Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 April 1887 — Revenue Reform and Economy. [ARTICLE]

Revenue Reform and Economy.

In a lecture recently delfvered at Baltimore, on the tariff question, Frank Hurd reminded the audience that one of the accomplishments of the revenup reformers was that from the day John G, Carlisle and William R. Morrison entered ihe House of Representatives there has not been an increase of duty upon a single article. That is to say, while the revenue reformers have not been able to remedy the abuses in the protective tariff—while they have not been able to bring the tariff down to a revenue standard—they have presented such a solid array against protectionist rapacity that the high tariffites have been unable to gain the further bounties from the people which they so greedily desire. The revenue reformers, constituting as they do the large majority of the Democratic members of Congress, have also contributed positively to the relief of the people by the economy in public expenditures which they have enforced by their appropriations. This economy has enabled the Government in the eleven years since the Democratic House, elected in 1874', first instituted much-needed retrenchment, to reduce the volume of the interest-bearing debt nearly $300,000,000, nnd the amount of the debt, less cash in Treasury, $850,000,000. This has been done without any increase in the receipts of the Government, and notwithstanding the much larger payment < for pensions which the House authorized. It is the economical policy which a Democratic Congress has pursued wuich has brought the .question of tax reduction up to the poiut whore it must soon be squarely met. Had it not been for this economy—had a Democratic House been as lavish with the people’s money as their Republican predecessors had been—there would now be no prospect of an unavailable surplus—a mere heaping up of dollars in the Treasury; and bloated protected interests could rest in peace and quiet. But, thanks to that economy, the necessity for tax reduction will be so pressing when the Fiftieth Congress assembles that there will be no way of escape from the demand, and the revenue reformers will then undoubtedly gain much of that for which they have so long and earnestly labored, And the people, when they see the great benefits they will receive from tax reduction, will wonder why they did not appreciate and realize them before —will wonder why they so long submitted to the protective tariff tax robbery. —Detroit Free Press.