The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1893-12-02
Chairman wilson's views.

Chairman wilson's views.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 2T.-Mr. Wilson, the chairman
of the ways and aud means committee. has pre-
pared the following statement which was given ont
this morning with the bill
The committee have welcomed inf ormaiiom and
counsel from every trustworthy source. and while
they do expect their bill TO escape just criticism
in all of its details they do present it to the country
as the result of months of patient. anxious toll,
and of an honest desire TO discharge their duty,
purged of all faint local and personal favoritism
or prejudice. its main features are two: First the
adoptionw crever it seemed practical. of ad vaorem
instead ofspecfc duties; secondly the freeing from
taxes of those great materials of industry that lie at
the basis of production. Specific rates of duty are
Objectionable for these reasons: They frequently
conceal Il rate OF taxation too enormous to be sub
mitied to if expressed in I'D va,orem terms as the
duty OFFS cents hundred pounds on saltin bulk,
which amounts to oyer 30 per cent on common
necessary of life. They always bear heavily on the
common article used by the masses and lightly on
the expensive article consumed by the rich, as l
tax Of so on all houses would be little or nothing
on the great mansion and very high on the humble
home. And contrary to common belief, specific
duties lead TO greater frauds in administration for
counting and weighing at the custom house are
done by the cheapest and most easily corrupted
labor while ad vaorem rates assessed by the best
paid and most responsible appraisers. The ad valo-
rem system has worked well in practice, is essen
TALLY the fair system because it is tax upon the ac-
tual value of an article, and was declared by Mr..
Clay himself to be in theory and according to every
sound principle justice entitled to the preference
and INDICATED by long trial
The boldest innovation of the bill is its large free
list of raw materials. Taxes upon production are
double wrongs. They gather aud cumuate on the
consumer 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 abundantly or cheaply as we can. No pos
sible competition can interfere with own pro-
ducers few miles in the interior of the country.
Remoeness from the sources of supply is in itself
enough disadvantage to any section of the country
without further burdens in tariff taxes Cntaxed
ores, coal, lumber wool and other fbres must i'm
mensey stimulate production in certain parts oil
our country. The thin edge of American manu-
features has entered every country. With re-
lease from taxes upon their materials there
is no limit to the growth of our foreign
trade This will more than compensate to the home
producers of raw material, who, tariff or no tar
if control all the interior of the country for any ap
pretended loss of markets anywhere along the sea
parent 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 of trusts to keep
down production TO the home market The work
inRman can see whether his interest is with sys-
TEN that represses production and robs him of en-
ployment or with system that gives natural and
healthy play to production and emancipates him
from trusts and like combinations of capital
As to details of the bill will briefly recaptulate
the salient changes of the several schedules In the
chemical schedule we have transferred to the free
list quite number of articles used in manufactures
] the mos important of which is sulphuric acid
one OF the corner stones of all chemical industry
The duty on castor oil is reduced from 50 to 30 cents
per gallon and the dnty on linseed oil, which was
secretly raised TO 80 cents by The conference COM
1 mittee on the Mckinley bill. alter each house had
openly voted for a lower duty, put at - cents
| gallon. Pig lead being reduced from to cent a
! pound. lead paints correspondingly reduced
/ The Mckinley bill increased the duty on opium
| prepared for smoking to SIP pound In the vain
| hope OF leSsening its importation. The custom
house officers ON the Pacific coast declare that this
increase of duty has simply placed in the hands of
smugglers the bringing in ofopium to the democrat
zation of the custom service and the loss of over
1 half million revenue. The duty proposed is be-
ieved to be colectabe and will put the traffic I'M
de r government control and supervision.
In the plttory schedule substantial reductions are
made. Plain white ware is dropped from the high
schedule in which it mysteriously crowded itself.
DECORATED ware Is reduced from 60 to 45 per cent.
undecorated from So to 40.
In common window glass, where close combina-
tions have kept up the prices to consumers under
the shelter of duties averaging hundred per cent,
! a reduction of more than one-half has been made
in all the larger sizes There IS doutf that these
rates will permit very healthy growth of the in
dustry here.
In plate glass reductions are made, the largest
sizes from so cents to so cents per square foot of sill
yered, from 60 TO 50 cents.
In the iron and steel schedule we begin with free
ore The discovery OF the immense deposits of bes-
semer ores in the lake region aud of foundry ores in
Alabama has rapidly swept US TO the leadership of
the world in the production ofiron and steel and
brought near at hand our undisputed supremacy in
the great field of nianufactures The use Of steam
shoyels reduce iae eosi Of mining g poin! where