The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1894-07-14
Mr.. wilson's speech.

House Of Representatives on Satur-
day upon the German Briee tariff
bill is not only defense Of the orig
inal Wilson bin. 1t is mastery
arrangement of the Senate and a
complete, pointed and overwhelming
reply to Senator Germans defense
of his mongrel measure.
The tariff bill is returned to the
House, where it originated, and
where, under article |, section 7, of
the constitution all revenue bills
must originate, with 634 amend
ments 1t is not to the number of
the amendments, however, that Mr..
Wilson objects, but to their charac-
ter. Most of them are unimportant
and can be readily accepted by the
House. But some few Of these
changes are of such moment that
they have served to alter entirely
and radically the main characters
tics of the bill and to destroy it as
Democratic measure. These charac
teristics, as explained by Mr.. Will
son, are two in number.
The bill was based first, he said,
upon the principle that in gathering
revenue taxes under tariff those
taxes should be levied upon and
gathered from finished products,
and not from successive taxes rolled
up and repeated at every stage in
the process of manufacture. Taxes
upon the raw imaterial, he truly
said, are taxes upon the occupation
of the working people of the country,
and no country which does not allow
its working people free, untaxed ac-
cess to the materials of industry can
fully supply its own market or hope
to contend for the markets of other
countries. This was the demand of
the Democrats of the United States
in their national convention. And
it was in response to this demand
that the Wilson bill was framed and
passed by the House of Representa-
tives. This principle of the bill has
been eliminated from it and des-
troyed by the Senate. OF all the
principal articles of raw material put
upon the free list by the Democrats
of the House only two remain in the
transformed bill which comes back
from the Senate, namely, wool and
lumber.
The other main feature of the bill
which has been destroyed by the
Senate and for which Mr.. Wilson
contends is ad valorem rather than
specific duty. There is not State
in this Union, Mr.. Wilson declares,
that would dare to impose specific
taxes on acres of land or on the
dwellings of the people, by which a
worthless acre would pay as much
tax as the richest in the State and
by which the humblest cottage would
pay the same tax as the most luxur-
liant mansion. The result of the
system of specific duties, he added,
is to increase the burden where it
ought to be diminished and dimin-
ish where it ought to be increased
in justice and equality.
The Senate has not only largely
restored the system Of specific du
ties, but in many cases has imposed
the most insidious and fraudulent
system made up of compound of
specific and ad valorem duties.
In reply to Mr.. Germans slur on
the House of Representatives about
the crude, hasty and i'll considered
bill it had passed Mr.. Wilson de-
clares that ''no tariff bill ever went
from the House of Representatives
in all its history to the other cham
Der on which longer and more care
full and more detailed and more con-
scientious work was bestowed than
upon the bill which passed this
House on the 1st of February"
While Mr.. Wilson comedies to the
Senate, of course, its constitutional
right to amend the tariff bill, he
claims for the House the right to de-
eide upon the main character and
intent of this revenue measure. The
members of the House represent the
people who pay the taxas, and are
elected directly by them. The Sen
ators represent sovereign States and
not the taxpayers. 1t is therefore
the plain duty of the House of Rep
resentatives to stand by the taxpay-
ers and obey the mandates of the
people.-Sun.