The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1894-04-14
ELKTON. APRIL IA, 1894.
SENATOR HILLS SPEECH.

Our readers will hud in another
column a full synopsis of the saliant
points of Senator Hills speech made
on Monday, and which is a vigorous
and cogent demonstration of the
obnoxious features, of the tariff policy
of the present administration.
Whatever reputation Senator Hill
has heretofore made as a politician
merely, his most pronounced opponents
will at least concede, that he possesses
the courage of his convictions, and
has the ability to express them con-
vincingly and forclbly.
In striking at the income tax, Sena-
tor Hill strikes at the whole principle
on which the Wilson Bill and the
future tariff policy of the Democratic
party have been founded.
If the Wilson bill were 10 become a
law with its decrease of revenue at the
custom houses, if it were to be sue
ceeded by fresh Wilson bills hereafter
in the same direction, as i! would IN.
doubtedly be if the country were to
endorse it, there would need to be
also corresponding series of income
tax bills. The more the free list is
extended the more the revenue that
must be derived from domestic or
internal taxation. With the $4,000
income tax once established, it would
thus only be matter of time before
the tax would take IN smaller incomes
until the majority Of citizens would be
subjected to Federal lnquisition.
The fact that this is one of the
necessary consequences OF the Cleve-
land tariff policy has only been
recently understood by many Demo
Gratis who have been bowling against
Protection. 1t probably was not fore
seen at the outset by Mr.. Cleveland
himself, whose opinions have never
been marked by far reaching grasp.
His tariff campaign for years was con-
Quoted chiefly on the basis that revi-
sion was necessary in order to wipe out
surplus. But when, after seven years
of such agitation, he found that the
surplus had disappeared and that ne
he must either abandon his favorite
policy or supplement it with new
scheme of personal taxation, he sud,
denly chose the latter end of the alter
native rather than confess that his
tariff reform ideas were faulty and out
of date under new conditions. Hence
his surrender to the Populist doctrine
of an income tax. He could not
avoid it without confessing that his
tariff experiments were no longer
called for by the conditions of the
Treasury, and from the moment when
he sanctioned it he became to all
intents and purposes Free Trader.
If we interpret Senator Hills speech
rightly he has called hault OF the
,income tax not simply because it is
bad thing fer Sc but because 1t helps
to fasten upon the country the system
of low tariff with an ever increasing
free list. He points out the fact that
such system means the lowering of
wages and the degradation of Ameri-
can labor. The only two reasons which
can be adduced for the income tax are
that it is an effective plan of making
the rich and the prosperous shoulder
the burdens of government-which is
the argument OF the PETERS and Slmp-
sons-and that it enables the govern
ment to open the way fer Free Trade,
which is the argument of British econ
omists and any man who advocates it
must enlist under the banner of either
the Populists or the Free Traders.
With the Cleveland administration
committing the Democratic party to
such position as this in country
which will not tolerate direct Federal
taxation, and which is to-day more
than ever in its history devoted to the
principles of Protection, it Is not sur
prising that so clever and ambitious a
politician as Hill has been moved to
enter ringing protest. He knows
the set of current opinion in the North |
too well not to realize the fate which |
awaits every public man who is engaged |
in this new departure and he has made |
up his mind not to be caught in the
approaching deluge. If he shall
succeed in destroying the income tax
he will have practically destroyed the
Wilson bill, for that tax is now virtually
its corner stone. In any event, he has
strengthened the great reaction which
is now visible everywhere among the
Democrats themselves against the tariff
policy with which Grover Cleveland
has deluded them, and he will revive
in his party respect for the teachings
and admonitions by which the late
Samuel J. Randall so long held it back
from its latter-day follies.
The Ohio law requiring all goods
made by convict labor to be so labeled
has been declared unconstitutional
oy the Circuit Court OF that State.
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