The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-03-23
A MINORITY REPORT
Strong Protest by Bailey
Against Dingley Bill.
ALL DEMOCRATS
OFFER NO SUBSTITUTE, Be
CAUSE NO TINE WAS GIVEN.
BILL FOR A FAVORED F.W
1t Stiles Competition and Fosters
Trusts--inteligence and Skill of
American Factory Operative All
the Protection He Needs.


the Protection He Needs.
Washington, ID. c., March 22-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
| competition, and it is perfectly obvious
| that if 1T accomplishes that purpose it
must result in compelling the consumers
| of this country to pay more for their
1 manufactured goods; and for this reason
we think it should not pass. We rest our
| opposition upon the broad principles that
| Congress was invested with the power of
| taxation as a means of collecting from
| each citizen his fair proportion towards
| the support of the government, and that
| it is a gross perversion of that SOW
/ ereign power to employ it as means of
| enabling favored classes to levy unjust
| charges upon the great body of the peo-
/ pie. We believe that after contributing
/ his proper share toward the mainten-
ance of the government every citizen of
| this republic is entitled to the full pos
session and enjoyment of all he can hon
estly earn; and we deny the right of
| Congress to make or enforce any regula-
/ ton which requires one man to give any
| part of his honest earnings toward en-
| couraging the enterprise or increasing
| the fortune of another. No man, how
| ever blind he may be, would defend a
| system of taxation under which the
government first collected the money and
| afterwards distributed it among its
favorites. 1t is true that the tariff act
/ of 1890 ventured to this extent in dealing
with the sugar growers, but the disap-
proval of that policy was so overwhelming
and so bitter that the advocates of pro
| lection have been forced to abandon it,
and they have not dared to incorporate
any provision for a direct bounty in the
present bill.
TAXING MEN TO ENRICH THEM.
The majority of the committee seem to
| think that taxation can be made a bless
! ing and that the support of the govern
L
| taxpayers. can be made to enrich them.
If this opinion is well founded. then all
| the struggles for freedom which have
| revolved around the question of taxa
ton have proceeded upon false theory;
| and the American colonists when they de-
termined that they would not submit to
| taxation without representation INDUCED
mistaken zeal for liberty. The pa
L friA 1un Of for afOfb r,A{ 10
| use goods upon which Great Britain had
| laid an import duty was wrong, if the
argument for protection is right, because
| according to that argument the British
| importers were really paying the tax
over which the American colonists went
| to war. There cannot be found in the
wide range of economic literature an au-
| thority, with the few and rare exceptions
which only serve to emphasize the gen.
| eral concurrence, which does not treat
taxation, direct or indirect. as a burden;
| and when we remember that a protective
| tariff not only collects more for the gov
| ernment than is needed for its economical
| administration, but that it also enables
| favored classes to collect more than the
| government itself, the injustice becomes
| so clear and so enormous that it would
/ pC u lCHtCllOH upUH lHc lHltlIlSeHCc Ol
the American people to suppose that it
| can escape their swift and decisive con-
demnation.
ENCOURAGES EXTRAVAGANCE.
A considerable portion of the report is
devoted to the subject "The bill en-
| courages extrayagancies.. THE bill fos-
ters trusts" rs another head lines which
iS aYnloipaI fol1nuo. tEIf hn
of unnecessary taxation is indefensible
because of the extravaganza which it
encourages, it is still more so on account
of the trusts which it fosters and pro-
| notes. 1t is not more certain protection
encourages extravaganza than at is that
it breeds unlawful combinations of
capital. Indeed, protection is justified
upon the avowed theory that competition
should be restricted. True enough, it
assumes the patriotic pretense that for
eign competition. ought not to be permit
ted against our home industries; but they
little understand the seIfishness of that
human nature which relies upon the IA
voritism of the law to increase it's for
tune, who suppose that these men, having
secured themselves against foreign COM
petition by the favor of Congress; will
fail to secure themselves against domes-
tic competition by voluntary combina.
tions among themselves. 1t is an old
addage, and it is true as it is old, that
competition is the life of trade. and
whatever tends to restrict competition
must tend to restrict trade"
BELIEVE IN COMPETITION.
We believe in the principles of competi-
ton and we believe that tho naonIa of tho
United States can successfully compete