Birmingham age-herald., 1894-10-28

thls feature. It will be Incorporated In the creed of the democratic party from this time forward. Applause. And through that instrnmentality we will, al least, be , aole the men whoilock their money up h bonds and corporation stocks, and transfer them to Europe or into the hands of trustees, or put them in green backs the day taxes are due and try to escape taxation in that way.
 THE COAL AND IRON ORE TAX.
 Now, fellow citizens, that Is as much as 1 have got to say tonight about the tariff, except upon one little item. We had quite a little disturbance in congress upon a question which was really 8 question of the difference between tweedle- dunn and tWesdle-dee. It was the tax, of 40 cents per ton on coal and 40 cents ton on iron ore. It is my personal opinion, given for what it is worth for I do notspeak ex cathedra-- do notispesk it as the experience of a man who has thorough experimental knowl- edge on the subject-but my profound opinion is that 1t docs not make particle Of differences to any man who owns an ore bed or coal mine whether this 40 cents per ton is on the statute books or not, but they think so.. They see it that way. They believe 1t. They differ with me in my opinion on that question. Now, am a represen tative man ..1 do not plant my opinions against those of the balance of man kind as being the higher law ofpolitics at all. I listen to the advice of my people and say I am willing to allow you to try it, Now that is all right; will vote with you; l have not heretofore voted that way except upon one occasion, but did vote that way upon one occasion, and l am going to stand by that vote. But they are not tisfied with that. MT. Aldrich is not satisfied with 40 cents ton on the coal he digs. fDoes he dig anvil don't know; he is coal miner, is he not? He used to be, anyway. He is 8 large owner of coal mines now; he does not want to raise the tariff to 75 cents a ton, if that is any ad- vantage to him, for the purpose of giving the extra 25 cents or 40 cents to the miner; that is not what he. wants with it; he is not asking us to put that tax on it for the ben eft of the miner, but for the benefit of the mine owner. tAppiause.l Now, am not disposed to accommodate him to that ex- tent. IApplause. The opinion happen to entertain ], personally, about this busl- ness is that think we have taken pretty good march when we put 1t at 40 cents. But rather got captured in this way about that matter, and will explain it to you. When the. Mills bill was put before the senate of the United and was under discussion,p many amend ments were offered to it by some of our friends in West Virginia aud other demo- crats. Mr.aDavis and Mr. Camden insisted that tax of 75 cents a ton on coal and iron ore was right, and said no; am opposed to it; it is toolmuch and it. is not fair. proposed in the United States senate an amendment to that bill, which reduced the tax to 50 cents a ton, and had the ayes and noes called upon it and every democrat in the senate except these two gentlemen from West Virginia. or maybe three, voted for it. l thought that was a pretty con- elusive and fair demonstration of the att1- tude of the Democrats in the senate or the United States upon that subject. So when they got into the controversy in the house If n a rp0aQtlV ject of the tax on coal and iron, certain sentlemen insisted that it was the demo- cratic doctrine that 1t should be admitted free of duty-a doctrine never subscribed to except as to Bessemer ores. This con- trovsrsy was simply, as to the. difference be- tween tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee. New ertheless it was @ controversy and we went into caucus on it, and we were in there three days. During that time many speeches were made. I listened 10 them. The democrats from Louisiana were opposed to the reduction of the tariff on certain ar tices, particularly that on sugar. We went along and took, many votes as to what we would do. All the democrats there worked for the good of the country in an effort to arrive at measure that would meet with entire acceptance. When we reached coal and iron 1 said: "Why, this subject was up for discussion before on the Mills bill, and offered an amendment to that bill, and all the democrats except
  propose that same amendment, as one that had received the sanction of the democratic party in the senate of the United States.' They voted it down, but there was only one vote majority against my motion. It was very close thing We then con- cluded at the end of that caucus that we would not pass any resolutions at all in- structing our committeeman, but would leave the conduct of the bill to their judg- ment, believing them to be patriotic and t,< Nd ot hat hat the northern people would flare up against the tariff bill because Hon. Isham Harris of Tennessee, God blessed old democrat and good Confederate [applausel, George Vest of Missouri, who was one of our rep congress at Richmond, and Ssnator Jones of Arkansas, who was a Confederate fight ing in the ranks; that because 1t turned out, you know, that these three southern democrats were on the committee and had charge of the bill, that there would be 8 great fuss made about-it in the northern states amongst both the democrats and re- publicans. They would say, as they are saying now every day. Tit is rebel brig adier-general's bil.' v.- We were not abashed by thatAby being called Confed- crates, because being called Confederate never made dishonest man in the world. Neverl [Applause.] So far as my obser- vation extends, it is trne that the better Confederate soldier he was the better man ne was. lLouu SaPPiauso.J Co wo Wo,o not abashed by that argument, but simply trusted. as would trust again, the fate of that bill in the hands of these three com mitteemeu. They went to work, and with patience and care, and deliberatioE and honesty, and sincerity and true patriotism. they sought Knowledge from ell quarters, scanned every single item in the bill and never ceased in their efforts until they al- most destroyed their lives in investigating the subject, and when they came in with report expected, of course. that coal and iron would go on the free list; but hey