The Mt. Sterling advocate. (Mt. Sterling, Ky.) 1890-current, 1893-12-05
The New Tariff Bill.


cratic majority of the Ways and
Means Committee, ii should be con-
sidered that the Committee has had
to deal with the complicated, perplex-
ing and distasteful problem that q
popular form of government affords.
The American people particularly,
who have so unnaturally exalted the
spirit of trade, can never view with
unmixed satisfaction, though they adj
init its necessity, any measure that
takes from their private stock OF
wealth even to add to the public store.
Much more impatient, then, will they
be of bill that must, in its nature,
bear more or less unequally upon all
branches OF industry, and which is
fastened upon them by their own espe-
cially selected servants. No matter
how successful the political party that
deals with the question may be from
an absolute point of view, it will be
more strange than otherwise if the
people, each seeing some neighbor
borne upon less heavily than himself,
and forgetting in turn that he escapes
more lightly than others, do not make
it TO considerable degree the catspaw
of their selfishness and petulance.
Therefore we are prepared to expect a
great deal of temporary dissatisfac-
ton, with the proposed Tariff Bill
among all classes and ranks of life !;
and, until the better common sense of
the American people overcome their
first ungenerous fretfulneess, may ex-
pect to see this dissatisfaction reflected
from the polls. 1t IS in the advanced
split of fairness that must sooner or
later prevail throughout the nation,
that we would now beg our immedi-
ate friends and neighbors to contem-
plate this mighty measure,
The new Tariff Bill is an immense
advance in the right direction over
anything the present generation has
seen. A few facts will show. This
is an age of iron; iron enters as ne
cessity directly or indirectly into
every mana existence, and under the
new bill iron ore is free, and the
metal itself in its manufactured forms
taxed scarce half what it has been.
We cannot possibly do without lum-
Der; our forest supply has been great
ly reduced, especially near the large
centres; but now the enhancement in
price, consequent upon its increasing
scarcity, will be kept in check by ad-
uniting free lumber from the yet un-
touched stores of Canada and tropical
America. In the interior we will
reap the benefit of this in cheapened
furniture and kindred products. Coal
already in the East is maintained at
even increasing prices by constantly
growing trusts coal will now be adj
mitted free, and the seaboard, which
use it so much in creating. our sup
plies for daily use, will have the bene-
fits of a competition that cannot well
be stifled. Few appreciate what an
important factor chemistry, as applied
to the arts, plays in our commerce ;
there is scarcely branch of manufac-
ture into which it does not enter; the
acids which are the chemical products
most largely used will henceforth be
admitted free. Neither the physical
nor the spiritual needs of man are
overlooked both food products and
works of art will be admitted without
charge. In other important Uarticu-
lars, where the duty has not been
wholly eliminated, noticeable cuts have
been made. The first cost of iron,
steel, pottery, glass, wooden and cotton
manufactures will have been reduced
on an average of almost half; and as
to the remainder of the list, with one
or two immaterial exceptions, the tar
| i'll is left without advance.
The benefits that will accrue to the
poor and all in moderate circumstances
from this very general reduction of
tariff charges, are very great indeed ;
and even the weather. industrial
classes, unless all rules of political
economy as well as the recognized ex-
perience of other lands are at fault,
will profit more by the increased
stimulus to manufacture free raw ma
terials will bring about than they will
lose by the withdrawal of an enervat-
ing protective bounty.
But we do not mean to say the bin
is without fault, or that we would be
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