Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 April 1894 — OPENED BY VOORHEES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OPENED BY VOORHEES

BATTLE OF THE TARIFF BEGUN IN THE SENATE. “Till Sycamore of the Wabash” Makes an Eloquent Plea for the Wilson Bill— The BUI In Its Preseat Shape WUI Save Taxpayers •7«,570400. The McKinley Lav Is a Crime. Senator Voorhees opened the tariff debate in the Senate Monday afternoon with the greatest spaeeh of his life. He had been getting ready for the occasion for the last two weeks, and, according to a Washington dispatch, surprised his friends by his masterly presentation of the Democratic side of the subject. The Senator said: Great abuses In government, strong by the sanction and growth of years. Imbedded la the powerful Interests of privileged classes, created, fostered, encouraged and protected by the laws themselves, have rarely. If ever. In any age, been promptly and totally eradicated, except by forcible revolution and bloodshed. Such Is the concurrent and unbroken testimony of history. The spirit of peaceful and practical reform, on the other hand, is a reasoning and progressive spirit, moving forward step by step, no matter how radical and thorough its ends and alms may be. and overcoming the most gigantic evils with patient wisdom and courage, rather than by violent and wholesale assault The protective system of tariff taxation as developed and fastened upon the business and labor of the American people, especially during the third of

a century past growing worse at every stage, is a system of Indescribable injustice and oppression, and yet who will contend that all its vicious principles and workings can be annihilated by a single blow or totally wiped out by a single Io {illative enactment? For the bill now under consideration no such claim is made, but in its behalf can be truthfully asserted, and will be successfully maintained, that It accomplishes a vast work In the field of tariff reform, embodies a great relief to the people from iniquitous existing burdens and constitutes a long stride, though not a final one. toward the approaching day of a full and perfect deliverance. I challenge the attention of the Senate and the country to the great and commanding fact that by the provisions of this bill the seeming paradox of a reduction of tales and at the same time an increase of public revenues will be reconciled when it becomes a law. I will not stop to consider at this point the vast Individual robberies committed in protected markets, the untold and Incalculable millions of blackmail levied by American manufacturers for their own pockets on their enforced customers when cut off from all outside competition; it is enough for my present purpose to say that we have liberalised American markets. made them more accessible to tho traffic of the world, and, while not establishing free trade, we have made trade freer and more even-handed between the manufacturerand the consumer. The BUI Makes Reduction. But over and above and beyond this wide and well-known field of extortion and injustice, it will be found from the schedules of this bill that tariff taxes now officially ascertained and paid under existing laws, on the wants. necessities, aud dally consumption of the lab .ring men. women, and children of the United States, have been reduced more than 976,000,000 per annum. These reductions are as follows: Chemicals $ 1,000,300 Pottery 1,000,0c0 gUw 1,600,000 Metals 12,800,000 Wood aoo.ooo Tobacco 3,300,000 Agricultural products 3,30j,000 Spirits, wines, etc ».... 1,600,00.) Cotton manufactures 3460000 Flax, hemp and lute manufactures .. 6,000',000 Woolen manufactures ‘.8,600,000 Silk manufactures 3 too 000 Paper and pulp 300,000 Sundries 2,460,000 Transferred to the free list 12,170.000 . Total. 176,670,000 To this must be added the further imposing fact that the bill provides for a full and ample revenue, largely in excess of present supplies, with which to meet all the requirements of the public credit. With such a beneficent and stupendous result plainly within the reach of the American people and almost ready for their eager en - joyment, I envy not the fate of the party, nor the man. nor the set of men who shall constitute themselves a hindrance and an obstruction to its speedy.fulfiliment. Faults and imperfections can, of course, be alleged and pointed out; concessions are apparent which have been unwillingly made in order to secure its passage; articles on the free list, as they came from the House, have been made dutiable under the duress of a small majority here, yet, deeply as I regret the necessity for these changes. Ido not hesitate to say that the bill, taken as a whole as it now stands, with its combination of lower taxes on the necessaries of life, and at the same time increased revenues for the government, will be hailed as a substantial measure of reform and relief, by the great producing m assess of the American people. Dominated by Monopolists. Manufacturing Interests which 100 years ago were in deed and in fact in their Infancy. and were nursed and fostered while yet In the cradle of their birth, are now the colossal taskmasters of the whole people, commanding tribute from every day’s labor beneath the sun, haughtily striding the corridors of this Capitol and issuing their edicts in the tones of dictators for or against the enactment of pending measures in tho balls ot Congress. .Those who own and represent these swollen and arrogant interests do not hesitate to declare in what terms a bill vitally affecting 70,000,060 of people will be permitted to become a law, and in default ot what provisions for financial profits to themselves they will insure its defeat. In the hard-working days of attempted tariff reform they are met everywhere, and. as a rule, bear tbsmselves as favorites of power generally da <• The enactment of the McKinley law in 1890 was a gigantic crime not only against every workingman and every working woman in the United States, but also against every individual manufacturer aud ugainst all manufacturing interests. It was not so designed by its authors, but such was its real and Inevitable character. It declared a policy so flagitious In principle. so rotten in morality and so ravenous in its exactions on the absolute wants ot life that its possible duration was only a question ot time when life next election by the people should occur, and yet the vast manufacturing interests of the country were tempted and seduced into accepting its delusive bribes and into an eager adjustment ot themselves to its alluring though evanescent and short-lived provisions. It can never be forgotten that the,.enactment of the McKinley law in October. 1890, was followed almost Immediately by a reduction of the wages ot all workers in Iron and steel, beginning at Homestead, in

