The Washington times., 1894-04-25
MILLS ENDS THE DEBATE
Talk On the Tariff Will Hereafter Be
Directed to the Schedule.
STRONGLY FAvORs INCOME TAX
Texan Senator Said if He had His Way De-
bate Would Be Limited and the Measure
Passed in Forty-Eight -Congratu-
lations of His Colleague.

| ldtlOus "a k2Is Vo1k6dBu6.
At 1 o'clock yesterday the tariff bill was
laid bfore the Senate and Senator Mills, OF
Texas, was recognized. There was good
attendance in the galleries and q number Of
Representatives from the other House were
present. Among those in the gallery were
Mrs. Mills and Mrs. Charles Mills. Senator
Mills at the outset declared that legislators
often had to make an election between two
parliamentary measures, neither of which
meets their approval. 1t must necessarily be
SO, for no man could fraIae a measure to
meet the approval of every one. Every act
of a legislature must be compromise meas
ure and no act more SO than one regulating
| taxes.
'This bill does not meet my approval"
said he, ''and I doubt if it entirely meets the
approval of any gentleman on this side OF the
Chamber. But such as 1t is it will have my
hearty support
He might wish to offer some amendments
TO the bill, he continued, but whether or not
| he was able to secure their adoption he would
bow to the will of the majority of his party
and vote for the measure as they ordained 1t
should be. 1t was strictly a party measure
and had been party measure from the foun-
dation Of the government and from the foun-
dation and organization of the Democratic
party. II he had been chosen to construct
this bill and had had the forty-four members
| on the Democratic side of the cham
| Der in accord with his views, he
would haye constructed it on far different
lines. He would not have left coffee and tea
on the free list and put cotton, wool, coal and
iron on the dutiable list. 1t had always been
the policy of the Democratic party to put
tax on those articles which were used by all the
people and would yield the largest revenue at
the smallest cost to the people. The Repub-
lican promise OF an enlarged home market by
high protective tariff had not been fulfilled.
4 lively discussion occurred between
Messrs Mills and Aldrich, the latter asking
why Great Britain had the cotton yarn mar
ket of the world II we could make it cheaper.
Mr.. Mills replied that the climate entered
into the manufacture of cotton yarn. and the
climate of Great Britain was better suited to
it than that of France, Germany or the United
States. He stated the labor cost of kid gloves
in the United States to be less than in France,
and Senator Aldrich asked him why we i'm
ported gloves from France. He replied that
it might be for lack of skill to make gloves as
we'll as the French. There were some things
other countries under natural conditions, but
We could do more in this country than almost
any other country. He related an incident of
the Franco-Prussian war; in which French
woman poasted that her countrymen could
make a thing of beauty out of the ugliest
thing. An old German general, plucking a
gray hair from his head, handed it to the
French woman and challenged her to make
anything beautiful out of it. She took the
hair and sent it to a French ieweler telling
him OF the challenge, and appealed to him to
redeem it. He manufactured pin, in which
he laid the hair held in the beak of a German
war eagle. and hanging from it were Alsace
and Lorraine. with the words, "You hold it
by a hair So she redeemed her promise.
Mr. Mills devoted a large part OF his speech |
to discussion and defense of the income |
tax He lauded the action OF the Committee |
in reporting tax on incomes. Why should |
wealth not be taxed? The object of all Just |
government was to secure to all its subjects |
all the rights with which they were endowed |
by nature and protection in the enjoyment |
of those rights in which they were guaran- |
teed by their government. Every animal in |
nature was provided with means for its de- |
fense; the horse had hoof the COW had |
horn the serpent had a sting. the cat had |
claw. Man had his arms. Take man who |
possesses little and he wants little from the |
government. Why should he be weighed |
down and worried to death by taxes on |
things necessary for life? When people are
associated together for their government and |
mutual protection every citizen Of that gov
ernment should contribute his proper share |
to the support of the government and the
proper share of each is to be determined by |
the amount Of protection he receives. The
bill had been called sectional; it was said |
that the southern and western states have to
pay all together only one-third of the tax,
while the New England states paid two-thirds
of it. But if those states received two-thirds |
of the protection of the government" de-
clared Mr.. Mills, ''why in the name of heayen
and all the angels should they not pay two
thirds OF the expenses?"
Il am no communist nor anarchist" he
said. More, L know the difference between
the man who owns million dollars and the
man who does not own a cent, and would
protect the man with a million dollars in the
enjoyment of his property as would call out
the military in order that the hair of the
head Of IN innocent, little babe should not
be harmed.''
Il would like to know" he went on, "on
what principle the owners of these millions
insist that they should not be taxed. He
dwelt upon the many instances in which the
might of the government had been called out
to protect the wealth of corporations and in
dividuais. He recalled the fact that a few
years ago when there was another panic, |
panic by anticipation, when the whole power
of the great state of Pennsylvania was not
sufficient to protect property in the city of
Pittsburg from the crowds in the streets who
were firing the buildings, and the soldiers of
the United States had been summoned to pro-
tect the city and were set to guard the rail-
roads And the railroads have never paid
a cent for their protection" said Mr.. Mills
Il ask. is that just; is that honest; is that fair
to the taxpayers? Look at all the stocks and
bonds and banks and trust companies which
do not pay cent for their protection
Ha hat ha pf ba inn |
tax said it was inquistorial, anarchistic,
socialistic, and every other adjective which
could be framed, to levy tax of 2 per cent.
on incomes. but when poor fellow wants a
shirt and is taxed 100 per cent. for it, nothing
is said about its being socialistic and an