Daily Texarkana Democrat., 1893-12-11
CHAIRMAN WILSON'S VIEWS
What the Author of the Great Tariff
Reform Measure Has to Say
on the Subject.

HN") "HSu 'hO pOOpiC VI tue
whole country are so intensely inter
eSted in the great subject of tariff re.
form, from the manufacturer in the
east to the producer in the south, ev-
erything that in any manner relates
to the measure, now pending before
congress, which is expected to bring
about this reform, is of great and al
most universal, interest to the reading
public. We therefore take pleasure
in reproducing for the benefit of our
readers a most important letter on
this subject, written by Hon. w. L.
Wilson, chairman of the Ways and
Means committee, and author of the
measure which bears his name, to the
St. Louis Republic. The letter in
question is dated at Washington d. g.,
addressed to the editor of the Repub-
lie and reads as follows:
Dear Sir-You are right in sup
posing that have no friends in any
part of the Union whose favorable re-
ceptiOn of the new tariff bill would be
more gratifying to me than those
whom | used to address through the
!
tariff columns of The Republic.
| have all abiding confidence that,
on full examination, they will accept
our work as a faithful attempt to put
into actual legislation, as far as pres
ent conditions would pnrmit, the gen
eral principles of tariff reform which
| sought to inculate through your
columns.
1t must be remembered, in the first
place, that tariff discussions necessari-
ly and properly deal with general
principles, and are THEREFORE somewhat
radical and that tariff legislation nee
essarily has to do with great property
interest and must be wisely conserva-
tive. 1t is no news to Your readers
that | entirely reject the dreary doc
trine of protection, which for more
than 80 years has held the farmers
and laboring people of this country,
in servitude to a system of class taxa
ton, and that hope to see the time
when all trace ofso-called "protectiou'
shall be purged from our tariff system
and that every tax should be levied
solely with the reference to the
amount OF revenue it brings to the
Government.
believe that the new bill, in the
main, goes as far in this direction as
it is discreet for us at present to go
and am confirmed in this belief by
the criticism Of men who occupy eX-
treme position on both side. TO Gov
ernor Mckinley and to Republicans
general it seems very radical bill, far
surprising anything attempted by the
Democrats in modern legislation, To
the free trader and the theoretical
tariff reformer it seems to deal too
tenderly with some of the interests
that have grown up under tariff taxa
tion.
TO the latter, to whose opinions
alone would pay Difference, must
say that great reform may be set
back and indefinitely postponed by ex-
treme action as well as by failure to
act and that Mr.. Burke expressed the
wise rule of practical craftsmanship
when he said that temperate reform
is always the best, having in itself the
principle of growth.
If we can put the new bill at an ear
ly date upon the statute book, aud Sc
cure for the country a fair trial of its
benefits, there need be no fear for the
growth of revenue reform and Of the
complete and permanent overthrow of
protection in this country.
AS to the charge of sectionalism
against the bill, the best answer can
make is that it comes with equal We
hemence from both sides. Ropubli-
can members Of Congress, some of
them even before they read the bill,
declaimed against It as raid upon
! Northern industries in the interest of
the South, while our Southern friends
are complaining that most Of the raw
materials put upon The free list are
Southern products and that they have
been sacrificed to the interests of New
England,
! A candid examination Of the bill
will show that both are radically
wrong, and that in the general, as in
the detail, sectional aud loca! consider
atious have weighed nothing against
the great fundamental principles OF
tax reform.
| go -------
Additional Church Statistics.