Birmingham state herald., 1896-02-20
THE TARIFF MATTER.

| 1894 Senator Morgan spoke at Montgom-
 cry. His speech was reported in the Ad-
 vertiser of the 23d. The senator explained
 why he voted against admitting coal and | iron free of duty. He voted against 1t
 because it was a job to protect New Eng
 land furnaces and Mir. Clarke voted for
 it because MT. Cleveland had called for it.
 Senator Morgan in the course of his ! Montgomery speech said
 1 "One of the questions that I have been l called upon by distinguished newspa- per- that controls now the policy Of Ala l bama, is why it is that l, being pro- 1 fesslonal tariff reformer was willing to l put 40 cents per ton on coal and 40 cents l per ton on iron ore. Both of these arti- l ces came in free. They say that states manship is the science of circumstances. l believe Burke said that, and whether true or not 1t is sometimes very neces- sary and convenient, since, If MT. Whit ney, q brother of our late secretary Of the navy, and other large capitalists have gone to Nova Scotia and bought up the right to large claims of coal, they are willing to pay the dominion government l a royalty for taking this coal they can carry their coal to Boston anl along the New England coast and associate 1t with ore from the eastern end of Cuba ana make iron there cheaper than our people
 can make it. and they do it for the pur- pose of giving this protection to these
 great capitalists, monopoliSts. that go to
 Great Britain to do their trading. l say
 if l can get 40 cents upon iron and upon
 our coal in Alabama I want it. There is
 no Injustice in it and there is no aban-
 donment of principle in it. But, as l
 said, we cannot revolutionize the tariff and go back to the Walker tariff, but
 we are modifying it, and while making
 qualifications I am opposed to that cer-
 tain, genteel servitude which compels us,
 after giving up the whole money power
 into their hands to turn around and in- crease the benefaction by tearing our
 mines down, by destroying the ore beds,
 by letting the pits fill up with water that
 are dug by the people of Alabama, and depriving laborers of their labor l am opposed to doing that as a mere act of
 seryility and courtesy for a man con-
 nected in a distinguished way with the
 president of the United States or mem- Der of his former cabinet"
 This was a very plain statement of the
 matter and a very conclusive answer to the Advertiser. That paper did not have
 the temerity to reply to the senator.
 There was no possible answer.
 r. c. Bush, Esq., of Anniston, president
 of the Shelby Iron company and also
 president of the Mobile and Birmingham
 
 son tariff bill was before congress ap-
 peared before the ways and means com
 mittee and called attention on behalf of
 the manufacturing interests of Alabama
 to the injustice and danger of placing our
 ores upon the free list. In his very able
 argument among other things he said:
 If you will go with me to the docks of Mobile I will show you vessels from Nvhipb G hpipp nnlOgdP ballast consist
 ing of rock and sand. You will find on investigation that the vessel had to pay for loading this ballast received nothing for freight on 1t, paid for unloading, and possibly paid for the privilege of placing 1t on some one's wharf property. Is 1t not reasonable to suppose that if these vessels coming to the gulf or south At lantio ports in ballast for lumber and cotton would bring any product on which they could get first cost, cost of loading and unloading. and without any profit on the purchase or remuneration for l freight would save money over the pres ent plan?
 | "I am informed that steamer recently l came into the port of Mobile to supply | herself with coal for steam fuel and that | the captain stated that were it not for l the fact that there was 75 cents per ton | duty on coal he would have brought 5000 | tons on that trip. Il is not likely that for | many years vessels coming to southern ports TOT luTDDeG, lll1lDtT ana tDllOH VIII | have return cargoes from foreign ports, and therefore they are likely to avail l themselves of the opportunity of bring | ing such products as coal, salt etc, | should they be admitted free of duty. You will naturally ask, is it not | right that the people of these ports should have fuel as cheap as they can get it | That would seem right in the abstract, | but believe that the people of Alabama's s | chief port are intelligent enough to see | that the benefits which they derive from the development of our coal and iron ore | mines and their increasing prosperity are | of far greater advantage to them than the matter of saving few cents on l ton of coal Besides, the argument could | be repeated as to the injustice that would | result from coal and other products not l paying their proportion of the burdens | of taxation necessary for raising the re- | qured revenue for the government. I might also add that the development of | the coal mines of Alabama promise to make Mobile a great coal export city from which her people will derive great benefit"
 It appears from the reasoning of MT.
 Bush, which is very strong that MT. Clarke. in voting to put coal and iron
 ore on the free list. voted not only against the interests of the Birmingham district, but equally against the inter-
 
 | As MT. Bush is an advocate of MT. | Clarke he Is a witness whose testimony cannot well be impeached
 l It did not fall within the line of his | discussion. but Mir. Bush might have en- | larged his argument and called atten- | ton to the damage done our lumber in- l terests by removing the duty of S2 per l 1000 from lumber and placing it upon l the free list. MT. Clarke voted also for | that measure, the result of which has been to wipe out the margin of profit l which our southern mills held against l Canadian lumber. The north and the | west kept on the tax until their forests were exhausted and then. rather than af- | ford the south the protection they them selves had enjoyed so long, let in the Ca | nadian lumber free and deprived the south of a large field Into which our lum- | Der entered into competition with Cana | dian. MT. Clarke voted to protect the 1 Canadian lumber against our southern