The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-02-02

Nobody knows so well as do how much
| have failed to present even OF my own
comprehension Of the great argument
(which should control this vote. | have
shid not a word Of the great fall of prices
which has alway4 come from the cOmpeti
tiou OF tho whole world rendered possible
by protection and substituted for the COM
petion OF u single island Ihave said not a
word of tho greet difference between the
attitude of employers who find their own
workmen their best customers in their
own land, and who are, therefore, moved
by their own best interests to give their
workmen fair wages, and those who sell
abroad and are therefore anxious for low
wages at home, and on whom works unre-
strctedly that pernIcious doctrine, as
wages fall profits rise, These and much
more have | omitted, for there is limit to
all speaking.
We know, my friends that before this
tribunal we all OF Us plead IN vain, Why
we fail let those answer who read the
touching words OF Abraham Iincoln's
first inaugurel and remember that he
plead IN vain with these same mon and their
predecessors Where he failed we cannot
expect to succeed. But though we fail
here today, like our great leader OF other
days in the larger field before the mightier
bllDulisl Wllltu VIII lluhll1 anu lbIbNbl w
cine this question, we shall be more than
couquorors; for this great nation, shaking
off as it has once before the influence of II
lower civilization. will 90 on to fulfill its
high dectiny until over the south as we'll
as over the north, shall be spread the full
measure OF that amazing prosperity which
is the wonder Of the world.
But is not it e dreadful business to tax
people? Not necessarily. Taxes raised for
a good purpose-like a schOolGouse, Il road,
an army, for payment Of pensions, for the
public debt, and indeel for all the pur-
poses of II free p4Ope-aro not only not
bad, but very good. Taxes to build pal.
ace for the kings mistress or to place a
barbarian queen on a deserted throne
would be dreadful: but we arc not likely,
owing TO series OF fortunate accidents,
to be called upon to do even the last.
Ga the question of the constitutionality
of tariff taxation shall spjnd no time.
have not been here a. long as have with
out learning that "cousttutionality' aud
stitutionalityp on the other side of
the chamber are moro phrases and that
when gentleman of the other side, with
swelling voice, denOdnce5 the tariff as un-
constitutional he merely means that he
does not like it.
Inasmuch as nobody in hundred years
has even asked the supreme court to pass
on that question, it seems hardly worth
while to discuss it. II the father Of his
| country, fresh from the convention, in
| signing the first tariff tax bill, signed an
uuconstitutionahct, the gentleman from
Georgia Mr. Turner) and the whole DEM
| ocratic party are better than George
Washington-a thing not hiterto charged
upon them.
Ruk do NOT tim naonIa nov Tho torif
taxes, and do they not go into the pockets
of mouopolists? Do you believe the con-
sumer pays the tax, or the foreigner? Well,
| am going to be perfectly frank about
that and answer, sometimes one aud some
times the other, and sometimes both. The
first thing the foreigner does when tariff
tax Ia laid is to see il he can get into our
market without paying anything. II so
then he will not reduce his prices. II he
| cunnot, he looks over his margin of profit
and sees If he can by abatiug some part
Of these profits get his goods in. So far
as ne does abate them no pays the tax. So
| far as he does not the rest Of tue tax is paid
by the consumer.
WHAT THE TARIFF DOES
Here let me meet one other question, and
let me meet 1t fairly. We are charged with
| having claimed that the tariff alone will
raise wages, ana we are pointed triumph
antly to the fact that the wages of France
aud Germany, protected by tariff, are
| lower than England, free of all tariff, and
to America with high tariff and still
| higher wages We have never made such
a claim in any such form. Free traders
have set up that claim for us in order to
| triumphantly knock it over. What we do
say is that where two nations have equal
skill and equal appliances ana market of
nearly equal size and one Of them can hire
labor at one-half less. nothing but n tariff
can maintain the higher wages, aud that
| we can prove
If theae be two boles of goods side by
side made by the same kind Of machinery
and with the labor of the human being IN
both OF the same degree of skill, and if the
labor Of one bale cost only half, for exam
pie, as much rs the other, that other bale
can never be sold until the extra cost of
the costlier labor il squeezed out of it pro-
vided there is an abundant supply Of the
product of the cheaper labor. II the bale
with the cheaper labor Of England in it
meets the bale with the dearer labor of
| America in it, which will be bought Mt
cost of produc;ionY | leave that prob
lem Just there. The sale of the English
bale will be only limited by England's pro-
ductiou.
mo, no; tariff does not make the blind
see the lame walk, nor does it raise the
dead to life: but it is good, sound, sensible
policy for the United States, for its growth
in riches and civilization and il it is
stricken down the people who in their sec
ret hearts will think us the most short
sighted, viii be the foreigners who profit
by our folly.