Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 April 1894 — BLOTS ON THE BILL. [ARTICLE]

BLOTS ON THE BILL.

SENATE AMENDMENTS ARE SO CHARACTERIZED. Coa<re**man Warner Review* the Senate’s Tinkering* with the WUaon Tariff Measure—Wrecker* of the WU*on Bill— The Voice of the People, «m**l Warner on Amendments. Ln an interview in American Industries Hon. John DeWitt Warner, of New York, thus reviews the Senate amendments to the Wilson bill: In taking coal and iron ore from the free list the proposed Senate tariff bill repudiates the pledge of the Democratic party to give our industries free raw materials. In its discriminating duty in favor of refined sugars, it adds a tax which is not expected to produce a cent of revenue, and will not do so. The sugar schedule proposed gives the trust, after full allowance is made for the loss in refining, a net discrimination in favor of refined sugars of about one-eighth of a cent a pound, without taking into account residual sirups, which will increase this according to the grades of sugar treated, though in most cases not abeve one-sixth of a cent per pound. 1 cannot understand this action. The House Committee was misled by statements which were not exposed until after the bill was printed. But the Senate Committee was forewarned bv the action of the House, and when it was appealed to by the trust the press of the country ventilated the matter thoroughly. The Democratic press, led by the World, nailed to the counter every sugar trust misstatement as fast as it was offered; the non-partisan commercial press analyzed its business statements, and, adding to the World’s expose of its practices, demonstrated that sugar refining in this country needed no protection whatever; ana the Senate Committee, after full consideration, came to the same conclusion and adopted a schedule which gave the sugar trust but a petty and accidental advantage, if any. Meanwhile the sugar trust lobby had become the most scandalous that ever disgraced the capital. The head of the trust, accompanied by its secretary, came to Washington to direct the campaign. Stock gambling on Senate rumor, demoralized the New York Exchange, until finally an indignant people began to stone from the doors of tbe committee-room the lobby which the committee failed to kick from its presence. Just as the whole matter had become an open scandal the blackmailing band were given a part of their demands, and a partial surrender was made that, so far as anything can do so, vindicates the strikers. It is not those who have attacked Democratic reform, but rather those who have yielded to the attack, that the people will now hold responsible. And, “Oh, the pity of it!” For the trust is not satisfied by this remnant of what McKinley gave it. The opponents of the bill are made stronger than ever, and its friends are discredited by their concessions. It will pass, but after longer delay and in less satisfactory shape than if its friends had forced the fight in the open and made its enemies responsible to the people for whatever blots they got upon it. The fate ot some of our New England friends is an instructive object lesson. Possessed of the finest principles in the world, they kept them intact while getting in the Wilson bill more free raw material and more “protection” to manufacturers than did any other section of the country. But they did not know when they were well off. Their representative on the committee did not even vote for its bill, and it had hardly reached the Senate when, from one quarter and another, New England Democrats appeared in advocacy of “protection” to sugar refiners. The combine was also enlisted in behalf of protection for coal and iron ore. Protection has been given the sugar trust; New England has lost free coal and free iron ore, and she finds that her duties on textiles have meanwhile been reduced. Having sold their birthright of Democratic principles, our New England friends have lost their pottage.

Wreckers of the Wilson Bill. A band of Senators are carrying further than has ever before been known the personal spirit which that body has been encouraging too much for a quarter of a century. Resdonßibility to party and to people sits lightly on all the members of that bo'dy. The cultivation of privilege has shot up into a pampering of personal tive. Smith of New Jersey says that the House Committee of Ways and Means is composed of able and conscientious men, but of men who know nothing of the •‘many and diverse interests of New Jersey " This would be bad enough if bespoke the literal truth about his position. Why should the Ways and Means Committee know all about the interests of New Jersey? It is enough for it to know the needs of the United States Government. The courts do not recognize the power of Congress to legislate for the many and diverse interests of any State. But what Smith is doing is to get legislation for the many and diverse interests of his private friends. The real interests of the masses of New Jersey lie in the enactment of an equitable tariff law as quickly as possible. These interests are sacrificed by the contemptible logrolling for special favorites which Is dissolving the Wilson bill’s integrity and shaking the business of the country with renewed uncertainties. Smith’s words are a specimen of the corrupting influent e of protective tariffs. If there is party spirit enough left among the Democrats of the Senate, a resolution should be passed declaring in express terms that the many and diverse manufacturing interests of every State must look out for themselves, as the more numerous, more extensive and more diverse farming and trading interests of the country are compelled to do. Perhaps such an enunciation of party principle would arouse so much wholesome party spirit that Smith. Murphy and Gorman would be shackled and silenced. Party spirit should take the bill back to what it was when it went to the Senate and should pass it in three weeks or less.— St. Louis Republic.

