Evening star., 1897-06-07
Finance Committees Recommendation
Causes a Discussion.
DIFFERENCES AMONG DEMOCRATS
Senator Hoar Causes Quite &
Lively Tilt.
THE HOUSES SHORT SESSION

The consideration of the tariff bill was
resumed soon after the session of the Sem
ate opened today, and the discussion pro-
ceeded on the paragraph placing a duty of
81 a thousand feet on lumber. Mr.. Allen
(Neb) moved to substitute the provisions of
the Wilson bill. which placed lumber on the
free list. The senator spoke in particular
against restoring white pine to the dutiable
list, urging that the rates were designed to
be prohibitory against Canadian pine.
There was nothing he said, in the CLAP
trap argument" of American high wages,
as the wages of lumbermen in Canada
Were on the whole, higher than in the
United States. This was simply an at
tempt to nay back to the lumber syndicate
the advance which 1t had possibly made
less than a year ago. Larceny, he said,
was larceny, no matter under what name
IL was disguised, and any law that permit
ted one class of people to take from an
oIner ciass its honest earnings. was. in the
eyes oil every honest man, nothing short of
absolute larceny-legalized larceny Mr.
Allen referred to the various interested ele-
ments, clamoring like jackals for the ben
ehts to be conferred by this bill.
Mr.. Berry (Ark.) spoke against restoring
the duty on white pine He had been ap-
pealed to by the lumber interests of his
own state to support the duty, but he
could not do il when 1t laid such heavy
"
western states. Mr.. Berry expressed his
astonlshment that any democratic senator
would support this restoration of duty on
lumber.
Mr.. Bacon (Ga.), who is supporting the
lumber duty, reminded Mr.. Berry that
ms tBacons 81 support was due to the fact
that the duty was revenue rather than a
protective rate.
Mr.. Berry responded with a vehement
a1raisnnent of The bill, framed, he said,
IN the interest of every trust and combna-
tion In the country. When he saw in The
bill that 1t gave large increase of duty to
the sugar trust and to every other combi-
nation OF capital this satisfied him that
the measure was framed distinctly On the
lnes ol protection and not revenue.
Mr.. Caffery Ua.) opposed the duty on
white pine. and incidentally criticised the
position of Mr.. Bacon tGa.), VINO, he said.
favored a protective duty
This the senator from Georgia denied.
Mr.. Caffery announced his oppositio, to
all protective duties. He favored the i'm
position of pure revenue duties He said
the supply of pine IN this country was in
exhaustible. and repudiated the 'reputel"
representa- tivcs of lumber interests cf his
state who went before The ways and means
committee and ask I'd duty of S. He
could not. he said. find single bas;s for
.nls duty on lumber so far as the southern
timber interests Were concerned Either
TINS duty must be justified on the theory
OF protection or 1t could not be justified at
all lie could not understand how Mr.
DeN'iA Sooio dSi-hu lhe Iuty as a revenue
duty.
The platform 1 stand on" interposed
MI Bacon, the orthodoxy Of which the
senator from Louisiana may not subscribe
10 tMr CaHery supported the Indianapolis
gold tickeD. warrants my position. The
Chicago platform said We favor a tariff
Tor revenue, with tu:ies so adjusted as to
operate equally throughout the country
tion.' 1t is that plank in the platform
upon which 1 stand" said Mr.. Bacon.
Mr. Canery said there might be a dis
crepancy between the Chicago and In
Glanapolis platforms. but the essence of
democracy was opposed to tariff on raw
materials, because such a tariff neces-
sarily required compensatory duties on
manufactured articles.
IF one wrong is conceded" he asked.
shall we multiply it? Can the error be
corrected? That may be the logic of your
democracy; .iM~ aey;,,o1 1t !. is not Of mine"
II duties are to be levied on manufa cturcd
articles for revenue purposes they should
also be levied on raw materials-that no
favors should be shown"
Mr.. Caffery sat down, but Mr.. Hoar
Casso brought both him and Mr.. Bacon
to their feet. Il suggest" said he, that
the senators could save the time of the
The senator from Georgia should apply his
protection principles to sugar and the SEN
ator from Louisiana his protective princi-
pies to lumber"
principles for protective principles OBJ
served Mr.. Bacon. good naturedly, II will
agree
"a protective duty on sugar by any other
name would be as sweet" replied Mr..
Hoar. land be a protective duty STILL"
Mr.. Caffery displayed some temper as he
pronounced Mr.. Hoar's statement that he
favored a protective duty on sugar erro-
neous. There was not, ne declared, an
iota of protection in his makeup. The
senator from Massachusetts, he said, WAS
SO inoculated with the protective doctrine
that he could not see the strength of an
argument for a revenue duty. II favor
a duty on sugar. said he emph ltically,
because the duty goes into the treasury of
the United States. You favor protection
articles which enables the manufacture
ers of those articles to put the equivalent
of the duty in their OWE pockets"
The year before the Mckinley bill went
put s5s,OOO.OOO in the treasury. Mr.. Bacon
and Mr.. Caffery had sharp exchange,
and seemed about to subside. but Senator
Hoar evidently did not desire that.
Stirred Up by Mr.. Hoar.
Again he made some rather sarcastic ref
erences to Mr.. Caffery's inconsistency, de-
scribing him q free trader who cried al
ways sugar" sugar" sugar." and when
tn. Wilson bill was before the Senate was
doubtful of what that bill would do for
sugar that he voted "aye'' on the sugar
schedule and no" on the final passage of
the bill. and then changed to yea"
THE free trade senator from Louisiana"
he concluded, finds only one exception to
the application of his theory-sugar; and
the free trade senator from Georgia an
other exception-lumber."
Mr.. Bacon protested being termed a free
trader. He favored a duty on all raw ma
terials.
'All raw materials that compete with the
products Of Georgia." remarked MIR. Hoar,
amid laughter.
The Massachusetts senator proceeded to
point out various articles which various
senator's of the opposition seemed to de-
sire to have protected. III we could com.
NIT the framing Of a tariff bill to the free
trade senators who are conducting the de-
bste on the other side.' said he: ''if we
shut cur eyes. opened our mouths and
voted for 1t, after its passage we would
discover that every industry In the respec-
tive states had been amply protected"
(Laughter)
That's what they did before; that's
what they would do now. Morally, there is
a great deal of human nature in demo-
Gratis"
The merriment was SO great as Mr.. Hoar
concluded that Senator Burrows who was
in the chair, was compelled to atInpress n