St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-03-31
WHO MADE THE TARIFFS ?

Theoretically congress made the tariffs.
But it has been good many years since
congress did anything more than to rat
ify what men not in congress wanted
the tariff to be. Congress quit making
its own tariffs in 1857, and it has jobbed
the business out pretty nearly ever since.
1t did undertake the work i'll 1872, when
it passed what was known as the little
tariff bill; but it did it so bunglingly
that it actually reduced the taxes, and
the other fellows to1k it ont of the
hands of congress and restored the rates
III 1915, and have been running the bust
ness ever since. To be sure, in 1882
congress felt that something must be
done to appease the people, who had
begun to growl little; and so. not
being competent to do the job them
selves, they let President ARTHUR APP
point a commission to fix up the Sched-
uleS for them.
This commission was almost wholly
composed of men who had been making
tariffs for congress, but they thought
the taxes could be cut down % per cent
without hurting anybody, and so re-
ported. But the other fellows rallied to
the defense of their job, and when the
commissions bill came out of all the
committees it had to go through, in
Guiding the final conference committee,
the rates were higher than ever.
Then came the bill that WILLIAM
MCKINLEY is popularity supposed to
have made. 1t bears his name, and he
had to stand all the kicking it caused;
and he was plucky enough to take it all
and not complain a bit, although he
knew that he was as innocent of its
provisions as was BEN HARRISON. 1t
was a clear case Of being kicked vicari-
ously. Everybody who knows enough
to read now knows that it wasn't Nc
KINLEY or his committee who made his
bill, but it was just the same old job lot
of fellows who have been making tar
ifs for the Republican party for over
thirty years who made it. Mr.. Glass
man told the committee just what the
tariff should be on glassware, and the
committee wrote it down and put it in
the bill. And Mr.. Wool came and told
them how much he wanted the tax to
be OH wool; and his relative. MI. Wool
ems, followed on his heels and SAID what
he wanted cloth to be taxed. And so
the procession went on down through
all the schedules, and if anybody
wanted anything taxed all he had to do
was to tell the committee how much it
shoIld be, and it was done. And about
all that the committee did was to say that
II. o. D., which means all other articles
not otherwise provided for, should pay
an ad valorem tax of IS per cent. That
is the way in which these tariff bills
have beenSmade since the blessed year
of our Lord 1861.
1t took the people of the country a
long time to find this out. 1t was not
done openly until within recent years.
Men used to think that it would look
bad if people interested in having heavy
taxes laid on foreign goods should be
known to be deciding how much those
taxes should be; even the manufactur-
ers felt shame-faced about it. But
vice becomes virtue if you look at it
too long, and of late years the commit
tees haveIgiven notice when they would
sit, and have asked all who wanted the
taxes fixed to come and tell them what
they wanted. Then the people came to
understand at laSt-fOr they aren't quick
to learn-how their taxes were made,
and they rose and smote these modern
Philistines hip and thigh, and drove them
and their president and senators and
representatives ut,and put in a new lot
of men TO make their tariffs.