Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1894-02-08

Now for tire Senate.
As with the financial bill Of last sum-
mer's extra session, the House Of Rep
resentatives has acted with commend
able promptitude and unanimity in
passing the Wilson bill, though, to our
thinking, it was blunder to saddle that
measure with such rider as tho income
tax provision. Leaving entirely out Of
consideration all that may be said pro
or con regarding the policy Of taxing
incomes, per SC, we hold that the iucor-
poration Of such measure into the
Wilson bill was q mistake just to the
extent that its Interpolation is calculated
to interfere with or delay final action
upon the one issue of overwhelming I'M
purtance-the reformation of the tariff.
1t is creditable to the patriotism Of
the Democratic members of the House
that, with so few exceptions, those Of
them who were opposed to this rider,
subordinated their sentiments to the
dominant issue, and, finding their efforts
to amend the bill in this particular in
effectual, gracefully yielded to the in
evitable without prolonging tho consid-
grafton Of the bill farther than to e&-
press their disapprobation of this feature.
They have done we'll. The imperative
demand of the nation is for such relief
from Mckinley taxation as it was within
the power of this Congress, consistent
with tho revenue needs of the govern
ment, to afford, and to have that relief
as oxpeditiously as practicable; and to
this demand the House has responded.
The Wilson bill, as passed by the
House, provides, briefly, for general
reduction Of duties to about the level Of
the act of 1SS3-that is to put them
back, in the main, to where the
Mckinley act found them, and to change
Specific duties largely to ad valorem;
! the addition of wool, coal, iron ore and
some other raw materials to the free
list; the abolition of the sugar bounties;
the repeal of the so-called reciprocity
clauses of the Mckinley act, and the
imposition of a tax on incomes in excess
of $4,000 per annum. This is sub.
stantially the character of the bill as il
now goes to the Senate.
What will the Senate do with it? Will
that body, for once, in view of the
emergency, put on its hustling clothes
get move on itself, and follow the
praiseworthy example Of the House
Here is the hitch. 1t is not too much tc
say that there is a prevailing apprehen,
sion that the Senate will. as on the
financial bill, dawdle away weeks and
months in impotency, while the COLDER
opportunity to infuse new life into the
industries and trade of 65,000,000 o.
waiting people is stranded on the shoal
Of senatorial courtesy" and volubility
1t ought to be possible for the Demo
cratic majority in the Senate, even a
the temporary sacrifice of some of thi
''courtesy," to get through with the bill
in good season, remembering that wha
the people of the country especially
want is promptltude, SO that they ma,
know what is before them in time Il
reap the advantages of the prospectiv
legislation in the business of the curren
year.
Rather unexpectedly we find one O
'he most hopeful utterances, from
Democratic point of view, regarding th
prospects of the bill in the Senate, il
the editorial columns of Fridays Nev
York Tribune, This mouthpiece of Re
publicanism warns its readers
10 face the fact also that in the Senate tn
same narrow southern prejudces and til
same strong leaning toward the theorit
of Populists will sway majority of th
Democrats, will control the Democrat
caucus, and thus will dictate the votes {
members who profess to be determine
never to support "a measure so unjust
their constituents. 1t would not be straug
if the bill should be passed without an
really essential modification by the DEM
Gratis of the Senate, in obedience to IL
same southern dictation which has MOI
than once enacted tariffs destructive
northern industries.
Which, translated into plain Englisl
means that tho Tribune, which speal
with more authority for its party tina
any other organ, is ready to throw U
tshe sponge and concede that the RepuI
licans of the Senate cannot material
obstruct the passage of the bill.