Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-01-09

rose to address the House on the tariff bill,
the first reading of the bill being disp ns'
with and the time limit of the hour being
dispensed with on motion of Reed.
! The tariff reform, Wilson said, hsd been
fought out before the American people as
no other question had been fought out.
We are here, said he, with the commits
lions Of the American people to put into
Law that general reform that they them
selves, in their constitutional methods of
expression, have ordered at the polls. He
did not feel called upon to take up for ex-
animation the details and schedules of the
bill nov before the House. The majority
of the members of the ways and means
committee did NO, profess in dealing with
the system that had grown up through so
years of progressive legislation, and at one
proposed stroke to free it of its injustice
and the present measure was responding
correctly to the demand of the people.
He would not inquire into the causes that
brought about the present prostration of in
dustry ia this country. There seemed
some recurring cycle in modern times about
such depressions. 1t had been eagerly
O., lied upon by the enemies of tariff re-
form TO kindle hostility against that great
and benefcent movement. 1t there was
ever time when the burden of taxation
should be lightened, it was when men were
struggling for the very necessasies OF life,
when trade was held in the paralysis OF
= commercial crisis. Applause.
All through the country the enemies OF
tariff reform were seeking to prejudice its
success by an appeal to those whose power
of reasoning is for the time being bluuted
by personal suffering and personal distress.
Protection when expelled from our revenue
laws never came back into them by the
conscious and intelligent assent of the peo-
pie.
Prior to 1889, the Democratic secretary
of the treasury, Mr.. Fairchild. estimated
that the surplus revenue was Sl04 ,00O,O 600,
and the first report of his successor. Secre-
,ary Window, showed surplus revenue Of
Slo5 600 600 MIR. Fairchild turned
over to Mr.. Window an available
cash brlance of over Sls5,000, 900,
and how was that gotten away with! I'm
mediately by the purchase of over $685.
600 ,OOO of bonds not yet due, some at .
premium of from five to eight and others
u, premium of 25 to 90 per cent. Secre-
try Window in the first nine months OF the
fiscal year 1891, purchased sos. 900 600
more bonds, paying Sl0,OOO,0O0 in
premiums and anticipating the interest by
the payment of Sl2,O00,0O0. The surplus
was also dissipated by the 5lst Congress
picking out new methods and new objects
for appropriation. That Congress gave
back us gratuity to certain states the di-
rect tax, under which Sl4 200, COO was paid
to the states. Under pretext of free
reskfast for the American workirgman,
raw sugar was untaxed, in order that heav-
ier taxes might be put upon his cups and
sauceIs, his knives aud forke, furniture or
his tools, and other food that came upon
his table. Taking these remitted taxes.
taking these increased expenditures, it was
not hard to see why the federal treasury
today i, empty. The creates. dam
was from the dependent pension bill of
June, 1890, under which the pension ap-
preparation run up 0,000s year. Wilson
declared that the bill never would have
passed if there had not been an overflowing
treasury, which it was decided to empty If
there had not been devised along with it
new scheme of taxation under which those
other pensioners, protected industries,
would get the biggest pull and largest part
of the taxes levied to pay the pensions.
Applause, Democratic.