Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-12-22
Some QuestfOns.

LAS to this new plan the very first Dues
ton one Is disposed to ask is, Why disturb
existing business relations II there Is to be
no change In principle? II We are still to
have protection. why take this time to cause
a readjustment when the business condi-
tons are OF such a character that the
greatest amount Of disaster will be the re-
suit? Were 1t proposed to make a radical
change and cause the business Of the coun-
try to be conducted on a new basis, there
might be possibly arguments adduced and
plans presented which would be justifiable
and satisfactory, but IL protection be the
object why choose this time OF all others
to substitute for system Of protection
which has proved reasonably satisfactory
one OF which We know nothing and with
the principle Of which the revisers are not
in accord?
This other and fresher plan has all the
faults which the trainers Of this bill charg-
ed upon the old. and very few of its virtues
IL IS open to all the derisive and harsh
epithets with which the present system
used 10 be overwhelmed. 1t taxes the peo-
pie with tariff taxes. 1t creates, or, rather
proposes to maintain, what they used to
call the privileged classes, and is defended
by its authors by arguments and express
50 hotly to denounce. A manufacturer is
told that the duty will protect him. and his
claims are listened to on that basis and ara
argued with him on that basis, just as in
the brave days of old.
THE new democratic district attorney
OF the northern district Of New York comes
down, as he had right TO, and declares
mat, from a protection standpoint, barley
same ad valorem, and promptly the COM
mittec raises the tariff taxes from Is per
cent to 30 to protect the raauufa cturer.
tnough 1t must lessen the revenle
80 also some one has presented per-
suasively the cause Of boards, planed,
tongued and grooved, to the committee. and
although the lumber passes in the same
plant from the saws to the planners, the
work OF the men who manage the saws
Is unprotected. while the work of the men
who run the planes is shielded by protec-
tive tariff taxes
These are but instances Of corrections
be had and are keys to the notions on
which the bill was formed
Free Raw Materials.
1.-The new plan also involves a new
method Of encouraging manufacturers by
giving them what are called free raw ma
terials,' 50 that what goes into the mill
pays no taxes, and what goes into con-
sumption pays all the taxes The manu-
facturers pay no taxes on what they buy
and the people the equivalent Of taxes on
all they purchase.
1T unfortunately happens also that free
raw material is an elastic term, and what
is one mans free raw material Is another
mans finished product. The manufacturer
in Massachusetts is told that he is to be
encouraged by having free lumber TO build
his factory and to pack his goods, but in
asmuch as that every lumber thus made
free is the Maine manufacturers finished
product, no wonder the democrats of BAN
gor. the mills on the Penobscot being I'M
able to move a saw, denounce class legis-
lation with a new appreciation of what
class legislation really means. And with
the dwellers on the Penobscot sympath:ze
the lumberrnen in Wisconsin and Michigan
the Pacific slope. Alabama, Georgia and
Florida. So also the miners in Michigan
struggling this very moment With starva-
ton, realize that the most odious class
legislation there can possibly be Is the