The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-03-23
Of the Ways and Means Com
mittee on the Tariff Bill.
THINKS THE BILL BAD
Says 1t Encourages Extrava-
gance in Expenditures
And Fosters Trusts and Re-
strictiOn of Trade.


The report was signed by all the Dem
ocratic members of the ways and
means committee and gives the grounds
or 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
obvious that if it accomplishes that
purpose it must result in compelling the
consumers of this country to pay more
for their manufactured goods, and for
this reason we think it should not pass
We hold to the broad principle that
congress was invested with the power
OF taxation; that it is a gross perVer-
sion of that sovereign power to en-
ploy 1t as a means of enabling favored
classes to levy unjust charges upon the
great body of the people We believe
lnat AFTER contributing his proper share
toward the maintenance of the govern
ment every citizen is entitled to the
full possession and enjoyment of all
he can honestly earn; and we deny the
I1Snt OF congress to make or enforce
any regulation which requires one man
to give any part of his honest earnings
toward increasing the fortune of an
other.
mo man, however blind he may be-
would defend the system of taxation
under which the government first col
lected the money and afterwards dis
tributed it among it's favorites. 1t is
true that the tariff act of 1890 Ventured
to this extent in dealing with the sugar
growers, but the SapproVal of that
policy was so overwhelming and so bit
ter that the advocates of protection
have been forced to abandon it, and
they have not dared to incorporate any
provision for a direct bounty in the
present bill We are unable however
to perceive any difference in principle
between a law which requires the gov
eminent to collect the money and dis
tribute 1t among protected industries
and a law which enables these indus
.
the people. If the government has
the right to levy taxes on the people
for the purpose of inducing men to eS-
tabltSh Improbable Industries in
dustries which can only be made profit
able by compelling the consumers of
the United States to pay exorbitant
prices for their products then the bOun-
ty system is a more direct and less
complex way of attaining that end, and
at least has the advantage of directness
and simplicity. The majority of the
committee seem to think that taxation
can be made a blessing and support of
the government, and instead of being a
burden upon tax payers, can be made
TO enrich them. If this opinion is well
founded, then all the struggles for free
dom which have reVOlved around the
question Of taxation have proceeded
upon a false theory; and the American
colonists, when they determined that
they would not submit to taxation
without representation INDUCED in
mistaken zeal for liberty.
The patriotic resolve of our fore
fathers not to use goods upon which
Great Britain had laid a duty was
wrong if the argument for protection
was right, because, according to the
arguments, British exporters 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 authority, with
the few rare exceptions which only
serve to emphasize the general concur
r,rak 20 IN n
rect or indirect, as a burden and then
we remember that a protective tariff
not only collects more for the govern
snent than is needed for its economical
administra ton, but that it is also ia
vorable to the favored classes"
Under the heading, THE Bill Encour-
ages Extravaganza Mr.. Bailey says:
1T follows as a matter of course that
a bill based upon a vicious principle
must be injurious in its effects and per-
haps no effect could be more pernicious
than the extravaganza which the bill
encourages. The tabulated statement
embraced in the report of the committee
shows that the bill is expected to raise
$113, 000 900 more revenue than was col
1ected in customs during the last fiscal
year; and yet, as is shown by the same
report, the difference between the gov
eminent receipts and the disbursements
during that year was only $25.OOOOOO. 1t
is we'll known that the importations of
last year were smaller than usual, oW-
ing to the general depression that eX-
listed in all circles, but even supposing
that importations hereafter can be kept
at level with the importation of 1890,
the bill will collect more than SOC, 1000, 900
annually above the requirements of our
present extravagant appropriations.
'It may be, however, that the major
ity should not be arraigned for their
open encouragement of extravaganza;
because it can not be surprising that
gentlemen who think that taxes are not
a burden should feel the money derived
from taxation ought to be lavishly
spent
vice of the protective system than the
fact that there flows from it, as direct
consequence, the habit of treating the
expenditures of the public money as
benefit rather than as a burden to the
people.
lit would be cause enough for COM
plant if the burden were the only result
of the extravaganza, but in a free gov
eminent extravaganza breeds tenden-
cies of the most pernicious character.
1t not only teaches the people to look
60 the government for the promotion of
all kinds of enterprises, whether for
pleasure or for profit, but makes them
impatient against public servants who
believe that public moneys are a trust
fund to be jealousy guarded
president Jackson hardly overstated
the danger of a surplus when he de-
clared it was more dangerous than
standing army and yet, dangerous as
a surplus is, it is not so dangerous as
the extravaganza which is always re-
sorted to in order to prevent its accu-
mutation 1t cannot be forgotten that
many of those who now advocate a high
tariff and defend the extravaganza
which it engenders, did not hesitate to
denounce the administration of Presi-
dent Buchanan because in it's last year
the appropriation exceeded the sum of
10000 600 Our population at that time
was nearly half what it is today, and if
the government was now properly and
frugally administered, our expenditures,
Including liberal he SOL
diers of the late war, ought not to, and