The evening world., 1893-12-19
TARIFF
BEFORE
CONGRESS.
To.Day'S Report Of the Major.
ity Of Ways and Means
Committee
FALSE PROTECTION EXPOSED.
The New Bill Prepared First as
a Real Aid to Home
Industry.
REDUCTIONS AND REASONS.
Early Tariff Laws and Effects on
National Prosperity.
FALSE PROTECTION EXPOSED.
REDUCTIONS AND REASONS.
Early Tariff Laws and Effects on
National Prosperity.

u ~ . 1900
WASHINGTON, Dec. l9.-The follow
ing is the majority report of the Ways
and Means Committee on the Tariff
THE TARIFF REPORT.
The American people. after the fullest
and most thorough debate ever given by
any people to their fiscal policy, have
deliberately and rightly decided that the
existing tariff is wrong IN principle and
g~rievously unjust in operation. They
have decided, as freemen must always
decide, that the power of taxation has
no lawful or constitutional exercise ex-
cept for providing for the support of the
Government.
Every departure from this principle Is
a departure from the Fundamental prin-
ciples of free institutions and inevitably
works out a gross inequality in the citi-
Zenship of a country.
For more than thirt' 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 chal
!enged to furnish any parable,
EVIL BOND OF PROTECTION.
so many private enterprises have been
taken into partnership with the Gov
.tn,Ieii.' - many private interests now
share In the rich r~rerogative OF taXing
seventy millions of people, that any
attempt to dissolve this illegal union is
necessarily encountered by an opposition
mat rallies behind 1t the Interference of
monopoly. the power of concentrated
wealth. the inertia of fixed habits, and
me honest errors of a generation OF
false teaching.
PRESENT BILL NOT PERFECT.
The bin on which the Committee has
expended much patient and nxiou labor
Is not offered as Il complete response
70 the mandate of the American people.
protection than to be free of all error in
us complex and manifold details.
However, We may deny the existence
Of any Congress to make such pledge
for the continuance Of duties that carry
win them more or less acknowledged
interests do exist whose existence an.
prosperity 1t is no part of our reform
either 10 imperil or to curtail.
We believe, and we have the warrant
Or our own past experience for be-
neVlng, that reduction of duties will
not inJure, but give more abundant life
&c, all our great manufacturing indus
ttries,, however much they may dread
the change.
TEMPERATE REFORM SAFEST.
IN dealing with the tariff question, as
Nun every other long-stanuing abus.
chat has interviewer itself with our So
,-..N '''toNi " NpNtll, III ltHlSlaJ OT
niust always remember that, in the be-
SInhing; temperate reform Is safest. hay
'hs IN Itself the principle OF growth.
PROJECTIONS FAILURES.
"A glance at the tariff legislation of our
n,wn country ought to satisfy every incl
mSent student that protection has al
ways shown its falsity as a system of
economy by its absolute failure to insure
fnseSt,ny and stable prosperity to manu-
II teaches men to depend on arti6c,a,
nf ~ on laws taxing their countrymen
unoI prosperity in business, rather than
Upon their own skill and effort, II
uhTows business out of its natural chan
neis into artificial channels, where Tiers
taIntv always be fuctuation. and uncer-
ssa ony and 1t makes a tariff system the
hiJIiTittDall OF, party. politics, and the sta
Dnlty Of large business interests the
e' Nonoo OF every popular, election.
fnnune nave recognized this truth more
To- man the wiser men who from time
W. W nm nave engaged In the so-cailed
projected Industries.
an e orntio ago , Edward Everett stated, in
N VII Who founded the manufactures of
bi",w England were never friends or n
nsh tariff policy. " Vi d
non. Amasl Walker, a former msmhsr
one ms House from Massachusetts, am
que N ~ our foremost writer's on economi
Swn person aGc' Snow, 1t to be within his
ppsaCPosai was made to impose the pro.
uteGuve tariff of 1916, the leading ma ppo-
was Mr.. Slater, the father OF c %f
ecpp,n NJ, in this country, met at The
Snd after deliberate consultation nane
ANONYMOUSLY to the conclusion that thnv
hay Ssda rather be let alone. as their business
W,ei, and they felt confident of ia cnn
e nrTSd prosperity II let alone by the Gov.
They argued that by LAYING n nro
,ectlve tariff their business wouId' a.
N wm,hL4"n out of its natural channels an,
N. Expected 10 ~nuctuation and uncertaintv
IN les fnr-sightcd men and the ambition ~
v dLnnnakers To usurp the place OF provi
as'nve prevailed. The country entered or
resi- pteetlve policy, with the unfaiiInl
l(nnLfII,rI "a. c.u..Il IL