The Windham County reformer. (Battleboro, Vt.) 1876-1897, 1894-08-10
The Tariff Adjustment.

point of final passage, or OF defeat II the trus
combinations are capable of defeating 1t. Tn
. delay and the prOtracted wrangng have beef
viewed by the country with an impatienc
that have ripened into general disgust. AM
vet the fact is that action has been mucl
speedier on it than Republican action on tn
Mckinley bill was four years ago, though TN
Republicans task was not one to compare II
difficulty with this. All they had to do wa'
to find out what the favored interests wanted
and write it into the bill,while the Democrats
making thousands of reductions of duties
have had to fight on every one with thest
stages or both. The Republicans had goot
margin of majority in both houses, especial
" after the acquiescence of senators of natu
rally low tariff views in the west had been
purchased by means of the Sherman silver
law, while the Democrats have been at the
mercy of three or four men in the senate
And vet in spite of the enormous difference
in the tasks, the Wilson bill was prepared in
committee and reported and passed through
the house more than two months earlier than
the Mckinley bill was even reported. More
than twice as much time was then allowed
for open debate in the house rs was allowed
on the Mckinley bill. Weeks of time were
consumed in Republican tilibustering after
the bill reached the senate, whereas the DEM
ocrats attempted nothing Of the kind
against the Mckinley bill, indulging
only in legitimate debate with moth
ing like Guay's speeches whose avowed
purpose was to use up time and make delay.
Long and neXcusably as the senate commit
tee kept the bill tied up, it was not longer
than the Senate committee did the Mckinney
bill, and the final fact is that the bill APP
proaches its final passage now a few days
ca rlier that the Mckinley bill was reported
from the Senate committee.
But for the peculiar situation the country
is in, no one would have thought of complain
in of the slowness with which the bill has
progressed. Rather the complaint would have
b cen the other way. But exhausted by the
panic that Frustrated business like raging
ever last summer with industrial and COM
IN ercial paralysis originating in other causes
but bound to continue till uncertainty
is ended, the country has kept
atch of congress as never before,
an d has been thoroughly impatient over de-
laws that would in ordinary times be unno-
ticed. There is no denying, of course, that
considering the circumstances the delay has
been bevond reason or excuse, but the blame
for it rests not on the Democratic party as
whole, in congress, but on the Republican fill
busterers and a few unfaithful members, who
having the solid Republican support have
been playing the highwaymen's and black
mailers' game. While the party that has full
power must and in a general way ought TO as
sumo full responsibility for what is done or
Ieft undone, the real blame does not neces-
sarily lie with it.
AS to the terms of the compromise. it is to
be said that like all compromises they are
partly good and partly bad. The bill has one
great defect in containing both the in
come tax and the sugar duty. one OF
The other ought to have been dropped; While
the revenue for both may be needed just now
it will not be two years if both are continued,
before they make trouble by way OF surplus
The sugar trust duty, that on refined sugar,
is less shameful than the senate first proposed
but it is wrong, because the trust needs not
and ought not to have any protection at all.
What it gets is pure robbery of the people,
A II that can be said of this is that it is only
two-ffths as bad as that of the Mckinley bill,
which gave half cent a pound protection Oh
refined sugar while the conference bill pro-
poses only two-tenths The free coal provls-
ion ought to be accompanied by reciprocity
requirement Free coal is right as principle
ust as free trade is. But trade is not free
when one nation takes down its wall
md others leave it up, and free
coal in America while Canada imposes
lutv of 60 cents a ton is not right or judici-
,us. New England will be benefited by free
,oal from Nova Scotia and central Canada
" Guild benefit by the free admission of
PENNSYLVANIA and Ohio coal. Reciprocity is
he bottom principle of any free trade idea.
Free iron is of course a boon. With free
wool. free lumber, free SALT and Il general re-
luction of duties, the bill on the whole ac-
,omplisbes a fair measure of tariff reform.
And its passage is sure to be followed by an
IN mediate and continuous revival in business
so that before two years have passed over our
heads the country will be so convinced of the
Deneficence of the low tariff principle that
further reductions will follow by general
consent and without friction.