Waterbury evening Democrat., 1894-04-25
MILLS TARIFF VIEWS.
ne says the workingmen Who Are Con,--s to Washington Should Turn Back and Appeal to tho Ballot otBox-Appropriation Bills In the House,

| - WASHINGTON, Apr1I %. - The closing speech of the so called general debate on the tariff bill was made ill the St nate by MT. Mills of Texas for the Democratic party. The galleries, which had been de- serted during the morning, filled up and 8 number of representatives came over from the house. A number of Repu blican senators also gave Mir. Mills close atten- tion throughout
 MT. Mills appealed to his Democratic brethren t2 pass the bill promptly and full fill the party's pledges. He ridiculed the idea of a duty being imposed for the bene- fit of the workmen and said it was merely case of going from skin to core and from core back to skin again." meaning that the manufacturers got all the benefit of tAeprotection which was demanded in the name of the workingmen.
 MT. Mills Speech.
 At the outset he declared that legislators often had to make selection between two | parliamentary measures, neither of which meets their approval It must necessarily be so, for no man could frame measure | to meet the approval of every one. Every 1 act of a legislature must be compromise | measure, and no act more so than one reg | ulating taxes
 "This bill does net meet my approval" said he, land doubt if it entirely meets
 
 of the chamber; but, such as it is, it will have my hearty support. I might want to offer some amendment to the bill, ,' he con | tinued; but whether or not he was able to secure it's adoption, he would bow to the will of his party and vote for the measure as they ordained it, should be. It was strictly party measure and had been party measure from the foundation of the government and from the foundation and | Al. If he had been chosen to construct this bill and had had the A membe on the Democratic side of the chamber in accord with his views, he would have constructed it on far different lines He would not have left coffee on the free list and would not have put cotton, coal and iron on the dutiable list. It had always been the pol icy of the Democratic party to put tax on those articles which were used by all the people and would yield the largest revenue at the smallest cost to the people.
 The Republican promise of an enlarged home market by high protective tariff had not been fulfilled. He would put on the free list metals, wool, cotton fibers, iron and steel in pigs and all yarns-every thing which equired to be manufactured. He would do this in order that the manu- lecturers of the country might manufac- ture their goods at the lowest possible price, so that they could go into the mar kets of the world.
 He declared agriculture to be the staple interest of this country, and no benefit had been derived from a protective duty by this interest. He declared that no other country could compete with us in agricul- ture. Not even lnda a could compete with us in the raising of wheat.
 It was ridiculous to say that man blowing with the fork of a tree and yoke of oxen, and who could not sickle an acre in two hours, could compete with a man who uses machinery in every stage; who by the use of one engine could cut, thrash, winnow and bag so acres of wheat in day. He told of farmer in California who could gather 200 bushels of wheat in day at labor cost not exceeding 9 cents per bushel. Yet the Republican par ty had been trying to get up a scare and had been singing little song:
 Hush, hush, hush! The bogy is coming!
 You've got no show; you'd better lie low!
 He'll get you if he can!
 The Home Market Fallacy.
 The Republican, policy, he said, was to provide home market, but there was s, ,OOO, ,OOO, ,OO0 worth of goods made in this country. Where were the people to come from to consume them? In order to carry out the Republican policy people would
  plus agricultural products. It would re- quire III 4,0O0,0O0 people to consume these products and would require the importa- tion of Chinese, Japanese, Singalese, Nal tese and chimpanZees to join Coxey' army of aborigines. [Laughter.]
 He had been taught by pious mother to read the Bible, and he remem bered hav- ing read how Elijah had attacked the 400 prophets of Baal and slaughtered them.
 It had always been believed that all of the false prophets were dead, but he be- lieved that some of them had come down to our time. He denled that the present condition of the country was due to tariff agitation. It would have come three years ago but for the large crops of 1885, 1889 and and 1890. It did not come with the advent of the Democratic party, as charged but the people felt that the squall was coming on Nov. 2, 1892, because the crop of 1892 was falling below that of 1891, and the crop of 1891 was below that of the preced- ing year, so that the country was just in the same place as in 1889.
 It was the exhausting Mckinley tax and the exhausting Instructions to agriculture that prostrated the farmers, and as they fell they threw out their arms as Sam son did, and pulled down the whole struc- ture of the temple of national prosperity. The farmers stopped buying when their crops began to fail, and when they stopped buying the manufacturers stopped pro ducing, and when they stopped producing they closed their mills and turned out their mechanics, and this had brought on the prostration.
 "EmancipatS our people, " he said "Give them chance to show their skill, their genius, as natural and heaven born right. Give them back the ocean, and then the workingmen will not be coming to Wash ington to implore the government to do something for them"
 Their proper resource was not to come to Washington anyhow, but to turn back home and appeal to the ballot box.
 A large part of the speech was devoted to discussion of the income tax, which he warmly advocated. Taxes, he said, should be proportional to the protection afforded, and if the New England states received two-thirds of tho benefits of the governments protection it was not sec tional to demand that they should pay two-thirds of the expenses of the govern ment. He made strong plea for closure in the senate and declared that if all the Democratic senators were of his opinion the tariff bill would be passed in 4S hours.
 The house resumed the consideration of appropriation bills After spending the entire day in the discussion of amend ments to the postoffice bill it was passed. Most of the time was devoted to debate on the Kyle amendment to strike. out the subsidy of S196,Oo0 for the fast southern mail. The opposition to the appropriation proved surprisingly weak, however, when the vote was taken, only 26 votes being cast against it.
 After the bill was reported to the house an amendment adopted in committee, without attracting any attention, to classi- fy at high postal rate books, serials, etc., printed as periodicals undep the name of circulating libraries, was vigorously an tagonized as blow at the circulation: of cheap literature and was stricken from the bill by large majority.
 Only two amendments of importance were in the bill as passed-one by Mir.