Virginia free press. (Charlestown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1832-1916, 1894-07-11
MIR. WILSON SPEAKS.
He Insists Upon the Main features ~
the Wilson BiII--The House Does MOI
Concur In the Senate amendments

the House with amendments IL was 'SAN
to the ways and means committee, when
reported it to the House Saturday with the
recommendation that the House nOn-concur
in the Senate amendments and agree to the
request of the Senate for conference. Two
hours debate on the committee report was
opened by Chairman Wilson, who was fol-
lowed by Mr.. Reed and others. The motion
to non concur was carried unanimously, the
Republicans not voting. Speaker Crisp an
nounced as the conferees on the part OF the
House Representatives Wilson, McMillln,
Turner and Montgomery, Democrats and
Reed, Burrows and Payne, (Republicans,).
The Senate conferees, previously appointed
by the Vice-P President, are Messrs. Voor-
bees. Harris, Vest and Jones, (Democrats,)
and Sherman, Allison and Aldrich (Repub-
licans).
HON. wM. L. WILSON'S SPEECH.
Mr.. Speaker, l shall not attempt to make
any detailed explanation Of the difference be-
tween the bill prepared and passed by the
House and the bill as returned to us with the
amendments of the Senate. After five months
pendency in the Senate the bill has been re-
turned to us with some six hundred and
thirty-four amendments. Probably four hun
dred and fifty or more of those are to the tar
if schedules, the customs schedules and the
residue of such administrative sections as are
left in the bill and to the internal-revenue
sections of the bill. So that the number of
amendments to the tariff bill itself are not ma
terially greater than the number proposed by
the Senate to the Mckinley bill in 1890.
4 great many of those amendments are i'm
material corrections or proposed corrections
of phraseolOgy a slight increase or a slight
decrease in some duty which is not of very great
importance so far as the taxpayer or the treas
ury is concerned, but there are a number of
amendments that are very importan' in them
selves, and that make very material changes
in the general scheme and idea of the bill as
it passed the House and the burden of taxation
upon the people of the whole country.
1t has been said that the bill which passed
the House on the 1st day Of February last was
hqstily gotten up, was not a well considered
bill, and that therefore it was incumbent upon
the Senate to take the crude bill offered by the
House and to perfect it by such amendments
as the Senate deemed proper TO add or propose
to it. So far from that being true, l speak
within the bounds of correct statement when
say that no tariff bill ever went from the
House of Representatives in all of its history
to the other chamber on which longer and
more careful and more detailed and more con-
scientious work was bestowed than upon the
bill which passed this House on the LIST of
February.
l say this without saying anything, of
course, as to the character of the bill itself
But 1 simply want to say for the House of
Representatives that in the discharge of their
constitutional duty as the immediate repre-
sentatiyes of the taxpayers of this country, and
in the discharge of the mandate of the people
of the country when they sent the members
with their commissions to this House they
performed their work honestly, carefully, de-
lberately and to the best OF their capacity
Applause on the Democratic side.
perfectly agree, Mr. Speaker, with some of
the remarks of the gentleman from Maine
(Mr. Reed in tho first part of his speech this
morning. agree with him that the duty of
framing revenue bill, bill to impose taxes
upon the people, is both by the express letter
Of the constitution and by the very theory of
free government a duty peculiarly and IN the
first place exclusively resting upon those who
are chosen by the people themselves. 1t is the
very definition of free government that all
taxes shall be levied by the vote of those who
Immediately represent the payers of those
taxes.
And while under our constitutional system
the Senate may propose amendments it is
none the less duty of this House to endeavor
to frame and secure the passage of a tariff bill
as satisfactory to it and as Just to the people
of the country as if it was the sole Trainer oil
such q bill and as if the sole responsibility rest.
ed upon it. Applause on the Democratic
side
Now, Mr. Speaker, the bill that went from
this House, whatever may have been the i'm
projections of its details, was based upon two
clear and intelligent principles.
1t was based first upon the principle that
in gathering revenue taxes under a tariff those
taxes should be levied and gathered from
/ finished products and not upon what are call
ed raw materials Taxes upon raw material:
are taxes upon the occupation of the working
people of the country and no country which
does not allow its working people free, untax
ed access to the materials Of industry can fully
supply its own market or hope to contend fol
the markets Of other countries in the world
Loud applause on the Democratic side.l
Aud so, sir, the bill that passed through the
House was based upon that great fundamental
Democratic idea that we should gather what
ever revenue we need under a tariff system
from a revenue tax upon the finished product
and not from successive taxes, rolled up and
repeated at every stage in the process of man
ufacture, upon the materials that working
men have to use in the employment Of their
labor. The bill that came back to us from the
Senate does not recognize that principle. Il
has transferred to the tax list quite a number
of materials of industry which this House de-
sired and desires to give free and untaxed Ia
the working people of this country. OF all tine
chief free materials provided in the House bill
only wool and lumber come back to us undis-
turbed by the Senate bill.
There was another important aud equally
Democratic principle in the House bill, and
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