The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-12-29
MINORITY. REPORT.
Views Of Republican Members on
the Wilson Bill.
Minority of the Ways aud Means Com
mittee Dissent from Proposed
Tariff Changes-The Facts
Plainly Stated.

the minority members of the ways and
means committee on the tariff bill was
submitted to the house yesterday. The
first part of the report, discussing the
bill generally, was prepared by ex-
the minority, Messrs- Burrows, Payne,
Dalzell, Hopkins and Greer, prepared
the portion of the report dealing with
special features The report says:
The most surprising thing about this bill
whic we will treat OF in detail somewhat
later. is the fact that this proposition to raise
revenue will lower the revenue OF this country
s74,00O 900 below the revenue OF 1891, which was
only q, 100000 above our expenses. This and
the 9th fact at by this bill the larger part
Of the burden of taxation is transferred from
foreigners and brought to our own
citizens should always be kept in mind
during the discussion II the commit
tee in making what the chairman on the
floor Of the house called q political bill, fol-
lowed the plain, uncompromising declaration
Of the party which they represent and abol-
ished protection. giving US q tariff for revenue
only, our task in commenting upon the result
OF the committees efforts would have been
more simple. The bill would then have been
q Straightforward, manly attempt to carry out
pledges, and would have placed in issue two
great principles and have led to a clear and
comprehensive discussion
So far however, have the committee departed
from the demands OF the national convention
that we should have been much tempted to bor-
row phrase from their own platform and des-
ignate the bill as a ''cowardly make shift'
were IL not that the results have been already
TOO serious for mere epithets.
Such phrase, even thus sanctioned, would
be out OF place in discussion which involves
so much Importance to all classes Of citizens
1t still however remains a fact that the bill
presented can in no way be justified by people
claiming to have obtained possession OF all
branches of the government upon distinct
promise which they now distinctly repudiate
II IL should be said these pledges, -olemnly
made on a yea and nay VOTE after full discus
sion. were not intended for action, then the
breaking Of the pledges has the additional dis
advantage Of generalization. II subsequent
events, and they had been numerous enough
and weighty enough to startle the whole coun-
try have convinced the committee that thsdemo
cratic platform is as utterly wrong and inde-
feusible history will knoS 1t to be, then IT is
a great misfortune to this country that the
committee did not have the courage to openly
abandon the false doctrine and leave the coun-
try undisturbed so it might convalesce from
the shock of its great mistake. But
he committee, instead Of proceeding in
its great work Of abolishing protection and pre-
serving the people from the load Of taxation
which they have always averred was the result
OF protection. has presented bill which Is only
another tariff tinkering bill, the like of which
has disturbed the conditions OF business
many times the last thirty years
1t Is a great misfortun that such Is the case,
for had the bill been for revenue only, in the
only sense possible for the term the people OF
the country might have seen at one glance
whether they desired the one policy or the
other, and the question might have been settled
for all ha unip have at-
tained to that repose. stability and certainty
which our business prosperity SO much needs.
This other and fresher plan has all the faults
which the trainers Of this bill charged upon the
old and very few Of its virtues 1t is open to
all the derisive and harsh epithets which the
present system used to be overwhelmed 1t
taxes the people with tariff tax, 1t creates, or
rather proposes to maintain, what they used to
call privileged classes and is deft nded by its
thors with arguments and expressions strange
ly like those which they used so freely to de-
nounce A manufacturer Is told the duty will
protect him, and his claims are listened to on
that basis and are argued for him on that basis
Just as in the brave days Of old
The democratic district attorney OF the
northern district of New York comes down. as
he had right to, and declares that from a pro
lection standpoint, barley and malt cannot go
together under the same ad valorem, and
promptly the committee raises the tariff taxes
facturer, although ii must lessen the revenue.
So with the cause Of boards, plsned tongued
and grooved, and although the lumber passes
in the same plant from the saws to the planners,
the work OF the men who manage tie saws is
unprotected. while the work OF the men at the
planes is shielded by tariff These are but in
stances Of corrections made, where the ear OF
the mmittee could be had, and are keys TO
the notions on which the bill was formed
The new plan also involves a new method of
encouraging manufacturers BY giving them
what are called free raw materials, so that
what goes into the mill pays no taxes and what
goes into consumption pays all the taxes The
manufacturers have no taxes on what they buy
and the pc ,pe the equivalent Of taxes on all
they purchase 1t unfortunately happens also
that "free raw material is an elastic term and
what is one mans free raw material is another
mans finished product
All the objections so often urged by the dem
ocrats against the existing system lie against
this bill II the present ID; stem be robbery"
as these men have reiterated and reiterated,
the proposed system Is precisely the same. 1t
is true the consumer will no longer pay tribute
to the western farmer for the wool but New
England and other manufacturers are still au
thoriZed to Law tribute on the people OF the
United States who must pay. so these men have
always said 30, 40 and II per cent to the manu-
facturer every yard of woolens and
worsteds, while the country will only receive.
bv way Of revenue. lessened sum unless in
creased importations sigualiZe the death Of
American production.
Whatever can be said OF the people Of the
United States. nothing can be more truly said
than that the distribution Of the proceeds OF
united labor and capital has been among them
more even and fair than any where else on
earth There have been great a cumulations
Of capital necessary for the worlds develop
ment all over the universe, but in the United
shf fo hoS tod ht-f
est approach to general distribution that the
world has ever seen This has not been
all owing to the tariff but the tarin
has been the foundation OF it Labor organi
cations have played a great and useful
part in this distribution. Men in general
who employ labor are no more naturally dis
posed to pay high wages under tarin than
those who exploit the laboring man under free
trade, but the tariff, by giving steady employ
ment under the influence OF a sure market by
establishing the organization OF industry under
the factory system, has gi en- to organized
labor the material to work pom the fund Of
which 1t has demanded distributions fund
great that it could never have been equaled, or
even approach in the comparatively isolated
life which the unprotected industries, taken
alone would have given us as people.
Protection has established the clusters Of
great manufacturing and working centers
which have tiven railroads the possibility Of
existence, which no scattered population could
ever have created The railroads which these
great manufacturing towns and their need OF
trans ortalion Of freight have built are sources
Of enjoyable wealth which are not confined to
the protected industries, but are spread
through all the business of the United States
and insure the comfort and happiness Of ali
the people
II in the United States there are higher
wages and higher cost of capital there must be
such barriers against goods from abroad as
will equalize these higher costs or the products
of the United States can not be sold except at
a loss. Sales at loss can not last long. There
is also a constant demand for lower prices
which demand has TO be listened TO in a coun-
try always striving toward a higher plane OF
civilization. We have, therefore before US al