Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 May 1890 — EVILS OF THE TARIFF. [ARTICLE]

EVILS OF THE TARIFF.

MASTERLY SPEECH BY MR. M’MILUS, OF TENNESSEE. Republicans Arraigned for Taxing Corn to Pay Bounties on Silk anil Sugar— Recklessness of the McKinley Measure — Republican Campaign Boodle. During the tariff debate in the Honse of Representatives, Mr. McMillin, of Tennessee, delivered the followingjq>eech: However taxes are ra sed they are the money contrasted by the people to meet :hi ecpensea of the Government, and hence a burden to them. It would seem when tnere is a surplus flowing into the Treasury teere could he no diversity of opinion as to what should be done; that when the people are being laved beyond the needs of economic government, wisdom of statesmanship and purity of patriotism would alike suggest reduction of taxation. The tariff Bystain was adopted in time of war under pretext that it was necessary to carry on the war and only to be temporary. At the close of the war the in-terest-bearing public debt was *2,331,539,294. Of this more than half has been paid, and still not one jot nor tittle of war taxation imposed on the necessaries of life has passed away. The annual interest charge has been reduced from 8143,731,532 to $44,716,UX) —less than one-third its former proportions. Still the war tariff remains and the people beg in vain for relief. Year after year promises have been made to them that they should have a reduction of taxes. But the promises have been broken as often as made, and their condition has becom? perennially liopeljss. The promises are made for campaign purposes, to obtain power, and then broken to retain it. A sad commentary on the evil times on which we have fallen is that it takes morj bushels of corn to pay the interest now than it did in 1867, at the ruling prices. Is a quarter of a century ■of grinding, oppressive taxation not sufficient? Are the masses to have no relief from oppressive impositions made for the benefit of the classes V Are the agriculturists to be required to contribute forever excessive taxation that greater dividends may be paid to those engaged in other pursuits? The platlorms of all political parties have admitted the justice of the demands for relief. Stump orators of all parties have made themselves noarse hallooing for relief. The last four Presidents have urged Congress to give it. Still the cry of the oppressed taxpayer goes up in vain, anil a deaf ear is turned to his piteous plea. How long can this continue? Will vour broken promises not break their makers? Will your hollow hypocrisy not be exposed? Themutterings of discontent come louder and louder; the din approaches the Capitol nearer and nearer, till the farmers of the United States, after waiting with a patience which would have aroused the fenvy of Job, have learned that sixty millions of people are sixty millions strong. They have organized from the lakes to the Gulf. They have learned, and they will teach you that you are their servauts, not their masters. They demand relief from excessive taxes and you dare not longer refuse it. Who ever saw such a bill as that presented by the majority? It is founded on no general idea and can be justified on no general principle. It raises the duty on certain woolen goods on the principle that tho tariff is no tax, and .puts ■a agar on the free list on the plea that the tariff is a tax. Cabbages are taxed 3 cants each, and the sauerkraut made of cabbage is not taxed at all. Eggs to be eaten are taxed 5 cents a dozen. Silk worm eggs, that cannot be eaten, are admitted free. Never before has such recklessness characterized the committee in the construction of a bill. Never has such widespread consternation followed the promulgation of one. From every quarter and from almost every branch of trade comes the cry that ruin will follow its enactment into law. So great has been the clamor that changes have been made hourly since the bill was first printed and a change of nearly 830,000.000 was made after the <b 11 had been voted on in committee the night bast re it was reported. Need I give instances of these complaints? ■One of the greatest industries of Pennsylvania is her carpet manufactrra; millions of money and thousands of her people depend upon these. Many of them say that this bill will ruin them. The duty on tobacco was raised from 33 cents a pound to $2 a pound. The cigar manufacturers of Key West and Tampa told tho committee that a Johnstown flood or a fi -e which consumed half the town would bo a blessing when compared to the evil which will come in the wake of this bill. Other, cigarmakors complain. Exporters •of canned goods of all kinds haverepresanted to the committee that the increase on tin plate destroys their trade. The domestic workers of tin say they cannot stand it. The manufacturers of electric mad inery and of stoves complain at the excessive and unnecessary duty for the first time placed on mica, whereby electric lighting and motive power are to be made more and transparency in the stove through which the darkness and gloom of the room are to be dispelled are to be taxed. Not •content with placing the duty of 338 per cent, on common window glass and taxing sunlight in the home, the artificial light of the night is to be taxed—taxed by day and taxed by night. The committee proposes to pay a dollar a , pound out of the Treasury bounty on lawsilk. It proposes to tax the farmer and raise $2,000 to be paid as bounty on each ton of raw silk produced in the United States. In other words, the Kansas farmer, who is burning corn in the absence of a market, must pay a bounty to his neighbor who produces silk of over 13,00) bushels for each ton, or 373,000 pounds of corn for every thousand pounds of silk. Then he does not •own or gee the silk after paying this enormous price for it. We imported last year over 5,000,000 pounds Gentlemen, how do you like it? How will your constituents like this new method of robbing them ? I)o you loot fear you will reach the point where they will not longer bear their load? Do not their impoverished families touch you ? Do not the mortgages hanging like -a pall over their homes appeal to you' and implore you to lift the heavy hand of the tax-gatherer from them, to put put not the felonious fingers of unjust taxation into their pockets ? But this is not all. The committee have recommended the payment of 2 cents a pound on all the sugar produced from cane in the United States. It will take §7,500,00) annually to meit this bounty, even if there is no increase in the production. The committee has been implored not to attempt the bounty system on sugar. The sugannakers themselves, though not getting as much protection of the tariff as is proposed by this bill, have begged the Gov•eminent not to take charge of their business They foresee that the passage of this bill means the placing of their sugar houses under the surviillance of federal officials, the employment of spies and informers under pretext of protecting the Government against fraud; indictments in Federal Courts for alleged violation of law, the employment of thousands of officials to watch sugar from cane to the coffee pot, and the myriad ills which flow from the government’s intermedling to run the citizen’s business. What are ih9 consequences to flow from this taxation of one' man to make a donation to an--other—this PeUr-robbing, Paul-paying process? If you give a bounty on silk because it does not pay to produce silk in this country, why not also give it on jute and encourage our people to raise flieir own jute? Why not. on figs, and produce figs at home ? Why not bananas, and raise them under our own flag? The price of corn is down until in some parts of the country it has been burned for fuel. Will you extend your paternity and give the farmer a bounty on corn? Ths prices of beef cattle and hogs are low. Will you give a bounty on meat products? Are the producers of these to pay the bounty on silk sugar, but receive no recognition rrom this paternal government? How much will it cost? What will it lead to? It will lead inevitably and quickly to corruption. The corridors of this Capitol will-.rosound with the footfalls of interested jobbers. Committee-rooms will re--eoho with the voices of those seeking the governmental largess. The request will become a demand, tho demand a din. It will begin by Congress subsidizing the industries and end with the industries subsidizing Congress. This is no new business. The Pacific Mail Steamship Line was subsidized and corruption -crept in and did its cankering work. More and more was demanded, and more and more given. A lobbv strong as Samson was organized, and the snbiidized line kenneled its hell-hounds around the Capitol to scent out those who would sell their country and to hound down those who would not. Seven hundred thousand dollars, according to the report of an investigating committee, was used to corrupt Congress and force the bounty; like Senator Dilworthy’s hundred thousand dollar appropriation in -The Gilded Age,’ It “took it all to get It through Congress.” The bounty business went from bad to worse till the people, tired of its injustice and die-

