The new North-west., 1897-03-26

: mitted that our receipts last year wer
| only 25,000,000 less than our exDendl
lures, and that the reports of the treas
ury now show that our receipts exceed
eu our expenditures, and yet, in the fac
| OF these facts the republican majorit
sought to pass a bill which they sal
would increase taxes $l14 1000.
Mr.. Wheeler spoke over an hour. II
was followed by MIR. Hopkins, republi
can, of Illinois, who announced that tn
mission of the republican party agail
| placed in power, was to restore prosper
lty and give employment to labor. Th,
tariff bill prepared for that purpose h,
said, would meet alike the wants of TIL,
| government and the people. He parallel
ed the prosperity the country enjoyed un
der the Mckinley law with the distress
produced by the Wilson bill Under tht
Mckinley law, II stars, he said, were
| added to the flag.
What party provided the territory out
| of which those II states were caryed?
asked Mr. Wheeler (Applause.)
The democratic party" replied Mr.
| Hopkins; the same party which tried to
| take IL states from the flag" (Applause,
Later, while Mr.. Hopkins was contend
| ing that there was not an enforced idle
man in the country under Mckinley law,
| Mr.. Wheeler asked whether Coxeys army
invaded Washington under the Mckinley
| or Wilson law
After the advent of the democrats to
power responded Mr.. Hopkins; latter
the Mckinley law had been paralyzed by
| the threat of free trade.
But if there was such wonderful pros
| perity in 1890, and all labor was at work,
how were the republicans so unmercifuly
defeated in 1922" queried Mr. Mcguire
democrat, of California;
by the false pretensions of the demo-
cratic party retorted the Illinois mem
ber, amid the applause of his side.
Bell (populist, of Colorado) took the
floor as the spokesman of his party as
sociates. '"The populst party" said he
mas not taken any decisive stand on the
tariff as a whole, because it has never
believed the tariff was the cause of our
dlf11cult1es; but the populfst party, of
course, believes in requiring the wealth
of the country to bear it's share of the
burdens through a graduated income
tax. The claim that these duties were
levied to cover the differences in the cost
OF labor, he said, was mere hypocrisy.
At O'Clock, when Mr.. Bell concluded,
the house, under the order, took recess
until o'clock. ~.-.3-
The night session of the house for de-
bate on the tariff bill was to have begun
at o'clock Speaker Reed had desig-
mated Mr.. Hopkins of Illinois to ofliciate
In his stead, but Mr.. Hopkins had forgot
ten the appointment. Messengers went
after Mr.. Hopkins, and at S:2O he. appear
ed and called the house to order. About
ID members were present. Speeches in op-
position to the bill were made by Rob-
ertson, Green (Nebraska) Carmack (dem-
ocrat, of Tennessee), and Buckner (denn-
ocrat, of Michigan), and at 1O:3O the house
adjourned.
Mr.. Bailey of Texas presented to the
house tonight the minority report on the
tariff bill. The report was signed by all
the democratic members of the ways and
means committee, and gives the grounds
of their opposition to the bill. 1t says:
This bill was framed with the avowed
purpose of protecting the manufacturers
of the United States against foreign COM
petition. We rest our opposition upon the
broad principle that congress was invest
ed with the power of taxation as a means
of collecting from each citizen his fair
proportion toward the support of the gov
eminent, and that it is a gross perver-
sion of that sovereign power to employ it
as a means of enabling favored classes to
levy unjust charges upon the great body
of the people" E.5-.@r
The report goes on to argue that a bill
an excess of revenue encourages
extravaganza in expenditures, in order to
dissipate the accumulation. The report
concludes:
1--WE are unable to offer a substitute for
the pending BILL because we have not
been allowed a reasonable time to prepare
one. The majority of the committee had
spent the three months of the last session
in the preparation of their bill, and yet
they rcfHsca to allow the minority three
weeks in which to prepare a substitute
We were unwilling to propose a measure
that has not been carefully matured and
we must therefore content ourselves with
protesting against the passage of the
bil.'