Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1894-01-13
The TARIFF.
synopsis OF tho Debate in the National
HOUSE of Reprea on ntatIves.

tnCu OpOutu tue ueDntc IN favor OF the penang
measure, He said no great question had been
so thoroughly brought out before the American
people as the question OF tarif reform. 1t had
been thoroughly discussed, both as to the gen
eral principles and rs to its practical workings,
and the people had finally reached definite
judgment and given TO this admins ira tiou their
definite instructions. The bill about 10 be con-
sidered presents scheme of tariff reform pre-
pared by the appropriate committee of the
house, which it is now for the house TO con.
slider and TO deal with in its own deliberate
Judgment
Any bill passed by congress under present
conditions at least, must necessarily represent
in its details some compromise of opinion
among those intrusted with its preparation.
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 square OF the distance
from their own localities and their own indus
tries, and other friends who differed in judg-
ment us TO the method now to bo pursued
The great commercial distress which has In
recent months come upon the country, paralyz-
ing so many industries and throwing SO many
thousands out of employment made the task OF
reform the more difficult while IL made the nec-
essity for The reform more imperous than ever.
AT what time could taxes be lessened with
greater justice and greater humanity than at q
time when thousands are struggling for the bare
necessaries OF life, and when could we with
greater timeliness and benefit strike some of the
fetters from production and trade than when
production is suppressed by its burdens and
trade hampered by Its restrictionsg A third
difficulty in the way of reform now is the
emptiness Of the treasury We are called upon
TO reduce taxes at time when government
debts are running so low that daily revenues
have ceased TO meet daily expenditures.
During the four years Of the last admins
trntiDn had Dlunpp6 headlonp IN
flowing treasury to a bankrupt treasury, and
that too, without any lessening of the burdens
OF taxation upon the people, but rather by
most subs tantial and oppressive increase OF
taxes
The Fifty.nrst congress dealt with the treas.
ury surplus after the true and traditional
methods OF protection, which was to lessen or
abolish those taxes which pass directly and un-
diminished from the pockets of the taxpayer
to the public treasury, and to increase those
taxes which were intercepted in their pas
sage from the pockets Of the Taxpayers
to the public treasury by the private toll
gatherer The Mckinley bill reduced the in
ternal revenue taxes on manufactured tobacco.
a1olishing special taxes on dealers and manu-
facturers of tobacco, and wiped out the duties
on raw sugar, which for years past had been
our chief revenue. producing article on the cu9-
toms list Both OF these taxes were in just
and proper sense revenue taxes and neither OF
them should have been touched so long as the
ties OF duty upon clothing and other necessary
articles of consumption were so enormously
oppressive.
Tobacco taxes were reduced under the theory
that tobacco haC become q necessity for the
poor as well as the rich, but new and heavier
taxes were laid on the woolen clothing of the
poor man, so indispensable to his health
and his productive energy. Sugar was
untaxed TO give the American work
Ingman free breakfast table, but new
taxes were placed on his cups and
saucers, his plates and dishes, his coffee-pot,
mis- knives and forks his food and his table cover
In 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 benefi-
ciaries of that bill These taxes would have
yielded us in the interval since their omission
Hore than $3.50 100000 and would have saved us
from any danger of u treasury deficit.
The magnificent surplus turned over by the
Cleveland administration was thus scattered.
large portion Of it was used to purchase at
nigh premiums bonds not yet due. In the first
seven months of the Harrison admins tration
'7oOOO,0OO bonds were thus purchased at premi-
lms ranging from TO per cent on the bonds
of 1891, and from 81 to 20 per cent. on the bonds
due in 1907 In the first Ave months OF the fis-
cal year. beginning July /, 1890, over sos, 900 900
| vas disbursed in the payment Of bonds and in
prepayment of interest not yet due.
The Fifty first congress refunded the direct
| tax to the states, mere rolling scheme to
get at the treasury surplus, which Mr. Cleve-
land had vetoed when attempted in previous
congress This was pure gratuity, but it has
/ taken out of the treasury over s14, 000, 900.
| Next came the sugar-bounty act, under which
! snms amounting TO Sl7 100000 have been
! paid 10 sugar growers. Last OF all, as the
chief means of distributing The surplus, was
! the dependent pension bill, under which our an
nual pension expenditure has risen more than
, t60O00,O00 Whatever right or justice there
! might have been In this bill, 1t is very certain
It 1,nxy han Lou q.
those other pensioners, our protected indus
tries, might have the first pull and the largest
profit out of the taxes gathered to pay the pen.
sioners
| do not believe those who voted TO put the
last administration in power expected any re.
vision from 1t in the direction of increasing tarif
| rates The campaign of 1888 was fought or the
question OF reforming and reducing the existing
| tariff and not on the question OF revising and
raising the tariff Of 1883 No single interest in
| the country either in congress or elsewhere had
/ the hurdihood to assert that it meant to de-
| mand any increase of the protection accorded
il by the bill of 1888, and II was only the wan
| tonness OF self greed rapacity aud selfshness
and the knowledge that their demands, no mat.
| ter how exorbitant would be graciously ac-
| corded, that brought them to Washington in
! 1890 to write, In their own interests the sue.
| cessive schedules of the Mckinley bill.
| Under the operation OF that bill taxes In
every one of the important schedules have been
| mercilessly and needlessly increased. 1n manu-.
| features of wool they have been raised from an
| average of70 10 an average of 100 per cent In
| manufactures of glass they have oeea raised
| from an average of 81 TO an average of 64 per
| cent In manufactures of iron and steel, al
| though the year of 1887 had been year of i'm
| mense production and prosperity TO those in
| terests the tariff was raised from an average
| OF SO 10 an average Of 90 per cent. On cotton
| goods although the tariff of lSS3 had been made
| by the manufacturers themselves, duties were
| increased from an average Of 40 to an average
| OF 7 per cent
| Such is the bill we have been called on to re
| wise in the interest of the people who consume
| OF the people who labor and of the people com
| prising the country In general, and OF the pros
| perity OF the country itself
| Mr.. Wilson, who was in poor health, sug
| gested that he would like TO finish his speech
| on the 9th, and on motion the committee rose
"A young officer kneels at the feet
of beautiful young lady and says, il
most impassioned tones: MAIDEN
oiselle, ii you mean to say yes b'