Rusted with the corrupt method of obtaining it, returned to the sonnd principle of “equal rights to all, exclusive privileges to none.” I turn to the majority of the Ways and Means Committee and ask them what relief do they liropose for the frightfal ills that afflict the and? You find the farmei burning his corn. Have you stopp -d the conflagration? Yon find the Area extinguished in many Northern furnaces. Have you rekindled them? You find the farmers mortgaged to death; you hear the rueful rap of the auctioneer’s hammer making desolate their homes, and still you go madly on taxing to relieve against taxation. You have seen city after city and State after State since President Harrison’s election leave the Republican ranks aud join the party founded by Jefferson, which took charge of this Government ninety years ago, and whose motto was then, as now, equal laws, economic government, and jnat taxation. What relief do you propose for the woolen manufacturers now on the verge of ruin? You add an alditional tax to the wool they consume. The committee, not content with the imposition of duties on things produced in this country under pretext of protecting American labor, goes a vast stride further, aud more than doubles the tax on tin plate. Not a ton of it is made here; not a laborer would he thrown out of employment by admitting it free of duty. At 1 cent a pound It yielded last year §7.279,459 revenue. The committee proposes, after the next election, to make the duty 2.15 cents a pound iustead of 1 ceut. On the present basis of importations, this woull yield $15,650,848. The laborer living in the city is not able to cover hi s cottage with enduring copper or fine slate. He has to cover it with tin. His wife takes canned goods from tin cans and cooks them in tin stove vessels. He cannot spare the time from work to return home at noon and eat his bread with wife and little ones; his dinner is taken to furnace or factory fa a tin paiL Yet he is to have the cost of his roof, his supplies and his pail doubled by this tax. Representatives of vast, canning industries, canners of fish, fruit, vegetables and oysters, have come before the committee and begged that this suicidal step be not taken, but to no purpose. Fat was fried out of certain manufacturers two years ago for campaign purposes ; it has to be returned now 115 fold. Votes were bought then in blocks of five. Some of those who put up the “boodle" to pay for the “blocks" have been rewarded with Cabinet or other fat offices. Now let tho world see, gentlemen of the majority, how you reward others who helped give you this temporal power—a power which at the same time was your personal good luck and your country’s misfortune.