The evening world., 1893-12-19
LAST EDITION
TARIFF
Il BEFORE
CONGRESS-.
To.Day'S Report Of the Major.
ity Of Ways and Means
Committee
FALSE PROTECTION EXPOSED.
The New Bill Prepared First as
a Real Aid to Home
Industry.
REDUCTIONS AND REASONS.
Early Tariff Laws and Effects on
National Prosperity.
FALSE PROTECTION EXPOSED.
REDUCTIONS AND REASONS.
Early Tariff Laws and Effects on
National Prosperity.


WASHINGTON, Dec. 19.-The follow.
ing is the majority report of the Ways
and Means Committee, On the Tariff
THE TARIFF REPORT.
The American people. after the fullest
and most thorough debate ever given by
any people to their fiscal policy, have
deliberately and rightly decided that the
existing tariff is wrong in principle and
g~rievously unjust In operation. They
have decided. Is freemen must always
decide, that the power of taxation has
now lawful or constitutional exercise ex-
cept for providing for tho p of the
Government.
Every departure from this principle Is
a departure from the fundamental prin-
ciples of free institutions and inevitably
works out a gross inequality in the citi-
zenship of a country.
For more than thirty years we have
levied the largest part Of our Federal
taxes In violation of this w.. truth until
we have reached In the existing tariff an
extreme and voluminous system of class
taxation. to which history may be chal-
lenged to furnish any parallel.
EVIL BOARD OF PROTECTION.
So many private enterprises nave been
taken into partnership with the Gov
eminent; 80 many private interests now
share In the rich prerogative of taxing
seventy millions of people, that any
attempt to dissolve this illegal union il
necessarily encountered by an opposition
that rallies behind 1t the interference OF
monopoly, the power of concentrated
wealth. the inertia of fixed habits, and
the honest errors of a generation Of
false teaching.
PRESENT BILL NOT PERFECT.
The bill on which the Committee has
expended much patient and anxious labor
Is not offered as a complete response
1t no more processes to be purged Of ali
protection than to be free Of ali error In
Its complex and manifold details.
Of H snv Iersl we may nysd deny or the o, e ssa
Of any Congress to max such pledge
for the continuance Of duties thai carry
with them more or less acknowledged
interests do exist whose existence and
prosperity 1t is no part of our reform
either to imperil or to ~curtail:
of our own past experience zee Sfrb ee
lieving, that reduction of duties will
not inture, but give more abundant life
to, all our great manufacturing Indus
tries, however much they may dread
the change.
TEMPERATE REFORM SAFEST.
In dealing with the Tariff question, as
with every other long-standing abuse
mat has interviewer itself with our So
Gnai or Industrial system; the legislator
ginning, temperate reform Is safest, hay
Ing In itself the principle of growth.
PROJECTIONS FAILURES.
A glance at the tariff legislation of our
" country ought to satisfy. every intel.
ways shown its falsity as a system n,
economy by Its absolute failure to insure
healthy n stable prosperity to manu-.
1t teaches men to depend on artificial
help. on laws taxing their countrymer
for prosperity in business, rather thar
upon their W skill and effort. III
nesl into artificial channels, where there
pust always be f%iuctuation and uncer.
talnty,, and 1t makes n tariff system ths
ihTIfTitt6all OF party politics, and the sta.
DIZZY OF large business interests tn.
STAKE OF every popular election.
None have recognized this truth more
tuliy than the wiser men who from time
p %tame nave engaged In the so-called
Years ago Edward Everett stated. In
an grafton at Lowell. that the sagacious
men who founded the manufactures OF
New England were never friends OF q
Hon. Amasa Walker, a former membe,
OF TINS House from Massachusetts, and
u lpicilOst WTlterS on economic
questions, declared It to be within his
W personal knowledge that when the
proposal was made to impose the pro.
facturers Of Rhode Island, among whom
was Mr, Slater, the father or cotton
spinning In this country, met at the
and after deliberate consultation. cams
unanimously TO the conclusion that they
had rather be let alone, as their business
well, and they felt confident of its con.
s,nued prosperity, II let alone by Gov.
They argu hat by laying n pro
tectlve tariff their business would h,
unrown put of It's natural channels an
sub1ected to huctuation and uncertaintv
SUI, as usual, the clamor OF selfish ant
,ess far-sighted men and the ambition o.
hwmakers to usurp the place OF proyi
nenee prevailed. The country entered or
a protective policy, with the unfsllin,
result that the Government help begot !