Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-05-02
BINDING IRVINE AND eAGelNo,
This Is Not Class Legislation, but Is II.
tended to Remedy 1t.

tended to Remedy 1t.
The bill to put cotton bagging on the
free list has passed the house, all the
Democrats excepting Coburn, of Wis
consin; O'Neill, of Missouri, and Eng
lish, of New Jersey, voting in the affirm
alive, and all the Republicans in the
ne gative.
Cotton bagging is in the same cate
cory with binding Irvine. 1t is manu-
featured by the cordage combine. The
raw material is free of duty. 1t is used
by southern farmers for covering their
bales of cotton as binding Irvine is used
by northern farmers for binding wheat
and other small grains. There is as
much reason why cotton bagging should
be free of duty as there is why binding
Irvine should be free Of duty.
But when the Mckinley billion con-
gress was dealing with this schedule it
reduced the duty on binding Irvine con-
sid erably more than one-half and did
not reduce the duty on cotton bagging
at all. 1t Disseminated against the
southern farmer and in favor of the
northern farmer. And now the Repub-.
licans of the house, accompanied, The
Herald is sorry to see, by three Demo-
Gratis, vote unanimously to continue the
discrimination.
The cordage combine did not cease to
manufacture binding Irvine after the
duty was reduced TO seven-tenths of a
cent per pound, or more than one-half.
That it manufactured more than ever
before is fair inference from two facts:
| First, that the grain crops last year
were the largest in the history of the
country, and, second, that the importa-
tion of binding Irvine during the last
fiscal year, covering all the importation
for the crop year, or nearly all, was only
S22 pounds, valued at thirty-three dol
lars.
The opponents of the free Irvine and
bag ging bills have objected to them on the
ground that they are bills for class legis-
iation. They tell Us there is no more rea-
son why congress should favor farmers
than there is why it should favor those
who use cables and other articles made
of the same and like materials, and that
it IS inconsistent for Democrats who pro-
fess to oppose class legislation to make
such bills party measures.
This objection implies that such legis.
lation would favor the farmers by Civ
ing them cheaper Irvine and bagging,
while other classes using products from
the same materials, the duties ON which
were not reduced or abolished. would
still have to pay high prices-that is,
it implies that tariff taxes increase the
prices of the articles on which they are
lai1, of the domestic as well as the i'm
lpOl'ted products.
According to the Republican doctrine
therefore, these bills would not give the
farmers cheaper Irvine and bagging,
Therefore, they are not class measures.
The Republican claim that really pro-
tective duties do not raise prices is false
as the benefciaries of the tariff are per
feCtly well aware. Their whole system
is system of class legislation 1t is 6
!, system under which industries that art
self sustaining are forced to contribute
to the support Of other industries that
claim to be and are assumed to be inca
paDle of self support. The protection
lists admit that this is the original pur
/
to comfort the victims with the assur
ance that while they must bleed for {
time they will ultimately, and in some
! way not clearly defined, recover theil
own with interest.
Now the farmer class is pre-eminently
the victim class. The farmers more
than any others are forced by tariff
Legislation to contribute from theil
profits to the profits of other classes
They have been contributing for thirty
years, and they do not yet find them
selves recovering their own. They are
still the victims, as they have been al
these thirty years.
What the Democrats propose in thest
two bills and in the bill putting cottor
ties on the free list is not to grant spe
j cial favors to farmers as a class, bu
T only to relieve them from small par
, of the burden which has been laid upo1
, them as class. They propose not tx
legislate for class, but to relieve
class in some measure from Legislation
I which for years has Disseminated
J against that class.
Against these Democratic measures O
relief from class legislation we find thu
, Republicans in the house arrayed in un
} broken ranks, and we will find the Re
/ publicans in the senate arrayed ON the
, same side in solid phalanx. And as tn,
/ fugitive thief shouts ''stop THEIR NOR,
: Justify than his pursuers, so will the Re
: publican attorneys for monopoly shou
''class legislation to bewilder and de
ceive the people.-Chicago Tribune.
Mckinley Tariff Drama in Five Acts
Act l-Scene, Congress, October, 1891