The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1894-01-20
A CAUSE DEFENDED.
Hon. w. L. Wilson'S Opening
Speech in
THE GREAT TARIFF DEBATE.
The Reasons for Change in the Tariff
Laws at Present Existing Logi-
eally and Eloquently Set Forth
by the Distinguished
West yirginian,

LAWS III Present Existing Logl-
cafly and Eloquently Set Forth
by the Distinguished
West yirginian.
No better argument for the need
of tariff reform can be found than in
the speech made by Chairman Will
son of the Ways and Means Com
mittee of Congress when the bill to
enact such reform was presented to
the House of Representatives. In it
are incorporated many of the unde-
niable facts which moved the eoun-
try to vote for the change which the
bill would bring about. To the be-
lever in tariff reform it comes as a
confirmation of his views; to those
whose ideas run in different channel
it shows the fallacy Of their skepti-
cism. The speech is not given in full
below, but there are such from
it as are of more particular in
terest and Importance.
1--WE are here said he, with the
commissions Of the American people
to put into law that general reform
which they themselves, in their con-
stitutional methods of expression,
have ordered at the polls Mr.. Will
son even ''did not feel called upon in
opening this debate to take up for ex-
animation the details and schedules of
the bill now before the committee.
The majority of the members of the
ways and means committee did not
profess dealing with a system which
had grown up through thirty years of
progressive legislation, or at one pro-
posed stroke of legislation to free it OF
its injustice and to present a measure
responding correctly to the demand of
the American people They expected
that friends in the country would fall
away from them whenever they under
took to prepare any definite measure
of legislation. They knew from all of
their experience in the past that not
all who march bravely in the parade
are found in line when the musketry
begins to rattle. Applause. He
would not stop, he said, to inquire in
to the causes that had brought about
the present prostration of industry in
this country and demoralized to a
large extent the active business and
trade of the country. There seemed
to be some recurring cycle in modern
times about such depressions, but from
whatever cause it had originated it
was at least an embarrassment to them
in the performance OF their duty-if
for no other reason than that it had
been eagerly seized upon by the enc
mics of tariff reform to kindle hostil-
ity against the benefcent move. But
If there was ever time when the bur-
den Of taxation should be lightened, it
was at time when men were strug-
Cling for the very necessaries of life,
Applause, time when trade was
held in the paralysis of commercial
crisis. Applause. All through this
country the enemies of tariff reform
are seeking to prejudice its success by
an appeal to those whose reasoning
and whose power Of reasoning is for
the time being blunted by personal
distress. Protection, when expellee
from our revenue laws, never cam
back into them b. conscious and in
telligent assent of the American peo-
pie. When the American people were
in the agony of their great civil war it
crept stealthily in through the back
door, and it now sought to take adj
vantage of the present. commercial
distress to hold on to its position in
the revenue system of the country. y
HOW TILE TREASURY WAS DEPLETED.
Mr.. Wilson said he could not do this
country better service or make a
more substantial contribution to this
debate in the beginning than to give
some brief recital of how the American
treasury had been depleted and why
to-day it was without sufficient reve-
nues to meet the expenditures of the
federal government. Prior to 1889 the
democratic Secretary of the treasury,
Mr.. Fairchild, estimated a surplus
revenue of s104, 900, OO0 The first re-
port of his successor, Secretary Win
dom, showed a surplus revenue Of
$105, 900, 900. When Mr. Fairchild
left his seat at the head of the Treas
ury Department he turned over to his
successor Mr.. Window, an available
cash balance Stated in the present
form Of treasury statement) of over
1884, 900, 900. How was this gotten
away with? Immediately by the pur-
chase of bonds not yet due; Immediate
ly by going into the market and buy
ing up bonds at premium of from 5
to per cent. on the bonds of 1891
and from q to 20 per cent. on the
bonds of 1897. Between the fourth of
March, 1889, and the first Of October
of that year, Secretary Window pur-
chased with that surplus 500, 954, 900
of bonds at the premiums have men,
toned. In the first nine months of
the fiscal year 1891, about June 30th,
1890, and the date of his report, he
had purchased and redeemed $9s, OOO,-
900 more of bonds, paying in their
purchase $40, 900, 900 of premiums and
anticipating interest by the payment
of $12, 900, 900. Not only was the sur
plus thus dissipated in the purchase
Of bonds at high premiums, but it was
appropriated by the .Fifty-first Con-
new objects Of appropriation. That
Congress gave back as gratuity to
certain of the States the direct tax,
under which some $14, 100000 have
been paid to the States.
There was one article upon the Gus
tom list which carried into the treas
ury the largest amount, in proportion
to what the people paid as tax upon
it, viz: sugar; so raw sugar was put
upon the free list, accompanied with
a new development of the protective
system in bounty to the sugar pro-
ducers of the country. Under the pre-
text of free breakfast for the Ameri-
can workingmen, sugar was untaxed,
in order that heavier taxes might be
put upon his cups and saucers, his
knives and forks, the furniture of his
table, and the other food that came
upon that table.
Taking then these remitted taxes,
which in the meantime would have
produced from $3.50, 900, 900 to $780,
900, 900 taking the increased expendi-
lures which since that day have
to twice 5000, 900, 900, it is
not hard to see why the federal treas
ury to-day is empty and this Congress
is called upon, in the face of a great
movement to relieve the people from
taxes, to find out and devise some new
sources of taxation.
MONEY SPENT IN PENSIONS.
But the greatest drain was from the
pension bill of June, 1890,
under which the pension appropriation
had run up $50, 900, 900 year. He