Morning journal and courier., 1893-12-22
u u " VI Akh U11HA lis
From All Quarters.
Views OF TIE MINORITY
The Tariff Bill is Against
Capital and Labor.
COMMODORE STANTON RESTORED.
Will Command the North
Atlantic Squadron.
TROOPS ARE READY FOR THE FIELD.
TROOPS ARE READY FOR THE FIELD.
Provisional Defences Are
Most Effective.
MINORITY TARIFF REPORT.

| The Tariff Bill as Reported by the
Democratic Members OF tho Ways
| and Means Committee Is Unjust
| 1t Is a Departure from the Demand
| of the Democratic National Conven.
tion-Free Raw Materials is an
| Elastic Term-If the Tariff Elemen,
| be Lowered SO Will Labor and Cap.
| 1tal-To Put Coal ON the Free List
| is Without Reason and Agains,
Reason. ~"
WASHINGTON, Dec. 21.-Before the ad.
| journment of congress to-day the minority
report on the tariff bill was presented by
Mr.. Reed. The views as expressed by ex-
Speaker Thomas B. Reed starts out in
characteristic fashion az follows:
The most surprising thing about this bill
is the fact that this proposition to raise
revenue will lower the revenue of this
country $74 ,000, 900 below the revenue of
1893, which was only $4,000, 900 above our
expenses.
This fact and the other fact that by this
bill the larger part of the burden of taxa
ton Ia transferred from foreigners and
horne by our own citizens, should always
be kept in mind during the discussion.
Had the committee, in making what
the chairman on the floor of
the house has called ''political
BILL" followed the plain, incorporating
declaration of the party which they repre-
sent, and abolished protection, giving us a
tariff for revenue only, our task in COM
menting upon the result of the committees
efforts would have been more simple. The
bill would then have hesn a straightfor-
ward, manly attempt to carry out pledges,
and would have placed in issue two great
principles and have led to clear and COM
prehensible discussion. So far, however,
have the committee departed from the
We should have been much tempted to
borrow phrase from their own platform
and designate the bill as "eowardly
makeehift," were 1t not that the results
have been already too serious for mere
epithets. Such phrase, even thus sane
toned, would be out of place in Discus
sion which involvs. SO much of Importance
to all classes of citizens. 1t still, however,
remains fact that the bill presented can
+ in no way be- justified by people who claim
to have obtained possession of all branches
of the government upon distinct promise
which they now as distinctly repudiate.
solemnly made on yea and nay vote, after
full discussion were not intended for &C
ton, then the breaking of the pledges has
the additional disadvantages of premedita-
ton. If subseq uent events-and they have
been numerous enough and weghty enough
to startle the country-have convinced the
committee that the democratic platform is
as utterly wrong and indefensible as his
tory will know 1t to be, then 1t Is great
misfortune to this country that the com
mittee did not have the courage to openly
abandon the false doctrine and leave the
country undisturbed, SO that it might con-
valesce from the shock of its great mis-
take.
But the committee, instead of proceed
ing in Its great work of abolishing pro-
lection and preserving the people from the
load of taxation which they have always
averred was the result of protection, has
presented q bill which Is only another
tariff tinkering bill, the like of which has
disturbed the condition of business so
many times the last thirty years. It is a
had the bill been for revenue only, in the
only sense possible for that term, the peo-
pie of this country might have seen at one
glance whether they desired the one policy
or the other, and the question might have
been settled once for all, and the country
| might have attained to that repose, stabil-
ity and certainty which one business pros
perity go much needs.
That, however, has not been made the
| Issue, but instead of that a newer and
| fresher plan has been devised which those
| who stand by principle and the Chicago
platform may still designate, and do still
| designate, as plan to foster and coddle
| American industries, to maintain classes,
4 10 &av ofh
poses than revenue only.
As to this new plan, the very first CUES
ton one is disposed to ask is why disturb
| existing business relations If there
Is to be no change in prinoiplel
If we are still to have protection,
why take this time to cause a
read Iustment when the business conditions
are of such character that the greatest
amount of disaster will be the result.
Were 1t proposed to make radical change
and cause the business of the country to
be conducted on basis there might posi-.
| bly, be arguments adduced and plans pre-.
sented which would be justi6able and sat.
| isfsctory; but If protection be the OBJ cot
whyschoose this time of all others to sub
stitute 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 il
accord;
The other and fresher plan has all ths
faults which the trainers of this bill charged
npon the old, and very few of its virtues
1t is open to all the derisive and harsh
apithets with which the present system
used to be overwhelmed. It taxes the PEG
| pie with tariff taxes. 1t creates, or rather
proposes to maintain, what they used Il
call privileged classes, and is defeated b
it's authors by arguments and expression
strangely like those which they used 81
| hotly to denounce. A manufacturer Il
told that the duty will protect him, ant
| his claims are listened to on that basis ani
are argued with him on that basis, just q
in the brave days of old.
The new plan also involved q new
method of encouraging manufacturers by
| giving them what are called "free raw ma
terials," 30 that what goes into the mil
ton pays all the taxes. The manufactur
srs pay no taxes on what they buy and tn
| people the equivalent of taxes on all the
} purchase.
1t unfortunately happens also that "fre
raw materials" is an elastic term, AM
what Is one mans free raw material 1
another mans finished product. The man
ufacturer in Massachusetts, lie told that
Ia to be encouraged by having free lumbe
to build his factory and to pack hi
, goods, but inasmuch as that yer
: lumber thus made free is the Main
manufacturers finished product, no WOE
, der the democrats of Bangor, the mills O.
;; the Penobscot being unable to move a saw
0 denounce "class legislation" with a ne'
9 | appreciation of what class legislation reall
: means. And with the jewellers on th
Psnobacot sympathize the lumbermen
9 | Wisconsin end Michigan, the Pacific slop:
! | Alabama. Georgia and Florida. SO ais
5 the miners in Michigan, struggling til
% very moment with starvation, realize tn,
/. the most odious class legislation there ca
possibly be ia the legislation which pr
10 tects labor in the mill and leaves 1t in Il
" mines to tie charity of the great cities.
These so-called Stree raw materials
r | free wool, free coal and free iron, are n
put on the free list with any reference, d
DO rect or indirect, to raising revenue. The
DO | are placed there to encourage manufactu
80 ers who are to be compensated for any 10
90 in this market by the markets of the wor
69 where they will have the chance to stru
Z Y gle with the cheaper labor of the old wor
Of with whatever energy they may have X
- after the struggle at home with that sar
" cheaper labor let into our markets by
lower tariff which does not give us t
q, compensation even of larger revenue.
rs These delusiye advantages are to be Civ
manufacturers at the expense of the mi
lst ers who dig ont the ore and mine the CO
at the expense of the farmers who ra
the crops, and the railroads which trs
polt all these products. With these
;, vantages, thus obtained at the expense