Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-04-20

at nearly 5 cents per pound. The
American working man and consumer
pays nearly twice as much for sugar
as the working man pays in England.
Strange to say, the sugar people have
not even come to Washington. The
| ways and means committee of the house
gave them what they wanted without a
| hearing and so did the finance commit
tee OF TIE senate.
The sugar trust owns practically
all OF the refineries and is without COM
petition and was able to get from the
ways and means committee Of the
house and the finance committee of the
senate everything il asked without max
ing a single request. This sugar sched-
ule should be viciously assaulted and
exposed.
I believe in cheap clothing. cheap
food and cheap material for homes.
4 do not sec why we should retain
tariff on coarse boots and shoes. How
can we justify tariff duties on boots
and shoes and ask for free hides? Why
should We give the Boston shoe people
cheap leather and allow them to make
exorbitant profits on boots and shoes?
We export annually millions OF dollars
OF boots and shoes and we sell them
cheaper abroad than we do at home The
Payne bill is wrong in leaving a tariff
on boots and Shoes
Bagging and Ties
The Payne bill makes no material
reduction on bagging and ties. They
ought to be on the free list. So ought
agricultural implements and all other
prime necessities Of life I repeat, the
prime necessities aS life ought to be
either on the free list or the lowest pos
sible duty ought to be placed on these
articles consistent with raising the
revenue-necessary to maintain the gov
eminent
Il expected a real substantial reduc.
ton on wool and wooden manufactures,
| but not so in the bill. The duty on
wooden goods is extortionate. Space
viii not permit specifications wherein
this injustice has been done the plain
American people. / am sure If the
wooden schedule should be enacted into
law that a considerable proportion of
the poor people of this country, because
OF these high duties on lower grades Of
clothing, can no longer afford to wear
wooden goods. The same can be said
OF gloves"
The Lumber Schedule
There has been a reduction on Ium-
Der from 50 to 81 per thousand, and Mr..
| Clay was asked his views as to the
lumber schedule. He replied by saying:
This schedule has given me no little
| trouble. SOME of my lifelong friends
in Georgia Sate urged me to vote for
81 per thousand. l cannot conscientious
Is do so and discharge my duty to the
! people of Georgia as 1 now see it.
However, 1 regard the tariff on lumber
as settled, aas the house has fixed 81
rate and the finance committee of the
! senate has agreed to il. Every tariff
bill framed by the Democratic party
since the Walker tariff placed lumber
on the free list. The last Democratic
convention which assembled in Denver
| declared in specific terms in favor OF
| free lumber and free logs.
''The consumers of lumber ought to be
allowed to purchase. il at the lowest
possible price, giving to the seller
reasonable profit. The prices on lumber
for the last ten or twelve years have
been exceedingly high with the exception
or the last year. During the last
twelve months there has been gen.
eral depression in business and every
thing has been affected. Lumber was
certainly unreasonably high until 1907
The lumber to build a home in 1897
that cost $500 would cost in the neigh
borhoOd Of $1,000 in 1907. Yellow
pine almost doubled III value in seven
years. Poplar increased from $14 to
s24 per thousand. Great fortunes were
made out of the lumber business during
these years.
When lumber was high and profits
great, we slaughtered our timber. I have
been told that we have cut and sawed
into lumber in Georgia probably IS per
cent of our pine timber. We must keep
two things in view, cheap materials for
homes and the preservation of timber for
for future generations. II we can pro-
cure from other countries part OF the
lumber we necessarily consume and thus
save a part Of our timber. no one ought
to complain. 1t is amazing when we
contemplate the amount of timber sawed
into lumber annually. During the yeaI
1905 the census reports show the total
value Of our lumber products TO have been
$3.50. OO2, $50. The total cost of lumber. ma
chinery, salaries, wages, materials and
miscellaneous expenses was 1853, SIT, 1OI
leaving a clear profit of s11OS 17, 1O1 show
ing a net profit of p per cent.
Il make no complaint against the lum-
Der people. They have been industrious
and have employed the best business
methods to achieve success. They have
made money and had the right to do so
and have no complaint to make against
them. but as senator my vote must be
cast as / see it, for the best interests
OF the entire people Of my state
we probably now have in Georgia two
and one-half millions of people and be-
tween eighty and ninety millions IN the
United States. Our population is rap
idly increasing and we must not only con-
slider the present but we must look to the
| future. We must take care of our tim,
Der and give to the people cheap lumber
for home building.
with the present lights before me I
SHALL ADHERE TO THE PLATFORM
| OF MY PARTY.
THE most difficult question before con-
gress is: how can we produce enough rev.
enue to pay the enormous expenses of
this government and how can we give
cheap food, clothing and home building
material to the people?
THE expenses OF the government have
/ grown enormously and the party in
power ought to be assaulted every ses-
sion on account of this extravaganza A
] distinguished Republican has told us
I In debate that 81 per cent OF all our
/ appropriations are consumed in paying
| the expenses Of past wars and in prepa-
ration for future wars. Statistics show
/ that England spends ~ per cent of her
revenue for war purposes, France 80
/ per cent, Germany about 40 per cent,
while our government spends 81 per
| cent. In n dozen years our navy ex-
penses have increased. from twenty to
4