Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1898-10-27
CHAMP CLARK 5 LETTER
Splendid Ability of Con-
gresham Bailey.
WAR REVENUE BILL TAXES.
Bear Most Heavily on the Com
mon People.
WHAT TIE DEMOCRATS PROPOSED

mon People.
WHAT TIE DEMOCRATS PROPOSED.
Would Pay the Expenses of the War
without Going Into Debt-Income
Tax and Coinage of silver seIgnior-
age Patriotism Before Partisan
ship.
Especial Washington letter.
think | have stated once before in
these letters that no living man has a
more lucid style of speaking than Jo-
seph W. Bailey of Texas, leader of the
house Democrats. He is the ablest man
Of his age in the United States. If he
develops as he grows older according to
the promise of his youth, he will be
rated by the impartial historian of our
times as one Of the greatest American
statesmen. No man, | care not what
his age or experience, can drive an ar
gument home with more force than
Bailey. am constrained therefore to
believe that my readers will be entirely
satisfied if l make up this whole letter
Of excerpts from Bailey's masterful
great speech on "The War Revenue
Bill of 1898" The only regret | have
is that every citizen of the republic can
not read the entire speech like old man
Harper of Kentucky used to run his
horses" from eend to eend.
Inter ALA, Bailey said
''Mr. Chairman-We realize as fully
) the proposers of this bill the necessity
Tor raising money to conduct the war
in which this government has been COM
PEELED to engage, and we desire to say
in the very beginning that we are ready
now, as we shall be to the end, to pro-
vide all of the supplies which may be
necessary to conduct this war to an
early and successful termination. No
one can exceed us in an earnest desire
for the immediate and complete success
of American arms; but sir, we will
not be led or driven by this patriotic
impulse into the support Of measures
which do not commend themselves to
our conscience and our Judgment. We
reserve the right to examine and criti-
oise any bill which may be presented,
and while we will be swift to vote for
those which we deem just and wise, we
will be certain to vote against those
which we consider clearly unjust and
unwise. There will be no difference be-
tween that side Of the house and this
as to the fact that the government shall
be abundantly supplied with the means
to prosecute the war, but there will be
differences as to manner in which those
means ought to be supplied. and yet,
sir, sincerely trust that these differ
enoes, however radical they may be,
will be debated in a spirit and with a
decorum suited to the gravity of this
question as we'll as to the dignity of
this assembly.
Democrats Loyal.
sit does not come with good grace
from the leader of that side to antici-
pate our action and stigmatize members
on this side as 'pettifoggers. He will
learn before this crisis is over-what
the country knew before it had we'll be-
gun-that those who occupy seats on
this side of the chamber are today, as
they have been from the earliest stage
of this controversy, ready to subordinate
their partisanship to their patriotism.
Although we have been accused here
and elsewhere of seeking partisan adj
vantage, challenge any gentleman on
that side to examine The Record and
point to vote or an utterance which
justifies that charge. We plead guilty
to being partisans. We are Democrats
because we believe that our policies are
most conducive to the glory and welfare
of our country, and we do not expect to
become nonpartisans. When this trou-
BILE is over, we will renew our conten-
tions against you with undiminished
vigor, but every man ON this side,
whether Democrat, Populist or Silver
Republican. is ready to forego his oon-
test against your ideas-false, we be-
lieve them-until the war Of rifles and
swords is over. However much we
differ with our eountrymen, we do not
intend to fight them as long as there is
Spanish soldier in front of us with
uplifted arm.
"The gentleman from Maine in the
early part of his speech declared that
his committee had followed or had
nearly followed the internal taxation
levied to meet the expenses of the civil
war. They have followed it, regret to
say, in those respects that fall most
heavily on the producing and consum-
ing masses of the land, but have refused
to follow it in respect to those items
which would fall upon the more pros
porous classes. During the last war
there was tax on bank capital and
bank deposits, which il re-enacted to-
day even at the rate of one-half of per
cent would yield $40, 900. 900, but the
ajority have refused to re-enact it. IL
there is one kind of property above all
others that ought to be subject to this
extraordinary taxation to supply the
means for an extraordinary emergency,
it is the bank deposits of the country
They are the only form of property
which, though owned by one set of peo-
pie, are used by another set for the
profits and advantage of themselves. A
large percentage of the banks pay no
interest on deposits, while the average
rate of interest which they receive upon
the loans made from their deposits is
more than per cent. And yet, sir, al
though the banks are using the deposits
&C = rate Of more than per cent with
out compensation to the depositors, our
friends on the other side, when search
ing for objects Of taxation, overlooked
that one which above all others ought
to have been subjected to tax.
The Democratic Proposition.
81 might enumerate others, but this
will suffice for my purpose here. for it
is not my intention to discuss this bill
either as to what it contains or as to
what it omits. We say to the gentlemen
ON the other side of the house that we
recognize the necessity for raising
money. and we are willing to take what
they have proposed if they will join us
in proposition to raise 500, 600, 600
more. Their proposition is to lay tax
upon the consumption of the country
and supplement- that taxation on the
wants of today by mortgaging the ener-
&c - oi.tl, k,<..x.