The Monmouth inquirer., 1894-04-19
THE TARIFF DEBATE.
SENATOR HILL MAKES a SOMEWHAT
SENSATIONAL SPEECH.

scored Both Gresham and the President
! wAsHINGToN. April 10-Thep proceedings
/ in the senate from the opening to the clos
i ing of the session were fuJ of interest.
| The first in point of time was the swear
1 ing in of Mr. Walsh as q senator from
! Georgia to serve out the term of the late
Senator Colquitt.
The chief interest of the day centered in
Senator Hil's speech. That the tariff
| question has not lost all its fascination
was shown by the large crowds drawn to
the senate. The speech was mainly di-
rected against the income tax, although
Mr.. Hill spoke of the humiliation OF the
Hawaiian question, which he attributed
to the fact that the head Of the state de-
partment was Republican. He opposed
a federal income tax, but had no objection
to state income tax laws.
Senator Hili's Speech.
He intimated that the retention of the
income tax feature in the tariff bill would
result in the defeat of that BILL but if de-
feat met the whole bill the responsibilities
must fall ON those who favored the income
tax He was ready to vote for the Mills
bill or any other Democratic measure, and
predicted that the failure of the Demo-
cratic party to reform the tariff would re-
suit in the defeat, the Generalization and
the annihilatiou of the Democratic party.
The passage of the income tax, however,
would lose every northern state to the
Democrats and the result would be that
not only would they lose the house of rep
resentatives, but the presidency as well.
The senate galleries were packed when
Mr.. Hill began his address on the tariff, in
which the usual arguments were adj
vanced. The sensational portions of his
address were his illusions TO the president
and Secretary Gresham.
In speaking of the foreign policy of the
administration he said ut is not denied
that some mistakes have occurred. Our
foreign policy, especially that relating to
Hawaii, it must be admitted, hasn't met
the expectations of the people. A sense of
humiliation prevailed when the project for
the restoration of deposed monarchy was
unfolded by the administration, and graft
fication ensued when its abandonment or
failure was reluctantly announced, inhu-
enced largely by an aroused public senti-
ment.
Hawaiian Policy a B1under.
sThat unfortunate contemplated policy
was blunder and blunder is sometimes
worse than a crime. 1t was, however, the
natural consequence which might well
have been anticipated from that other mis-
take in placing the department of state in
charge of Republican, distinguished
and estimable though he may be, whose
public services have always been identified
in opposition to the Democratic party who
was without sympathy for its traditions
and purposes, and whose political convic-
tions upon the disputed public questions
of the day, if changed at all, are carefully
concealed.
'It is to be regretted that the president
should not have been able to find in his
own party some safe and honorable states
man in whom he and his party could have
placed confidence-one of Democratic in
stincts and training, whose management
of foreign affairs would have reflected
credit upon the country and would have
avoided the PRONUNCIATION of an un-Amer-
lean policy-a departure from Democratic
precedents-whichw was sought to be forced
upon an unwilling people"
He spoke of the repeal of the federal cleo
tions law as fulfllment of the party's
pledges and triumph for the just doc
trine of state rights and indorsed the re-
peal of the Sherman law.
No Time For Partisanship.
Coming then to the main question-tar-
iff reform-he said that revision should be
approached with circumspection and with
a realizing sense of the changed condition
of the country since 1887 and 1890
An extreme reduction of tariff duties at
time when the treasury was swollen
with surplus of 500, 900, when the
country was reasonably prosperous, when
all our industries were in motion and all
our workingmen were employed, assumed
a different aspect and presented a different
question when proposed now, with large
and growing treasury deficit instead of a
surplus staring us in the face, with our
industries paralyzed, our manufactures
closed, our workingmen idle, and follow
ing upon the heels of one of the most dis
astrous financial panics in our history.
What was safe and prudent and wise
then it would be criminal folly to attempt
now The present was no time for parti-
sanship, and Democrats and Republicans
alike should strive to solve existing prob
lens in spirit of broad patriotism.
In the face Of the prostration of private
industries and in the presence of such q
paralysis of general business as the treas
ury deficit attests and prOlongs, this BILL
as framed by it's authors and as passed by
the house, sought to double the deficit by
discarding customs revenue and to fill the
void with an income tax.
Income Tax Denounced.
The rest of his speech was given up to
the income tax question, and his opening
words defined his position in unequivocal
and forceful language: Against such a
scheme-un i'll timed and mis-
chievous, suddenly sprung upon the coun-
try in the hour of it's distress, un-Demo-
cratic in its nature and socialistic in its
tendencies-I enter the protest of the peo-
pie of the state of New York They utterly
dissent from any proposal to get revenue
for the general government by taxing in
comes. Their dissent is practically unan-
imous and altogether implacable."
He intimated that the tariff bill was con-
structed on lines laid down by the admin
istration; that it was an anomalous state
of affairs when the president should be
able to give congress information as to
what had occurred in committee of the
house, and said that sin these latter days
the distractions between the functions and