The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1894-04-13

Against such q scheme" he said,
unnecessary, ill-timed and mischievous
suddenly sprung upon the country In
the hour Of its distress, un-Democratic
in its nature and ~socialistic in its tend
encies Il enter the protest of the people
of the state OF New York. They utterly
dissent from any proposal to get revenu
for the general government by taxing
incomes. Their dissent is practically
unanimous and altogether implacable.'
An Anomalous Condition of Affairs
He intimated that the tariff bill was
constructed on lines laid down by the
administration; that it was an anomal-
Gus state Of affairs when the president
should be able to give congress informa-
ton as to what had occurred IN a COM
mittee of the house, and said that lin
these latter days the distinctions be-
tween the functions and prerogatives OF
the executive department on the one hand
and the legislative department on the
other do not seem to be always observed.
The truth is that the first information
which congress had of the alleged de-
tails of the proposed bill was in the
message itself.
But the strangest part of this I'M
precedented proceeding was that in fact
that very date of the message, to-wit,
Dec. IA, 1893, neither the full committee
of ways and means, nor the Democratic
members thereof, had agreed upon any
income tax or upon other internal taxa
ton.
Is PopuIist Demand.
Inquiring as to the source of the de.
mand he said that nothing was heard
in its behalf IN the part OF the two great
political parties in the campaign Of
1892. Neither the Republican or DEM
ocratic platform proposed any such
method of raising No prom
inent Democrat or Republican sug-
gested any such measure. Its approval
was limited to the platform OF the
newly formed Populist party and its ad-
vocacy was restricted to Populist ora-
tors"
He protested against the Democratic
party being made a tail to the Populist
kite, and denied the right of a Demo
cratic congress to make new principles
for the party not sanctioned by its rep
r~esentatives in national convention duly
assembled.
''The substitution of internal or direct
taxes for custom house taxation meant
the reduction of the wages of American
workmen to the European standards.
1t meant the degradation of labor; 1t
meant the deprivation to our workmen
of the comforts and luxuries of life to
which they have been accustomed"
In outlining his position he said that
not one dollar of tariff taxation should
be imposed above what is necessary for
the needs of the government economi.
cally administered, but whatever those
needs are, the necessary there"
for should be supplied from
Tariff Taxation and Thai Alone,
save and except the taxes upon liquor,
ole%omargarine and tobacco, to which
the country has long been accustomed,
and, which for obvious reasons need
not be disturbed.
In conclusion he defined his position
in these earnest words:
81 stand ready to support any reason.
able measure for tariff reform framed
within the lines and based upon the
principles which / have here partially
indicated, and which were fully sci
forth in my speech in opening the
political campaign i'll Brooklyn on Sept,
10, 1892. I stand today where I stood
then. l have nothing to add and moth.
ing to retract.
II will cheerfully vote for the Mill,
bill and join with you in making any
material reductions Of duties therein.
am ready to waive all minor differenc,
of details which do not involve a ques
tion of principle.
An Important Crisis.
.Mr. President this is an importan
crisis in the history Of the Democratic
party. The failure of the tariff revision
means the defeat, the Generalization,
not the division and the humiliation o
our party. Moreover it means, as W
believe, injury to the best interests 0
the country. Let those who insist upo,
injecting into this bill this odious an
un-Denocratic feature of an income ia
"a relic Of wal legislation-pause an
reflect upon the possible consequence
of their understandable demands.
"They should realize that it NEAR
the loss of the control Of this senate no.
nearly equally divided between the tw
great parties; it mean the loss of til
next house of representatives; it NEAR
the loss of the electOra! votes of Ne
York, New Jersey, Connecticut an
probably of every Northern state, an
finally it lei the
Loss of the Next Presidency
and all that it implies. They shouI
recollect that the income UaA feature
Justly regarded in New York and mar
other states as a scheme of spoliatit
and unwarranted sectional attack upt
their citizens or means.
) They shonld consider whether the
is anything about an income tax
sacred, SO desirable, so popular, SO ju
,, and so defensible that its maintenan
is worth the risk which they are pl
cipitating. Let them remember ID
and ultra demands then made upon I
a Democratic party to which it could 4