A Flimsy Excuse. / For the “conservative” Senators who have McKinleyized the Wilson bill the flimsy excuse is put forth that they did it in response to the clamor of their constituents. But what did these gentlemen expect? Did they suppose that the pampered children of protection would surrender their privileges without a protest and without an effort to preserve then}? These “conservatives” are not novices in politics. Most of them are veterans ana pride themselves on being “practical politicians. ” They knew while the campaign for tariff reform was being fought, just as well as they know now, that when the time came to frame a bill every trust, every combine an<L every favored industry would throng Washington with lobbyists and deluge it with petitions. A year ago

they could have named the men who would be at the capital this winter shrieking that they will be ruined if tariff reform is oarried out. They knew perfectly well then what claims would be urged and what arguments would be presented. The whole performance is staler than a thrice-told tale. To none is it staler than to these jaded old political hacks. The excuse is preposterous. It impeaches the intelligence of those in whose behalf it is offered. When Senator Mills was asked bv the wool-grow-ers of Texas to oppose free wool he peremptorily said “No,” and that was the end of it. When Tom Johnson was petitioned by his constituents to sustain high protection on clothing he not only refused but read them a wholesome lesson in the economics of tariff reform. Honest men deal honestly with conditions they expect and invite. They don’t shirk and then hunt excuses.—New York World. Personal Interest* In the South. We see no special reason for the excitement caused by the charge that some United States Senators are interested in sugar speculations. Men who own millions are usually speculators. Our United States Senators can boast of many shrewd speculators worth their millions. This being so, how do the people expect these men to be able to vote, without personal interest, on such a measure as a tariff bill, the underlying principle of which is to grant special privileges to persons financially able to take advantage of the opportunity to rob the great body of the people. The spirit of a protective tariff is based on selfishness and greed. This is why we see such a struggle in Congress when an attempt is made to lift the burden from the people. A Congress of the United States, none of the members of which had a personal pecuniary interest in the perpetuation of a robber tariff, would be a real surprise to those who have watched the evolution of the protective theory in this country. The intelligent observer of the struggle now going on in the Senate over the Wilson bill, is not in the least surprised at the action of the Senate. He expected much opposition in that body as well as in the House. —Pomeroy (O.) Democrat. The Voice of the People. The people elected a commission for the express purpose of revising the tariff. It is now sitting in Washington, and the dignified portion of it is making a blooming ass of itself. Six years ago the people would have the tariff “reformed by its friends.” Two years ago they changed their minds completely, ana decided that the tariff should be reformed by its enemies. That is why the Democratic party is in power in Washington. That is why if it does not do its duty, it will not be in power in Washington hereafter. If the Democratic party deceive the people there will rise up a party which will not deceive them. And if such a revolution as that occurs there will be no concessions made to trusts and combines in its legislation. It will wipe the whole accumation of thirty years of Republican favoritism, corruption, and scoundrelism out of existence. This Democratic Congress must do its duty. It cannot evade or shirk it. And it cannot do it too quickly.—lndianapolis Sentinel.

Reciprocity Will Go. A correspondent asks whether the retaliatory duties levied by President Harrison upon the coffee and hides of Colombia and Venezuela will stand under the Wilson bill. Beyond all doubt they will not, whatever may become of the reciprocity treaties. The duty of any Collector of Customs will be to enforce the law as he finds it. Under the new tariff coffee and hides will be admitted free of duty, no matter where they come from, and no power is given the President or anybody else to make any discriminations. The Collectors will have no occasion to concern themselves any longer with President Harrison’s f laminations, after his warrant of law for issuing them has been destroyed. They will let all that dead past bury itself and collect the duties, and no others, which the law says they are to collect. —New York Post. Lucky Republicans. There may be a slump in tariff reform at this fall’s election. .It is to be expected that the unthinking masses will hold the Democrats responsible for the hard times we are now having, even though, as in the present case, Republican legislation is entirely responsible for our present troubles. It is fortunate for the Harrisonian administration that it did not have to continue in jrower three months longer. The Republicans may be fortunate again. The good efftcts of the Wilson bill will probably begin to show about the end of this year. If the Republicans should be victorious in the November election, they will undoubtedly credit themselves with the prosperity, and the unthinking may accept it all as gospel. False Representatives. The action of the Democratic Club of Parkersburg, W. Va., in indorsing the Wilson bill as it passed the House, and denouncing the course of Senators Camden and Faulkner as being part of a conspiracy to defraud the consumers in the interests of manufacturers, mine owners and lumber barons, tends to justify the remarks of the World to these Senators. They do not represent the people of West Virginia nor the Democratic national platform in the amendments which they have helped to make in the tariff bill.—New York World.

Unusually High Wages. A halcyon March is not without its drawbacks. The maple sugar harvest has gone wrong in New Hampshire for lack of a frost, aided by “the scarcity and unusually high wages of help.” It is gratifying to know that there is some other explanation of the failure than the anticipated effect of the Wilson tariff; but what explanation can be given for the dastardly, not to say disloyal, rise of wages in New Hampshire at a time when, according to the organs, a tariff reform administration is doing its best to abolish wagtes entirely?—Philadelphia Record. • The Dilatory Senate. All that stands in the way of business men now is the Senate. —Indianapolis News. The Senatorial surgeons who are dissecting the Wilson bill continue to wrangle over its mutilated remains.— Chicago Tribune. One of the signal virtues of the United States Senate is its absolute stability. In the controversy over the tariff, for instance, it is right where it was when the session began.—Chicago Record. The fact that three months more of the tariff “debate” in the Senate is the estimate made by a conservative Senator inspires the hope that Coxey’s army may eventually reach Washington.—Chicago Herald. The country has now reached that state of mind where it is less concerned about which clamorous interest gets a little more or less protection, since •protection is to be retained, than it is concerned about a speedy determination of the whole matter. —Louisville Courier-Journal.