Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1909-05-20
THE PRESENT SITUATION.
By Hon. Champ Clark, Minority Lead
er of the House of Representatives
[From National Monthly.l

The two most important and SER
| ious facts now confronting the Amer
| lean people are: /. A huge deficit in
/ the revenues, amounting to $150,000,-
| 900 at the end of the fiscal year, June
! 80. 1909, according to the prediction
of the Hon. Jas. A. TaWney, of Mime
sofa, chairman of the great Committee
on Appropriations in the Fifty-ninth
and Sixtieth Congresses and, no doubt,
destined for that high place in the
| present Congress. 2. The utter inca
pacity of Republicans to retrench.
1t is clear as crystal that there are
only three ways to cure deficiency:
| /. Cut down appropriations. 2. In
crease taxes. 3. Issue bonds. 1t goes
without saying that a bond issue, con-
sidered as a remedy, is worse than
the disease. 1t simply postpones the
evil day, for let it not be forgotten
that the bonds together with the in
terest thereon must be paid at last.
With this large and growing def
cheney alarming the country-the de-
f1ciency having been created by the
much-vaunted Dingley Tariff Bill
the Sixty-first Congress with AZ Re-
publican majority in the House and
a two-thirds Republican majority in
the Senate, met in extraordinary ses-
sion March 18th to relieve the sad sit
uation to which Republican misrule
| had reduced the country. What is
their proposed remedy? 1t is double:
L. Increased taxes. 2. Issue bonds
a cheerful prospect surely.
! Of course, they will deny that they
are doing either, but their denial will
fall fiat in the face of the facts. | do
not propose at this time any minute
examination of the Payne Tariff Bill
or of the proposed Aldrich bill, but
/ the chances are that Mr.. Chairman
Payne has achieved what Milton de-
dominates ''the Bad Eminence' of
being the father of the worst tariff bill
ever devised by the wit of man unless,
happily for him and his fame, the AID
rich bill proves to be even worse.
| Government experts figure it out that
the average increase of ad valorem
rates--that is when specific rates and
ad valorem rates are reduced to ad
valorem rate-is 1.56-100 per cent,
and enormous increase of the very
burdens from which people demand
relief They asked for bread and were
given stone. That increase of 1.56
per cent. on rates was on the Payne
! bill as introduced into the House. The
| changes made in it betwixt its intro
duction and passage changed that per-
centage very little. So my first prop
osition is demonstrated, namely, that
to cure the Republican deficiency in
/ the revenues, the Republicans pro-
pose. to increase taxes-a thing which
should not be done when it can be
avoided. In this instance it could
have been and should have been avoid
ed by the simple plan of cutting pro-
hibitive rates to competitive rates on
hundreds of articles of every day con-
sumption, thereby increasing the
governments revenues and at the
same time cheapening the article to
the consumer. A great many persons
in reasoning about the tariff and reve-
nues proceed upon the incorrect
theory that the higher the tariff the
greater the revenue, when in most
cases the reverse is true. For in
stance, on the cheapest sort of wooden
blankets the ad yalOrem rates are as
high as 1872 per cent and in the last
year for which the figures were avail
able only $4,000 worth of such blank
cts were imported The duty col
lected on them was 67.16. That rate
is practically prohibitive mad forces
the people-the masses Of the people
to pay exhorbitant prices for their
blankets; but nevertheless, that rate
stands untouched in the Payne bill
and also in the Aldrich bill! Where
fore? Did the Ways and Means Re-
publicans understand that that rate
is prohibitive? Most assuredly they
they did, for it was Republican,
i Judge Crumpacker, of Indiana, who
fully developed that fact at the hear
ings'' by cross-eXamining William
/ Whitman, of Boston. Still that pro-
hibitive rate remained in the Payne
bill which Judge Crumpaclzer helped
to report, for which he spoke on the
| floor of the House and for which he
voted on final passage. Not only did
Crumpacker demonstrate the pro-
hibitive character of that particular
rate before the committee, but / en-
1arged upon it in the House, so that
every man that voted for it did it
with his eyes wide open. 1t may be
asked by some one, "Why did not the
House change il? Because under the
special rule-as fine sample of the
despotism of the machine as was ever
seen-the rates on wooden goods were
absolutely immune from amendment.
Wherefore? I give it UP. | cannot
! tell. If had a Sherlock Holmes at
my command, I would find out; but
somewhere under cover there was and
is an influence operating in Wash
] ington which enables the interests to-
| hold on to the enormous and unjust
ifiable special privileges which they
have enjoyed for nearly half century
and which are increased rather than
diminished as the years go by. Now
J suppose case. Suppose that ad
/ valorem rate Of 1872 per cent. on cheap
blankets were cut in two, what then
Foreign blankets in large quantities
would come in unless the American
manufacturers reduced the prices of
| their blankets to something reason
able, in which case the government
| would collect a large revenue and the
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