Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1909 — HOW AND WHY THE TARIFF BILL WAS MADE. [ARTICLE]

HOW AND WHY THE TARIFF BILL WAS MADE.

(From speech by Henry A. Barnhart in congress April 8.) "I have heard a great deal of talk in this debate of the 'hearings’ before the ways and means committee. Does the country understand what these ‘hearings’ consist of? I will tell you. It was a rush of representatives of certain interests to get before the committee to tell of the special protection they want. And who were these men who spent their money and came here and testified and then stayed here most of the winter and gave $5 and $lO---plate banquets to members of congress? Were they men interested in securing better conditions for the toiling millions? Were they here to urge the committee to report a bill that would give cheaper homes, cheaper clothing, cheaper food, and cheaper reading matter to the masses? ij “You know they were not; they came as representatives of the interests that profit at the expense of the people through the imposition of high tariff taxes, or else they came to have the tariff reduced on the luxuries of life that are not produced in this country. Men they are, representing the corporate greed of our country—men who boldly demand their pound of flesh, regardless of w'here it comes from. "And it looks as though their unholy greed will be satisfied, foul birds that they are, preying, vam-pire-like, on the fruits of the toil of callous-handed men and palefaced women, and carrying spoils back to the coffers of those who live by their wits and then revel in luxury and dishonor on money taken from those who earn it and who thus pay tribute toward keeping the high tariff party in power bs| giving it the bargain and sale advantage of colossal campaign corruption funds. “Mr. Speaker, I want to be classed with those who favor better conditions and easier means of comfortable and successful living for those who create the dollars in our glorious country, and I can only do that by voting in favor of lower tariff taxes on the necessities of life and collecting more of our revenues from the luxuries. We need cheaper lumber, cheaper hardware and cheaper glass with which to build homes, and if the rich wapt to use mahogany and mosiac and inlaid and hand-carved furniture and silk plush and purple and fine linen, let them pay a substantial tariff tax on it. They are amply able to do it.”—Front speech by Henry A. Barnhart in congress April 8.