The Portland daily press., 1894-04-12
Is What MI. Hale Calls the Wilson
Tariff.
MASTERLY ARRAIGNMENT OF THE
MEASURE BY THE MAINE
SENATOR.
The Industries of This State Marked for
Merciless Slaughter-Foreign People
Favored at Our Expense-A Bill to Pro-
tect the South and Punish the North.


Favored at Our Expense-A Bill to Pro-
tect the South and Punish the North.
Washington, April 11.-In the Senate
today, after the usual grist.of minor
matters were gone.through with, Sena-
tor Hale of Maine was givensthe floor to
speak in opposition to the tariff bill.
Mr.. Hale began his address with ref
erence to the fact that since his service
| in Congress, began, six different general
| tariff bills had been reported to Con-
gress and discussed by its two branches
and alluding to the deep public inter-
est always found in such measures, he
said he felt safe in making the state
menu that no time for rs years had any
tariff bill aroused SO deep feeling or
so strong an opposition among the
American people as the Wilson tariff
bill.
"Nearly evey Senator about me, he con-
tinued, will bear me out in saying
that his mail is loaded with protests
against the provisions of the bill, and
among the reasons for this he men
toned was that the people of the ooun-
try are being educated by observation
and experience to more thorough un-
derstandiug of the relations which all
our industries bear to each other. Re-
ferring to the doctrine of ;. protection to
American labor and American indus
tries involving no kind of preference
for one kind of labor above another, Sem
ator Hale continued:
@For myself, f,ssMr. President, I am free
b. hot vuhiIQ I familiar with
and believe that can fairly construe,
the tariff plank in. the last platform of
the Democratic party as propounded by
the Chicago convention of 1892 and
the letter sof acceptance of President
Cleveland which followed said conven-
tion, I find myself hopelessly confused
andslost in the.attempt which I have
made to reconcile either, not both. of
these with the provision of the bill,
either as passed by the House of Repre-
sentatives or as tinkered and manipnla-
ted by, the Senate committee, which has
upon it's back the burden of the bill
which is now before us.
Before going into details touching the
remarkable provisions of this bill let
me say that ], in common with other
Senators and with thousands of the
American people, havesstudied the bill
with painful attention in order to find
out any reason or cause for its provis-
ions, and l am compelled to say THAT
from this study three things become to
me apparent
First-It is bill to protect the South
and to punish the North.
Second-It is a bill for the benefit of
the European manufacturer and kproduc-
er, at the expense of our manufacturer
and producer.
Third-And this touches my own
state; it is in every paragraph that
deals withssthe products of the Dominion
of Canada as brought in competition
with tie products. of our own people
along the Canadian border, a Simon
pure, almost unadulterated bill for the
benefit of Canada, and to our correspond
ing hurt.
of 1S9Ossto support this view of the case.
Mr.. Hale presented instances to show
where, he said, the bill discriminaued
North, and contended, though he sub
mitted only few, that the bill was full
of them from beginning to end. In the
course of his showing he said:
SIN the article of sugar, which the
Mckinley bill presented free to every
breakfast table in the land, providing
a bounty for the southern producer for
the Senate committee has largely re-
stored the old duty, thereby putting
up the price of the article to every con-
sumers repealed the bounty given to the
southern planter upon the avoWed plea
that the revenue tariff from taxed sugar
is needed in the treasury, and upon the
consideration well understood by every
body that il this should not be done,
the voice of the two Senators from the
sugar planting state of Louisiana could
not be reckoned upon in aid of the pas
sage of the bill through this body.
In looking for a corresponding article
largely of northern production, as sugar
was largely a southern production / find
the great industry of lumber, and l
contrast the treatment which this article
had received at the hands of the Demo-
cratic House of Representatives and the
Democratic committee on finance of the
Senate with that 1 have just indicated
as to sugar. In magnitude indeed, the
southern industry bears no comparison
with the northern industry. The total
value of the sugar product, including
all refining is S120,000,000 while the
great lumber industry of the country
largely found in the northern states,
amounts to the enormous sum of $780,
349.1 .127, standing at the head of theagreat
products of the country, being higher
than either iron and steel, slaughtering,
meat packing and Touring, while the
yearly wages paid rise to the high figure
of Sl25, Jb4, 5l0. UpOn GnlS gfeaG arClCle
the House of Representatives and the
finance committee of the Senate have
given up the revenue of S1,100, 900 year
" from foreign importations, and have
with ruthless hand placed every form of
lumber, with the, exception of trivial
portion, known as planed lumb ber, upon
the free list. This act is made the more
unreasonable and cruel by the fact that
the Mckinley bill, in dealing with
this great product, instead of increasing
the duties largely reduced them. in many
cases to the extent of 5 per cent, before
the bill was made up. 1t has heretofore
been the work of craftsmanship in
dealing with this question to give no
present advantage to Canada's interests,
but to apply the protective system to all
Canadian products by such scale of
duties as would stimulate the indus
tries of our own border and shut ont
those of Canada, thereby bringing in,
day by day, with added force to the
minds OF the Canadians the considera-
tion that only by political union and the
advantages which the United States
would derive from it could Canada be
given the open markets of our own
great people.
So it has come about that reciprocity
treaties which have been negotiated
with Canada and which had at their
,x,k hos rhaop ooIJoI onp, ,p,ar