The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-03-26
DECLARATION OF WAR
 WITH ALL THE WORLD
Congressman Says That the Reduc- tions Proposed In the Bill Are Missionary and Menace the
 Liberties of the People.

the Payne tariff bill lis deliberate be- trayal of the American people," and that 1t is "a fresh illustration of the perfidy of the republican party" MT. Sheppard of Texas bitterly attacked the measure in the House today. Amusing, indeed, were the ponderous assurances of MT. Taft that the republican party would revise the tariff downward said he. His volcanic predecessor realized the hopelessness of such a proposition, and evaded it to the last. Is it possible that the complacent Mir Taft may succeed where the bifocal wind that recently swept from Washing ton to Oyster Bay failed utterly? I say to you that there is more real power in the scent cigar between the lips of Joseph Cannon, the standpat leader, than in the big sticks of a whole regiment of Roose- velts and Tafts.'
 Bill Not Sincere.
 MT. Sheppard said that the Payne bill was in no way a sincere and equitable re- vision of the tariff and asserted that it was declaration of commercial war with all the world.
 "The enactment of the Payne bill," he said, would paralyze what little progress we have made under the extension of our foreign trade"
 He deplored the failure to remove or reduce the protection which he claimed was afforded to the Standard Oil trust by the Dingley law.
 AS to the hundreds of others that men ace the peoples means and liberties,' he remarked, it should be said that the lim- ited and Missionary reductions of the Payne bill affect them in no material sense. In marked contrast to the favor itism shown the trust to the failure to increase the charges on alcoholic liquors, are the new taxes oa tea and coffee which fall directly on the masses. He said that it was true that coffee was technically on the free list but argued that the coun- tervailing provision made 1t dutiable.
 Tariff on Oil.
 Following an academic discussion of the tariff with MT. Kusterman of Wisconsin, he opposed the countervailng duty oil. which he argued had enabled the Stand ard Oil company to sell oil in England from to cents a gallon less than in the United States.
 He declared that he had received posi- tive assurance that that feature of the Dingley bill would be omitted from the Payne bill
 But" he said, holding up a copy of the measure, There Is the little joker, standing before me in all its wickedness, ready to take from $12, 100000 to s14,0O0 GOO out of the pockets of our people and add ing it to the vast profits of the greatest trust on earth,'
 "The people," he said, were thus left at the mercy of that ever-hungry monopoly"
 MT. Vreeland of New York rose and said that to some extent he was re- sponsible for the retention of that duty in the Payne bill.
 q did it," declared he, 'in response to requests of thousands of men in my district engaged in producing oil. I did it in behalf of the 500,000 Ameri- can citizens engaged, every day of the year, in producing oil. I did not do it in behalf of the Standard Oil company" He announced that later he would fully explain his course.
 Income Tax Bill.
 MT. Stevens of Minnesota denied he was concerned in the preparation of an income tax bill in order to carry out any policy of President Taft on that subject. The newspapers, he said, had given that impression and if allowed to go without correction it might lead to some embarrassment to the admin istration.
 MT. Stevens declared himself in favor of modified income tax and he thought bill would be devised to segregate the various securities from which tax might be collected and leave no doubt on what might be held as con- stitutional and what not. It was, he said, his intention to prepare such a bill, but he added that it would be on his own responsibility, with the help of whatever sources of information he could draw from. It was stated at the White House today that President Taft has not committed himself in any way to income tax rather as an immediate aid to the treasury or as a prospective measure to be considered by Congress at it's next session.
 MT. Underwood got into an argument with Morgan of Missouri regarding the sine schedule. That schedule, the Ala bama member insisted, would cost the government $6S5,000, and he said MT. Morgan, who represented zinc district, 70uld have the honor of being the
 paid legislator in the world.
 attention VT ~iven by MT.
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