The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-05-14
BRISTOW in FIGHT
Kansas Senator Is Opposed to
Free Sugar.
Opens Up in First Attack on
New Tariff Bill.
PRESERVE ALL INDUSTRIES
BristOW Thinks Schedule Plan
Would Ruin Americans.
Allow Low Sugar Reduction
After Six Years.

tow, of Kansas, has introduced in the
senate several amendments to the su-
gar schedule of the pending tariff Dill.
The senator accompanied his amend
ments with a short speech, explaining
the provisions of his amendment ana
also giving his view of the tariff bill
as a whole. The senator expressed the
opinion that the present bill is more
indefensible measure than the Payne
Aldrich law.
Mr.. Bristow said:
1.-THE amendment which I offer to the
sugar schedule of the tariff bill pro-
vides a duty of $1.521s per hundred
pounds of refined sugar for three
years, when the duty is then reduced
to $1.40 per hundred pounds, which
duty stands for three years and at the
end of that period it is then reduced
to $1.271a per hundred.
1.-The duties on 'Ninety-six Cuban
Sugar which is the real protective
tariff duty on sugar, under this amend
ment will be $1.14 for the first three
years, s1.O56 for the next three years,
and then the duty is reduced to S09f2.
The amendment takes out of the pres
ent law the provision relating to the
Dutch Standard and the ref1ners diff
ferential and reduces the duty on re-
fined sugar from $1.90 per hundred to
1271A and reduces the duty on Cuban
Ninety-siX' from 81. .346 to $0.972.
From careful study 1 am con-
vinced that with the progress being
made in the development of the beet
sugar industry and the cheapening OF
the processes OF, production the amounts
suggested will be ample protection. 1t
is not my purpose at this time to dis
cuss at length the amendment, or the
tariff bill. When the bill comes from
the committee to the senate 1 will give
it, a
length. Unless it is materially chang
ed from it's present form I cannot give
it my support.
IT am very earnestly in favor of a
revision of the tariff, but I am not in
favor of free trade and, as inconsistent
and faulty as this measure is, that ap-
parently is the purpose of it's advocates.
Has Been in Favor of Revision.
"I voted against the Payne-Aldrich
tariff bill and at that time gave my
reasons for so doing. Since then I
have been endeavoring at every op-
portunity to get the law amended, but
between the standpat protectionists on
the one side and the free traders on
the other, we have been unable to ac-
complish that very desirable result.
"This bill, in my opinion, is more in
defensible from the standpoint of prin-
ciple than is the Payne-Aldrich law.
It has all of the iniquities of the Can
adian reciprocity act, which passed the
last congress and was rejected by Can
ada and none of it's few and doubtful
merits. 1t is not drawn from the
standpoint of protection, because it
will break down number of legiti-
mate1y protected industries; it is not a.
tariff for revenue only, because it
places sugar, wool and other most i'm
portant revenue producing articles on
the free list; and it is not consistent
with the theory of free trade, because
number of products. 1t has the evils
of every one of the tariff systems sug-
gested and the virtues of none
1.-THE placing of wool on the free list
and the retaining of a comfortable duty
for the manufacturers of wooden goods
is doubtless done upon the policy of
free raw materials, yet at the same
time this bill places a duty on the hair
of the Angora goat, which is a raw
material in exactly the same manner as
is wool. Why the goat should be
treated with more consideration than
the sheep has not been explained ex-
cept that it is alleged that large num-
bers of these goats happen to live in
a section of the country which is
strongly represented on the ways and
means committee of the house.
''It puts a protective duty on wheat
and cattle and at the same time places
flour and meats on the free list. This
is protection for raw materials and
free trade for the finished products,
exactly the reverse of the policy as to
wool.
Politics in 1t, He Says.
"This, apparently, is for the polit-
ical purposes of telling the farmer that
it protects his products, and also de-
claring to the labOring man in the in
dustrial centerS that the flour from
which his loaf of bread is made and
the meats served upon his table are
no longer taxed 1t places a large
numbe of steel products on the free
list and at the same time increases
very largely the duty on ferro-man-
and the production of which in the
United States is controlled absolutely
by the steel trust. 1t thereby strength
ems the grip Of that great corporation
upon the steel industry of our country.
1t places low duties on the high priced
cotton goods made in New England
and high duties on the cheap cotton
goods manufactured in the south.
ssThese are only a few of the gross
and indefensible provisions of this bill
and I trust that the committee on
finance will see fit to take them out
before they report it back to the SEN
ate. The bill should be so written as
to preserve the prosperity of American
industries and at the same time take
out of the present tariff law the pro-
can people have made such just COM
plant. Such course is entirely prac-
ticabIe and consistent and the best in
terests of our people demand that it be
followed.
1.-The committee owes it to the
country to put the bill in such shape
that it can merit the support of every
genuine tariff reformer who believes
that our industrial prosperity should
be preserved and that at the same time