The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-12-06
CHAIRMAN WILSON'S STATEMENT.


CHAIRMAN WILSON'S STATEMENT.
Faithful Effort to Tighten the bur-
dens OF the Plain People.
Chairman Wilson has issued the fol-
lowing statement in regard to the bill:
THE democratic members OF the COM
mittee on ways and means have felt, as
many others could feel the momentous
responsibility resting upon them, and
the magnitude, difficulty and delicacy Of
the duty assigned to them Of framing a
tariff bill for a nation OF 100000 600 of
people. The bill they were called upon
TO reform Is a vast and labyrinthian
system of class taxation. the culmina-
ton Of thirty years control Of the tax
ing power by few great interests gath
ering into their train host of petty
toll gathering. 1t was carefully framed
to prevent as long as possible what It's
author called any monkeying with the
tariff by which he meant any success
full effort Of the people to undo or to
lessen the bounties which its benehciaries
were permitted TO write therein in their
own words, Of their own figures. It trans
ferred to the free list articles of proper
and fruitful revenue, where most of the
taxes paid by the people were received
by their government and greatly in
creased the rates Of those articles where
all or most of the tax paid by the people
went into private Golfers, and it was
bolstered up by many defences. Such
were the conditions that confronted US
at the Threshold of our work The
committee have welcomed information
l.r~
source, and while they do not expect
their bill to escape just criticism in all
its details, they do present it to the
country as the result of months of pa
tient, anxious toll, and of an honest de-
sire to discharge their duty, .purged of
all faint Of local and personal favor
itism or prejudice.
Its main features are two: ID The
adoption, wherever it seemed practical
BILE, of ad valorem instead Of specific
duties (2) The freeing from taxes of
those great materials Of industry that
lie at the basis Of production. Specific
rates of duty are Objectionable for these
reasons. They frequently conceal a rate
of taxation too enormous to be submit
ted to, If exposed in ad valorem terms,
as the duty of cents a hundred pounds
on salt in bulk, which amounts to over
per cent. on a common necessary of
life They always bear heavily on the
common article used by the masses and
lightly on the expensive article con-
sumed 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 administration, for counting
and weighing at the custom house are
done by the cheapest and most easily
cOrrupted labor, while ad valorem rates
are assessed by the best paid and most
responsible appraisers. The ad valorem
system has worked well in practice, il Is
essentially the fair system, because it
IS a tax upon the actual value of an
article and was declared by Mr.. Clay
himself to be in theory and according
to every sound principle OF justice. en-
titled to the preference and indicated
by long trial.
Large Free List.
1.-THE boldest innovation of the bin is
its large free list of the raw materials
Taxes upon production are double
wrongs. They gather and accumulate
on the consumers OF the finished product
They hurt labor by narrowing the mar
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 cheaply as we. can. No possible COM
petition can interfere with our own pro-
ducers a few miles in the interior of the
country. Remoteness from the sources
Of supply is in itself enough disadvan-
tageous to any section of the country.
Without further burdens in tariff taxes.
untaxed ores, COAL lumber. wool and
other things must immensely stimulate
production in certain parts Of our coun-
try. The thin edge Of American manu-
features has entered every country
With releases from taxes on their ma
terials 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 interior of the country
from any apprehended loss of markets
anywhere along the seaboard. It's in
calculable advantage to labor is appar-
ent. In every great line of manufac-
lures, we can produce in six months to
nine months enough for our home mar
ket. We can get rid of our surplus only
by foreign trade. AS long as we have
taxes on the materials Of industry, we
can not build up that trade, hence the
OlHtE 10 " Keep GOWN pro-
duction to the home market.
THE workingman can see whether hts
interests is with a system that represses
production and robs him of employment.
or with a system that gives natural and
healthy play TO production and enamel
pates him from trusts and like eoTnbina-
tions OF capital.
Some Details.
"As TO details OF the BILL will briefly
recapitulate the salient changes of The
several schedules. In the chemistry
schedule we have transferred to the free
list quite a number OF articles used I'm
manufacturing, the most important og
which is sulphuric acid, one Of the COM
modities Of all chemical Industry.
THE duty on castor oil is reduced
from So to 80 cents per gallon. And the