The herald., 1897-03-30
THE ATRocIoUsNEss OF 1T

The enacting clause of the new tariff
bill provides that the several schedules
shall be in effect on and after May l.,
1897, but so much opposition to many of
the features of the measure is develop
ing that the senate is likely to spend two
or three months in discussing it. The
better the bill is understood the more
opponents 1t has. The more astute poll
ticians of the Republican party are be-
ginning to see that If the bill in its pres
ent shape becomes a law the country
will repudiate it at the next congress
sional election, and they are relying upon
the senate to either strike out or more
cleverly cover up such schedules of du
ties as are wholly in the interest of the
Industrial combines.
Chairman Dingley is not the clever
diplomat and political capital maker he
was supposed, TO be. He talks too much
for publication for the good of his party;
but he does not talk too much for the
SOOQ VI tnc COQItiy SlASC NiAoe AS coJ
gives an insight into the purpose of the
bill, and thus reveals the atrociousness
of the scheme of the trusts and monop
olies to oblige the people of the United
States to buy the products of their mills
and factories at prices ranging from so
per cent to $50 per cent above the present
cost of such articles of consumption.
To be sure it is claimed that the object
i've point to be reached is a sufficient
government, with incidental protection;
but that kind of talk does not harmonize
with what Mr. Dingley says as chairman
of the tariff committee and the recog-
nized spokesman of his party upon the
floor of congress.
Mr. Dingley says the present tariff
act is inadequate to provide for the gov
ernment's expense account by about $685.
600, 900 a year, and to overcome the diff
Guilty he has arranged to increase the
annual revenues by considerably over
500, 900, ,0O0 He does not say what his
party proposes to do with the yearly
surplus of more than $S5. 900 900 which
his bill will collect from the people, but
no doubt plenty of claims" will be al
lowed to friends and bounties paid to-
favorite industries to effectualy absorb
1t all. In his inaugural address Presi-
dent Mckinley said he should insist that
rigid economy be practiced in all the
departments of the government, but 1t
had already been arranged by Chairman
Dingley and the other leaders of the
party that the government should not
only have enough money to meet all of
its expenses, but that there shall be a
surplus of nearly s1O0,00O0OO a year
place where it will do the most political
good.
1t is worth while to see what effect
upon the well-being of the masses the
operation of Chairman Dingley's rev
enue" tariff will be. We are told that
business is going to revive in all the
channels of trade and traffic, and that
the volume of commercial operations
will largely increase just as soon as all
the machinery of the government is lu-
bricated with Republican wisdom; but
on the basis of the total output Of the
Industries last year, the Dingley bill
will increase the market price of the pro-
duction about $500, ,OoO, Ooo To this should
be added the proposed revenue surplus
of SS5,000000 or more, making the total
extra tax upon the clo;hir 8 a1d other
necessaries Of life of the people about
$500, 10000 a year. That is to say, it
will cost the seventy odd million people
in the United States 5000 600, 900 more a
year to live under the Dingley bill than
under the Wilson tariff law. Will the
profits Of the business enterprises of