Morning journal and courier., 1894-01-09
CHAIRMAN WILSON SPEAKS.

nShnea1-Tho Committee Had En | deavored to Meet the Duty Intrustet
 other Countries for All the Fabric | Of Iron and Steel and other Thing | We Make in This Country.
 WASHINGTON, Jan. S-Shortly after o'clock this afternoon Chairman Wilson O
 the ways and means committee arose t address the house on the tariff bill, tn,
 first reading having been dispensed with The deadlock had be en broken at the morn ing session, and there were at times som' scenes of excitement.
 MT. Wilson in opening his address saiG that tariff reform had been fought out be fore the American people as no othe, question he'd been fought out. Continuing he said: "We are here with the oommis sions of the American people to put in law the commissions they have ordered at the polls." He would not stop to inquire into the causes that had brought about the pres. ent prostration of industry in this country and to @ large extent demoralized business. There seemed to be some recurring cycle in modern times about such depr- ssions But from whatever cause 1t had originated it was at least an embarrassment to them in the performance of their duty.
 Mr. Wilson said: Under the law of 1855 the average tax on manufactures of woolen goods was 69 12 per cent. Under the law of 1890 the average tax was 9S 55 per cent. In the bill of 1883 the cotton goods manufacturers received what they had asked for. But under the Mckinley bill there was @ taxation of 57 per cent $17 more on the $100 upon the cotton goods worn by the people. The tariff of 1883 was perfectly satisfactory to the iron and steel manufacturers. The rates be- fore the Mckinley bill averaged 35 per cent. on the $100, but the system adopted in the Mckinley oill averaged last year 62 per cent.
 The tariff of 1890 represented all that greed and sslfishness and rapacity dared to demand of the people.
 Mir. Wilson showed @ piece of cloth worth about 32 cents c yard on which the act of 1890 placed a tax of 303 per cent. So that, he said, the poor woman who by earning 50 cents day Is able to buy $l worth of this material must work six days longer to make the Mckinley taxes to take 1t out of the custom house. MT. Wilson referred to the fact that there had been @ call for the woolen manufacturers of the country to meet in New York to protest against bill which leaves them e 40 per cent. tax on their products. He said the English landlords, who, when famine was slaying tens of thousands in Ireland, pro- tested against relieving food from taxation were the prototypes of the gentlemen who will meet in New York the day after to- morrow. (Applause on the democratic side).
 Mr. Wilson stated that the committee on ways and means had endeavored to meet the duty entrusted to them, ss far ss they could, by releasing from taxation those great interests on which the industrial prosperity and we'll being of the American people were most dependent. The bill proposed to peace on the free list among other materials the great materials of in- dustry, wool, iron ore, coal and lumber. [Applauss on the democratic side
 Mir. Wilson believed that if every other feature of the bill were abandoned or re- versed, if we could simply carry through bill putting wool upon the free list and reducing the taxes upon woolen goods, a great benefcent revolu- tionsry step would be forwarded. He would be a hardy man who would cay that the wool grower had prospeiei under all the fsvoritism and all the protection or that even the Mckinley bill had been of benefit. Even if by protection upon wool, the price of that product could be raised the right to raise 1t did not exist at the ex- pense of the seventy million wearers of woolen goods in this country. In 1857 8 large part of the wool imported was put up- growing prosperity of woolen manufactur- ing in the country that the price of domes- tic wool went up higher than it had been for years before.
 Mir. Wilson said that the wool had bsen growing on large scale and would find its home only in the far west. There was nc country of the world likely to send pound of wool to the United States that can pro- duce 1t more ohesply than the people who have their focks upon tho great rancho 3 and ranges of the west.
 He had no doubt that with wool upon the free list and moderate taxation upon the finished products that we should have such development, such @ growth of the woolen manufacturing industry in this country as to quicken and steady and i'm prove the market for American wool and greatly cheapen the production of woolen goods to the American people.
 "If there is any one great industry" said MT. Wilson, "to which we could throw today down the tariff laws and defy the world and march forth to acquire new fields, 1t Is the great iron and steel indus tries of this country. We can produce iron ore, in Minnesots, in Michigan, in Alaska and perhaps at other points, cheaper than it can be produced anywhere else in the world. The tax upon iron ore is no longer needed to protect us who have the largest product of all the world" MT. Wilson believed that there was an unlimited market in other countries for all | the fabrics of iron and steel and other things that we male in this country. He | accused the makers of steel rails of having combined to keep up prices and aaid it was possible to make steel rails in the United States as cheaply as anywhere else in th,
 world. MT. Wilson spoke of the vast coa
 resources of this country. There is a dut!
 of "A cents ton on bituminous coal, yet i
 can be mined In this country at [
 cost of only 25 to 60 cents pc
 ton. We are to-day exporters of coal
 The question of tariff upon coal 1
 railroad corporations of the country
 Speaking of lumber, another article on th
 free list, he said that under the tariff as
 now exists we are denuding our forests
 It is not pretending that the cost of lum
 bering in this country Is higher than 1t 1
 in any other country that might seek ou
 markets.
 On motion of MT. McMillan the commit tee of the whole arose, and the sergeant s
 arms submitted his report in regard to th arrest of members. MT. Cstchings move ! that ss the object of the resolution hs : been accomplished all the gentlemen name in the report of the sergeant at arms be e, cused. This was agreed to without obje
 ton. The house then took Q recess. N
 MT. Wilson will conclude his speech t | morrow.
 When the house met at 8 o'clock thel were only twenty members present. IT l house went into committee of the whole ( |, the tariff bill.