The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1897-03-26
FIRST DAY OF DEBATE.
The House Takes Up the Tariff Bill
in Earnest.

| DHI VT CCDNIGs
The House Takes Up the Tariff Bill
in Earnest.
Washington, March 24.-The first
day of the tariff debate in the house
was rather tame, from both a spectacu-
lar and an oratorical standpoint. The
galleries were we'll filled all day, and
the members on the floor listened con-
scientiously; but there was an absence
both of that sharp cross firing which
keeps the nerves on edge and that bril-
liant eloquence which inspires and holds
the imagination. The opening of the
debate was delayed over two hours by
the full reading of the bill of 162 pages,
and this, to begin with, had some
what depressing influence. The Repub-
lican leaders insisted on this to avoid
the possible appearance in the future,
should the consideration of the bill not
be completed under the five-minute
rule, of claim that the bill had not
been read in full in the house, thing
which happened in the cases of both
the Mckinley and Wilson bills. Only
four speeches were made at today's ses-
sion. Dingley, chairman of the ways
and means committee, opened in an
hours speech for the majority, and
Wheeler fired the broadside for the
opposition.
The plans of the Democrats had mis-.
carried. Bailey, leader of the opposi-
ton, had decided to close the debate
and McMillin had been selected to re-
ply to Dingley; but at the last moment
it was learned that McMillin had been
unable to prepare himself, owing to the
illness of his wife. The task, there
fore, devolved upon Wheeler. The
latter was unprepared, but, neverthe-
less, took the floor for an hour. Bell
blazed the path for the Populists. The
only other speaker at the day session
was Hopkins, member of the ways
and means committee.
Bailey of Texas presented to the
house tonight the minority report on
the tariff bill. 1t was signed by all
the Democratic members of the ways
and means committee, and gives the
grounds of their opposition to the bill.
It says:
"This bill was framed with the
avowed purpose of protecting the man
ufacturers of the United States against
foreign competition, and it is perfectly
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 rest our opposition on the
broad principle that congress was in
vested 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 perversion of that sovereign power
to employ it as means of enabling
favored classes to levy unjust charges
upon the great body of the people,
The report says the disapprova1 of
the bounty system, as applied to the
sugar industry, has been SO pronounced
that the committee dared not insert it
in the bill, and, in the opinion of the
signers, the payment of bounties is
preferable to the tariff tax, as being
more direct and simple. The report
concludes:
'We are unable to offer substitute
lOl lliC pChulhS Olll1 bCSouoC We hhNO
not been allowed a reasonable time to
prepare one. Congress convened in ex-
traordinary session Monday, and this
bill was introduced the same day and
referred to the committee on ways and
means, which met the next morning,
and on Thursday it was ordered to be
reported to the house. The majority
of the committee had the three months
of the last session of the last congress
in which to prepare their bill, and yet
they refused to allow the minority
three weeks in which to prepare a sub
stitute. We were unwilling to pro-
pose measure that had not been care
fully matured, and we must therefore
content ourselves with protesting
against the passage of the committees
hill -