Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-04-12
HALE ON TARIFF.
Speaks for Maine Against the
Proposed Wilson Bill.
He Shows That It VIII Work Ruin to
Her Industries.
Benefits Canada and Ssuih, and threatens
the North.

| W ASHINGTON, April ll.-ln the Senate
today, Senator Hale of Maine spoke in op-
position to the Wilson tariff bill He had
a large audience, was attentively listened to
by the galleries and members and was
warmly applauded and congratulated.
Mr.. Hale began his address with q refer
encc to the fact that since his service in
Congress began six different general tariff
bills had been reported to Congress and dis
cussed by its two branches, and alluding to
the deep public interest always felt in such
measures, he said he felt safe in making the
statement that at no time for 25 years had
any tariff bill aroused SO deep feeling or
so strong an opposition among the Ameri-
can people as the Wilson tariff bill.
NEARLY every senator about me-" he
continued, '.will bear me out in say ing that
his mail is loaded with protests against the
provisions of the BILL and among the rea-
sons for this be mentioned was that the peo-
pie of the country are being educated by
observation and experience to more thor
ough understanding of the relation which
all our industries bear to each other. Re-
ferring to the doctrine of protection to
American labor and American industries as
involving no kind of preference for one
kind of labor above another Senator Hale
continued:
"For myself, Mr.. President, am free
| to say that while l am familiar with, and
| believe that can fairly construe, the tariff
| plank in the last platform of TIE Democratic
party as propounded by the Chicago con-
vention of 1892 and the letter of accept
| snce of President Cleveland which follow ed
said convention l find myself hopelessly
confused and lost in the attempt which
have made to reconcile either or both of
these with the provision of the bill, either
as passed by the House of Representatives
or as tinkered and manipulated by the SEN
ate committee which has upon its back the
burden of the bill which is now before us.
Before going into details touching the re-
markable provisions of this bill, let me say
that l, in common with other senators and
with thousands of the American people
have studied the bill with painful attention
in order to find out any reason or cause for
| its provisions, and am compelled to say
that from this study three things become to
me apparent.
First, it is bill to protect the South and
punish the North.
| Second, 1t is bill for the benefit of the
European manufacturer and producer at
the expense of our own manufacturer and
|
producer.
| Third, And this touches my own state, it
is in every paragraph that deals with the
products of the Dominion of Canada as
brought in competition with the products of
our own people along the Canadian border,
Simon-pure, almost unadulterated bill for
the benefit of Canada and to our CORE
spending hurt.
After the bill reached this house till the
day that the finance committee reported it,
the people of the North apprehe nded those
results. The makeup of the finance COM
mittee of this body and the evident deter
mination that every item in the bill should
be settled by the action of the majority
members of that committee, deter
mination carried out, as l am
informed to tlis extent that
upon not single amendment
was formal vote of the whole
committee taken, but that everything was
settled in the conclave of Democratic mem
hers, was all in line with those propositions
and it is no wonder that profound feeling
of alarm penetrated the entire country when
it was realized that the consideration of A
tariff bill touching the industries of 70,000,-
| 600 of people was committed practically to
the hands cf three or four senator's from
Southern states, who, Whatever be their
merit and tbeiI high character, had not,
either from their own observation or the
conditions of the people, had an opportu-
nitv to realize the magnificent growth and
extent of the manufacturing industries of
the North.
| Producing statistics from the census of
1890 to support this view of the case, Mr..
Hale presented instances to show where. be
ssid the bill discrin mated in favor of the
North and against the North, and contended
though he only submitted few, that the
bill was full of them from beginning to end
In the course of this showing he said:
''In the article of sugar, which the Nc
Kinley bill presented free to every break
fast table in the land. providing bounty
| for the Southern producer for this almost
entirely Southern product, the Senate COM
mittee has largely restored the old duty
thereby putting up the price of the article
to every consumer; has repealed the bounty
to the Southern planter upon the avowed plea
that the revenue tariff from taxed sugar
is needed in the treasury and upon the con-
sideration well understood by everybody
that if this could not be done, the votes of
the two senators from the sugar. planting
state of Louisiana could not be reckoned
upon in aid of the passage of the bill
through this body.
In looking for a corresponding article
largely of Northern production, as sugar as
largely Southern production. l find the
| grest industry of lumber, and contrast the
treatment which this article has received at
the hands of the Democratic House of Rep
resentatives and the Democratic committee
on finance of the Senate 18th what | have
just stated. has been accorded to sugar In
magnitude, indeed, the Southern industry
bears no comparison with the Northern ir-
dustry.
The totsl value of the sugar product, iu-
cluding sll n fining. is sl2s 600 600. willie
the great lumber industry of the country
largely found in the Northern states,
amounts to the sum of $3.50, 6,240 la7, stand
ing at the head Of the great products of tha
country, being higher than ether iron and
steel, slaugh'ering AMI meat psciing and
Touring, while the yearly wages paid ri e 70
rho b;gh 6On,o of s195 134 sla