Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-06-01
WILSON VS. DINGIEY.
FORMER TARIFF MAKER EXPOSES AB- SuRDlTIES OF THE DlNGt tEY ELL.

and Discourage American Labor-Makes
 Some Serious Reflections Upon the Me-
 Kinley Bill as Revenue Producer.
 Postmaster General William L. Wilson is credited with the authorship of the tariff bill now in force. His hands were tied so that he could not make the bill nearly as good as he de- sired to make it, and the bill as finally passed was not nearly as good as when it first passed the house. It was, how ever, great improvement upon the Nc Kinley bill and is model as compared with the Dingley monstrosity. We quote the following from MT. Wilson's criticism of the Mckinley and Dingley bills in recent number of the New York Herald:
 These bills are so nearly identical in general structure and particular items, excepting as to the sugar schedule, that 1t may be we'll to consider the effect of the first bill on the revenue of the coun- try. Both bills are vast and yoluminous schemes of class taxation, the production of public revenue being an incident and entirely subordinate to the purpose of taxing all the American people for the benefit of & small part of the people.
 The protectionist has but one remedy, which he applies whether the revenue be redundant or deficient If times are prosperous and more money than is needed pours into the treasury, he in- ereases taxes by scheme that turns the larger part of their avails into pri- yate pockets, and this reduces public revenue. If times are depressed and less money than is needed pours into the treasury. he seizas the pretext of in ereasing public revenues by adding enormously to the amount of private ex- action.
 The act of 1890, whatever it's other effects, did reduce revenue. From large surplus it swept us headlong to deficiency, although it weighted the people with heavier taxes and although another law, passed in July, 1890, turned into the treasury as part of the general assets to be used for paying ex- penditures a trust fund of more than $54. 900, 900 which belonged to the na- tional banks and had always been held for the redemption of their notes.
 Even before the Harrison administra- tion ended we should have been con- fronted with large deficiency but for the use of this trust fund and the fur ther fact that Secretary Foster, by change of bookkeeping, added to the treasury balance $20, 900, 600 of token and subsidiary coin not before treated as a treasury asset. With these extraor- dinary additions, even, we wound up the fiscal year June 30, 1893, with sur plus of only $2, 341, ,674 as against surplus for the fiscal year June 80, 1890, of over $85, 1000, ,000 before the above trust fund and subsidiary coin were touched. And during the fiscal year ended June 80, 1894, through all of which the Mckinley bill was in force, expenditures exceeded the revenues to the amount of $69, sos, 260, notwith- standing the fact that the expenditures of the government were $15, 952, 674 less than in the preceding year.
 This statement shows how absurd and groundless is the claim constantly made by the protectionists that recent deficits in revenue are due to the substitution of the existing tariff for the Mckinley bill Nothing is more certain than that if the bill had been in force during the last three years the annual deficit would have been immensely swollen, while the people in q season of depression and hard times would have staggered under much heavier burdens of taxation. Even in this disastrous period, customs duties under the existing law have increased from less than $132, ,000, 900 in 1894, the last year of the Mckinley bill, to even $152, 900, 900 in 1895 and to over $160, 900, 900 in 1896.
 h the sugar schedule alone the bal anee in favor of the existing law is about $55, GOO, 900. The customs reve- nue reached nearly $40, 000, GOO, scarce ly any of which would have been re- ceivable under the Mckinley bill.
 That the Dingley bill, present condi- tions considered, is the most ultra pro- tectiye tariff ever proposed to be enact ed in this country plainly appears from Chairman Dingley's statement that If levied on the importations of the last
 
 revenue $112, 900, 000-that is to say, it would have gathered from an importa- tion of $775, TEA, 264 of imported mer- chandise the enormous sum of $272, coo, 1000, which is nearly $50, 900, 900 more than any customs revenue ever collected in one year ill this country in the past. And to say that its rates will probably check dutiable imports to the extent of reducing the estimate to $70, 900, 900 is only another way of saying that to that extent such rates are pro- hibitory.
 American consumers are shut Ill the home market to be preyed upon by com binations and trusts without possibih- ty of relief from outside competition. Such combinations. by joining to keep up prices and to curtail production,
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