St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-12-22

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21.-Tne report
OF the minority members and the ways
and means committee on the tariff bill
was submitted to the house today.
The hrst part of the report, discussing
the bill generally, was prepared by ex-
Speaker Reed. The other members of
the minority, Messrs. Burrows, Payne,
Dalzel, Hopkins and Gear. prepared
the portion of the report dealing with
special features. The report SAYS:
The most surprising thing about this
bill, which we will treat of in detail
somewhat later, is the fact that this
proposition to raise revenue Will lower
the revenue of this country S74,OO0,0 900
below the revenue Of 1898, which was
only S2,000,0O0 above our expenses.
This fact, and the other fact that
by this bill the larger part
OF the burden Of taxation is transferred
from foreigners and brought to our own
citizens, should always be kept in mind
during the discussion. Had the COM
mittee, in making what the chairman on
the floor of the house has called a
political bill, :" followed the plain, un-
compromising declaration of the party
which they represent. and abolished
protection, giving Us a tariff for reve-
nue. only, our task in commenting upon
the result of the committees efforts
would have been much more simple.
The bill would then have been a
straightforward. manly attempt to
carry out pledges, and would have
placed in issue two great principles,
and have led TO clear and
COMPREHENsIBLE DISCUSSION.
So far, however, have the committee
departed from the demands of their na-
Iioral convention that we should have
been much tempted to borrow phrase
from their own platform and designate
the bill as a ''cOwardly makeshift."
were it not that the results have been
already too serious for mere epithets.
Such a phrase. even thus sanctioned,
would be out of place in a discussion
which involves so much of Importance
TO all classes of citizens. 1t sill, how
ever, remains fact that the bill pre-
sented can in no way be justified by
people who claim to have obtained pos
session of all branches Of the govern
ment upon a distinct promise, which
they now as distinctly repudiate. If it
should be said that these pledges. SOL
emnly made on a yea and nay
vote, after full discussion,
were not intended for action,
then the breaking of the pledges
has the additional disadvantage OF pre-
meditation. If subsequent events, and
they have been numerous enough and
weIghtY enough TO startle the country,
have convinced the committee that the
Democratic platform is as utterly wrong
and indefensible as history will know it
to be, then it is a great misfortune to
this country that the committee did not
have the courage to openly abandon the
false doctrine and leave the country un-
disturbed, so that it might convalesce
from the shock Of
ITS GREAT MISTAKE.
But the committee, instead of pro-
ceeding ih It's great work of abolishing
protection and preserving the people
from the load of taxation which they
have always aYerred was the result of
protection, has presented a bill
WHICH Is only dHOILeT IaIlu-IQker-
ing bill, the like of which has dis
turbed the conditions of business so
mgny times the last thirty years.
The Democratic attorney of the North
ern district of New York comes down,
as he has a right to. and declares that
from a protection standpoint barley and
malt cannot go together under the same
ad valorem, and promptly the commit
tee raises the tariff taxes from % per
cent TO 80, to protect the manufacturer,
though it must lessen the revenue. So,
also, some one has presented persua-
sively the cause of boards, planed,
tongued and grooved, to the committee,
and, although the lumber passes in the
plant from the saws to the planners, the
work of the men who manage the saws
Is unprotected, while the work Of the
men who run The planes is shielded by
protective tariff taxes. These are bat
instances of corrections made where the
ear Of the committee could be had. and
are keys to the notions on which the bill
was formed.