Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 January 1894 — NEW TARIFF BILL. [ARTICLE]

NEW TARIFF BILL.

ITS PRINCIPAL FEATURES ARE EXCELLENT. •Mica to cJm ■—r -tto am ta—l* B» h«iM niM|k The Ways ud Mtoni tariff bin, which will probably be known m the WUeon bill, la, on the whole, a satisfactory response to the demends of the country. The Democratic administration and the Democratic majorities In the two houses of Congress were ohoeen to give relief from the high taxation imposed by the McKinley act, and this Mil is the response to the country's desire. The first, because the moat universal, demand was that the necessaries of life should be made cheaper to the people by the abolition of taxes on the materials used by American manufacturers and on ths tools of agriculture and trade. The Mil la fully satisfactory in this respect. In making the additions to the free list the Democratic members of the Ways and Means Committee have risen above selfish considerations. They have refuted to heed the protests ana outcries of protected interests In their own distrfote. This is especially true of the Chairman of the committee, whose district contains many coal and iron mines, and whose constituents clamored loudly against the abolition of the tariff taxes on ooal and cm iron ore. But the duties on ooal and on iron ore are an annual tax on manufacturers of more than •1,750,000. and have closed up many furnaces and iron and steel mills in New England. Cheap ore and pig iron lie at the basis of our industries, and Mr. Wilson and his associates have sought the good ff the whole. With the taxes removed from these articles,,there is every reason to believe. from the present state of the metal market, that Amerioan iron masters will soon control the Iron and steel trade of the world. In the not remote future the West Virginians, Pennsylvanians, and Alabamians themselves will find free ore and ooal beneficial.

The remainder of the free list additions are directly for the relief of the people who are bearing the more serious burdens of the present tariff. Not only are wools made free, but the tax on wearing apparel is also repealed. Clothes are to be oheaper. Fuel, lumber, stone and structural iron that go Into houses, the tools of the mechanic, the machinery and Implements of the fanner are to be made oheaper. The monopolies that were fostered by the taxes on ootton ties and binding twine are to have their hold on their victims loosened. Sham reciprocity, whioh, untaxing foreigners only, has raised the price of ooffee and extended the area of protection under the pretense of granting relief to oommeroe, is to be abandoned. The bounty on sugar is to be withdrawn gradually, and the tax on refined sugar is to be reduced. The most disappointing feature of the new bill is the sugar schedule. Moet Democrats will say that the bounty ought to have been taken away at once, for such a tax is directly hostile to American institutions and espeolally to Democratic principles. Many difficulties, however, stood m the way of radical treatment. The sugar growers of the country protested against being suddenly left stripped of all protection. They argued that this would be discrimination against them; that while other protected interests were to have their favors withdrawn gradually it was proposed to out off tne sugar bounty at onoe and after the growers had arranged their business witn reference to it In order to satisfy these people and their representatives in Congress, who were for the bill otherwise, the plan of gradual withdrawal of the bounty was adopted. It is a compromise oonoernlng whioh something can be said on both sides. The reduction of the rate on refined sugars will be a blow at the trust, but not a serious one. The bill generally is excellent. It has been prepared with great oare and entire conscientiousness. It goes very far, perhaps as tar as it is possible to go at onoe, toward a complete fulfillment of Democratic pledges. When it passes and becomes a law, a new and brighter era will begin for American oommeroe.—Now York World. ImauStato Tariff IWdaetioa. The following quotations are from A. Augustus Mealy’s article, in the December Forum, entitled, "Necessity for Immediate Tariff Reduction:** ‘The present time is moet opportune for changing the tariff. The financial panic through which wc have passed, with its attendant disaster and suffering, has furnished a golden opportunity for putting a new tariff into effect with the least possible displacement and loss. "The great majority of manufacturers are not at all afraid of a lower tariff. It will in reality be a great boon to them. But they arc extremely impatient to know what it is to be in all its details. "The new tariff should be put into effect as soon as possible, in order that it may have time to vindicate itself and establish itself in the favor of the people before the Congressional elections of 1864. The permanency of the reform may be involved in having this done. "I have every confidence that a wise tariff law, suoh as we may reasonably expect at the hands of the present Ways and Means Committee, if put into operation by the Ist of January, 1894, will find great favor in the eyes of the people before the Congressional elections of next year, and will continue to give universal satisfaction, until, with general oonsent, the business of the country shall be prepared for a further reduction of duties; thus repeating the history of the low Walker tariff of 1846, which, having brought prosperity to the country during a period of ten years, was further reduced in 1857. Mr. Blaine tells us in his ‘History’ tha‘t ‘this act {the tariff of 1857) was well received by the people, and, indeed, waa concurred in by a considerable proportion of the Republican party.’ "It seems clear to me that to postpone the revision of the tariff is to postpone the revival of prosperity by Introducing uncertainty, as a constant element, in a large class of industries. On the other hand, the prompt passage of a new tariff bill would clear up all doubt; business would at once adapt itself to new conditions; our merchants and manufacturers would have courage and oonfidence to undertake new and large enterprises, and with a more liberal commercial policy, it is probable that we should at once enter upon a long oourse of business prosperity. “The people of the United States are inclined to favor that party which is able to accomplish results. They desire prompt action on the part of their representatives in%arrying into effect needed legislation." One Rational Ropnhlican Opinion. While the free-listing of these and ether articles reduces the revenues

