Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1893-12-20

WAsHISGToN, d. c., December 10
The following is the majority report Of
the Ways and Means Committee:
The American people, after the full
est and most thorough debate ever
given by any people to their fiscal pol
icy. have deliberately aud rightly de-
cided that the existing tariff is wrong
10 principle and grieyously unjust in
operation. They have decided, as free
men must always decide, that the power
Of taxation has no lawful or eonstitu-
tional exercise except for providing
revenue for the support Of the govern
ment Every departure from this prln-
ciple is a departure from the funda-
mental principles Of free institutions,
and inevitably works out a gross inc
quality ia the citizenship Of a country
For more than so 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 the
extreme and vOluminOUs system Of class
t2xatiOn 70 which his DRY may be chal-
lenged 20 furnish any parallel. So
many private enterprises have been
taken into partnership with the govern
ment, so many private interests now
share In the rich prerogative OF taxing
seventy millions Of people, that any at.
tempt 90 dissolve this illegal union is
necessarily encountered By an Opposi-
ton that rallies behind the intolerance
OF monopoly, the power Of concentrated
wealth, the energy Of fixed habits and
the honest errors Of
A GENERATION OF FALSE TEACHING.
The BIN on which the committee has
expended much patient and anxious
labor is not offered as a complete re-
spouse 20 the madate or the American
people. It no more processes TO be
purged of an protection than to be free
from an error Ia its complex and mani
fold details. However we may deny
the existence Of any legislative pledge
or the right OF any Congress 70 make
such pledge for the continuance OF du-
ties that carry with them more or less
acknowledged protection, We must rec
ognize that great interests do exist
whose existence and prosperity it Is no
part Of our reform either 70 imperil or
Curtal. We believe and we have the
warrant OF our own past experience for
believing that reduction Of duties will
not iniure but give more abundant lie
to an our great manufacturing indus
tries 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 social and industrial
system, the legislator must always re-
member that ln the beginning temper
ate reform is safest, having ia itself
the principle of growth.
A glance at the tariff legislation Of
our own country ought to satisfy every
intelligent student that protection has
always shown it's falsity as a system Of
economy byits absolute failure 70 insure
healthy and stable prosperity to manu-
facture. 10 teaches men to depend on
artificial help Of laws taxing their
countrymen 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 be fuctuation aud
uncertainty and 10 makes a tariff system
the football of party politics aud the
stability Of large business interests 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 tho sO-called pro-
tected industries. Years ago, Mr..
Edward Everett stated, in an GRAFTON
&C Lowell. that the sagaciOus men who
founded the manufactures OF New Eng
land were never friends OF q high tariff
policy. Hon. Amasa Walker, former
member Of this house from Massa-
chusetts, aud one OF our foremost
writer's on economic questions, declared
70 to be within his own personal know
ledge that when the proposal was made
90 impose the protective tariff Of 1916,
the leading manufactures of Rhode Is
land, among whom was Mr. Slater the
father OF cotton spinning in this coun-
try, met 90 the counting room OF one OF
their number, and after deliberate con-
sultation came unanimously 20 the con-
clusiOn that they would rather be let
slOne as their business had grown up
naturally and succeeded as we'll and
thew felt confident Of its continued pros
Uerlty, II let alone by the government.
They argued that by laying protective
tariff their business would be thrown
out of its natural channels and be sub
jected Go fluctuations and uncertainty.
But as usual the clamOr OF selfish and
less far sighted men, and the ambition
of law makers TO
UsURP THE PLACE or PROVIDENCE,
prevailed. The country entered on a
protective policy with the unfailing re-
suit that the government help begOt
violont demand for more government
help. The moderate tariff OF 1916 rap
idly grew into the "tarif of abOmina-
lions" that carried thu country TO the
verge Of civil discord and provoked a
natural revolution. Protection has run
a ike course since 1861. When Con-
rrees began to repeal war burdens and /
relieve manufacturers Of the Internal !
taxes which they had used to secure
compensation duties on like foreign |
products, this aroused a demand |
throughout the country, without re-
sDect to party, for a reduction Of the |
war tariff.
Unable to resist this demand the /
protected industries baiiled and thwar- /
ted any reduction OF consequence until /
1872 VIXEN they defeated House bin /
that did make a substantial reduction |
by substituting a Senate bill which /
carried a horizontal cut Of ten per cent /
AS soon however, as the election Of 1874 4
gave the new House % the Democratic /
party that bill was repealed by the /
outgoing Republicans and rates restored /