The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-02
lIabanian RebukGs With Most Scathing Words Ffansrs
 of Payne Bill
MEASURE DESCRIBED AS
 TISSUE OF DECEPTION
Congressman Takes to Task Old and Young Members of the House for Daring to Take Such Action
 Toward Women.

Washington, April 1.-Representativ Burnett of Alabama today administered a scathing rebuke to the framers of the Payne tariff bill for daring to in- crease duty rates on womens wearing apparel.
 Tt seems to me-" declared MT. Bur nett, that the republican members of the ways and means committee, in the preparation of this bill. aimed delber- ate and premeditated blow at the Ameri- can woman"
 He explained that he was not sur prised at the course of some of the ancient members of the committee, "as the warm blood of youth had long since ceased to course through their vens." What did shock him, he said, was the "unprovoked treatment accorded women all through the bill by the ''princely young gentleman from Ohio' MT. Long, worth; 'the fiery and impetuous youth" from Michigan, MT. Fordney, and the committee baby" from Washington.
 Tt was bad enough for these gentle men to go to fooling with hosiery, union suits and corset covers, continued MT. Burnett, "but when they went out of their way to put false teeth on the free list and high protective tariff on gar ters, l, a mere man, think they passed the limit
 Changing the subject, MT. Burnett de- clared that the bill was a tissue of de- eepton from title to index He asserted that all republican stump speakers last year promised revision downward. Yet the Payne bill showed net increase of l.56 per cent over the average rates in the Dingley bill and ''the Lord only knows how much higher it will be when the Senate is through with it.''
 ''Would one of you have dared to say to the stock raiser Of the west that you would put hides on the free list?" he inquired "and allow the New England shoemaker to continue to rob him with high-priced shoes?
 Would one of you have had the temer- ity to tell the West Virginia or Penn- sylvania coal miner that you intended to put the product of hls labor the free list and lets the sugar trust continue to plunder him at its own sweet will? Who of you would have been bold enough to say to the Alabama and Lake Superior
 
 sweat and brawn on the free list and tax the coffee and tea which his children drink?
 Did you expect to conciliate the farm CT by giving him free acorns and assafoe- tida, as you do in your bill, while you permit the Standard Oil company to ex- tort blood money from him to furnish oil to light his early morning meal? A man with half an eye can now see why you advised the farmers to vote the republic an ticket then, and wait till after the election to have the tariff revised by Its friends
 He challenged the sincerity of the re- publican party in desiring to protect the American laboring man. He said that if the republicans really were desirous of protecting American labor they would incorporate a section in the bill, requiring every illiterate alien over 16 years of age, coming to America, to pay a head tax of S25 Such an amendment would, in it's effect, meet the approval of millions of members of the Farmers union, labor or ganizations and citizens
 The inheritance tax feature of the bill, he termed a sop He said he was fa- forable not only to an inheritance tax but more so to an income tax, believing that the income tax is the fairer of the two.
 "In 36 states the inheritance tax pre- vails," he said, "and I believe in none is an income tax levied. By an income tax you do not duplicate the tax of so many states and do not follow the hearse of the dead to pick up his money"