The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1893-12-30
THE WILSON TARIFF.
fhe Majority Report. of the Com
mittee on Ways and Means"
Embracing the Customs Features of the
Bill. Presented in the House-Ihe
Minority Will be Heard
From Later On.

WASHINGTON, Dec. l9-In the house
this afternoon, Mr.. Wilson, from the
committee on ways and means, pre-
sented the majority views accompany
ing the bill TO Reduce Taxation, to
Provide Revenue for the Government
and for Other Purposes" and it was
referred to committee of the whole on
the state of the Union. The report is
as follows:
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 Grieviously unjust in
operation.
Continuing the report says: They have de
cidel. rs free men must always decilc, that the
power OF taxation has no lawful or constttu-
tioral exercise except for providing revenue
for the support OF government. Every de-
partuTe from this principle il n departure from
the fundamental principles of popular institu-
tiOns and inevitably works out gross Unequal
ity in the citizenship Of 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 in the existing
tariff an extreme and voluminOus OF class taxa
tion TO which history may he challenged 10
furnish any parallel So many private enter
prises have becn taken into partnership with
In" government. so many private interests
now share in the prerosative OF taxing
7OGO,0)j people. that any attempt
10 dissolve this illegal union is
necessarily encountered ly an opposition
that rallies behind it the intolerance of mo
nopoiy. the power of concentrated wealth, the
inertia of fixed habits and the honest errors
Of generation Of false teachings. The bill on
which the committee has expended much pa
tient and anxious labor is not offered as a com
plete response to the mandate of the American
people. II no more processes to lie purEed Of
all protection than to he free OF all error in its
complex AMI manifold details. However. We
may deny the existence of any legislative
pledge. OF or the right of any congress TO make
such pledge for the continuance OF duties that
carry with them more or less acknOwlc. lsed
protection. we must recognize that great inter
eSts do exist Whose existence and prosperity
II IL no rart Of our reform either To
imperil or to cur;aiL We believe. and we
have the warrant Of our own past experience
for believing. that reduction Of duties will not
injurr but give more abundant life 10 all our
manufacturing industries. however much they
may dread the change In dealing with the
tariff question as with every other long-Stani-
in. abuse that has interviewer itself with our
social or industrial system. the legislator must
always remember that in tn" beginning tenn
pcratc reform is safest having in itself the
principle of growth
A glance at the tariff legislation OF our own
country ought To satisfy every intelligent stu
dent that protection has always shown its
falsity as system Of economy hy absolute
failure TO insure healthy AMI stable prosperity
to manufactures II teaches men To depend on
artificial help, on laws taxing their country
men for prosperity in business. rather than
upon their own skill and effort. 1t throws
business out Of its natural channels
into artificial channels where there
must always he fuctuation and
uncertainty. and it makes tariff system the
foot-ball of party politics and the stability Of
large business intCrc StS the stake Of every
popular election. None have recognized this
truth more fully than the wiser men who
from time to time have engaged in the so
called projected industries
Years ago Edward Everett stated in an ora
ton at Lowell that the saEacinus men who
founded the manufactures Of New England
were never fricud~ of a high tariff policy
Hon Amasa Walker. 4 former member Of
this housr from Massachusetts and one Of our
foremost writer's on economic questions de
clarcd it to be within his own personal knowl-
edge that when the proposal was made to I'M
pose the protective tariff OF 1916 the leading
manufacturers of Rhode Island. amongst whom
was Mr.. Slater. the father Of cotton spinning
one of their number. and after deliberate con
sideration, came unanimously 10 the
conclusion that they would rather
be let alone: their business had
grown up mutually and succeeded well.
and they felt confident OF its continued pros
perity il let alone by the government. They
argued that by laying n protective tariff their
business would he thrown out of its natural
channels and subjected to Huctuatlon and un-
certainty.
But as usual. the clamor Of selfish and less
far-sightcd men and the ambition of law
makers 10 uSIrp the place OF Providence Pre-
vailed The country entered on a protective
policy, with the unfailing result that govern
ment help beGOt violent demand for more
government help. The moderate tariff OF
1916 rapidly grew into the tariff of
denominations" that carried the country to a
verge Of civil discord and provoked n natural
reyulsion. Protection has run like course
since 1861. When congress began to repeal war
burdens and to relieve manufacturers of the
internal taxes. which they had used TO secure
compensatins duties on like foreign products.
there rose demand throughout the country,
without respect 10 party. for a reduction Of the
war tariff. Unable TO resist :hiS de
mand the protected industries Gaf-
fed and thwarted any reduction OF conse-
quencc until 1872. whcn they defeated q hOuse
ill that did make n substantial reduction, by
substituting senate hill which carried 4 hori-
Zontal cut OF 10 per cent As SoO.I. however. as
the election of 1874 gave the next house % the
democratic party, that bill. was repealed ~ the
outgoing republicans. and rates restored to
what they were before H. And although the
demand for tariff reform and reduction Of taxes
has ever since been burning and growing
one in the country, the protected indus
tries have exactci and received from every
publican congress elected since 1874 an in
crease OF their protection. occasionally per
mitling the repeal or the lrSscning Of tax
that.was paid into the treasury in order to keep
away from or 10 increase duties levied for
their benefit. Protection left 10 its natural
momentum never stops short of prohibition,
and prohihitOry walls are always neediiG to
lie built higher or 10 he patched and
strengthened. a protective tariff never has
and never can give stability and satisfaction
10 its own henciciarieS Evenif its victims are
too weak or too scattered to acitatc for its de
crease, those bcneiicia ricS are sure TO agitate
for an increase. When the reform tariff Of
1876 was before congress the legislature was
full of prophecies that il would destroy our
manufacturing Industries. throw labor ont Of
employment. or to compel it To work at paupcr
wages and dwarf and arrest the prosperous
growth Of the country. Every representa-
tive OF four great manufacturing states
Of New England voted against it with gloomy
forebodIngs OF its bighting effect The ra:c OF
duties provided in that tariff was much lower
than those Of the bill we here offer. What
was the result: Instead nf paralyzing the in
dustries and paupcrizing The la"or Of New En-
gland OF the rest of the country. the tariff Of
1915 gave immense VI.OT To manufacture with
steady employment and increasing wages to
labor. So that after several years experience
under it, the longest period OF stability we
have ever enjoyed under any tariff, the
representatives OF those same states with
practical unanimity voted for further reduc-
tiou OF ~ per cent. and by n twO-thirds vote
sustained the tariff OF 1857, which made reduc-
tion Of * per centum-
And 50 well contented and prosperous were
the manufacturers OF that and other sections
OF the country under the low rates Of the tariff
of 1857 that when the Morrill, bill OF ls6i took
the first backward step there was general
protest against it. Hon. Alexander Rice,
OF Massachusetts, said in the house:
"The manufacturer asks no addition
al protection. He has learned among
other things that the greatest evil next 10 4
ruinous competition from foreign sources is
an excessive protection which stimulates a
like ruinous and irresponsible competition at
home" tConGressioaal Giope le9J-oJ, page
Is5.
Stanton says the manufacturers are urging and
pressing this hill. he says what he must GER
tainly know is not correct: the manufacturers
have asked over and over again 10 be let
alone. "-lIbid 1858.
Mr. Morrill, has since said that the tariff Of
1861 was not asked for. and but coldly vel