The Birmingham age-herald., 1902-10-14
RECORDS SHOW HIS
 WORDS ID BE UNTRUE
Question Was Fully Discussed In Sen ate and Duty Was Imposed By Vote of Republican Mem
 bers Over Protest.
BY PATTERSON sTEALEY.

Washington, October 13.-(Special )-At first it was stated by the President of the United tSates in his Cincinnati speech thracite coal. Then when it was proved that there is a duty of 67 cents ton on anthracite coal, that this duty was inn posed by the Dingley tax law of 1897, the republicans are seeking a way to escape the odium of this legislative inn position upon the people. With this end in view the secretary of the navy, Mr. Moody, in his speech at Madison, Wis. has the effrontery to assert that 'the duty of 67 cents on anthracite coal was smuggled into the tariff act in a snealSing and cowardly manner" This is no more true than the assertion of the President in a public speech that there is no duty whatever on anthracite coal.
 On June 30. 1897. the Dingley tariff bill having passed the house. was brought up in the senate for committee amend ments In the Congressional Record of that date extra session Fifty-fifth con- gress, volume 30. part2, page 2144, Senator Allison, who had charge of the bill, of fered an amendment providing that ali coals containing less than s2 per cent of fixed carbon and shale should be taxed at the rate of 67 cents per ton.
 Debate In Congress.
 During the course of the debate on this amendment which debate extends over several pages of the Congressional Re- cord. Senator Allen of Nebraska said: "I should 44.Ae to ask the senator from Iowa what reason there is for taxing coal? What is the necessity?' Senator Allison replied: '"The same necessity that there Is for tariff bill, to protect the care for the coal producers of our own country, and to nrovide revenue from the duties on the coaSlmported. There has, I believe, always baen a duty upon coal This is, with thsa exception of one or two in- stances,Aa lower duty than. has generally been imposed upon bituminous coal. The present duty Is forty cents ton which is here increased to sixty-seven cents"
 During the course of the debate Sen ator Allen added these remarks which are singularly appropriate to present condi- tions:
 Why exclude coal from. elsewhere any levy upon the poof people of the Atlantic Seaboard and other portions of the Uni ted States, tariff in addition to the orig lndi COel Oi lic COdi, anu COlhpCl every fireside in the thirteen million and a half homes of the United States to pay tribute to a few owners of coal mines. There is no sense in it. there is no excuse for it. there is no reason to support it, ex- cepting the bare reason that friends are to be rewarded in bill of this kind"
 In Harmony With Scheme.
 Senator Vest said; That whole move- ment Is in perfect harmony with the en- tire tariff scheme. and that is to exclude a superior foreign product in order to force the American consumer to take an inferior one and put money in somebody's pocket when 1t ought not to go there. That Is the whole of it''
 Senator Vest further said: "As I un- derstand this proposed amendment 1t makes an entire revolution in the taxa ton upon coal. It puts anthracite coal upon the dutiable list although a cursory examination of the paragraph would not leave that impression. l have not the amendment before me. but my recollec-