Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1894-01-18
CHAIRMAN WILSON =.
opens the DEBATE on the Tariff
Blu a the House,
sfeavors, In Forcible Language, to
ace the Blame for Existing Con.
ditions Where. In His Opin-
ION, 1t Belongs.


mlttee on ways and means.
MR. WILSON'S SPEECH.
Mr. Wilson said that no great question had
been so thoroughly brought out before the
american people as the question of tariff re-
FORM For seven successive congresses il had
been the chief matter of controversy in both
houses For almost as long period it had
been the chief matter of controversy in the
press OF the country. in every congressional
district. In the schoolhouse and at the coun-
Try store Thus thoroughly discussed. both as
to general principles and TO its practical
workings. the people had finally reached a
definite Judgment and given to this admins
tration definite instructions.
With the house as the immediate representa-
i've OF the people. the only part of our federal
government resting directly upon popular suf
frage. is the constitutional authority to origi-
nate bills imposing taxes. The bill about to
De considered presents q scheme of tariff re-
form prepared by the appropriate committee
OF the house, which it was now for the house to
consider and to deal with In it's own deliberate
judgment
Every bill covering so wide n field of legisla-
ton and dealing with so many subjects must
necessarily represent in its details some COM
promise of opinion among those intrusted with
the preparation of it. Any bill passed by Con
gress under present conditions at least must
necessarily represent such compromise.
DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED.
He did not believe that the country would
underrate the difficulties confronting those who
now attempted to revise and reform our tariff
system. Among these difficulties were the
dropping away OF friends whose zeal for reform
was in proportion to the distance from their
own localities and their own industries. and
other friends who differed in judgment as to
the method now to be pursued.
So also the great commercial distress which
has in recent months come upon the country
paralyzing so many industries and throw
ing many out of employment, made the
task of reform more difficult, while it
made the necessity for reform more i'm
perative than ever. At what time could
taxes be lessened with greater justice and
greater humanity than ut n time when thou
sands are struggling for the bare necessaries of
life and when could We with greater timeliness
and benefit strike some of the letters from
production and trade than when production is
oppressed by it's burdens and trade hampered
by its restrictions
a third difficulty in the way of reform now
was the emptiness of the treasury. We are
called upon to reduce taxes at a time whe3 gov
eminent revenues are running SO low that they
fail 10 meet daily expenditures. He believes
he could not better consume the time OF the
house in opening this debate than by giving
the story of our depleted treasury and placing
the responsibility for its present straits where
that responsibility justly belonged.
PLUNGED INTO BANKRUPTCY.
During the four years OF the last administra-
flowing treasury to a bankrupt treasury. and
that, too, without any lesSening of the burdens
OF taxation upon the people. but rather by
most substantial and oppressive increase of
the taxes The last report of Secretary Fair
child estimated the surplus revenue for the
year 1889 at Si0i.OO0,O09. The first report of
Secretary Window acknowledged a surplus
revenue for that wear of sl05. OOo,G00. When the
Cleveland administration went out of office on
tine 18th of March. 1889. it turned over to it's
cPe m In Ia bsll1 nrr1ntr iu,r
TO slS5.OC0.0O0 During Harrison admin
istration the form of treasury state
ments twice changed-frst by Mr..
Window. who succeeded to this cash balance,
TO conceal the surplus and latter by Mr.. FoS-
ter, to conceal the bankruptcy of the treasury.
The Fifty-frst congress dealt with the treas
ury surplus after the true and traditional
method of protection, which was to lesson or
abolish those taxes which pass directly and
undiminished from the pockets of the tax
payer to the public treasury, and to increase
those taxes which were intercepted in their
passage from the pockets of the tax payer to
the public treasury by the private toll gather
er. The Mckinley bill reduced the internal
revenue tax manufactured tobacco. abolish
ing special taxes on dealers and manufacturers
of tobacco and wiped out the duties raw
sugar. which for years past had been our chief
revenue producing articles on the customs list.
SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN TOUCHED.
Both of those taxes were in just and
proper sense revenue taxes, and neither of
them should have been touched so long as the
rates of duty upon clothing and other neces-
sary articles of consumption were enor-
mously oppressive. Tobacco taxes were reduced
under the theory that tobacco had become i
necessity for the poor well as the rich, but
new and heavier taxes were laid on the wooden
clothing of the poor man. SO Indispensable to
his health and his productive en- ergy. Sugar
was untaxed to give the American working
man q free breakfast table, but new taxes
~.
plates and dishes. his coffee pot, his
knives and forks, his food and his Ia
bic cover. In a word he was relieved from
the taxes he paid his government in order that
he might be made to pay much greater taxes to
the beneficiaries of that bill These released
taxes would have yielded us in the interval
since their omission more than $50 0O0, 900, and
would have saved US from any danger of a
treasury deficit. The magnificent surplus
turned over by the Cleveland administration
was thus scattered A large portion OF it was
used to purchase, at high premiums, bonds
not yet due In the first seven months OF the
Harrison administration 500 600 of bonds
were thus purchased at premiums ranging
& to per cent. on the bonds of 1891 and from %
TO 70 per cent. on the bonds due in 1907. In the
first five months of the fiscal year begin
ming July i, 1890, over s9S,OOOOO0 were
discussed in the payment Of bonds
and in the prepayment of interest
net yet due But even this did not
dissipate the surplus, and the Fifty-first con-
gress was Obliged to try its hand upon it. 1t
refunded the direct tax to the states-a mere
loy-rolling scheme to get at the treasury sur
plus-which Mr.. Cleveland had vetoed when
attempted in the previous congress.
PURE GRATUIrY.
This was q pure gratuity, but it has taken
out of the treasury over 1i,OOOO0. Next came
the sugar bounty act. under which sums
amounting to ST. 100000 have been paid to
sugar growers Last of all. as the chief means
of distributing the surplus, was the de
pendent pension bill under which
our annual pension expenditure has risen
more than $50 100000. Whatever right or
Justice there might have been in this bill 1t is
very certain il would never have become a law
but that those other pensoners-the protected
industries-might have the first pull and the
largest profit out of the taxes gathered to pay
the pensioners Neither must it be forgotten
Sherman law turned over to the last admins
fration as available cash u trust fund OF Ssh
O0O 600 deposited by national banks to redeem
their notes. nor that Secretary Foster changed
the form OF the treasury statement by adding
TO it S.0S00.O0o OF subsidiary and minor
coins Us part OF its available cash If,
then to the more than S200. 000,0O thus
made uway with by the last administration we
should add the Sl50.00o,eoo loss OF revenue by
the omission OF taxes on tobacco and sugar
alone we should have a clear idea Of the rapid
and headlong steps by which We have been
brought to our present empty treasury. He
did not believe those who voted to put the last
administration in power expected any revision
from il in the direction Of increasing rates.
The campaign of 1888 vas fought on the cues
ton of reforming and reducing the existing
tarlff and not on the question Of revising and
raising the tariff Of 1888
DARED NOT ASK MORE PROTECTION.