The record-union., 1893-12-20

uuStrleS- temperate he4ofA OOh
sidered the Safest.
Special to the RECoRD-UNIoN.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 19.-The majority
report of the Ways and Means Com
mittee on the tariff was submitted to the
House at the opening to-day.
The report says: "The American peo-
pie, after full and the most thorough
debate ever given by a people to their
fiscal policy, have deliberately decided
the existing tariff to be wrong in principle
and grievously unjust in operation. They
have decided, as free men must always
decide, that the power Of taxation has no
lawful or constitutional exercise except
for providing revenue for the support
of the Government. Every depart
ure from this principle is departure
from the fundamental principles Of free
institutions, and inevitably works out
gross inequality in the citizenship OF the
country.
"For more than thirty years we have
levied the largest part of our Federal
taxes in violation of this vital truth until
we have reached the existing tariff and
an extreme and VOlumlnOuS system OF
class taxation to which history may be
challenged TO furnish q parallel. So
many private enterprises have been taken
into partnership with the Government,
so many private interests now share in
the rich prerogative Of taxing 70.O00,000
people, that any attempt to dissolve this
illegal union is necessarily encountered
by the opposition that rallies behind the
intolerance OF monopoly, the power of
concentrated wealth, the inertia OF fixed
habits and the dishonest errors of gen.
Grafton of false teaching.
"This bill, on which the committee has
expended much patient and anxious la
bor, is not offered as complete response
to the mandate of the American people.
1t no more processes to be purged Of all
protection than to be free of all error in
its complex and manifold details. How
ever we may deny the existence OF any
legislative pledge or of the right of any
Congress to make such pledge for the
continuance of duties that carry with
them more or less acknowledged protec-
ton, we must recognize that great inter-
ests do exist whose existence and pros
perity it is no part of our reform either
to imperil or to curtail.
Nv e believe, and have warrant in our
own past experience for believing, that
the reduction of duties will not injure but
give more abundant life To all our great
manufacturing industries, however much
they may dread the change.
''In dealing with the tariff question, as
with every other long-standing abuse
that has interwoven itself with our social
or industrial system, legislators must al
ways remember that, in the beginning,
temperate reform is the safest, having in
itself the principle of growth.
~ tbo tor IcIo RI Sc
own country ought to satisfy every in
telligent student that protection has al
ways shown its falSity as a system Of
economy by its absolute failure to secure
healthy and stable prosperity to manu-
tacturers. 1t teaches men to depend on
artificial help, on the laws OF taxing their
cOuntrymen for prosperity in business,
rather than upon their skill and effort. 1t
throws business out OF its natural chan
nels into artificial channels, in which
there must always be fuctuation and un-
certainty, and makes the tariff system a
football for party politics and est& blishes
large business interests as the stake of
every popular election. None have rec
ognized this more fully than the wiser
men who have from time to time engaged
i'll the so-calied protected industries"
The report then deals at length with the
tariff history of the country, showing
''that when first proposed the manu-
facturers opposed it and desired to be let
alone. Finally came the reyulsion of
1916 when the tariff was reduced against
the protests by manufacturers that it
would ruin them,' and against the solid
vote of the representatives OF manufacture
ing States in Congress. The result was
that a low tariff was the development of
great vigor in manufactures, with steady
employment and increasing wages for
labor. After eleven years. trial the repre-
sentatives OF those same States, with
practical unanimity, voted for a further
reduction of 20 per cent. and by two
thirds vote sustained a - per cent. reduc-
ton under the tariff of 1857. The people
were so well satisfied with it that there
was protest against the Morrill, bill of
1861, increasing the duties"
The report quotes from a number of
speeches in Congress against the Morrill,
bill, among them one by Sherman of
Ohio. Under Republican auspices" it
says "there has been constant increase
in duties at the demand ofmanufacturers.
The present bill, while framed in no
spirit of unfriendliness to manufacturers,
is framed on the theory that it is the duty
of Congress, not the right Of manufactu-
rers, to fix its terms"
In answer to a criticism about reducing
revenues in a time when the Government
is in financial straits, the report says:
ence to that fact, to not put on the free
list some articles which they would have
been glad to make free, and not TO cut
other rates as low as desirable; but the
committee did not feel justified in ignor-
ing the instructions of the American peo-
pie on account of the temporary shrink
age OF the revenues. Experience shows
the increase of business will largely make
up the loss from decreased rates.
The report declares: The reciprocity
clause OF the Tariff Act oflS90 has brought
no appreciable dement's, and the present
bill aims, therefore, t, n peal it entirely"
The report then proceeds to deal at
length and seriatim with the leading arti
cles of the schedule, and to give the rea-
sons which actuated the committee in
fixing the rate on their duty or in placing
them on the free list.
1--WE believe the sugar bounty system
contrary to the spirit OF our institutions,
and can conceive Of no circumstances un-
der which we should have advocated or
approved its introduction into our laws.
We have reported provision for its re-
neal by such stages as shall gradually OBJ
iiterate it from our laws. while permit
TING those who have invested large means
nnder the expectation of its continuance
reasonable time in which they may pre-
I,are TO take a stand with other industries
OF the country.
1.-THE duties upon imported TOBACCO
leaf suitable for clear wrappers, which
were enormously advanced by the Act of
1890. have been placed at such figures as
were deemed likely TO produce the most
revenue to the Treasury.
.tOf staple agricultural products, includ-
inc meats and provisions, we are such
large exporters, and must continue to be,
that any duties upon them are useless for
protection and fruitless for revenue, for
the producers of our great export staples,
which, having fully supplied the home