The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1893-12-06
RELIEF FOX THE PEOPLE
SWEEPING REDUCTION IN THE BUR
DENoF TAXATION.

Tho Nav Democratic Scheme Summar.
tzed-A LIBERAL Free L'ss-Advalorem IN
Instead of Specific Duties to be Levied.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 27.-The tariff
prepared by the Democratic members
nf the Ways and means committee was
given to the public today. 1t deals en-
tirely with the customs and admins
srratiYe branches of the subject. The
internal revenue portion Is left ID aoey,,
ance. Chairman Wilson has prepared
the following statement which was
given out this morning with the bill:
The Democratic members OF the
committee on ways and means have
felt. as none others could feel, the mo.
mentous responsibility resting upon
them. and the SURPRISING magnitude
difficulty and delicacy of the duty as.
signed them, of framing tariff bill tor
q nation of seventy million people.
The bill they were to reform is vast
and labyrinthian system of class taxa
ton, the elimination of eighty years
control of the taxing power by a few
great interests, gathering on to their
train q host of petty toll gatherers. 1t
was carefully framed to prevent, as
long as possible, what its author called
''any monkeyiDg with the tariff" by
which he meant any successful efort
of the people to undo or to lesson the
bounties which its benefciarles were
permitted to write therein IN their own
words and their own figures. 1t trans
ferred to the free list proper and fruit
full revenue articles. where most OF the
taxes paddy the people went into prl-
Yate Golfers. And 1T was bolstered
about by many defenses, chief among
which are swept and garnished treas
ury and swollen and colossal scale OF
permanent expenditures. Such are the
conditions that confronted us at the
threshold of our work.
The committee have welcomed infor-
nation and counsel from every trust.
worthy source and while they do not
expect their bill to escape just criti-
cism in all of its details, they do pre-.
sent it the country as the result OF
months Of patient, anxious toll, and OF
an honest desire to discharge their
duty, purged of all taint of local and
personal favoritism or prejudice. Its
main features are two: First, the adop-
ton, whenever it seemed practicable,
of adyaloYum instead Of specific duties;
second, the freeing from taxes OF those
great materials Of industry that lie at
the basis Of production.
SPECIFIC DUTIES OBJECTIONABLE.
Specific rates of duties are objection
able for these reasons: They frequently
conceal rate of taxation too enormous
to be submitted to if expressed in ad-
valorent terms, as the duty of, 8 cents
on hundred pounds Of salt in bulk,
which amounts to over 80 per cent. on
q common necessity of life. They al.
ways bear heavily on the common arti-
Gle used by the masses and lightly on
the expensive article consumed by the
rich, as q tax Of $50 on all houses
would be little or nothing on the great
mansions and very high on the hum
BILE homes. And, contrary t. common
belief, specific duties lead to greater
frauds In administration, for counting
and weighing at the custom house are
done by the cheapest and most easily
corrupted labor while advalorem rates
are assessed by the best paid and most
responsible appraisers. The advalorem
system has worked well in practice; Is
essentially the fair system, because it
Is q tax upon the actual value of an ar
ticle, and was declared by Mr.. Clay
himself to be In theory and accord to
every sound and principle Of justice,
entitled to the preference and vindica-
ted 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 accumulate
on the consumer of the finished pro-
duct. They hurt labor by arroWing
the market for what 1t produces. Coal
and iron are the foundations of modern
industry. Material progress is meas
ured by the amorut of their consump-
tion. No other country can supply
them as abundantly or cheaply as we
can. No possible competition can IN
terfere with our own producers, few
miles in the interior OF the country.
Remoteness from the sources of sup
ply Is In itself enough disadvantage to
any section of the country without
further burdens in tariff taxes. Un.
taxed ores, coal, lumber, wool and other
dbers must immensely stimulate pro.
duction in certain parts Of our coun.
try. The thin edge of American man
ufactures has entered every country.
With release from taxes upon their
materials there is no limit to the
growth of our foreign trade. This will
more than compensate to the home
producers of raw material, who, tariff,
or no tariff. control all the interior of
the country, for any apprehended loss
OF markets anywhere along the sea-
board.
Its incalculable advantage to labor
Is apparent. In every great line of
manufactures we can produce in six
months to nine months enough for our
market. Wecan get rid of our surplus
only by foreign trade. AS long as we
have taxes on the materials of industry
we cannot build up that trade. Hence
the other alternative of trusts to keep
production to the hone market. The
workingmRn can see whether his inter-
est is with system that represses pro.
duction and robs him of employment,
or with system that gives natural
and healthy play to production and
emsncipates him from trusts and like
combinations of capital.
DETAILS OF THE BILL.
AS to details of the bill, l will briefly
recapitulate the saliant changes of
several schedules. In the chemical
schedule, we have transferred to the
free list quite a number of articles
used In manufactures, the most i'm
nOrtant, of which ia sulphuric acid one
of the corner-stones OF all chemical in