Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1893-12-21
By TELEGRAPH.
REeucr.es Of DUNES.
Isl q ~ ssisssN aspsrt o. sAe u'lssa
Iafia Bill.

Issia Bill.
WASHINGTON. Dee. 20 81 The substance OF
the ways and means commuters majority
report ON the Wilson tariff bill Is ~ fol-
lows.
The American people. after the fullest
and most thorough debate ever given by
any people 10 their fiscal policy. have de
liberately and rightly decided that the
existing tariff is wrong In principle and
grieyousiy unjust is operation They have
decided. as free men must always decide,
tina, the power OF taxation has NO lawful
or constitutional exercise except for pro-
viding revenue for the support OF govern
ment. Every departure from this prinef
pie is a departure from the fundamental
principles of popular institutions. and IN
evitahIy works ont a gross inequality In
the citizenship of a country.
The bill on which the committee has ex-
pended much patient and anxious labor Is
no: offered as complete response to the
mandate of the American people, IL no
more processes to be purged of all protee-
ton than 10 be free of all error in lis com
pick and manifold details. However We
/
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 protection, we must rec
ognize that great interests do exist whose
existence aud prosperity it is no part OF
our reform either TO imperil or to eurfaii.
Temperate Reform Advocated.
We believe. and we have the warrant of
our own past experience for believing,
that reduction of duties will -.ct injure
but give more abu .dant life 10 ali 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
interviewer itself with our industrial
or social system, the legislator must al
ways remember that. in the beginning,
temperate reform is safes. having in it
self the principle of growth.
We have already said that public dis
cussion may disclose errors of minor de
tail in the schedules of our bill To
escape such errors would require so
thorough and minute knowledge of all
the divisions, subdivisions, complex and
manifold mazes and involutions OF our
chemical. textile, metal and other indus
tries, that no committee of congress, no
matter how extended the range of their
personal knowledge, or how laborious
and painstaking their efforts, could ever
hope TO possess We have not forgotten
that we represent the people. who are the
many. as well as the protected Interests,
who are the few, and while we have dealt
with the latter in no spirit of unfriendli-
ness, we have felt that it was our duty
and not their privilege to make the tariff
schedules.
Release of Taxes Advocated.
We have believed that the first step to-
ward a reform of the tariff should be a re-
lease of taxes on the materials of indus
try There can be no substantial and
beneficial reduction npon the necessary
clothing and other comforts of the Amer
lean people, nor any substantial and BEN
efieial enlargement of the field of Ameri-
can la Dor SO long As we tax materials and
processes of production. Every tax upon
the producer falls with increased force
on the consumer. Every tax on the pro-
Queer i'm this country is Il protection to his
competitors in a other countries and so
narrows his market as to limit the num-
her and lessen the wages of those to whom
he can give employment.
Every cheapening in the cost or enlarge
ment of the supply of his raw materials,
while primarily inuring to the benefit of
the manufacturer himself, passes under
! free competition Immediately and passes
entirely to the consumer, who very soon
gets even mere benefit out of il than such
reduction seems TO carry, because with the
rapid widening of his market the manu-
facturer is able to sell at a smaller profit
Consumers Considered.
1t lis therefore very narrow and short
sighted view which supposes that we re-
lease the duties ON iron ore aud coal and
wool and other like articles for the benefit
of those who manufacture our iron, steel
wooden and other fabrics. We are legis-
lating for the great millions of CONSUMERS
beyond them, and for the scores of
thousands of laborers to whom they may
thus give steady and we'll paid employ
ment 1t is no less a narrow and short
righted view that supposes that n removal
of the tariff duties on such necessaries of
industries will inhict any real loss upon
those who produce them in our own coun-
try.
The enlargement of markets for our
products in other countries the increase
rying trade of our country will insure Il
growing home market for all these things
that will quickly outstrip anything they
could have under the protective system.
Grounds For Changes.
Any article of manufacture which can
sustain the competition of like foreign
articles in other markets can defy such
competition in the home market, and is
not protected by the duty, but by its own
intrinsic superior cheapness and quality.
The only effect Of duty on such articles
is to enable those who make them to
charge higher prices to the citizens of
their own country than they charge to for
eigners, and this has been VIGOROUSLY the
case with both copper and many agricul-
aural implements,
In adjusting duties upon what may be
called the finished products we have tried
% impose such rates as will not destroy or
distress any of our home industries on the
one hand, nor on the other secure them an
oppressive monopoly of the home market.
For this rule we have the recognized
authority both OF well known and leading
tariff reformers and of those who in days
past were considered moderate protection
lists.
In the iron and steel schedule, beginning
with free ore and duty of % IL per cent
on pig iron, we have reported a scale of
duties considerably below those of the
existing law, which should bring benefit
to the consumer, without calling for any
halt in the progress of that great industry
in our country. The duty upon steel rails
has been put at IS per cent, which quite
compensates for all difference in the cost
of production in this country and abroad.
A most important change in the bill
proposed from the present law will be
found in the general substitution of sd
valorem for specific duties. This must
always be the characteristic of revenue
tariff levied upon a large range Of articles,
especially when those include the plain
necessaries of life. A duty which taxes
according to kind, pound, weight,
measure or the like, without regard to
quality. always Expresses the less wealthy
consumer and lightens the just burdens
Of his richer fellow-citizens.
Such inequalities as we have mentioned
in the wooden schedule and many still
grosser ones that might easily he cited,
could only he hidden in the specific dtI-
ties and would never appear in a tariff
that assessed its exactions according to
the real value of the article taxed.
wholesale Shooting.
VEBMiLIfoN. :. d., Dec 20-aIiss Dolly
Hemphill and Miss Kate StefIin were shot
by their escort, Shorty Babeock, while
sltdghing. Miss Hemphill was instantly
killed. Miss Stefiin received two wounds.
which may prove fatal. Babeock then
Killed hImself The motive L not known