The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-12-20
WILSON'S TARIFF REPORT.
The Much Talked Of Document Laid
Before the House.


Which Taxation Can Be Levied-The
General Scope of the Bill Prepared
by the Majority of the Committee
Explained.
Washington, Dec. 19.-The majority re-
port on the tariff bill, presented in the
House to-day, was written by Chairman
Wilson. Following are extracts from it:
The American people, after the fullest and
most thorough DEBATE ever given by any peo-
pie to their fiscal policy, have deliberately
and rightly decided that the existing tariff is
wrong in principle and grievously unjust in
operation. They have decided as free men
must always decide, that the power of taxation
has no lawful or constitutional exercise ex-
oept for providing revenue for the
support of the government. Every departure
from this principle is a departure from the
fundamental principles of popular institu-
tons. and inevitably works out a gross inc
quality in the citizenship of country For
more than thirty years we have levied the
largest part Of our federal taxes in violation
Of this vital truth, until we have reached in
the existing tariff an extreme and voluminous
system OF class taxation to which history may
be challenged'to furnish any parallel. So many
private enterprises have been taken into part
nership with the government; so many pri-
vate interests now share in the prerogative
Of taxing 70, 600, 900 of people that any attempt
10 dissolve this illegal union is necessarily
encountered by an opposition that rallies be-
hind 1t the intolerance OF monopoly,
the power of concentrated wealth,
the inertia of fixed habits and the honest
errors of a generation of false teachings.
PERFECTION NOT CLAIMED.
The bill on which the committee has ex-
pended much patient and anxious labor, is
not offered as a complete response to the
mandate Of the American people. 1t no more
processes to be purged of all protection than
TO be free of ali error in its complex and man
fold details. However we may deny the ex-
tence of any legislative pledge or of the right
Of any congress to make such pledge,
for the continuance of duties that
carry with them more or less acknowledged
protection. we must recognize that great
interests do exist whose existence and pros
perty it is no part of our reform either to i'm
peril or to curtail. We believe, and we have the
warrant Of our own past experience for be-
lieving that reduction Of duties will not in
Iure but will give more abundant life to all
our great manufacturing industries, however
much they may dread the change. In dealing
with the tariff question, as with every other
l0ng-standing abuse that has interviewer it
self with our social or industrial system. the
legislator must always remember that in the
beginning temperate reform is safest, hay
ing in itself the principle OF growth
PROTECTION FALLAcY.
glance at the tariff legislation of our coun-
try ought to satisfy every intelligent student
that protection has always shown its falsity
as a system of economy by its absolute failure
TO insure healthy and stable prosperity to
manufactures. 1t teaches men to depend on
artificial help, on laws taxing their country
men for prosperity in business, rather than
upon their own skin and effort. IL throws
business out OF its natural channels into
artificial channels, where there must always
he fluctuation and uncertainty, and
1t makes tariff system the
tooS ball of party politics. and the stability of
large business interests the stake OF every
popular election. None have ever reecg
ni7ed this truth more fully than the wise men
who from time to time have engaged in the
So.called protected industries
Such political economists as Edward
Everett and Amasa Walker are quoted to
sustain this proposition, and a history of
tariff legislation fostering the growth of
the protective idea is given to 1872. The
report then says:
Although the demand for tariff reform and
for reduction Of taxes has ever since been d
burning and growing one IN the country. the
protected Industries have eXacted and re-
Ceived from every republican congress
elected since 1874 an increase of their proteo-
tton, occasionally permitting the repeal or
leSsening of tax that was paid into
the treasury in order to keep away
from or to increase duties levied for their
benefit. Protection left to its natural mo-
mentum never stops short of prohibition and
prohibitory walls are always needing to be
built higher, or to be patched and
strengthened. A protective tariff never has
and never can give stability and satisfaction
10 its own beneticiaries. Even if its victims
are too weak or too scattered to agitate for
agitate for an increase.
We have already said that public discus
SION may disclose errors OF minor detail in
the schedules of our bill. To escape such err
rorS would require so thorough and minute
knowledge of all the divisions, subdivisions,
complex and manifold maZes and involutions
oil our chemical, textile, metal ana other in
dustries, that no committee of congress, no
matter how extended the range Of their per-
sonal knowledge, or how laborious and pains
taking their efforts, could ever hope to pos
sess it,
We have not forgotten that we represented
the people, who are the many, as we'll as the
protected interests, who are the few and
While we have dealt with the latter in no
spirit OF unfrlendllness we have felt that 1t
was our duty and not their privilege to make
the tariff schedules. Those who concede the
right Of benehciaries to FIX their
i own oov, boqnties must must Inecesssari-
ing and wording of the laws by which
those bounties are secured to them. A COM
mlttee Of congress thus becomes merely the
Smanuensis of the protected interests. 1t has
oeen shown so clearly and so often in the de-
OateS OF this House. that nearly every i'm
portant schedule Of the existing law was
made in its very words and figures by repre-
sentatives of the interests it was framed to
protect, that it is unnecessarily our report to
present the record proof of this fact, but 1t
may not be amiss 10 cite further evidence to
snow that this is not only the necessary rule,
put the open and avowed method Of framing
protective tariffs.
SCORES OF EXAMPLES PRESENTED.
Some examples of this kind are then
presented by the committee, which then
goes on to say:
We have believed that the first step
toward a reform of the tariff should be q re-
lease OF taxes on the materials Of industry.
mere can be no substantial and beneficial
reduction upon the necessary clothing and
other comforts OF the American people, nor
any substantial and beneficial enlargement of
me field of American labor, as long
as we tax materials and processes Of
production. Every tax upon the producer
ialIs with increased force on the consumer.
EVERY tax on the producer in this country is a
protection to his competitors in all other
countries and so narrows his market as to
unit the number and lessen the wages Of
nose to whom he can give employing 1t.
livery cheapening in the cost or enlargement
Ol the supply OF his raw materials,
whlle primarily inuring to the benefit Of the
manufacturer himself, passes under free com
teuuon Immediately and passes entirely to
tne consumer. who very soon gets even more
ueheut out Of IL than such reductions seem to
larry, because with the rapid widening Of his
Hl9rket the manufacturer is able to
SSeI at smaller profit II Is, there
i9re, very narrow and short sighted
,,leW which supposes that we release the du-
iThes on iron ore and coal and wool and other
NE articles, for the benefit Of those who man
SSiacture our iron. steel, wooden, and other
taoFlcs, We are legislating for the great mil
IONS OF consumers beyond them and for the
evoces OF thousands Of laborers to whom they
10y mus give steady and well paid employ.
n Haa. fZNa at ffnT