The advocate., 1894-03-07

In Reply to a Circular Of the Senate FL
nanOe Committee,

"UHEtA AApAA0AbNeFsAA9eD1
pOrters, merchants, chambers Of commerce
and boards Of trade, public officers, labor
organizations of working men, and agri-
culturists. The questions asked referred
20 'Output, capital invested, prices, wages,
rates Of import duties," etc. Lieutenant
Governor Daniels took occasion TO reply TO
some Of these inquiries in the following
Language. .-EDIToR.
TO Hon. d. w. VOORHEES,, Chairman Finance
Committee, U. S. Senate. Washington, d. O.:
DEAR SIR:-Your circular letter Fela-
tive to finance aud tariff 10 received; but
as / am not engaged in importing or
manufacturing / am unable to furnish
answers in detail to the lists Of questions
contained therein.
The products Of my farm which I have
on hand for sale, taken together, are not
worth what they have cost, leaving out
entirely the question Of interest on in
vestment. These products are horses,
hogs and wheat. Hogs are worth a
little more than cost, the other two not
near as much. The legislation OF the
past twenty years has been Rt the dictR-
tion and for the benefit Of other interests,
and this more than any other factor Is
what has brought the agricultural and
lRboring Classes 20 their present deplOra'
bic condition. There has certainly been
q great "OverproduCtion" during these
yaarH, but not Of quRdrupedS or cereals.
The "overproduCtion" that is affecting
us ia an oysrproduCtion Of millionSir0s,
Of impoverished farmers and idle la
borers; and whatever lS devised and en-
forced for producing the first, nocssssr-
ily and inevitably produces the others.
While the tariff at present Is q minor
question, as q long.sufering people are
bearing more burdens from vicious leg
islation than anything within the pos
Hibility Of tariff changes, tho tariff laws
Of the sos did as much to produce the de-
velopment Of that decade 90 any one fac
tor. A restrictive tariff on foreign
financial ideas, enacted few years aRo,
would have prevented stupendous and
inexcusable injustice from being am
posed, in the interest Of Q few money
lords and their foreign associates and
cooperation who dictated ii, on the
great majority Of the American people;
but the financial theories and wishes OF
those who make the "pauper labor Of
Europe" continue to hold the post Of
honor on the "free list"
The Wilson tariff bill is not tariff re-
form measurement what the demo-
cratic party promised or the people want
or expected; but it is q little better than
nothing, and people viii generally un-
derstand that it was only passed to tap
psasO the populace" and prevent reason
able reductions in taxation; but people
who have been forced by the injustice Of
law makers to study these questions, are
not going to be satisfied with q bill that
imposes rates averaging about the same
as those of the republican war tariff Of
1882, which was passed on o promise to
repeal It as soon as thO necessity for the
additional money it would raise should
be gone. If, by the action OF the senate,
the bill should be revised to meet popu-
lar expectation and demands, it will be
evidence that a maj ority Of that body
are willing to carry out their pledges on
q minor question; but whether such
action will convince the constituents of
some western senators, that their recent