The independent-reporter., 1913-09-04

A
and thunders of applause the curtain
rose last Saturday evening at the
Opera House upon Speaker Champ
Clark who delivered one of the mos
powerful addresses ever listened to in
Skowhegan. Seated upon the stage
were prominent Maine Democrats aud
Chairman Fred C. Dunlap introduced
Hon. S. w. Gould, who in turn intro
duced Speaker Clark.
This renowned Democrat said in
part:
It is written: by their works ye
shall know them. This is a whole
some and correct rule of conduct es-
tablished by the highest authority. By
this rule Democrats are ready to be
Judged, by it they must stand or fall.
We applied it to the Republicans when
we were in the minority. Being now
in the majority, we are willing to
have the same test applied to us.
At Baltimore, in our platform, we
made a multitude of promises. In
my judgment the most important pro-
mise made at Baltimore was to revise
the tariff downward. That promise
is almost an accomplished fact. Our
tariff bill will in all human probabili-
ty be upon the statute books before
the middle of September. In my
Judgment it is a good tariff bill 1t
is substantially as most Democrats
bax rift
some four thousand articles of every
day consumption in tariff bill. NO
TWO men with brains in their heads
agree on all the items.
All important legislation is tissue
of compromises and concessions.
When there are no vacancies in the
House or Senate it takes 268 men to
put any law upon the statute books
218 members of the House, 49 Sena-
tors and one President. OF course, II
the President vetoes a bill, then it
takes two-thirds of both houses. So
by yielding a little here and little
there, a piece of legislation is finally
whipped into shape.
We believe that our tariff bill will
reduce the cost of living, more fairly
adjust the subjects of tariff taxation
and at the same time raise an abund-
ant revenue for the government.
Our tariff bill would not raise
enough money to pay the expenses OF
the government were it not for the
income tax feature of it. According
to my way of thinking, properly
graded income tax with reasonable ex-
emptions is the justest and the fairest
10 a
proposition to say that the cOncentrat-
ed wealth of the country should not
bear it's just proportion of the public
burden.
A tariff is a tax on consumption.
An income tax is tax on accumulat-
ed wealth. The exemptions in the
income tax feature of the bill are just
flied on the same grounds that exemp-
tions in a state law are justltied-
that is Oh the ground that it is better
for the state to keep families togeth-
er. and to afford the average citizen
better chance to live and educate his
children. Justin Mccarthy in his ad-
mirable History of Our Own Times
says there is no more chance or re-
turn to the high protective tariff sys-
TEN in England than there is to abol-
ish the rule of three. And l take IL
that after hundred years experience
with the income tax the same thing
might be said about its repeal in Great
Britain. Furthermore, | have no fear
that that feature of our tariff bill Will
ever be repealed. So on the whole
| most heartily congratulate the Amer
lean people, the Congress of the Unit
he DYnc
Democratic tariff bill. The effort to
revise the tariff downward has requir-
ed a long pull on the part of Demo-
Gratis but it is almost accomplished.
Some of us worked for it when 1t ap-
peared hopeless but we kept at it,
fighting the field inch by inch and at
last stood forth victors.
Second in Importance to the revision
of the tariff downward was the prom
Use of currency reform We are now
in the first stages of the redemption
of that promise. / think 1t may De
said without eXaggeration or bad
taste that we have at the present time
the worst currency system OF all the
great peoples on the globe. The Nat
ional Banking System, established by
Secretary Chase amid the stress OF
the greatest war that ever cursed the
human race, long since reached the
limit of it's usefulness. 1t was estab-
lished primarily to furnish a market
for United States bonds. In order to
drive the bankers of the country into
the National Banking System Con-
gress went to the extreme of levying a
ten per cent tax on all state bank
issues, which raye the National Bank
ing System monopoly on issuing cur
rency, which monopoly subsists to this
day. At the time the ten per cent tax
was placed on state bank issues there
were four or five state banks in the
United States whose notes were as
good as gold, and whose notes are still