The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-04-10

longs. this bill, as framed by its authors
and as passed 10y the House, sought to
double the deficit by discarding customs
revenue and to fill the void with an in
come tax"
Senator Hill then attacked the income
tax, and although admitting that both
the President and his Secretary of the
Treasury advocated an income tax
before the Wilson bill was matured,
| he declares that 'no prominent
Democrat suggested it and its approval
is limited to the platform of the newly
formed Populist party and its advocacy
restricted to the Populist orators.
His most significant utterance, how
ever, and the one which has the most
important bearing upon the great
question of the day. "Will the Wilson
bill pass the Senate?" he made in these
terms:
81 object to the Democratic party be-
ing made tail to the Populist kite" ="
and then he declared his belief that the
complete substitution of internal, direct,
or income taxes for tariff taxes, would
prove utterly ruinous TO the business
interests of this country and existing
conditions abroad, and that a partial
substitution at this time would be
proportionately disastrous.
This bill proposes a suicidal policy,
when it seeks by its extreme provisions
TO discard numerous reasonable tariff
duties, and thereby imperil many indus
tries and create deficiency in necessary
revenues simply for the purpose Of
affording an opportunity or excuse for
the substitution of an income tax.
"The substitution of internal or direct
taxes for custom house taxation means
the reduction of the wages of American
workmen 10 the European standards.
1t means the degradation of American
labor, it means the deprivation to our
workmen of the comforts and luxuries
of life to which we have been accus--
toned. Deny it or disguise it as we
may, no other result is possible under
existing European conditions.
He excoriated in terms unmeasured
| the present scheme of the Democracy
in regard to reform" of the tariff and no
Republican address that will be made on
the tariff question will equal in its de-
| nunciation the speech delivered by the
most prominent Democratic Senator at
| Washington yesterday. His closing
words punctured this sham, this pretense
Of the tariff reformers" most etfectu-
ally, when he declared.
"To double the deficit OF s7sOoo 900 by way Of end
ing IL; TO discard 600 Of annual revenue In
| ord 10 collect twice as much In other ways to
| ''embody tariff reform" as the President Imagined
himself to be doing In his scheme to substitute di
| rect taxes for the tariff taxes which were TO be
reformed to reconstruct all the schedules In
4 stead Of amending or dscarding one group at a
time the worst first, and each upon its own merits
TO disturb and distress as many business men as
| Is not q program perfectly matured and suited
TO conduct the policy and principle OF tariff reform
| unimpaired through period OF general business
prostration public deficit and private bankruptcy.
| "For my own part, as Democrat prefer indi-
rect taxation and tarin reform above dlrect taxes
| and tariff extinction.
'I prefer taxing foreign products rather than tax
II follow Jefferson in regarding even the'species
Of in iircct taxation on home products Of Internal
| revenue war taxes as not good to be extended and
| the first to be rid of when their need is past"
Is it any wonder that he concluded
his remarks by declaring that, if per-
sisted in, this measure as it stands would
destroy the Democratic party, would
cost them the control Of Congress and
the Presidency.
The importance of this speech
is apparent when the closeness
by which the Wilson bill will be
carried through the Senate, if it is
| carried at all, is remembered. The
charge of two Democratic votes kills the
bill. and if words mean anything David
b. Hill will vote against the measure
now pending in the Senate, and he un-
doubtedly is seconded in his attack on
the bill by his brother Senator from his
own State.
Hill is the most astute politician in
the Democratic party. He realizes that
TO pass the bill means the death of his
party, and he is fighting against il with
all the energy he possesses.
While he does not say in direct terms
al will vote against this bill.' there is
no doubt as TO his mean
ing. IL would not be proper
for him to so declare until
his party had declined TO change the
bill in accordance with his desires
and no other course was open to
him but tnat. But in view of
his utterances no sane man can believe
that he will give his vote to measure
which he denounces in such terms as he
does the one now under discussion.
|