The Taney County republican. (Forsyth, Mo.) 1895-1992, 1909-08-19
A Good Tariff Law.

position of the new tariff law than the
following brief speech of Mr.. Mccall
of Massachusetts,, a member of the
Ways and Means Committee.
Mr.. Speaker: l will listen to the
gentleman from Missouri, who is the
leader of the minority party, with a
great deal of pleasure, although I dc
not find myself usually in agreement
with his conclusions; but he demon
strated absolutely today two PROPOSE
tons. He first stated that he could
take two men, expert in the use of fig
ures, and could prove two antagonistic
conclusions with reference to the tar
iff. The figures would not lie, but the
experts would. And he then pro-
ceeded to present set of figures to
the House which proved that he must
have employed the services of the
most accomplished liar in North
America. (Laugh.) And I am not
questioning the figures at all, but the
conclusions to which they appear to
lead. His expert had taken up the
different schedules of the pending bill,
and attempted to show that it gave
no practical reduction, and he en-
ployed figures to reach the conclusion
in this way. He took the revenues
that are now derived under these
schedules and the revenues that he
figures will be derived under the
proposed bill, and he calculated up
from the difference in the revenues
that the reduction was practically
nothing. But what transparent fall
lacy was involved! It has been the
contention of nobody that the bill be-
fore the House was going to reduce
the revenues at the custom-houses.
On the other hand, we have had it in
view to increase those revenues. If
we had made the duties prohibitive,
there would be no revenue, and by this
method it would be argued that we
had revised the tariff downward.
We might have brought in bill
founded on the English system,
where upon five articles alone, count
ing liquors as one, they produce
revenue at the custom-house of more
than $158, 100000. Multiply that by
5, which is about the ration of our pop
ulation to that of Great Britain, and
we should produce over $317,0OO,0OO
upon those five articles. A tariff bill
ike that would be free-trade tariff;
and yet, upon the theory of the gen.
tleman's expert, we should have pro-
iuced no downward revision of the
Tariff, because the revenues would not
have been decreased.
Then the gentleman demonstrated
another fact. Those of US who have
the pleasure of knowing Mrs. Clark
know that she is woman of remark
ably good sense. The gentleman from
Missouri proceeded to prove that fact
to the House by saying that after she
nad read Mr.. Payne's report she said
MS tariff bill would save to the Ameri-
can people 5000, 100000 every year
That, to my mind, was a highly sensi-
Die observation.
No let us look at the striking fact
brought out by the statistics that were
produced by the chairman of the Com
mittee on Ways and Means. He shows
hat we have reduced duties upon ar
:icles which are consumed in the
United States to the amount of about
s5, 900, 10000 every year. Well, what
S the Democratic theory.
The Democratic theory is that the
people are not merely taxed upon
goods that are entered at the custom
house, but there is also an equivalent
AK put on all those commodities pro-
1uced in the United States and con-
sumed here. Whether that theory is
true in its extent or not, there is no
doubt that customs duties upon goods
n many cases increase the price to
he consumer, of the same kind of
goods produced in this country; and
whea the chairman of the Committee
on Ways and Means shows that this