Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1893-08-04
ATKINSON'S PROJECT.
his PLAN Is A COLD TARIFF FOR
REVENUE SCHEME.


The Moral Question Ignored-It Would
Neither Relieve the People Nor Garry
Out the Chicago Platform.
The tariff reform committee Of the Re
form club, which printed its proposed
tariff bill as number Of Tariff Reform,
has just printed Edward Atkinson's
scheme as another number Of Tariff Re-
form. 1t is supplemented by brief re-
view by the Hon. e. Ellery Anderson,
chairman of the tariff reform commit
tee. After complimenting in unstinted
terms Mr.. Atkinson's ability in arrang-
ing statistics SO that they show clearly
the sources Of revenue and the direction
of expenditures and simplify the problem
OF levying duties to produce the re-
quired revenue, Mr.. Anderson says:
But is this all there is Of this great
question? The tariff message of 1887,
the obstinate and nearly drawn battle of
1888, the uprising of 1890, the rout Of the
Mckinley bill proclaimed by the election
of house well nigh unanimously Demo-
cratic, the great campaign of 1892, the
declarations of the Chicago platform, the
nomination of Grover Cleveland and his
triumphant election after bitterly con-
tested battle, in which the tariff reform
issue was debated, argued and presented
to the people by an endless army of ora
tors on both sides-is all this to go for
naught, or must we accept the peoples
verdict as a mandate to their servants
that their will is to be made the law of
the land?
''The essential point of the great con-
test of 1892 was that it was unjust to
compel the mass of our consumers to pay
increased prices to American manufac-
turers and producers in order to enable
those engaged in these particular indus
tries to make them profitable. This was
the burning point Of the campaign.
ut is no longer pretended, even by the
most dyed in the wool protectionist, that
the consumer is not compelled to pay an
increased price on all articles of domes-
tic manufacture which enter the field of
production. Ever since the tariff reform
bill proposed by the tariff reform COM
mittee made its appearance the protec-
zionist organs have flooded the country
with statements that the proposed reduc-
ton of duties would enable the hated
foreigners to deprive Americans of their
market; that they would be driven out
of business or be compelled to reduce
| wages, and that the foreign goods, even
after paying the rates contained in the
proposed bill, could be sold in America
at prices with which our manufacturers
could not hope to compete. This is the
burden of the song of manufacturers,
declaring that if the reduction proposed
by the reform bill become law they
will no longer be able to serve their
American customers.
cit must therefore be conceded that
| American consumers pay more for all
these manufactured articles referred to
above than they would pay if these arti-
CITES could be imported either free from
| duty or subject only to moderate rates.
| It is not asserted that the increased price
paid by the consumer is always equal to
the duty. The only assertion is that the
| price of the domestic article to the con-
| sumner is higher than the price of the
same foreign article, or its equivalent.
"It was against the injustice of this
compulsory exaction of tributes, small in
the detail, but enormous in the aggre-
| gate, levied at all times, and from every
| one, that the people rebelled. They de-
| clared by their vote in 1892 that they
| did not choose to be taxed in order that
special industries might flourish. We are
in full sympathy with this rebellion.
We plead guilty to feeling of deep re-
sentiment against the iniquitous system
| which it was designed to abolish. While
| we approve entirely Of the protection of
American industry, we are opposed to
| its protection at the expense of the Amer
| lean consumer.
with all due respect to Mr.. Atkin-
| sons scheme, he seems to have lost sight
Of this phase of the great question. We
go with him and agree with him entirely
in his advocacy of the enlargement of the
free list, not only by including therein
the great elements of industry, but by
| adding thereto all articles which produce
but little for revenue. We welcome to
the free list, that commercial roll of hon
| or, Mr.. Atkinson's numerous recruits
from classes A. B, G, D and E, but we
insist that the heavy burdens imposed
by the present tariff on manufactures of
silk. of wooden, of cotton and of metal
| shall and must be largely reduced, not
for the purpose of increasing the reve-
nue., but for the purpose of relieving the
people. Any tariff reform measure which
fails to repeal the Mckinley bill willnot
fulfill the pledges which were given to
the people in the Chicago platform, and
on the faith Of which Mr.. Cleveland was
elected to Office.
1T is quite true that the bill proposed
by the tariff reform committee does not
cover all the requirements of revenue,
but fortunately we are not reduced to
the alternative of robbing the people or
| submitting to deficit. An increase of
the internal revenue taxes on spirits and
beer, duty on sugar, on tea and coffee
or an income tax can be resorted to with
out subjecting the consumer to the gross
| wrong Of being compelled, in addition to
the taxes required for public revenue, to
pay constant tribute to the favored
American producer"