The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-03-22
Opens the Debate ON the Tariff
in the House.
EXPLAINS HIS BILL.
Says it Will Add S1OO,OOO,OOO
the Second Year.
Urges Expeditions Action on
the Members.

this morning. Despite the early hour
of assembling there was a large at
tendance on the floor and the galleries
showed evidence of the great interest
manifested in the proceedings. Mr..
Dingley and Mr.. Bailey. the opposing
leaders, were early in their places.
BY the terms of the rule under which
the house was to operate during the
consideration of the bill, the house i'm
mediately resolved itself into a COM
m1ttee of the whole and the speaker
conferred upon Mr.. Sherman (Rep.. N.
V the distinguished honor of presid-
ing over the committee. Those who
expected the debate to begin immedi-
ately were disappointed. The leaders
decided not to dispense with the read
ing of the bill, but to have it read in
full at the outset in order to disarm the
criticism passed on previous bills that
they were put through without even
having been read in the house. The
spectators in the gallery and the
members the floor waited while the
clerk droned through the 1913 pages of
the bill.
When the reading was finished, de-
bate on the measure was commenced
Mr.. Dingley began by stating that
congress having been convened in extra
session, the facts that had led to the is
suance of the presidents message were:
That the government revenues during
the past four years had been insufficient
to meet expenditures to the extent of
more than 5000, 000, 900, or an average of
| $50 600, 600 per annum; that this def
| cheney Will continue to grow unQSr 9X-
listing conditions; that the deficiency has
been met by borrowing, that is, by bond
sales and that this has promoted dis
trust intensified and prolonged the run
| on the treasury and weakened business
| confidence.
'"This deficiency of revenue, said Mr..
Dingley, has nearly all arisen from a
! falling off of revenue from duties on
| imports-and not from a decline of
| revenue from internal taxes.
I'm revising the tariff he said, 1.-The
| committee have endeaVored to discard
mere theories and have addressed them
| selves TO the framing of a practical
remedy, at least in part, for the ills
which have for so many months over
| Swallowed the country.
| 1T is a condition and not a theory,
| which confronts US. Our problem is to
| provide adequate revenue from duties
| on imports to carry on the government
| and in imposing duties to secure this
| result so to adjust them as to secure to
| our own people the production and
| manufacture of such articles as we can
| produce or make for ourselves, without
| natural disadvantage, and thus provide
more abundant opportunities for our Ia
: Dor
| '''No economic policy will prove a sue
| cess unless it shall in some manner con-
| tribute to opening up employment to
| the masses of the people at good wages
! When this is accomplished and thus
| the purchasing power of the masses re-
| stored, then-and not until then-will
| prices cease to feel the depressing effect
| of under consumption and the prosperi-
| ty of our people rise to the standard of
| 1892.
The past four years have been en-
| tightening, especially to candid inves
| tigators of economic problems. We
| have been attending a kindergarten on
a large scale. The tuition has come high
| but no people ever learned SO much in
| so brief q time. Hereafter theories,
| preached in however captivating Ian
guage, will have to give way to the
| teachings of experience.
| 1T has been the faVorite assumption
| of some theories that revenue and pro-
i lection in the same tariff schedule are
| impossible.
| But we have had in the past seven
| years in the contrasted working of the
| protective wool and woolens schedule
| of the tariff of 1896 a most striking
| demonstration otherwise"
| Mr.. Dingley then gave some statis-
| tics relative to the importatlons and
tariff on woolens and said that by plac-
| ing wool on the free list the treasury
lost $21. 900. 900 revenue and the farmers
$40, 600, 900 per year, and that this coun-.
| try had not been able to increase its
| exports of manufactured wool. 1t has
been claimed, he went on, that the price
| of clothing had been reduced. but this
| was only in appearance, because people
| had been deprived of work and wages
| and found it harder 70 buy clothing
| than before. The new schedule would
aid the wool grower, increase nanufac
| lures and ultimately increase the reVe-
| nue..
Speaking of the sugar schedule, Mr..
| Dingley said it would increase the rev.
| eTue and encourage sugar production
| III this country. He explained the sugar
| schedule in the following statement:
The duty sugar proposed is specific
! according to pOlaroscopic test OF the
| degree of Sacccharine matter, COM
| mencing at per cent per pound for SUI
| gar poiarizing not more than 10 de-
| grees and increasing the duty three
| one-h undredths of L cent for each addi-
| tional degree. This would make the du-
ty on raw sugar QG0 degrees) ~ cents.
To this is added one-eighth of 1 cent for
| such sugar as above, No. Is Dutch STAN
| dard in color (refned sugar. making the
| duty l cent and eighty-SeVen and q half
| hundredths. This eighth, with wh2tev-
er may be added by the countervailing
duty on all sugar imported from export
bounty paying countries. IS the pro-
lection which it is believed will maintain
the refining industry here, nOtwithstand-
ing the present differentiaI of one
| eighth and 40 per cent all round duty
the only differential between raw and
! refined sugar, because if the ref1ner uses
sugar of less saccharine strength than
100, as he must, it requires proportion
ately more of such sugar to make a
pound OF refined sugar"
! increase on flax and hemp was made both
| in the interest of revenue and because
| there was a great promise of home pro-
| duction- As to other increases of duties
| ley said For the most part otherwise
| the increase of duties in the pending bill
| to the figures of the tariff of 1890 have
| been in the schedules or paragraphs COW
! ering Injuries like tobacco, liquors, silks,
laces. etc. which, being articles of vol
as objects which will bear the highest
| duties. The exceptions are the earthen-
| ware and glass schedule and the agricul-
| ture schedule which the duties have
| been placed, the same as in the act of 1896
because no other rate seemed to be pro-
| tective.''
! Mr.. Dingley then briefly touched upon