The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-30
SENATOR RAINIER
 FLAYS PAYNE BILL
Fails to Provide Revenue and
 Protects Trust MagnateS
TARIFF FOR REVENUE ONLY
Maryland Man Declares the Whole Measure as Now Discussed In the Senate Is for Protection First
 and Then for Revenue.

l Washington, April 29-Declaring that free trade is impracticable in this coun- try, and asserting that not single demo- crat would vote for it if presented to him l in a bill, Senator Rayner of Maryland, in the Senate today, delivered an address de- I nouncing the Payne-Aldrich tariff meas Tre as failing to provide revenue and i protecting the industries controlled by trusts rather than giving any relief to l the consumers of the country. MT. Ray ner frequently entered upon oratorical flights and concluded with a series of con demnations of the so-called trusts of the country. He declared his belief in incl dental protection in order to maintain the wages of American workingmen. l 'I have never believed in free trade be- tween this country and any other coun- tries" MT. Rayner said. T think from l every practical standpoint it is perfectly l preposterous to talk about it. I think the 1 country would vote such a proposition 1 down almost with practical unanimity believe in custom house taxation, and l do not believe any other system will ever take it's place to the satisfaction of the American people. Free trade is not the
 
 proaeh and adjectives will deter me from stating what the question really is. If there were a resolution now boldly before the Senate in favor of the entire abolition of tariff duties I do not believe that the doctrine of free trade would receive a single vote upon our side of the cham | ber."
 Tariff for Revenue.
 Reading from the democratic platforms of 1876 and 1892, Mir Rayner said they em- bodied his party's axiom, "and that is," he added, that We have no constitutional power to collect tariff duties except for the purpose of revenue" The pending tariff bill, he declared, should be entitled "A bill to encourage the industries of the United States and for no other purpose He did not believe 1t would add very much to our present revenue collections He characterized the whole framework of the measure as protection first and rev enue afterward. If he had the framing of a tariff bill, he said, he would levy the lowest tax possible upon the neces- saries of life and the highest tax possible upon the luxuries, and would protect American labor so as to maintain at all times the standard of American wages Throughout the whole bill 1 would look out for the consumer. You may examine this bill, outside of the free list and it is almost impossible to discover the con- sumer in any of It's complicated sched- ues."
 Speaking ihamorously upon what he de- clared to Ebdtrhe .incAssistences of the measures in determining what were raw materials he recounted his experiences as member of the House of Representatives while the Wilson bill was under consider ation.
 "The bill will not, and it does not" predicted MT. Raynor, fin any substantial degree lower prices to the consumer; and l make another prediction, and that is predicted MT. Rayner in any substantial degree affect the inordinate profits that the protected industries are now receiving through custom house taxation"
 Rayner Scores Trusts.
 MT. Rayner combatted the idea that the great corporations of the country bene- fit the consumers by utilizing economies or Increased wages. On the other hand, he declared of the trusts:
 They raise prices, they limit produc- tion, they lower wages they contract the demand for labor, they throttle com petition. they monopolize the wealth of the land, they withdraw 1t from the chan nels of circulation and when they are driven from one state they obtain their franchises in another and then return with insolenee to pursue their calling in the place from which they are banished. I can look around in my own state and ob- serve that whenever a new enterprise is started that comes in conflict with them they sweep down upon it as the cormo- rant does upon his prey, and that their rapacity is never appeased so long as d spark of vitality Is left in any competi- tor that crosses their path.
 h 1i,,a sentence that weakens their grasp upon the commerce of the country. On the contrary they show their hat<ful front in almost every schedule of this bill
 As against them, if had the oppor- tunlty in the framing of a tariff bill I would bring them In competition with the markets of the world. It is said that if we do this, we will interfere with other industries that are competing with them. There is hardly a word of truth in that statement, because they tolerate no rivalry and permit no interference"