sn 2 SO 1 Fhe Contre Democrat, ———————————T ——————— TARIFF REFORM- SPEKCH OF HON. ASHBEL PF. FITCH. THE TARIFF. * Euless the tariff men take heed, un- tess they consent To a rational and con. siderate adjustinent of the tariff such as ouly can be mile by the full light thata eareful statistical study of the stlject will bring, 1 fear from them, more than fram any other source, a reaction which will bring us by and by into free trade and all its consequences of evil to the manufacturing interests of the country. “1 desire to say that, in my judgment itis pot the best mode of defending a tariff wo denounce every man who does not pronounce the shibboleth after our fasiaea as an enemy of the tariff.”— James A. Garfield, July 13, 1868. The House being in Committee of the W hoe oi tie state of the Union, and having under consideration the bill (H. R. wsD) to reduce taxation and simplify t+ Laas in relation to the collection of the revenue Mr. FI "CH said: Mi. CuatrmAN: In the brief re- mari« whih I desire to make on the etl wader - opsideration, in the spirit of the worls which I have just read, I co ot propose 0 discuss at length th +-guments which gentlemen on Bes in sides of the House have already fu 1 presented, vor shall I attempt 10 FE view oF to pul & new meaulog into the great mass of customs figures wie Lave been so carefully prepared aud explained by the gentlemen who have preceded me. Ido not intend to debate the question whether or not we shall have a tariff, or whether that tariff shall he one for protection or not. I assume that, whether this bill ses or not, we shall continue to have in this country a protective tariff and that protecuve tariff, if it be fairly adjusted, if its burdens be dis. gribated with justice so far as inter ests of my constituents are concerned I expect to defend and advocate as Jong as I live. And as long as I live, whenever I find in the tariff laws or in any other of th lawe which affect the people whom I represent anything which seems t. me in any degree un- fair or unjust, | shall not hesitate to advocate their revision and amend- ment. [Applanse.] 1 propose here to disenss at this time only what seems to me to be the question before the House, whether or not the present tariff ond the free-list which accompa- nies it should remain unchaoged dor- ing the existeuce of the Fiftieth Congress, Iu the discussion of this question i | shall not attempt to imitate the geotlemen who have with such won derful patience and industry examin. d the views of the carlier Presidents and tha construction of the tariff of 1789, and who have so carefully reviewed the whole course of legislation on this subject since the foundation of tl Repablic. They have analyzed for you every fluctuation in the prices our manufactures, and they have ac coaated satisfactorily for each finan. cial crisis in the history of the country. Eve:y sialcsman who has in any way identified himself with this question has been quoted by them, and every text-bock and essay on the subject has been examined. Each gentleman bas found in the same material the most convincing proof that his par ticular theory was correct and that of his opponent mistaken. For my port, snd with the utmost deference to the learning and ability of gentlemen who have spoken, I am forced to believe that, owing to the changes in transportation, invention of mew machinery, the growth and development of the country, and im- | provements which have accomplished | modern civilization here and all over the world, the problem presented to | us is entirely different from that con- | sidered by the earlier contestants over these questions: It seems to me that | po two countries in Europe are to-day | more strikingly different in the mao- | per in which their inbabitants live, | their means of communication, and | their business customs than are the | Waited States of fifty years ago and | the country and people whose inter ests we are considering here, I desire therefore to leave to other | gentlemen who have done the consideration of all the earlie on ri te, and to speak only of what | the Republican party in our day snd 0 generation has promise consider what duties are incumbent on us here and now in connection with that promise. of what I consider to be the interest in my own district, paturally better known those of others. It ean hardly be de- nied that the present tariff was large. Different | interests in # formation an Paelegations to Washing ton, urging the eonctment of duties ially favorable to them, and some. elected Congressmen especially with a view to obtaining a protection which they deemed necessary for their district. It is not probable that the views of the persons represented in this way were always unselfish, avd it is o that the advocates of these particalar interests were not unwilling t . 1 fit by taxes which bore unequal: 17 upon other sections of the country. frie easy to say, und everybody i Bays - he Se itny Sal Ae wlioui a La | ance with and a real | appreciate our friendship. | it so well | I propose also to speak | legislate for our whole country and not for sections of it, and that this bill should be considered as to its ef- fect on the people at large and not on particular classes, But how has it in fact been considered in this debate ? One eloquent gentleman after another has told of the special needs of his district, and bas protested selemnly against some proposed interference with the vested rights of his coostitu- ents in the present tariff. First of all, and above all, the gentlemen repre- senting the farming interests have been heard. 