Omaha daily bee., 1893-11-30
WILSON BILLS WEAKNESS
New Tariff Measure Will Not Stand Repub.
liCan Analysis,
CAMPAIGN OF OPPOSITION ARRANGED
individual Features of the Instrument viii
BE Handled Separately In the APP
preaching Discussion-Evil Re-
suits Already Developed.
WASHINGTON BUREAU OF Tue BEE,
ol3 FOURTEENTH STREET, :

WASHINGTON, Nov. %.
The new democratic tariff bill ~excites
more criticism hourly. BY the end OF the
week, when u majority Of the democratic
members of the house will have returned to
Washington, the demand for a party caucus
to revise the crude measure reported
BY Chairman Wilson will have be-
come overwhelming, The chief exigency
which the Wilson bill itself creates, and
which seems destined to bring destruction
upon its own head is that while profcssedly
q revenue measure, IL really cuts into the
revenues of the treasury TO an amount esti-
mated at $4,000, 900, instead of providing
means to meet the threatened deficit at the
end OF the fiscal year under the present rev
enue laws of from 800, 900, 900 to $50, 900, 1000.
As stated in last nights BEE specials,
this fact of itself will force the house to
amend the Wilson bill so as to produce
greater revenue, for the reason that an in
come tax cannot well pass that body, and
most certainly cannot pass the senate.
I Result of Tariff Revision.
The announcement is made this morning
that as a beginning of disastrous results of
the revision of the tariff in the interest of
every country in the world except the United
States, the mills of the Roxbury (Mass.)
= Carpet company are to shut down indet-
nitely, thus throwing 900 employees out of
work. These mills are closed, it is stated,
because of the publication of the new tariff
Dill, and they will be kept closed until the
tariff question is settled. IL will thus be
seen that the disaster which overwhelmed
the carpet industry at Yonkers, n. y, last
summer in the mere anticipation of tariff re-
vision has reached New England. There are
lntimations that reductions of wages on the
entire closing of mills will follow in Phila-
delphia, one of the greatest carpet produc-
ing centerS in the country, OF all the
Moquette carpet made in the world 90 per
cent Is made in Yonkers. The mills nave
not been closed for nineteen years until the
threatened reduction of duty on carpets.
Wages have increased during that period
for weaving alone nearly 300 per cent. AT
the same time the price of carpets has de-
creased.
Where the Farmer is Hit.
The agricultural interests will, perhaps.
be the slowest TO understand how their well
fare is attacked, but when they are heard
from the farmers will be likely to speak in
no uncertain tones. The removal of duties
from agricultural products which are readily
brought across our northern border from
Canada will speedily prove Il thorn in the
side of farmers, not only of the northwest
but of every state which frlEges upon the
Canadian border.
Representative Payne of New York, a
member of the ways ana means committee,
caAe w In INN wa NAV
after careful examination of the Wilson bill
he had been utterly unable to discover a
single feature of protection i'll it. The cuts
made in the bill on manufactured articles
would, he said, have to come out of the price
of labor because the manufacturers had
already so little protection that labor was
the only place in which they could now
economic in order to meet foreign COM
petition. Mr.. Payne lamented especially
the injury to agricultural products and
thought Nebraska farmers with others must
suffer competition with Canada.
Another Unfair Feature.
Speaking of the proposed tax on corpora
lions, MIR. Payne called attention to the fact
that a corporation tax would reach more
poor people than would a direct ptax on IN
comes above 81 900. He explained that most
corporations are composed of small holders
of stock. Some individual might hold a
larger block, but n great bulk of the stock
would be distributed in small quantities
among a great many people. a corporation
tax would apply with especial severity TO
manufacturing concerns, a great portion of
which are now Incorporated and whose
stock is widely distributed, in many cases
being largely held by employees. These
concerns would suffer in W. ways: First.
from the lower duties and the necessity of
meeting foreign competition by the reduction
of cost of labor, and second, by the direct
tax upon their stock which is distributed
among the working people in small lots, al
though of course the larger blocks are held
by the chief partners in these corporations.
These criticisms of the bill do not come
from republican sources by any means.
what the Debate Promises.
The debate of the tariff bill in this con-
gress does not promise any better display OF
oratory than did the fight for the uncondi-
tional repeal of the purchasing clause of the
Sherman act. The democratic veterans of
many years service in the house state tina