The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1894-04-06
FRANK e. GORRELL. Editor.


VIM H. PAUL, of Webster, is authorized to
receive and collect subscriptions for fHE .EGIs.
BEL AIR, MD
FRIDAY MORNING, APRIL 6, 1894.
THE TARIFF BILL BEFORE THE
SENATE.
At last the Wilson bill is before the
Senate, where it will remain until it is
disposed Of The discussion was open
ed in its favor, Oh Monday, by Sena-
tor Voorhees,, in an able speech.
He described the protective system
which has been fastened upon the
business and labor of the American
people as a system of indescribable in
Justice and oppression and predicted
that if the Wilson bill becomes IA law
we will see reduction of taxes and at
the same time an increase of public
revenues.
He arraigned the monopolsts, whom
he denominated 1.-The colossal task
masters of the whole people command
ing tribute from every days labor be-
meath the sun, haughtily striding the
corridors of this Capitol and issuing
their edicts in the tones of dictators
for or against the enactment of pend
ing measures in the halls of Congress.
Those who own and represent these
swollen and arrogant interests do not
hesitate to declare on what terms a
bill vitality affecting 100000 of peo-
pie will be permitted to become law,
and in default of provisions for
financial profits to themselves they
will insure it's defeat.
"The farmer, the mechanic, the
wage-worker and the manifold pro-
ducers of every kind he said, come
not here they have neither time nor
money to spare from their busy, over
worked lives they cannot visit the
lobbies of Congress to argue their side
of the case their careworn, sunburnt
faces have never been seen in the
purlieus or in the hurried, heated,
anxious haunts of unhallowed avarice;
their hard, toil-worn hands are not
grasped or felt in salutation as we
struggle through waylaying crowds
from committee-room to the door of
the Senate; the labor element, on
which protected monopoly preys rave
nously and increasingly, is absent from
the precincts of this capital, and we'll
tho honof;oio rioS Of nrotaa-
ton know that their victims on farm,
field and ranch, in workshop, mine
and furnace, on railroads, rivers and
inevery toiling pursuit in which bread
is honestly earned, can never confront
them here and demand division of
time in discussion before the commit
tee. The favorites of fortune, pets of
vicious legislation ; those to whom the
government has farmed out the power
of oppression over others, take no heed
of the rights, the protests, the suffer-
ings or the servitude of the mighty
masses who constitute the nations
strength and glory
The protectionist, he added, only
wants to be let alone in the enjoy
ment of the highest duty and the
fattest bounty the government can
give. He cries out against all compe-
titon or interference with his prices,
not that his love Of country or human
ity is shocked or offended, but simply
that his lust for riches takes alarm.
They even masquerade as the mission
aries of labor and make appeals to
Congress to protect them in a mono
poly of trade and in amassing great
riches in order, as they declare, that
they can, and will, pay increased
wages, and give more generous care
to those who work In their employ
ment.
Mr.. Voorhees, challenged any Sena-
tor or workingman to show a single
instance in the history of a protective
tariff where labor was ever recognized
in division of profits, where it was
recognized in proportion to increased
tariff duties, or where it was ever tax
en- into consideration at all on payday
on account of the highest protective
tariff legislation ever known. On the
contrary, all history shows that not
dollar extorted by the tariff ever
goes beyond the pocket of the protect
ed manufacturer or reaches the cheer
less home and stinted income of his
employed wage-worker.
Mr.. Voorhees, declared that the put
ting of sugar on the free list by the |
Mckinley tariff was merely false-pre-
tence, since it provided for an unjust |
tax upon the people to pay bounty
to sugar growers.
He defended the provision in the
Wilson bill for levying tax of 2 per
cent. ON all the net incomes of corpora
tions and of individuals in excess of |
1900 per annum, as just and equit- |
able towards Woodworking taxpayers |
of meagre resources. The assertion |
that the owners of such taxable in
comes would perjure themselves if an
attempt were made to enforce the law,
shocked him inexpressibly. He ar
gued that such a tax is no more in
quisitorial than any other tax which
requires inquiry by the Federal or
State government.
A man with large fortune has
more need of protection by law than
his impoverished neighbor, hence he
owes more to the support and the en-
forcement of the law. 1t is pure and
simple equity that he should pay a
tax on his realized wealth in return for
the government care and protection
against lawlessness, which he inces-
sanity claims, and which is incessant-
ly bestowed.
He defended free wool, saying that it
would benefit and not injure the farm
er. The tariff on wool has not and
could not help the farmer. 1t was not
in the nature of things that protec-
tive tariff could assist the farmer. Re-
minding his hearers that this was the
birthday of Thomas Jefferson, he de-
scribed eloquently the character and
the public services of the distinguish
ed Virginian. Quoting a line from the