Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-09-10

of this meaSure-a Dill 10 increase lmporta'
tions--has been to produce the very condl-
tons | have named.
The QUESTION Of Averages.
But thny say the present law is better
"becsuse the average percentages are low
err Senator Mills we'll and thoroughly dis
posed of this point also, in the recent speech
from which have quoted, when in answer
ing one of the Democratic senators he said
My friend quoted in defence of the bill
the per cents in the tables. Nothing IS
more deceptive than per cents. suppose
we had 800 900 worth Of duiable
goods coming into the United States, and
that is in round numbers the amount IN
1898. Suppose the duties paid on those
goods amounted to 800, 900 900 this year,
that would be 100 per cent, would it not:
Suppose in revising the tariff, we put 5000,
900 900 worth of these same imports on the
free list, and receive $500 100000 of duty
on the other 5000, 100000 of imports, the
duty would still be 100 per cent. AMI show
that we had not reduced taxation. .-.
Suppose we put $500 100000 on the free
list and 800, 5000 ON the dutiable list, it
would still show that we had done nothing,
for it is still 100 per cent. Suppose you
put everything on the free list but pound
of candy worth 81, and charge 81 80 duty
upon it. You are arrayed before the coun-
try for increasing taxation so per cent,
Notwithstanding you have exempted $780,
600 900 worth of imports from taxation and
removed that great burden from the Shout
ders of the people. ~...
"In looking at question of this sort you
must take into the consideration the goods
that you exempt entirely from taxation and
add to the free list That was the peculiar
V ,lue Of the bill Of 1887. In that bill We
put $40 900, 900 worth of imports on the
free list. This bill only puts about SILL
600 900 worth on the free list. We are
going backward instead of forward. | say
for myself (and / know | speak for my
friend from Missouri, and my friend from
Tennessee, and my friend from Arkansas,
and all the rest of them we do not at all
accept this as final settlement of the ques-
ton of tariff reform.
This disposes of the craftsmanship of per
centages and demonstrates, as Republican
speakers have 80 often done, its cheap and
misleading character. For example, the
percentages of duty under the law of 1890
Democratic orators and editors. who utterly
ignored the great fact that the law trans
ferred from the dutiable list to the free list
non-competing goods and products to the
value of nearly $l10,000,000. The truth
is that the average rate of duty on al im-
ports, under the law of 1892, was % per
cent, and not 40 per cent, 10 has been so
often enormously stated. II is well to re-
member that the free list of 1890 is greater
by about $50 900 000 than the free list of
TIE new law. But, bear in mind that our
free list consisted of products which in the
main do not compete with those made by
our American workingmen and producers,
while their free list is r most entirely made
up of products which 10 directly and most
seriously affect and compete with American
laborets and producers. ST.
The speaker then discussed the free list
and showed that it consists CHI fly of the
products of the farm and the forest. H.
enumerated their boosted reductiors-upof
cigars, liquors, lices and embromaries, siil
goods, ostrich feathers ani tl1wers, Hi
gloves, cl ina, paintings, pearl buttons, plate
and cut glass, opium, jewelry, etc.
How the reduced tariff on the articles
will relieve the poor man, What relief
these changes will bring him
Every one is an article of luxury. Not
one has any place in the hat of necessities
All are articles which are chiefly used by
the wealthy and opulent, the best-condi
ton of our country.
70 Excuse the Duly on Sugar.
Yet these reductions had all TO be made
| to give the Democratic Congress an excuse
for putting a duty upon sugar, a necessity
in every household in the Lard, that they
might enrich the Trust already fattencd as
they ailege, by its ill-gotten gains. Wha,
comfort will it bring to the average Amert
can home. the modest households Of the
great masses of the people, to he told that
the duties have been reductd on laces
silks, Havana cigars, cut Qlass, jewclry
ostrich feathers, velyets, liquors anI OPT
UNI? Yet such is the compensation ths
! American people are given for the added
burden of cent and ope-half, Or more
upon every pound of sugar they consume
| The reduction of the duties on wooler
| goods on the basis of the imp1rta,ions a,