Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1894 — THE CAMPAIGN. [ARTICLE]

THE CAMPAIGN.

An Obnoxious Feature of the Proposed Tariff Law. Vindictive Legislation, St. Louis Globe-Democrat. “ ‘ „ One of the most obnoxious features of the Democratic tariff bill is that which imposes an income tax. Such a tax ,is attractive to those whose wages and profits come within the proposed exemption; and it is also honestly favored by a good many people who say they cannot -see' any fair objection to a form of taxation under which all citizens are to contribute to the support of the Government in proportion to what they make, But the intention in the present case is not to enforce that kind o' equity. Its design is to put a special burden upon a particular class, and the motive is a vindictive one. That is to say, those citizens-having-incomes4n-ex’ cess of $4,000 are to be subjected to this tax as a sort of penalty for succeeding in business over the great majority of their countrymen. The discrimination is manifest, intentional and utterly irreconcilable with ihe idea of equal and uniform taxation which is expressed in the Constitution. It is to be defended onlv on the theory that it is right to punj'sh certain men because they are more prosperous than others, and this is really the principal argument that is presented by its advocates. There is something to be said in favor of a graduated income tax, applying to all classas of citizens, and thus distributing the public burdens with impartial reference to individual ability to pay; but there is nothing whatever to be said in justification of a scheme to levy tribute upon a designated portion of the people without.regard to the relative- earnings and obligations of other and far larger portions. Lt is not contended that the object of the tax in this instance is to secure uniformity. The acknowledged purpose is to strike a revengeful blow at the well-to-do classes of the North and East —to lessen the profits and rebuke the thrift of those who have improved their opportunities to the best advantage. In was the Populists who originated this proposition to raise Revenue by a penal process, and the Democrats have adopted it in order to secure the votes of the Populist ; Senators for their tariff bill, and to i attract the socialistic element to the : standard of their party. The plea ' of necessity can not be urged in be- | half of such a departure from the , ordinary methods of taxation. It is not demanded to meet the exigencies of war, it is not required to protect ' the credit of the Government. The spirit that prompts jt is one of de- ’ liberate malice, and there is no provocation or excuse for vindictive ; legislation under any circumstances.

Senator Sherman’s Expose. Indianapelis Journal. ——P ' No man who is not a sugar manufacturer knows more about sugar and sugar duties than Senator Sherman, who, as Secretary of the Treasury, became familiar with every phase of the question. After reading the sugar schedule before the Senate, Senator Sherman^-in his speech said: One peculiarity of this amendment is that it was not drawn in the ordipary manner. It was drawn by a careful manufacturer who is perfectly familiar with sugar. The Dutch standard of color herein produced supplants all these standards of color which has been fixed by this and other nations, tested by the polariscope, and it subjects all the vast amount of sugar, valued at SIOO,000,000, to an ad valorem valuation, vary rag widely, The purest of this sugar has less than half the purity of the ordinary grade of sugar. They have introduced into this an element of fraud which would defeat not only the revenue of the government, but all the protection which is given in the bill to sugar planters. It gives in addition one-eighth of 1 per cent, to the sugars which come in competition with relined sugars of our country, and here is the cunning of the whole proceeding. Here is a duty levied now for a private interest upon all sugars which come into competition with the sugars of the Sugar Trust that is above No. 16 Dutch standard. The rate is at once changed. The duties become specific, and there is then given to a refiner a protective duty of oneeighth of 1 per cent, a pound on all sugars which are brought into this country’, sufficient to exclude all the high grades of sugar and to compel all the sugar which is brought in for ordinary consumption to go through the relining process. Senator Sherman then proceeds to show that this -one-eighth,, of 1 cent a pound is not all the protection the trust will receive. The sugars the trust will import are worth 2} cents a pound, while those it sells the people are worth 31 cents. Consequently, on the difference of 1 cent a pound the trust will get a duty of 40 per cent.,' of four-tenths of a 1 cent on a pound. —Add to four-tenths of 1 cent oneTeighth of a cent and the protective duty is 21-40 of a cent a pound. But this is not all. The agents of the Sugar Trust know that Germany and other beet sugar countries in Europe are»the only competitors the trust can have in sugars} above 15 Dutch standard, and under the pretext that these countries pay an export duty on su< h sugars a discriminating duty of one-tenth of a cent a pound is placed upon the sugars of such countries, thus practically shutting them out

of the American market and making the monopoly of the trust complete. Add to the duty of 21-40 of 1 cent the one-tenth of 1 cent to protect against German and French sugars, and the protective duty of the trust is 25-40, or five-eights of 1 cent a pounds or one-eighth of a cent a pound more than the McKinley duty on refined sugars. Under the McKinley law, however, German refined sugars have come into this country freely, because the German bounty paid upon exported sugars, equivalent to one-tenth of 1 cent a pound, brought the McKinley duty of five-tenths of a cent a pound down toffour-tunths-of a cent. The Senator made it clear that the Dutch standard of color for sugars was set aside in 1878 because it was shown that it could be fraudulently manipulated, and the polariscope substituted. He also made it clear that as the sugars below No. 16 D. S. cannot be consumed without refining, and that there can be no competition with The trust in selling refined sugars by outsiders, the Senate schedule creates a sharp competition in the markets in which the trust purchases raw sugar' but prevents any competition in the sale of refined

sugars to American consumers. The Pitiable Position of Senator Voorhees. Indi anapolfs Journal; - Until Thursday Senator Voorhees has scarcely been heard in the Sen. ate since he gave his word to the country that he had never heard of the compromise tariff bill which Senator Aldrich declared was being prepared in secret. That was weeks ago. Ten days after, the compromise tariff bill, which contained four hundred amendments to the bill which Mr—Voorhees—had reported from the finance committee to the Senate, was reported by the ex-con-federates, Mr. Voorl.ees passed to the rear and Vest, Harris and Jones came to the front. On Thursday Senator Voorhees reappeared and jumped into the fight. He has been silent while the—wool growing, the lumber and the agricultural implement industries were stricken down, but when the Whisky Trust’s interests were at stake he became their champion. Of all the revenue bill it was the only portion in which he was personally interested. He was not its author but he was the Senator who undertook to carry through the Senate the bill which the Whisky Trust had devised to give it control of the business. No portion of the revenue bill, not even the Sugar Trust schedule, is more infamous. On Thursday he fought it through the Senate with the exception of the clausc postponing its operation two months. It makes the tax sl.lO a gallon, which is equivalent to putting 20 cents a gallon upon the price of the ’millions of gallons the Trust has in its bonded warehouses. It gives the Trust eight years in which to pay its tax upon a system of shrinkage from year to year, which puts a premium upon postponing the pay men t of the tax while the spirits ripen, so that a tax of sl.lO, in the course of four or five years, amounts to not much more than half that figure. It is a proposition which, if the correct title was put over it, would read, “a bill to defraud the treasury of the tax on spirits.” Noone will accuse Senator Voorhees of performing this service for the Whisky Trust for money. He is not venal in that sense. But good fellowship and a sense of favors received from the agents of the Whisky Trust, two of whom are his townsmen, have put him in a position where he has felt that he must do what he can for the Trust, and Mr. Voorhees never does things by halves. It may not be known who are the special Senators of the Sugar Trust, but Mr. Voorhees holds that unenviable relation to the Whisky Trust.