The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1897-03-27
THE DINGLHY BILL
Report of the Minority on the Ding
ley Tariff Bill.

more tor their manufactured goods, and for
this reason we think it should not pass We
rest our opposition upon the broad principle
that Congress was invested with the power of
taxation as means of collecting from each
citizen his fair proportion toward the support
of the government, and that it is a gross per-
version of that sovereign power to employ it
a means of enabling favored classes to levy
unjust charges upon the great body of the
people.
''We believe that, after contributing his
proper share toward the maintenance of the
government, every citizen of this republic is
entitled to the full possession and enjoyment
of all he can honestly earn, and we deny the
right Of Congress to make or enforce any reg
ulation which requires one man to give any
part of his honest earnings toward encourag
ing the enterprise or increasing the fortune of
another.
THE BOUNTY IN ANOTHER FORM.
'tNo man, however blind he may be, would
defend a system oftaxation under which the
government first collected the money and
afterward distributed it among its favorites.
1t is true that the tariff act of 1890 ventured
to this extent in dealing with the sugar grow
ers, but the disapproval of that policy was so
overwhelming and so bitter that the advo-
Gates of protection have been forced to aban
don it, and they have not dared to incorporate
any provision for direct bounty in the
present bill We are unable, however, to
perceive any difference in law which en-
ables the protected industries to collect the
money directly from the people.
sIf the government has the right to levy
taxes upon the people for the purpose of in
ducing men to establish Improbable indus
tries. or industries which can only be made
profitable by compelling the consumers of
the United States to pay exorbitant prices for
their products, then the bounty system is a
most direct and less complex way of attain
ing that end, and at least has the advantage
of directness and simplicity.
'sThe majority of the committee seem to
think taxation can be made a blessing, and
that the support of the government, instead
of being burden upon 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
taxation have proceeded upon false theory,
and the American coonists, when they de-
terrnined that they would not submit to tax
alton without representation, INDUCED IN
mistaken zeal for liberty. The patriotic re-
solve of our forefathers not to 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.
Under the heading, ''The Bill Encourages
Extravaganza, Mr.. Bailey says:
1T follows as u matter of course that bill
based upon vicious principle must be in
furious in its effects, and perhaps no effect
could be more pernicious than the extrava-
gance which the bill encourages. The tabu-
lated statement embraced in the report OF the
committee shows that the bill is expected to
raise SlI3, ZOO, 900 more revenue than was
collected in customs duties during the last
fiscal wear. and vet, as is shown by the same
report, the difference between the govern
ment receipts and disbursements during that
wear was only S25, 600, 900. 1t is well known
that the importations of last year were smaller
than usual, owing to the general depression
that existed in all circles, but, even suppos-
ing that importations hereafter can be kept
at a level with the importations of 1896, the
bill will collect from the people more than
500, 900, 900 annually above the requirements
of our present extravagant and wasteful APP
preparations.
president jackson hardly overstated the
danger of surplus when he declared that 1t
was more dangerous than standing army;
and yet, dangerous as surplus Is, 1t is not
so dangerous as the extravaganza which is
always resorted to in order to prevent Its ac-
emulation. 1t cannot be forgotten that many
of those who now advocate high tariff and
| defend the extravaganza which 1t engenders
| did not hesitate to denounce the admlnlstra'
ton of President Buchanan because, in Its
| last year. the appropriations exceeded the
sum of $50, 000,0 900. Our population at that
time was nearly half what it is today, and i
| the government were now properly and fru
gally administered our expenditures, including
| liberal pensions for the soldiers of the late
war. ought not to and would not exceed the
sum of $3.50, 100000
'.The friends of the protective system know
that to keep the taxes high they must fint
some way of spending the money which has
| been collected. 1t is, therefore, the newt
| able consequence of collecting more than i:
proper that improper ways should be devised
! for spending it. The extravaganza which
necessitates the billion-dolar appropriation:
which have become such scandal upon Con
gress had its origin in the unjust system 0
levying taxes for the purpose of enabling pri
waite interests 10 prey upon the public through
the favoritism of the law"
WILL FOSTER TRUSTS.
''The Bill Fosters Trusts" is another head
line, which is explained as follows:
| IL the SNSiStl Vi unnecessary ldAdtiOu L
| indefensibe because of the extravaganza
which it encourages, it is still more so on &C
count of the trusts which it fosters and pro
notes. 1t is not more certain that protection
| encourages extravaganza than it is that /
breeds unlawful combinations of capital. In
| deed. protection is justified upon the avowet
theory that competition should be restricted
True enough, it assumes the patriotic pretens
that foreign competition ought not to be per
mitted against our home industries, but the
little understand the selfshness of human
nature, and especially they little understand
the selfshness of that human nature whicI
relies upon the favoritism of the law to in
crease its fortune who suppose that these men
having secured themselves against foreig
competition by the favor of Congress, will
fail to secure themselves against domesti
competition by voluntary combinations among
| themselves.
at is an old adage, and it is as true as it i
old, that Competition is the life of trade, ant
whatever tends to restrict competition
must tend to restrict trade. The ma
ioritv of the committee seem to think it al
easy matter for us to build tariff wall abou
our borders, and thus prevent the foreigner
from trading with us, but they forget that tn
same wall which shuts the foreigner out shut
us in, and that regulations to prevent the for
eigner from trading with us must at the sam
time prevent us from trading with the for
eigner.
ave believe in the principles of competi
ton, and we believe that the people of tn
| United States can successfully compete agans
all other people of the world, and we denounc
as crime against the best interests of GU
people any law which leaves the consumer
of this land subject to the exactions of reck
less and corrupt combinations formed to des
troy competition and control prices.
THE EFFECT on LABOR.
Treating of the effect of the bill on labor
the report says:
''The report of the committee on ways an
m cans is singularly silent upon the old pre-
text that these high taxes are imposed for tn
benefit of American labor; and the silenc
may be taken as conceding the democrati
contention that the intelligence and skill @
the American factory operative are all tn
protection which he needs or desires. Th'
labor argument of the protectionist can be re
duced to an ebsurdity, which makes it amaz
ing that it should ever have been seriousl
advanced To say in one breath that tn
welfare of labor depends upon its wages au'
that its wages in turn depends on its skill an
! ;ntaIl;napoo aud -, tho uayt breath 10 81