The Guthrie daily leader. [volume] (Guthrie, Okla.) 1893-1996, 1893-11-29


nnd Means Committee.
WAsmNOToN. Nov 2e Chairman
Wilson of the house wavs and means
committee has issued the following
statement i'm regard 20 the tariff bill:
The Democratic members Of the com
mittee on ways and means have felt,
as none others could feel, the moment
Gus responsibility resting upon them,
aud the magnitude. difficulty and deli
cacv OF the duty assir ed them of
framing the tariff bill for a nation of
60, 100. 900 of people.
Its main features are two: First, the
adoption, wherever it seemed prac-
ticabie, of ad vaiorem instead of
specific duties, secondly, the freeing
from taxes Of those great materials Of
industry that lie at the base of pro.
ductiou.
Specific rates of duty are objection
able for these reasons: They fire.
quently conceal rate Of taxation TOO
enormous TO be submitted TO If ex-
posed in ad valorem terms as ahe duty
of eight cents 100 pounds on salt in
bulk, which amounts TO over eighty
per cent on common necessity of
life They always bear heavily on
masses and slightly on the ex-
pensive article consumed by the
rich, as "A tax of $50 on
all houses would Toe nothing on the
great mansion aud very high on the
humble home. And contrary to com
mon 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 systc a. has worked
well in practice. is essentially the fair
system, because 1T is tax upon the
actual value of an article, and was de-
clared by Mr. Clay himself to be in
/ the ry and according TO every sound
/ principle of justice entitled to the
/ preference, aud vindicated by long
/ trial.
The boldest innovation of the bill is
/ its large free list of the raw materials.
/ Taxes upon Il pro uction are double
wrongs They gathcraud accumulate
on the consumers of the finished
products. They hurt labor by
narrowing the market 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 cheaply as we can. No
! posi- bic competition can interfere
with our own producers IA few miles
in the interior of the country. Re-
moteness from the sources of supply
Is in itself enough disadvantage to
any section of the country, without
further burdens in tariff taxes.
UntaXed ores, coal, lumber, wool
other things must immensely stimu-
late production in certain parts of our
country. The thin wedge of Ameri-
can manufactures has entered every
country. with releases 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 in
terror of the country from any appre-
heuded loss OF markets any here
along the scaboard, lts incalculable
advantage TO labor is apparent In
every great line OF manufactures we
can produce la from six to nine
months enough for our own market
We can get rid Of our surplus only by
foreign trade As long as we have
taxes on the materials of industry we
eanRot build up that trade, hence the
other alternative, trusts TO keep down
production TO the home market,
As TO details Of the bill, ! will
briefly recapiulate the salient changes
Of the several schedulcs. In the chem
istrv schedule. we have transferred "a
the free list quite number of articles,
used in manufacturing. In the pottery
schedule reductions are made Plain
white ware is decreased from the high
schedule in which it mysteriously
crowded itself Decorated ware is re-
duced from sixty TO forty:tiye IN
plate glass reductions are made, the
largest size from fifty cents to thirty
cents per square foot; on silvered from
sixty to thirty-6Ve conts.
In the iron and steel schedule we
begin with free ore. Pig iron We re-
duce from SG.i2 er ton which Is so tC
90 per cent to uniform duty of 221.
per cent-a rate somewhat higher in
proportion than the rest of the sched'
ule because Of cheap freight on for igr
pig. IL being "a favorit' freight on
western voyages. Steel rails were re-
duced from -l3.44 per ton-now 80 pei
cent-to - per ceut