St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-11-28
RAID ON The ROBBERS
Thirty-Year Rule Of Tariff
Barons Ended.
WILSON'S NEW REFORM BILL
The Provisions Explained by
the Committees Chairman.
TAXES PAID BY THE PEOPLE
Which Have Gone Into Private
Golfers, Greatly Reduced.

OOuCrS, OrCdIly hGu uC6Qs
BRIEF RESUME OF THE BILL.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 81. = Chairman
Wilson has issued the following state
ment in regard to the bill:
The Democratic members of the COM
mittee on ways and means have felt as
none others could feel the momentous
responsibility resting upon them and the
manifest difficulty and delicacy of the
duty assigned them of framing a tariff
bill for nation of 100000 of people.
The bill they were called on to reform
is vast and labyrinthine system of
class legislation. the elimination of
thirty years control of the taxing power
by few great interests, gathering into
their train host of petty toll-gathering.
1t was carefully framed to prevent, as
long as possible, what its author called
''any monkeying with the tariff" by
which he meant any successful effort of
the people to undo or to lessen tile
bounIies which the benefcIaries were
permitted to write therein. in their own
words. and their own figures. 1t trans
ferred to the free list proper and
fruitful articles where most of the taxes
paid by the people were received by
the government, and greatly increased
the rates of those articles where all or
most of the taxes paid by the people
wenl into their private Golfers. And 1t
was bolstered about by many defenses,
chief among which are swept and
garnished treasury and a swollen and
colossal scale of permanent expendi-
lures. Such are the conditions that
confronted us at the
THRESHOLD OF OUR WORK.
The committee have welcomed In,
formation and counsel from every trust
worthy source, and while they do not
expect their bill TO escape just criticism
in all of its details, they do present it to
the country as the result of months of
patieEt, anxious toll, and of an honest
desire to discharge their duty. pnrged of
all talut of local and personal favOritism
or prejudice.
Its main features are two:
First-The adoption wherever 1t
seemed practicable of ad yalorem. in
stead of specific duties. a..
Secondly-The freeing from taxes of
those great materials of industry that
lie at the basis of production.
Specific rates of duty are objection
able tor these reasons: They frequently
conceal rate of taxation too enormous
to be submitted to if exposed in ad
vaIorem terms,as the duty of eight ce =
a hundred pounds on salt in bulk,
which amounts to over 80 per cent OH
common necessary of life. They always
bore heavily On the common article
used by the masses, and lightly on the
expensive article consumed by the rich,
as tax of $50 on all houses would be
little or nothing on the great mansion,
and very high on the humble home.
And contrary to common belief, specific
duties lead to greater frauds in ad-
miniStration, for counting and weigh
ing at the custom house are done by
the cheapest and most easily corrupted
labor, while ad valorem rates are as
sessed by the best paid and most respon-
sible appraisers.
we'll in practice. is essentially the best
because it is tax upon the actual value
of an article, and was declared by Mr..
Clay himself to be in theory and accord
ing to every sound principle of justice
entitled to the preference and vim
dicated by
LONG TRIAL.
The boldest innovation of the bill is
its large free list of raw materials.
Taxes upon production are double
wrongs. They gather and cumulate on
the consumers of the finished products.
They hurt labor by narrowing the mar
ket for what it produces. Coal and iron
are the foundations of modern industry.
Material progress is measured by the
amount of their consumption. No
other country can supply them as
abundantly or as cheaply as we can.
No possible competition can interfere
with our own producers few miles in
the interior of the country. Remoteness
from the source OF supply is in itself
enough disadvantage TO any section Of
the country, without further burdens in
tariff taxes. UntaXed ores. coal, lum-
OOA8 hOOl anu OtliOL liii~
mensely stimulate products in certain
parts of our country. The thin edge of
American manufactures has entered
every country. With release from
taxes on their materials, there is no
limit to the growth of our foreign trade,
This will more than compensate the
home producers of raw material, who,
tariff or no tariff, control all the inte-
rior of the country, from an appre-
hended loss of markets along the sea-
board. Its incalculable advantage to
labor is apparent. In every line Of
manufactures we can pro duce i'll six
months to nine months enough for our
home market. We can get rid of ur
surplus ouly by foreign trade. AS long
as we have taxes on the materials of
industry we cannot build up that trade;
hence the other alternat.ye-trusts. to
keep down production to the home mar
ket
The w0rkingman can see whether
his interests are with system that re-
presses production and robs him of
employment, or with system that
gives natural and healthy play to pro-
duction and emancipateS him from
trusts and like
COMBINATIONS OF CAPITAL.
As to the details of the bill. Will
briefly recapitulate the salient changes
of the several schedules. In the chem
istry schedule we have transferred to
the free list quite number of articles
used in manufacturing, the most impor-