Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1894-01-04
THE TARIFF BILL EPORTED.
Arguments For o. loption.

ever given by any n pie to their
fiscal policy, have de- erately and
rightly decided that The existing
tariff is wrong IN rinciple and
grievously unjust il oPeration.
They have decided = freemen
must always decide, NJ the power
of taxation has 10 - III sIr consti-
tutional exercise, ekc lfor provid-
ing reyess,s III the s Iirt Of gov
ernulent. Ever. 4 tliire from
this principle il 4 departare from
the fundamental principles Of pop
ular institutions and inevitably
works out a gross inequality in the
citizenship of a.rountr5. For more
than 30 years We have levied the
largest part of our fedsral taxes in
violation of this vital truth. until
we have reached in the existing tariff
an extreme and voluminoas system
of class taxation TO which history
may be challenged to furnish any
parallel.
So many private enterprises have
been taken into partnership with
the government so mary private
interests now share in the preroga-
tive of taxing seventy millions of
people, that any attempt to dissolve
this illegal union is necessarily en-
countered by an opposition that
rallies behind it the intolerance of
monopoly. the power Of eoncentrat-
ed wealth, the inertia of fixed hab-
its, and the honest erfors Of a gen
GRAFTON of false teachings.
The bill on which the committee
has expended mqch patient and
anxious labor is not offered as a
complete response to the mandate
of the American people. It no
more Processes to be purged of all
protection than to be free of all
error in its complex and manifold
details. However we may deny the
existence of any legislative pledge.
or of the rightss~ssy ccngsess.to TO
make such pledge for-tke continu-
ance of duties that CARR with them
more or less acknowledged protec-
ton, we must recognixeth great
interests do exist whose existence
and prosperity it is no part Of our
reform either to impefil or to cur
tail.
We believe and we h:sve the war
rant Of our own past experience for
believing that reduction of duties
will not injure, but give more abun-
dant life to all our great manufac-
turing industries, however, much
they may dread the change. In
dealing with the tariff question as
withevery o. aer ong-standing abuse
that has interwoven itself with our
social or industrial system, the leg
islator must always remember that.
IN the beginning. temporal reform
is safest having IN itself the princi-
pie Of growth.
TARIFF LEGISLATION REVIEWED.
A glance at the.tariff legislation
of our country ought to satisfy ev
cry intelligent student that protec-
ton has always shown it's falsity as
a system of economy BY its absolute
failure to insure healthy and stable
prosperity to manufactures. II
teaches men to depend on artificial
help. on laws taxing their country
men for prosperity inbusiness. ratl,-
er than upon their own skill and
effort. 1t throws ,usipess out Of
its natural channels into artificial
channels. where there must always
be Huctuation ard uncertainty, and
it makes tsrif sJstcm the foot
ball of party politics, and the sta
bility of large business interests the
stake of every popular slection.
None have rtcogpized this truth
more fully than the wiser men who
from time have engaged in the So
called protected industries. Years
ago Mr.. Edward Everett stated, i'm
an grafton at Lowell, that the sa-
gaeious men who foanded the man.
ufactures of New England were
never friends of . high tariff policy.
Hon. Amasa Walkef. . former men,
Der of this house from Massachu
setts, and one Of ourforemost writers
on economic questions, declared 1t
to be within his own personal knowl-
edge that when The proposal was
made to impose the protective tariff
Of 1916 the leading manufacturers
A