The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-03-20
THE DEMOCRATS AND
THE PRESENT TARIFF

THE following article on the attitude of
The democratic senators to the present
tariff law was prepared by Senator A. o.
Bacon of Georgia and read in Congress:
The generally expressed dissatisfaction
with the newly enacted tariff law leaves
little reason to believe that the agitation
for tariff reduction will cease. The new
tariff bill, naturally, is satisfactory to the
protected interests that are enriched
through its operation. but it is not sat
isfactory to others ftom whose pockets
The same law takes an amount equal to
that received by these p1 detected favorltes
through its operation with the certainty
of the mathematical rules of addition and
subtraction.
1t is a monstrous proposition that the
general American public shall continue to
be taxed under the Payne-Aldrich law as
IL was under the Dingley law-some two
thousand millions of dollars per annum
for the increasing enrichment of favored
classes already bursting with wealth
amassed through the operation of prohib-
tive protective-tariff laws. The restless
ness of the people under this gigantic tax
can not be stilled because, grievous as it
Is, the burden is all the more intolerable
from the fact that no dollar of 1t is paid
for the support of the government, but
that all of 1t is paid, under the operation
ofthe protective tariff, for the increased
o
starces to the business operations of the
country ami to decent and comfortable
living
There have been some efforts to show
that under the present law there have
been material reductions in the general
Iates of duty Did time and space per-
nit the utter error in this contention
could be easily shown in an analysis of
the changes made and of their practical
relation to the prices of articles of gen.
eral and nece ssary Lse. But sufficient
Iefutation of this contention is found, in
the fact, patent TO all, that the cost of all
Sthese articles of comfort and of daily
Necessity is as great under the present
protective-tariff law as 1t was under the
|. Iingley law and that the burden Of ex~
perse to the business industries of the
country, to the housekeper, to the sal
ared man, and to the wage Garner is as
heavy under the one as 1t was under the
other.
A Mistaken Superstition.
The American people have the right to
ask and to know who are responsible
for the fact that the tariff was not re-
formed downward, and for the fact that
there was not utterly broken up sys-
tenn of tariff laws under which, in a
free country, men otherwise free are by
law held up and made to pay these vast
millions to other men to whom they
owe nothing.
During the recent extra session of con-
gress, and since its adjournment as WELL
1t has been so often asserted and so
persistently repeated that Democratic
senator's pending the consideration of
the tariff bill, favored protective duties,
that this misrepresentation of their at
titude has come in a large measure to
be regarded as in reality the truth. And
the fact is not to be ignored that this
,ioxa cat,fo orc
as this article will show it to be, has
come to be credited as the truth. not only
by political foes but also by many i'll
informed political friends.
So long as controversy on this issue is
confined to simple assertion on the one
hand and to denial on the other, no
progress can be made toward reaching
truthful conclusion. The question is only
TO be truthfully determined by an ex-
animation of the votes cast by senator's.
These votes will determine accurately
their attitude relative to the schedules
Of the tariff bill Fortunately for the
ascertainment of the truth, yea-and-nay
votes were taken upon every schedule of
the bill Manifestly it was impracticable
to take a ea-and-nay vote on every one
of the thousands of items in the bill,
from the first to the last. BY these test
votes can be determined the attitude of
senators as to all the items In the bill.
These votes were, all of them, practically
on the direct question whether there
should be high duties or low duties. II
the votes cast by Democratic senators
were for higher duties and for protective
duties. then the assertion that they
favored protective duties is true. On the
contrary, IL the votes cast by them were
for lower duties and against protective
duties, then the oft-reiterated charge mas
no founda ton in truth.
These yea-and-nay votes were each
dav recorded in the Congressional Record
and were necessarily scattered through
thousands of pages of the debates of
/ the senate. the convenient inspection and
ANALYSIS of which were difficult and i'm
practicable.
was prepared and presented to the Sem