7 have read, for instance, with profit, and almost with coonvie- tion, the argument of the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Burrows] for the continuance of the present tanfl in all its parts for the protection of the farmers, who, it seems to him, are now insufficiently protected, and with equal interest have studied the sec onding appeal of his colleague and my friend, Mr. Brewer, to the same effect, Nothing could have pleased me more than the touching tribute from the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. McComas] to the virtues of the farming constituency, among Which he is fortunste to live, unless it were the kindly offer of my genial and elo- quent friend from Wisconsin [Mr. Guenther. ] the guardian of the Ameri- can infant, to put a duty of 4 cents per dozen on the fourteen million dozens of eggs which are now im- ported free of duty, and which we in New York eat and are obliged to pay for in order to protect the American hen and her rural owner against the combined poultry of Europe. I concede willingly the truth of all that the gentlemen say in the praise of their country constituents. We in New City have an intimate acquaint- liking for the New York State farmers, and will never willingly snffer them to be in- jured by any form of legislation if they will only be fair with us. It seems to us often that they hardly It seems to us that they allow their representa tives in the State Legislature to treat us unfairly at Albany. From there, in their wisdom, these representatives regulate our docks and control our street openings ; they fix the height of our buildings and the depth of our sewers; they manage the quarastine in our harbor and they arrange the rate of fare on our elevated roads, We are relieved by their kindoess | from any particular responsibility or | trouble about our local tax levy, and they improve, as seems to them neces- gary from time to time, the charter of our city. Above all, our morals and personal habits and the manper of our observance of the Sabbath are ihcie especial care. [Laughter.] They study with great pe rsonal al- tention the errors of our metropolis, and they prepare yearly new and elaborate sehemes for our reformation. They vote enthusiastic indorsements of home rul to us at the same time that New York is hardly fitted to govern its lf We recognize the truth of all the praises have been bestowed on the in this by simost [} 14 which farmers debate every gentleman who has spoken, but | we will never let pass any opportunity to ask them to treat their city neigh- bors and friends more kindly. And while their interssta in this so carefully watched and protected, it is perhaps not unfair that one of us from the city should glance over his distriet and see it there are no people | | of whom we can say, as my eloquent friend said of the farmers, that from Iowa [Mr. Henderson] they are | “ hard-working, earnest, intelligent, frugal and moral,” and Whose inter ests may deserve some degree of con- sideration in connection with this bill. The upper part of the city of New York is mainly a residence district. The majority of the people who live there live on fixed incomes paid them as salaries or wages every month, or by the proceeds of professional em- ployment in which their incomes are limited. Some of them are architects, artists, clergymen; clerks in banks, insurance and law offices, journalists, musicians, lawyers, physicians, teach- ers, book-keepers, railroad employes, drivers, conductors, policemen, fire men, telegraph and telephone opera- tors, salesmen, mechanical engineers, | civil engineers, stenographers, printers and skilled mechanics of all sorts not employed in industries which bave protection under the present tariff. In that district lives, too, an army the course people. arms to defend tion, advocates here, except perba wom nonoly Whi to represent, and who have no in this House, Su Rey who g ¢ in Ireland and explain | bill are { deserving women who earn their 1 to do, an to | living by unprotected labor, and often that of others dependent upon them, | There is perhaps a necessity within | of this leng debate that somebody should say a word for these | The farmer has his eloquent advocate trained in the county and own as examples of the class of ao whom I refer in the city of ork, we take the policeman, paris one houses; the fireman, who will risk his life for our children; he scportu and the praur, wi. morning papers; the carrier, who brings it through all kindf of weather, and the locomotive engineer on the elevated railroad, who takes us up and down town, workmen have no airect protection. They are not overpaid, nor is their life more luxurious than it ought to be. The money which they draw at the end of every month is not wore than they need, and they are often sorely pinched to buy even the taxed doll to fill the taxed Christaas stock- necessary for any member of the family. Perhaps an impartial examination may show that these people are as in- telligent, as patriotic, and as deserv- ing of consideration in the matter now before the House as are the Rhode Island mill operators or the Kansas farmers. Their wishes and views may be even as important to the Re- publican party. If you are to get any Republican votes in New York City you must get them from these people. These classes gave you under the wise management of Arthur votes enough to keep down the Democratic ma- | jority in the city so that a Republican the State of New York. They gave in my district a Republican an election to Congress, largely because his Democratic opponent refused to snp- port any measure of tariff reform, and voted anainst the consideration of the Morrison bill, You can hardly afford to pass these voters over in your desire to concili | farmers, uplese, indeed, you have de- | cided to elect your candidate without | the vote of New York State. I have | had it explained to me thst this can | easily be done. It is a favorite theory | apparently of the same gentlemen | who have decided that the city work- | ingmen who gave the most outspoken {and determined free-trader in this | country, Mr. Heory George, 68 000 | votes at an election when we could | only get 