeds congress added many millions to
our yearly appropriations, and as all men
know, pension Legislation never goes back
ward So with The subsidy and bounty
bills Of that congress, which this house
was poWcrleSs TO repeal
But while it has met honestly the re-
m Of -
been in the rnaiu careful of it's own ex-
pcnditurcs. 1t has passed no new public
building bills II has passed fewer private
bills carrying appropriations than any
recent congress, and its private pension
bills have been more carefully scrutiniZed
TO separate the good from the bad
On tine silver question the house declined
10 pass the Hfa"d bill and refused 10 take
up The Stewart bill Even those who be-
ifeved Las here WAS in these bills some
potcnt"i hen lit to the people must admit
chat the Democratic party could not have
its If 10 free coinage at the
ratio proposed in those bills without
throwing aNaT every prospect of success
In the presidential campaign aud becoming
for the titae being almost southern and
sectional party. Il was the highest politi-
cal sa~&city, whatever might have been the
merits Of TIE proposed legislation, to avoid
a step certain to disrupt the party, and
with that disruption firmly and perma-
nently 10 seat in power the protected plu-
tocracy, with full opportunity to plumber
the people with new tariff bills and to sub
jugate them with force bills. The present
house does not suffer in any point in COM
parison with the last. 1t has had code of
F1I1nG 1t1a ~ p,1,r 4 e
that did not become autocratic or partisan.
and the rights of it's small minority Of Re
publican and third party members have
been uniformly respected
1t has been notably free from acrimoni-
Gus debates. and its records nowhere show
the paSsiona,e aud indignant protests of
wronged minority which married the pro-
ceediugs of e last house.
| have never known 4 house in which
there has been less buncombe partisan de-
batting OF ouc ia which there was less
effort 70 Manufacture campaign material
on the eve OF 4 national election.
If the hot { has been thwarted by the
senate III its general work and in its efforts
to lessen liz. burdens Of the people. it has
given proof Of its desire to do both, and
has been a. says tender in adding new
charges upo the treasury
1t did not Increase taxes. It passed no
subsidy bill. II voice no bounties. 1t
passed no bills to overthrow elections in
the states. vacated 10 Republican seats
for Democratic contestants, except in one
case, and tlst upon q practically unani-
nous committee report II did not rob the
OF their rights or seyilely sur
render its own rights Into the hands of is
1nc-