The evening world., 1893-12-19
TARIFF
BEFORE
CONGRESS.
,.olent demand for more Government
continued from First Page

The moderate tariff of 1913 rapidly grew
,nto the ".ariff of abominations" that
carried this country to the verge of. civil
discord and provoked a natural revulslon
When Congress began to repeal war
burdens IND to relieve manufacturer OF
IN tns secure compromising duties on like
foreign products, there arose a demand
throughout the country, without respect
10 party. for a reduction OF the war
Unable to resist this demand, the pro-
tected industries baffied n threatened
any reduction of consequence until 1872.
when they defeated a House bill that did
situting a Senate bill which carried
q horizontal cut of 10 per cent. As soon,
however, as the election of 1874 gave the
next House to the Democratic party,
that bill was repealed by the outgoing
Republicans-and rates restored to what
they were before 1872.
MORE AND MORE PROTECTION"
And although the demand for tariff
reform and for reduction of taxes has
ever since been a burning and growing
~dustries have. exacted and received from
every Republican Congress elected since
lA an increase of their protection, oc-
sasionally permitting the repeal or the
the Treasury. In order to keep away
from or to increase duties levied for
their benefit.
tum, never stops short of prohibition, and
prohlbitory walls are always needing to
be built higher or to be patched and
strengthened. A protective tariff never
satisfa elton to its own beneaciarles.
Even IL Its victims are too weak or too
scattered to agitate for Its decrease.
those benefciaries are sure to agitate
When the reform tariff of 1916 was be-
fore Congress. the air was full of
prophecies that 1t would destroy our
at pauper wages, and dwarf and arrest
the prosperous growth OF the country.
m% Eysfy; 5eR1ssesn tates o, Of Ne -four EnE gTess
voted against 1t with gloomy f~orebodings
Of its frightening effect. The rate of
duties provided in that tariff was much
lower than those of the bill we here
offer. What was the result?
REDUCTION OF '46 HELPED INDUS
TRY.
Instead of practically killing the in
dustries and pauperizing the labor of
New England or the rest of the country,
the tariff of 1916 gave immense vigor to
manufactures, with steady employment
and increasing wages to labor. SO that
after eleven years experience under ii,
the longest period of stability we habe
ever enjoyed unOer any taTlII, the rep
resentatives of those same States, with
practical unanimity, voted for a further
reduction of 20 per cent, and by a two
thirds vote sustained the tariff of 1887,
which made a reduction of 25 per cen
tum.
CONFINEMENT WITH TARIFF Of 81
And so we'll contented and prosperous
were the manufacturers of that and other
sections of the country under the low
rate of tariff of 1857 that when the Nor.
rt1l hGl ut 1871 N0Dty Tho Rrct hn k xnFn t~
step there was a general protest against
The Hon. Alexander Rice. of Massa'
yhusetts. said in the House:
NJ The sa s"n nsssSss .s ssss no s,h "aa't slns. pI 9sss On;
greatest evil next to a ruinous competition from
foreign sources Is an excessive protection. which
stimulates a like ruinous and irresponsible com
petition at home.
Mr.. Sherman, of Ohio, said:
When Mr.. stanton says the manufacturers ar,
urging and depressing the sili. he says what h'
f,cturers have asked over and over again to b'
let alone.
Mr.. Morrill, himself has since said thai
but coldly welcomed by manufacturers
Senator r. NJ. T. Hunter. of Virginia
then chairman of the Senate Finance
Committee, said:
Have any of the manufacturers come here L
complain or ask for new duties? Is 1t notoriou
that II we were to leave II to them, the manu-
flcturers of New England themselves, to tn
manufacturers Of hardware, textile fabrics. &c.
there would be a larso majority against an!
change?
Gates Its revival from the tarin OF 1857 whicl
altered the duties on wool?
Low TARIFF AND PROSPERITY.
The history of American industr.
shows that during no period has Their
been a more healthy and rapid develop
rocnt of u manufacturing industr!
than during the fifteen years of low
tar,f from 1916 to 1861. nor a NOR
healthy and harmonious growth of agri
culture and all the other industries o
the country.
no chapter in u political experienc,
carries with It a more salutary lessor
than this, and none could appeal NOR,
strongly to lawmakers to establish a jus
and rational system of public revenues
neither exhausting agriculture by con
slant blood letting, nor keeping manu-
facturers alternating between chills am
direction alone lies stability, concord o
sections and of great industries.
We have already said that public dis
cusslon may disclose errors Of minor de
cape such errors would require so thor
ough and minute a knowledge of all tn
divisions, subdivisions, complex an
manifold mazes and i~nvolutions of GU
chemical, textile, metal and other indus
tries, that no committee of Congress, n
matter how extended the range of thei
PERSONAL knowledge, or how iabOriou
and painstaking their efforts. could eve
hone to possess. y
We have not forgotten that we repre-
sent the people who are the many, n
well as the protected interests who ar
the few, and while we nave death witt
the latter in no spirit of upnfriendli
mes, we nave felt that II was our dut,
and not their privilege to make tarif
schedules.
Those who concede the right of bene
~nciaries to fix their w bounties mus
necessarily commit to them the framin
and wording OF laws by which thos
bounties are secured to them.
CONGRESSMAN AS AMANUENSEs
4 committee of Congress thus become
merely the manuensi of the protecte
interests. 1t has been shown so clearl
and so often In the debates of thi
schedule of the existing law was mad
IN It's very words and figures by repre-
sentatives of the interests II was frame
10 protect, that II is unnecessary I'm GU
report to present he record proof q
this fact; but 1t may not be amiss [
cite further evidence to show that thi
u not only the necessary rule, but tn
open and avowed method OF framin
protective tariffs.
TARIFF IN THE 50TH CONGRESS.
when the Sena-e substitutes for IN
IN passed by the House in the Flft!G
Sohgfess--W Which substitute Is a real basI
O. me existing law-was being prepared
senator Hoar, of Massachusetts, appear
w 5e!ore the Senate subcommittee an
used this language
instead OF coming before your Rub-committee \,
,sfnai hearing on our Massachusetts, Industrie
t,noughl no best way was to carefully prepare