60,000 for so good a candi | date as Theodore Roosevelt, are wild | with enthusiasm for the absolute | maintenance of the present tariff; and of those other wise leaders of the | party whose declared policy is to { alienate the German voters who are | M" {epublican party, io | | etill true to the {order to please the Prohibitionists, who laugh at their concessions and | have always sought aod slways will | seek the downfall of that party. { I for one am not willing to accept | such theories or acknowledge such | leadership. Ino the interest of the Re | publican party, and in the interest of | common fairness, I propose to ask | gentlemen o 4 wv & moment how the present tariff, which we have promise” y consider to revise, now affects the people whom | I have described, and to consider what they pay taxes on in the general the customs taxes now destribution of ‘in force. They pay upon everything. Look for a moment at what they eat. There is a tariff duty on beef, on pork, hams { and bacon, butter and lard, cheese, molasses, grapes, wheat flour, oats, corn meal, rye, barley, potatoes’ rais vinegar, honey, rice and meal, sugar, extract of west, pic kles, currants, apples, salt, and con lensed | milk, The list is substantially sn inventory of the stock of the grocery store at which they buy. There ins, FE] | sils, on their entire clothing from | their hats to their stockings, oo the | | medicines given them when they are | sick, and om the roofs over | heads, . What the professional men | object to pay is shown by a letter | which I will ask to bave printed as a | part of my remarks. New York, May, 15, "88, To Hon. AsuneL P. Freon, M,C. { beg to address you as a member in. | terested in the revision of the tariff. My | plea is in behalf of instruments used in | scientific medicine, which is the same as | saving that they contribute to the exact information of the profession at large, and are without money profit to the POSKESKOT I can make you understand me by citing my own case, For six vears 1 have been pathologist to the New York Founding Asylum, making post mortem examin purposes of study upon the children that die. and record the findings in detail. 1 have contributed to the professional stock of extract Cased, to the profession for reference, A complete case for purposes of study consists in a carefully recorded clinical history. with post mortem findings and microscope examinat fon of the structural charges in the tissues of the organs, Now. it is the expert work of pathologist to make ges of disease, woth [2 lignity of an exact science, mittee I sent to ting infind from the su is 0 from the custom hose on {te artery price, spend the night in preparing our These classes of ing or to pay for the taxed medicine President was elected by the vote of |ate the factory operatives and the] n this side of the House | rice | a | duty on the coal which warms them, | lc eir cooking and household utun- | Ra bia jon th 2 | rapids in Tennessee which no one but | their | ations for records pearly 1.500 These are available for all time the the examinations, ross and microscopic, of the ravi. ! aud it is upon this Kind of work that medicine is to advance to the microtome : 1 had to wait two weeks and pay a duty of 40 per cent, published a report of the cholera com. mission, conducted under the anspioes of the Government. At most twenty men in this conntry could require this work, and they must needs pay 25 per cent, duty to get it from the custom house after paying its publisher's price and freight, What use could this report be to these scientists ¥ To aid them in maturing methods of recognizing the disease when it appeared on ship-board in our harbors; to devise means to sup press it: to protect the country. It was to the expert work of one such scientist that the city of New York must give its gratitude that a certain steamship just developing cholera among its steerage passengers was detained at whelming infection, For Koch's report he duty and never ed the city or Government, When we look up from our laboratory tables, microscopes, microtomes, aud aleohol—taxed to suffocation—and read in the papers of the United States Treasury filled to suffocation, we reflect that our scientific work takes much time, brings no money return, increases our outgoes, and has not even the en. Souragement of the Government nor aly. mid 25 per cent. anything from tespectfully yours, Dir. Wy, P. NorTurupe, Is it unfair to ask for these people a little consideration ¥ Grant that we are to have a protective tariff; must we have this particular one forever ? The gentleman from Indina [Mr Browne,] whose argument against this bill has interested me greatly, said the other day, “Human wisdom has never devised statutes of taxation or methods of industrial development which are not subject to just criticism.” I ean not put in any better words my conviction that this tariff is a fair! [subject of discassion. We had lately {a Republican President, under whose {able and skillful management the Republican party was an important fietor in political affairs in New York City, and who gained for us the last { victory which our party has had in {the city of New York. Few men knew the people of that city of all | classes as well as he did. He had been collector at the port of New York and knew well the practical { effect of the tariff, and he said in his message I froe-dist so as 1 f x artics won and woo Oa such Republican doctrines as that | am satisfied to rest On scch | Republican doctrines as that we can ask for votes in the city of New York from the classes I have spoken of, and we will not then be forced to stand and defend, before people whose monthly hardly suffice for their expenses, a tanff which imposes 25 per cent. on India rubber boots shoe and 10 per { Applause] of New York, where duties in vain vi f hand f Lyer flue oh HON Sugar i 11 HOOKS, wages DECEsRATY