The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1909-07-29

n. Y, the general industry Of a large
town giving employment to thousands
Of ~laborers, who are raising families,
and own their homes and pay taxes,
is the manufacture of this print paper.
The pulp and pulp wood used in those
rajils is imported in the United States
from the spruce forests in Canada,
there being no spruce left in the Unit
ed States except in northern Maine.
What these American mills need,
therefore, is the removal of the tariff
absolutely from wood pulp and pulp
wood to enable them to get this mater
ial as cheaply as possible foom the
Canadian forests and ! most heartily
supported the proposition to remove
all the tariff from wood pulp and pulp
wood. 1t was established very clearly
to my mind however, that a tariff of
only $500 a ton on this cheap print
paper manufactured from wood pulp,
would not permit the American mills
to compete with the Canadian mills,
The reason is obvious. The Canadian
mills, located in the spruce timber dis
tricts, can get spruce timber on the
grounds cheaper than the American
mills can get it; besides the American
mill owner must pay the freight in
vOlved in transporting it from the Can
adian forests to his mill. The present
duty is $500 per tor on print paper.
The proposal of the house bill was to
cut it to $500 a ton. When the mat
ter came up in the senate, as | say,
it was made to appear clearly and
conclusively to my mind, that to cut
the rate down as low as So a ton, would
put these great American mills out
of business and transfer the great in
dustry of manufacturing cheap print
paper from the United States to Can
ada, entailing a severe hardship p o
the thousands of workmen employed
in these American mills.
This was so apparent, that when
the matter came up, Senator LaFol-
lette of Wisconsin, took the floor and
made the statement to cut the duty to
$500 a ton would destroy the print
paper industry of Wisconsin, and he
asked to amend the bill by making it
$500, and said, that even at that rate,
it was only a question of time when
the Wisconsin mills would have to
give up the cheap print paper industry
and he proposed to let the duty lapse
he expected the Wisconsin mills to
gradually go out of business. My iudg-
ment of the thing to do was to fix
the duty at $500 a ton and allow the
American mills to make this paper
as long as possible, instead of trans
ferring it to Canada. The mere trans
ferring of this industry from the
American side over into Canada would
not give the American newspaper man
any cheaper paper and would unnec-
essarily injure this great enterprise
in American communities. AS a pro-
tectionist, believing that the principle
should be applied fairly and reason
ably. | could not concientiousiy vote
to slash the duty down to $500 a ton.
And yet. because l followed my con-
science and judgment in the matter, l
am accused of 'wabbling.'
"When the matter Of the income tax
up, we faced this situation: A
general income tax applying to indi-
viduals, as we'll as to corporations.
would come squarely against the de-
of the supreme court of the
United States, rendering under the in
tax law of 1894, and upon re-
hearing, reaffirmed. The passage of
such q general income tax law in the
ace of this knockout decision of the
United States supreme court would
simply mean a law suit with doubtful /
'esults and no revenue during the [
in which the suit would be pend I
The proposal made by the presi- [
lent that we pass an excise tax upon :
he business conducted by corporations |
or profit is n which it was frankly t
by the greatest and best law
'ers in the senate, like Bailey of Tex 5
IS, Cummins of Iowa, Root of New (
FORK and Raynor of Maryland, is con. I
titutional. This proposal is one which
will also establish the jurisdiction of e
he federal government to supervise t
nd regulate all the great corporations !
the country engaged in interstate a
commerce, and to establish the right
publicity in corporate transactions
generally. Because 1 decided to sup s
'ort this measure, admitted to be legal
nd constitutional, as a substitute for t
ne general income tax proposition, in
'hich. theoretically, / believe, but a