Pennsylvania. under Carnegie, reeultla* in bloodshed and eholesaie murder, and extending to all parts ot the country and to almost every branch of manufacturing Industry. Mr. Voorhees defended the ad valorem system as fairer and more easily understood than specific duties Ou the subject of the sugar schedule he said: Absolute tree trade In surer is an attractive theme, but no such thing has ever existed for a single hour since the organization ot this government A moderate duty has always been Imposed upon sugar, and it has been a stanch revenue support to the g overnment In that great model ot a Democratic tariff for revenue only —the tariff of 184 fl—it was declared tn short and simple phrase that sugar of all kinds and “sirup of the sugar’ were subject to a duty-laid tax of 30 per cent ad valorem. During the present fiscal year, ending June 30, there will be paid by the treasury *12,300,000 as bounty to the producers ot sugar, and every dollar of this vpst sum is first collected from those who plant corn, raise wheat and engage in all the various pursuits of labor. Nearly (80,000,000 bounty has been handed over to the sugar-makers ot the United States since the law went into operation, ana each year the sum is rapidly increasing. If the law is to remain unrepealed the time is near at hand when it will confer as a mere gratuity more than <30.000.000 per year on a small portion ot our population. Discusses the Whlskr Tax. I have at all times earnestly favored an increased tax on whisky. I would be glad to-day it the tending bill provided for a tax of <1.20 per gallon, instead of <l.lO, as it does Revenue raised from distilled spirits, the purchase and consumption ot which is never a necessity ot life, is a deep gratification to me, and the fact that <20,000,000 of the surplus accruing under this bill will be furnished by the tax on whisky is a genuine ;oy to my mind. My sincere regret is that more money for the government was not obtained from the same source, and consequently less from other sources of different character. I have no hesitation in declaring, upheld as 1 am by the Secretary of the Treasury and by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, who have both recommended every step taken on this project, that one of the wisest, safest, most useful and necessary provisions in the pending bill is that increasing tax on distilled spirits and granting an extension of the time they may remain in bond without being driven out of the country. Speaking ot the proposed income tax, which ho warmly upholds, Mr. Voorhees said: Defends the Income Tax. The proposition contained in the pending bill to levy a tax of 2 per cent, on all net Incomes ot corporations and ot Individuals In excess of <4,000 per annum is so just and equitable toward the hard-work-in.,' tax-payers of meager resources throughout the entire < ountry that not a word in its defense or explanation would seem necessary here or anywhere else. But the narrow and corroding selfishness of riches has been aroused by this .simple measure of Justice, Imo terce resentment and contention. For no earthly consideration would F paint an unjust or overwrought picture of the dailgetous pretensions and Intolerable arrogance of accumulated wealth now manifest in this country, but, speaking in fear of my Maker, I devoutly believe that the limit of endurance has been >cached; that the time has come fora test to be made between the power of hoarded money and the power of productive labor: that the people from this time forward, more than over before, will organize and take rapid and heroic measures against the continued and brutal dictation of the plutocracy, against the paramount Influence of wealth, against the rule and supremacy ot the rich in shaping the financial policy ot this government In their own interests. If I believed wool on the free list would hurt the farmer I would not vote for the pending bill If the farmer should get an Increased price for his wool by reason of a tariff for its protection he will pay It all out and. much more to the manufacturer as a duty on woolen goods whep he next buys a flannel shirt, an overcoat or a pair of trousers Sir, this is the birthday of Thomas Jefferton. One hundred and fifty-one years ago to-day he came Into the world, the greatest emancipator of thought, philosopher of liberty and teacher of the natural rights of man ever known In human history. The blows he struck for freedom, justice and equality in government are yet resounding throughout the earth and they will never cease to be heard until the last shackle of privilege and tyranny Is broken. Ten days before his soul took flight from his mountain home he wrote his parting words io his own countrymen and to all the races ot mankind. With this great dying message before us and in its spirit we take new courage and go on with our work. “All eye* nre open or opening," he said, “to the rights ot msn. The general spread ot the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth that the mass of mankind have not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately by the grace of God." Hail, mighty message, and hail its sneedy and certain fulfillment All bail the coun>els of Thomas Jefferson In this hour of caste based on wealth, ot privilege granted by law. and ot monopoly fastened on the slavery of labor!

SENATOR VOORHEES.