The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1893-12-09

Of the Changes Made in the Tariff
by the New Bill.

Chairman Wilson Explains the Aims OF
the Committee and What the Effects
of the New Revenue Measure Are TO
Be-A Benefit to Laborers and Manu.
facturers.
Chairman Wilson has issued the
following statement in regard to the
new tariff bill:
The Democratic members of the
/ Committee on WAYS and Means have
felt, as none others could feel, the
momentous responsibility resting up
on them, and the magnitude, difiieul-
ty and the delicacy of the duty as
signed them; preparing tariff bill
for 10000, 900 people. The bill they
were called on to reform is vast
and labyrinthian system of class
taxation, the elimination of thirty
years control of the taxing powers
by few great interests. gathering
into their train host OF petty toll
gatherers. 1t was carefully framed
to prevent, as long as possible, what
its authors called "any monkeying
with the tariff" by which he meant
any successful effort of the people to
undo or to lessen the bounties which
its beneficiaries were permitted to
write therein, in their own words
and their own figures.
1T TRANSFERRED TO THE FREE LIST
proper and fruitful articles, where
most of the taxes paid by the people
were received by the government and
greatly increased the rates of those
articles, where all or most of the
taxes paid by the people went into
private Golfers, and it was bolstered
about by many defenses, chief among
which are swept and garnished
treasury and swollen and colossal
scale OF permanent expenditures;
such are the conditions that con
fronted us at the threshold of our
work.
The committee have welcomed in
formation and counsel from every
trustworthy source, and while they
do not expect their bill to escape
Just criticism, they present it to the
country as the result of months of
patient, anxious labor and an honest
desire to discharge their duty, purg-
ed of all faint of local and personal
favoritism or prejudice.
IT'S MAIN FEATURES ARE TWO:
;, First-The adoption wherever it
seemed practicable of advalorem in
stead of specific duties.
Secondly-The freeing from taxes
Of these great materials of industry
that lie at the basis of production.
Specific rates of industry are objec.
tionable for these reasons: They fire.
lquently conceal rate of taxation
too enormous to be submitted to, if
expressed in advalorem terms. as the
duty of eight cents a hundred pounds
on salt in bulk. which amounts to
over eighty per cent. on a common
necessary of life They always bear
heavily on the common article used
by the masses and lightly on the ex-
pensive article consumed BY the rich,
as tax Of $50 on all houses would
be little or nothing ON the great man
sion, and very high on the humble
home. Aid contrary to common be
lief specific duties lead to greater
frauds in administration for count
ing and weighing at the custom
house are done by the cheapest and
most easily corrupted labor, while ad
valorem rates are assessed by the
best paid and most responsible ap
praisers.
THE AID yALoREM SYSTEM
has worked well in practice, is essen
italy the fair system, because it is
a tax upon the actual value of an ar
ticle, and was declared by Mr.. Clay
himself to be in theory and accord
ing to every sound principle of JUS
tice entitled to the preference and
vindicated by long trial. The boldest
innovation of the bill is its large free
list Of the raw materials. Taxes upon
production are double wrongs. They
gather and cumulute on the consum-
ers of the finished product. They
hurt labor by narrowing the market
for what it produces. Coal and iron
are the foundations of modern indus
try. Material progress is measured
by the amount of their consumption.
No other country can supply them as
abundantlv or cheaply as we can.
No possible competition can interfere
with our own producers a few miles
in the interior of the country. Re
moteness from the sources of supply
is in itself enough disadvantage to
any section of the country, without
further burdens in tariff. Untaxed
ores, coal, lumber, wool and other
things must immensely stimulate
production in certain parts of our
country. The thin edge of American
manufactures has entered every
country.
WITH RELEASES FROM TAXES
on their materials there is no limit
to the growth Of our foreign trade
This will more than compensate the
producers of raw material who. tariff
or no tariff, control all the interior of
the country from any apprehended
loss of markets anywhere along the
seaboard. Its incalculable advan
tage to labor is apparent In every
great line of manufactures we can
produce in six months to nine months
enough for our home market. We
can get rid of our surplus only by
foreign trade. AS long as we have
taxes on the materials of industry,
we cannot build up that trade, hence
the other alternative trusts to keep
down production to the home market.
The working man can see whether
his interest is with a system that re
presses production and robs him of
employment. or with system that
gives natural and healthy play to
production and emancipatcs him
from trusts and like ordinations of
capital
AS to details of the bill / will
bwiefy recapitulate the salient chan
ges of the several schedules. In the
chemistry schedule, we have trans
ferred to the free list quite mum her
OF articles used in manufacturing,
the most important of which is sui
phuric acid, one of the commodities
of all chemical industry Tht duty
on castor oil Is reduced from IS to
80 cents per gallon, and the duty on
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