The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-01-08
In CONGRESS TODAY
Continued from Page /.

uhu diteT bOiuc preliminary olbCusslOu
the big tariff fight began.
Chairman Wilson began his speech, in
Producing the bill bearing his name.
Mr.. Wilson's Speech.
Mr.. Wilson said that no great question
had been 80 thoroughly brought out be-
fore the American people as the
question OF tarff reform. He did
not believe that the country
would underrate the difficulties confront
ing those who now attempt to revise and
reform our tariff system. Among these Diff
ficulties 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 industries
and other friends who differed in judg-
ment as the old method from that now to
be pursued. So the great commercial
distress which has of recent months come
upon the country, paralyzing so
many industries and throwing SO
many thousands out of employment made
the task of reform the more difficult
while it made the necessity for the reform
more imperative than ever.
At what time could taxes be
lessened with greater justice and greater
humanity than at time when thousands
are struggling for tie 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 sup
pressed by its burdens and trade hampered
by its restrictions.
A third difficulty in the way of reform
now was the emptiness of the treasury. We
are called upon to reduce taxes at q time
when the government receipts are running
so low that daily revenues have ceased to
meet daily expenditures.
He believed he could not better consume
the time OF the house in opening this
debate than by giving the story Of our
depleted treasury and placing the respon-
sibility for its present straits where that
responsibility Justly belonged.
During the four years of the last admin
istration we had plunged headlong from
an overfowing treasury to bankrupt
treasury, and that, too, without any les
sening OF the burdens of taxation
upon the people, but rather
by a most substantial and oppressive
increase of the losses. The last report of
Secretary Fairchild limited the surplus
revenue for the year 1889, at s104, ,000, ,000
The first report of Secretary Window ac-
knowledged surplus revenue for that
year of s1O5, ,OOO,0 900.
He Accuses Last Administration.
When the Cleveland administration
went out OF Office on March 4, 1889, 1t
turned over to its successor
an available cash balance, amount
ing In the form of treasury bonds
statement used in the past two years to
$185, 900 900. During the Harrison admin
istration the form OF treasury statements
was twice charged.
First by Mr.. Window who succeeded to
this cash balance to conceal the surplus,
and later by Mr.. Foster to conceal the
bankruptcy of the treasury.
The Fifty-first congress dealt with the
treasury surplus after the true and ira
ditional methods of protection which
was to lessen or abolish those taxes,
which pass directly and undiminished
from the pockets of the tax payer to the
public treasury and to increase tho,e taxes
which were intercepted in their passage
from the pockets of the tax payers
to the public treasury by the private
toll gatherer. The Mckinley bill reduced
ed Tobacco, abolishing special taxes on deal
ers OF manufacturers of tobacco, and wiped
out the duties on raw sugar
which for years past had been our chief
revenue producing articles on the customs
List.
Tobacco and Sugar Taxes.
Tobacco taxes were reduced under the
cry that tobacco had become necessity,
for the poor as well as
the rich, but new and heavier
taxes were laid on the woolen clothing of
the poor man indispensable to his health
and his productive energy. Sugar was
untaxed to give the American working
man 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. The
Cleveland administration was scattered.
A large part of it was used to purchase, at
high premium bonds not yet due. In the
first seven months OF the
Harrison administration 10000, 900
bonds were thus purchased at
premiums ranging from five to eight per
cent. on the bonds of '91 and from "a to 70
per cent. on the bonds due in 1907.
Next came the sugar bounty act, under
which sums amounting to $17 900 900 have
been paid to sugar growers.
Attacks Pension Bill.
Last Of all the chief means of distribut-
ing the surplus was the dependent PEN
sion bill under which our annual pension
has risen more than $50, ,0O0,-
900.
Under the operation OF theMcKinley bill
taxes in every one of the important
schedules have been needlessly in
creased. In manufactures OF wool they
had been raised from an average of 20 to
an average OF 100 per cent. In manufac-
lures OF glass they had been raised from
an average OF 54 to an average OF "a
per cent. In manufactures of iron and
steel, the tariff wasl raised from an
average OF 80 to an average
Of SO per cent. Such is the bill
that we have been called upon to re-
wise in the interest o; the people who con-
sumo, Of the people who labor and OF the
general prosperity OF the country itself.