The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-03-19

is more certain than that " the bill had been
In force during the last three years the an
nuaI deficit would have been immensely
swollen, while the people in a season of de-
preston and hard times would have stag
gered under much heavier burdens of taxa
ton. Even in this disastrous period Gus
toms duties under the existing law have m
creased from less than 1872 900, coo, in
1894, the last year of the Mckinley bill to
even $l52,O00,000 in 1895 and to over $780,
oG0tQ0 in 1886. In the sugar schedule alone
the balance in favor of the existing law is
about $550O0,000 The customs revenue
reached nearly $40 0O0,O0O scarcely any of
which would have been receivable under the
Mckinney bill, and under that bill we would
have been paying $15,00O,O00 in bounties.
NEED NO NEW TAXES.
With the accumulated moneys in the
treasury we really need no new imposition
of taxes on the people to conduct us to suf-
hcient revenue or even a comfortable sur
p,us if we will only invite back prosperity
by giving stability to business and reduce
expenditures by few obvious reforms In
the postofice department alone a saving
OF from ten to twenty millions annually can
be made by few simple improvements in
the business organization of the department
and withdrawal of facilities which the
postal service was never intended to provide
and which force it to do two-thirds of its
work for less than one-thirtieth of its in
come.
But il = is deemed necessary to increase
the customs income Of the government by
d,
cohee, spices and crude opium will accom-
pEsh that result easily and surely with no
uPsettlng OF business, no lessening Of our
growing and most promising export of man.
fractures, and with no added burdens On pro-
ducton, which always fall with enhanced
weight on the consumer, with no ranking
sense OF injustice among the people from the
teeEng that the larger part Of the taxes they
pay are for the benefit not Of their cavern
ment, but of the corporate and consolidated
OF a protective tariff.
That the Dingley bill, present condition
considered, is the most ultra protective tariff
ever proposed TO be enacted in this country
plainly appears from Chairman DinoIev's
statement that if levied on the imnor+stions
Of the last fiscal year it would have Increased
the revenue S112, COO 000 that is to saw if
@ S "a, nave nav gathered from an importation of
S"5,t24,264 OF imported merchandise the
enormous sum of $272, 000 000 which is nearly
hIty mlilons more than any customs revenue
ever collected in one year in this country in
probably check dutiable imports to The ex
tent OF reducing the estimate to SIX, 0O0. GOO is
only another way of saying that to that ex-
tent such rates are prohibitory
AMERICAN CONSUMERS ARE PREY.
American consumers are shut in the home
market TO De preyed upon by combinations
ana trusts, without possibility of relief from
outside competition. Such combinations by
Joining 20 keep up prices and to curtail pro-
duetlon. wage more merciless war against the
NJ
Pcnsation of American labor than any posi-
bic competition from abroad could do.
The falling off Of importations under the
present law dispels the allus:on that the
American laborer is anywhere deprived of en-
ployment by the importation of foreign prod
ucts. The gratifying increase in our ex-
ports OF manufactures is equally strong proof
that those laws are helping US to enter and
command new markets. which means not
only Larger employment for our artisans but
more homo consumers for our farmers.
William L. Wilson.