The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1894-01-20
THE TARIFF.


A quorum having been secured in the house
on the sth rule was adopted fixing January IS
as the time for taking the vote on the Wnson
sill. Mr.. Wilson, In committee Of the whole.
shen opened the debate IN favor OF the pending
measure. He said no great question had been
30 thoroughly brought out before the American
people as the question OF tarn reform II had
pc6n thoroughly discussed, both as to the gen
SRA principles and MS TO It's practical workings,
ana the people had finally reached o definite
Judgment and given to this administration their
definite instructions. The bill about to be con.
sidered presents q scheme OF tarif reform pre-
pared by the appropriate committee OF the
house. which II 10 now for the house TO con.
slider and to deal with in It's own deliberate
Judgment
Any bill passed by congress under present
conditions, at least, must necessarily represent
in It's 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 diHiculties 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 as TO the method nowsto be 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 II made the nee.
essity for tile reform more imperious than ever.
At what time could taxes be lessened with
greater justice and greater humanity than at
time when thousands 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 suppressed by its burdens and
trade hampered by Its restrictions A third
difficulty In the way Of reform now is the
emptiness Of the treasury. We are called upon
to reduce taxes ut 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.
tration we had plunged headlong from an over
flowing treasury TO u 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
taxes.
The Fifty-frst congress dealt with the treas
ury surplus after the true and traditional
methods of protection, which was to lessen OF
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 tax payers
10 the public treasury by the private toll
gatherer. The Mckinley bill reduced the in
ternal revenue taxes on manufactured tobacco
aboiishing special taxes on dealers and manu-
lecturers of tobacco, and wiped out the duties
on raw sugar, which for years past had been
our chief revenue producing article on the GUS
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
rates Vf duty upon clio thing and other necessary
articles of consumption were enormously
oppressive.
Tobacco taxes were reduced under the theory
that tobacco haC become n necessity for the
poor as well as the rich but new and heavier
taxes were laid on the woolen clothing OF the
and his productive energy. Sugar was
1ntaxed to give the American work
lngman o free breakfast table but new
taxes were placed on his cups and
saucers, his plates and dishes, his coffee-pot
his knives and forks, his food and his table cover
| In n 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 beneti-
Charles OF that bill. These taxes would have
| yielded us in the interval since their omission
more than $50, 900 and would have saved us
| from any danger of u treasury deficit
| The magnificent surplus turned over by the
f! 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 admnistra
! s70,00U000 bonds were thus purchased at premi'
ums ranging from to per cent on the bonds
| of 1891, and from q to 30 per cent on the bonds
due in 1907. In the first five months OF the fis-
! cal year. beginning July /, $780, over s9S00O,O 900
| was disbursed in the payment of bonds and in
| the prepayment OF interest not yet due
| The Ffty-trst congress refunded the direct
| tax to the states, u mere log-rolling scheme to
| get at the treasury surplus, which Mr. Cleve-
| land had vetoed when attempted in q previous
+! congress. This was u pure gratuity, but II has
| taken out of the treasury over $4,000, 900.
| Next came the sugar bounty act, under which
snms amounting to sl7 100000 have been
| paid TO 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
| t6O,000OO0 Whatever right or justice there
might have been in this BILL it is very certain
| 1t would never have become law but that
| 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 it in the direction of increasing tariff
| rates. The campaign OF 1883 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 interes, in
| the country, either in congress or elsewhere, had
| the hardihood to assert that it meant to de-
| mand any increase of the protection accorded
| it by the bill of 1885, and it was only the wan.
| tonness of self greed. rapacity aad selishness
| and the knowledge that their demands, no mat
| ter how exorbitant would be graciously ac-
| corded, that Drought them to washington In
| 1880 to write, in their own interests, the sue
| cessivo schedules of the Mckinley bill.
Under the operation OF that bill taxes In
| every one of the important schedules have been
| mercilessy and needlessy increased. In manu-
| features OF wool thay have been raised from an
| average Of70 TO an average OF 100 per cent In
| manufactures OF glass they have been raised
| from an average OF 81 to an average of o. per
| cent In manufactures of iron and steel, al.
| though the year of 1887 had been n year of i'm
| mense production and prosperity to those In
| terestS, the tariff was raised from an average
| of 35 TO an average Of 63 per cent On cotton
| goods, although the tariff of 1883 had been made
| by the manufacturers themselves, duties were
| Increased from an average OF ~ to an average
! OF b7 per cent
Such is the bill we have been called on x, 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.
Mr.. Wilson concluded his speech on the 9th.
| He began with reference to the legend which
| he said had always been Inscribed on the demo
cratic banner: Equal rights to all and special
| privileges TO none" Tho people had brought
the democratic party into power on the broad
| principle OF equal justice to all He said;
"The democratic party raises itself as one
| man. takes up this great cause, plants Its
| standard here TO sink or SWIM survive or per
fish. that the democratic party may continue
| IN power. We will plant the banner here We
mean TO have fight and we will call every