The gold leaf., 1893-12-07

ties. Large Free List and Govern
ment Revenue Instead OF Private
Bounties its Prominent Character
istics-- Reduction of all Duties Save
Oh Diamonds, etc.
WAsIIINGTON, Nov. 27.-The Tar
if bill prepared by the Democratic
members Of the Ways and Means COM
mittcc was given to the public to-day.
II deals entirely with the customs and
administrative branches of the subject.
The internal portion is lett i'll abey-
ancc. Chairman Wilson has prepared
the following statement which was
given out this morning with the bill
"Thc Democratic members Of the
Committee on Ways and Means have
felt. as none others could feel, the mo-
mcntous responsibility resting upon
them and the surprising magnitude,
difficulty and dclcacy OF the duty as
signed them Of framing tariff bill for
a nation Of 10000 900 people. The
bill they were called on to reform is a
vast and labyrinthian system Of class
taxation, the elimination Of thirty
years control Of the taxing power by
a few great interests, gathering on to
their train a host of petty toll gather
ers. 1t was carefully framed to pre-
vent as far as possible what its author
called = any monkeyin9 with the tariff, >
BY which he meant any successful ct-
fort of the people to undo ~ to lessen
the bOuntics which its benellclarl2S
were permitted to write therein IN
their own words and their own figures.
1t transferred to the free list proper
and fruitful revenue articles, where
most of the taxes paid by the people
were received by their government.
and greatly increased the price on
those articles where all or most OF the
taxes paid by the people went Into
private Golfers. And it was bO!stared
about by many deiences, chief among
which are swept and garnished treas
ury and Il swollen and colossal scale OF
permanent expenditures.
- Such are the conditions that rn:,-
frOnted us at the threshold of our work.
The committee have welcomed Imirr-
nation and counsel from every trust
worthy source, and, while they do not
expect their bill to escape just criticism
in all of its details, they do present 1t
to the country as the result OF many
months of patient. anxious toll and OF
honest desire to discharge their duty,
purged of all tant of local and personal
tavoritism or prejudice. Its main feat
ures are two: First-the adoption
whenever it seemed practicable, of ad
rdIorem instead of specific duties; sec
ond-thc freeing from taxes those
great materials of industry that lie at
the basis of production. Specific rates
of duty are Objectionable for these rea-
sons They frequently conceal rate
of taxation too enormous to be sub
mitted to if expressed i'll al rdloren
terms, as the duty of cents on hun
dred pounds of salt in bulk, which
amounts to over so per cent. on a
common necessity of life. They always
bear heavily on the common article
used by the masses and lightly on the
expensive article consumed by the
rich, as tax of $50 on all houses
would be little or nothing on the great
mansion aud very high on the humble
home. And, contrary to common be
lief, specific duties lead to greater
frauds in administration, for counting
done by the cheapest and most easily
corrupted labor, while ad ralorem rates
are assessed by the best paid and most
responsible appraisers. The al ralOreD
system has worked we'll in practice
is essentially the fair system, because
it is tax upon the actual value of al
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 vlndicateC
by long trial.
The boldest innovation of the bill
is its large free list of raw materials
Taxes upon production are doubly
wrong. They gather and culminatt
on the consumer of the finished pro
duct. They hurt labor by narrowin!
the market for what it produces. Goa
industry. Material progress is meas
ured by the amount of their consump
ton. No other country can suppl,
them rs abundantly or cheaply as W,
can. No possible competition can in
tertere with our own producers a few
miles i'll the interior of the country
Remoteness from the sources of supply
is in itself enough disadvantage t,
any section Of the country without fur
I,,,. - a.
ores, coal, lumber. wool and othe
flbreS must immensely stimulate pro
duction in certain parts of our country
The thin wedge of American manu-
tactureS has entered every country
With the release from taxes upon thei
materials there is no limit to the growth
OF our foreign trade. This will more
than compensate to the home producer:
OF raw material who, tariff or no tariff
control all the interior of this country
for any apprehended loss of market
anywhere along the seaboard. Its in
calculable advantage to labor is appar
ent. In every great line of manutac
lures we can produce in SIX months t,
nine months enough for our home mar
ket. We can get rid Of our surplus
only by foreign trade. AS long as WI
have taxes on the materials of industr,
we cannot build up that trade. Hence
the other alternative of trusts to keer
down production to the home market
The working man can see whether hi:
interest is with a system that represse:
production and robs him of employ
ment, or with a system that gives nat,
ural and healthy play to production
and emancipates him from trusts and
like combinations of capital.