about twenty-two million*, h is better, the revenue question apart, that some of them should be dutyfree. This le the eaee with wool, tor reasons whioh this paper has stated repeetodly. The rewrm of the duty on lumber will be followed by lacreeaed importations front Canada, but the destruction of the Amerioan forests, whioh has boon progressing so rapidly, will bo oheoked. The tariff protection of those forests has contributed to their untimely destruction. That free iron ore will injure the iron-ore men of the United States may well be questioned. What the effect of the removal of the duty on ooal will be time will show. —Chicago Tribune. Tease AwwOm to Valna It Is plain that the ad valorem or "aooording to value" style of duty is much more equitable than the fixed or specific style of duty. Rich people naturally like the specific style oi duty more than they like the other, as under it they are not required to pay their proper share of taxation. It is to the great advantage of the power olasaee to have ad valorem duties on everything, as then they are not required to pay their own share of taxation and a considerable slice of the rioh men’s share as welL The inferior qualities of goods whioh poor people buy are not any longer to be taxed two, three or four times as highly as the fine qualities of goods in the same line whioh millionaires buy.—New Orleans Times-Democrat George A. Macbeth, a lamp chimney manufacturer of Pittsburg, talks like a man of courage, enterprise and Amerioan spirit of tne new tariff MIL "There has been too muoh tariff," he says, "on glassware. If it were taken off altogether it would be a good thing, which other manufacturers oannot see now. but will later. Without a tariff on tne finished product the market* of the world would be open to us. We oare nothing in our business for foreign competition. Labor-saving ms shlnery, skilled workmen and all the natural benefits we possess give the Amerloans an advantage in manufacturing which no other oountry possesses." That is the American spirit which wins and conquers.

Tex ths Inornate*. There are no sound reasons advanced sufficient to justify the defeat of thi* species of taxation.—Nashville Amerioan. It is just, will keep down disoontent among people on whom taxation is a burden and will make the rich more secure in their property holdings.— Washington (Ga.) Chronlole. The income tax is opposed by many of the "goldbugs" upon the ground that it is inquisitorial, but as all taxes are inquisitorial and burdensome this argument should not prevent the lawmakers from placing it upon the statute books.—Bangor Commercial. OCR Consul at Chemnitz finds that the income tax in Saxony has worked very successfully, and that in the main it has yielded safe and certain results, with little loss and less oomplainL It would be our own fault if we were not to make our income tax popular.—St. Louis Poet-Dispatch.

We need the income tax to make good the deficiency in the Treasury now existing and likely to continue, and we need it because it tends to equalize taxation. Under the present system taxes are so unequally distributed that the wealthy bondholder may escape while his poor neighbor pays more than his just part.—Atlanta Constitution. Hurry the mil Through. Let the tariff bill become a law before Mr. Cleveland’s first year in office expires.—St Louis Republic. The Wilson bill ought to pass both branches of Congress without material modification or unneoassary delay.— Kansas City Star. Since the tariff must be changed, the one Imperative duty is to perfect the ohange as promptly as possible. Some business must be done in the meantime, but no large engagements can be entered into nntil all these questions are settled. —Philadelphia Times. The Wilson bill, whioh is destined to supersede the iniquitous McKinley measure, is now ready for the action of Congress. Rush it through with a whirl, gentlemen, and if there is any attempt at blockading in the Senate, just send for David B. Hill.—Chicago Times. The tariff bill is ready for Congress, and the people are ready for the tariff bill. Time Is precious. The quioker we get the bill passed the quioker shall we rid our industries of that uncertainty which, aside from bad tariff legislation itself, is the greatest souroe of harm in tariff legislation.—Louisville Courier-Journal.