The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-12-20

The report which the majority of the COM
mittee on ways and means makes to the
House with the Wilson bill would be able
and convincing If 1t were based upon facts
rather than falsehoods. To state, for in
stance. that the period that the Walker
tariff was in force was the most prosper
Gus one in the history Of the country. when
it is well known that the iron and the
wooden Industries were practically ruined,
is absurd. Coincident with the putting of
the Walker tariff in force gold was dis
covered in California, which gave an i'm
petus to many industries and gave the coun-
try hundreds of millions of gold. In 1856.
before the inauguration of Buchanan. the
revenue tariff was further modified, and In
the autumn of 1857 the collapse came in
which thousands of State banks failed, all
stopped. Practically all of the gold which
California had furnished had been exported
to pay for foreign-made goods, and the
country was In a state of collapse. In his
first annual message President Buchanan.
in as vivid language as appears in any sim
liar paper. set forth the PROSTATE condition
Of the industries of the country. In his
next message he called attention to the
same thing and recommended a protective
tariff. Thus is the Wilson committee refuted
by Democratic testimony.
Thera ic No battor avideDoa of tho foIlv
of the Wilson portion of the committee
than it's insistance upon ad valorem duties.
In the face of the experience of the coun-
try. the universal testimony of revenue of
icers and of prominent business men to
the effect that the ad valorem system Is
vicious and encourages fraud, these eleven
wise men of the ways and means commit
tee, who are neither revenue officers nor
business men. declare for them. Never was
there such an exhibition of self-suficiency
on the part of that number of inexperi-
enced men.
No part of the committees report is more
consistent with the conduct of the major
ity of ii than the criticism upon Senator
Hoar because he expressed a desire to
have the tariff of 1890 made satisfactory to
the men representing the leading Industries
Of Massachusetts. In the judgment of Will
son, Bynum ct al. the Representative should
not seek to represent the interests of his
constituents. but should become the blind
victim of heresies which will close facto-
ries and turn thousands of people to beg
gary. If the gentlemen who have made this
report would but consult the wishes of
their constituents or those of a majority
Of the members of the House, factories
would not be closing and hundreds of thou
sands of men who were earning a compe-
tency a year ago would not now be idle
and hungry.
One point in the Wilson report should
not be lost sight of, and that is the ~reitera-
ton of the declaration of the Chicago plat
form to the effect that a duty laid on i'm
ports for any other purpose than revenue
is unconstitutional, and that 1t Is the pur-
pose of the Democratic party to gradually
bring the country to a strictly revenue
basis. The Wilson bill, the majority de-
clares, is only one stage in the journey to
a system which has ruined every people
that has tried it except Great Britain.