and on preci 18 s1Ones, cent The commerce « most of the cus lected, while it asks for the money which 18 necessary improve the water wavs where $147 000,000 of | our revenue is collected every year, pays cheerfully taxes which are used 10 keep up custom houses where noth ing is ever collected, and to carry i mails on routes which use up the great profits of the city offices, to build harbors in Texas, where a sailor who happened to be stranded would he and lmesome, to improve toms are Oi » Lh Yat 0S the Jumberman ever sees, and to dredge out creeks in Georgia which given charge of the work spend a | month in trying to find. Just so the | people of the city of New York, | sooner than object in any way to the be, if properly laid aod fairly ad- ministered, for the good of the whole country, bave paid without objection and cheerfully, on everything they use or touch or handle, from the be- | ginning these customs duties for the | benefit of the manufacturer and his lemploye and the longsuffering farmer. The time has now come when a revision of the tariff has been prom- id by both parties, and when the | present duties yie d so largea revenue {that its farther accumulation has | become admittedly dangerous. |Is it strange that st this time {and under the circumstances ‘they ask that a reajustment, partially | at least, in their interest, may take | place? And is it unreasonable to ask | that a tariff which puts jewelry at 25 | per cent. rnd oil-cloth for _tenewent- | house floors at 40 per cent. ad valor- lem; which brings in silver-plated har- | ness at 35 per cent. and children's cot | ton etockings at 40 per cent’; { which India shawls of the finest quali- The celebrated Dy, Koch, of Berlin, quarantine and the city escaped over- 4 the Government engineers who are | protective tariff, which they believe to | under | York isin a large measure a fcreign city.” It is true, of course, that New York has many foreign-born citizens, and among them ure a large number who bear the name of the gentleman from Pennsylvania. [Laogbter and applause] All of us in this country are foreign born or are the descend. ants of European immigrants. Who- ever speaks deprecatingly of the pa- triotism of the citizens who camz to this country by choice and not by ac- cident throws thereby a doubt on the integrity of that ancestor of his who first took the oath of allegiance te the United Sates, I have little regard for the man who contrasts his own patriotism with that of his grandfather, to the disad- vantage of the latter, It is true, too, that a visitor from Philadelphia, when he first steps ioto the busy streets of New York and secs the movement of the conmerce of a con tinent, when he enters first into the life and amusement of a city as enter esting as London aud as charming as Paris, may easily feel thot he has pas sed a boundary line, and is io another country than his own. [Laughter.] Bat if the gentleman meant, as he probably did, that New York was sa foreign city io the sense of being un. last Republican President and his Secretaries advised st; the party con- veutions in many States have agreed to it; but it must be done only by the Republican party in a House of which that party shall have a majority, There are two objections te this answer: *» First. It is & postponement, an in- dafivite bostponement of something which was promised four yeart ago, and ought to have been done before now. Whatever hopes gentlemen may have of the future, no one ean say when we shall be strong enough w make and carry through by Republi. can voles alone a revision ofthe tarific If you are to read out of the party everybody who reminds you of your promises, or who has say of the old Republican habits of free speech and candid criticism, parhaps you may never be strong enougn to the House, [Applause |] Even if the fall elections should return a majority of Republi- cans, nearly a year and a balf must elapse before the Fifty-first Congress can even meet, and if a tarifl debate like this should then ensue, certainly IWO years must pass before the press ent tariff can be chaoged, And it is wore than probable that even then the highly protected industries would American, he wae simply as much | mistaken as he would have been if he { had said that William Peon was a | native American, or that the German { settlers in Peonsylvania, and their | children, were not as good and pairis | obie citizens of this country as we are Now when we ask of the manufact- urers who are represented by our kindly critic, Mr. O'Neill, a folfill ment of the Republican promise remedy the admitted irregularities of tue tariff, they say that if we one article in the present dutiable list, if we add one article to the present free-list the whole protection scheme is in danger. Let me answer them by a quotation again from General Car fii the duty on coal, 1871, in this Hot the debate on March 10, id, in on Ane, That, gentlemen, was the view of the last Republican Presidest when a member of this House. I quote him always with peculiar pleasure, for he was one of the Republican candi dates who could not only excite great own party and but who enthusiasm 10 his among his personal friends, could get votes enough rrom the bus iness people who care to be elected 10 office me that General Garfield y ans wered that objection, but the highly protected manufacturers have endless objections. They seem to think that they ase to have a monoply of object. jons, We must not want cheaper veg etables in the city; the farmer abjects, We most not want cheaper clothes; the wool-grower objects. We must not ask for cheaper carpets or house, { hold utensils; the manufacturer ob- jects We must not ask for cheaper coal: the mine-owner objects We | must not claim cheaper sugar or rice; | the planter objects, Well, for one, 1 for my districs | consumers, object to this choras | objection. We do not own sheep; | can not raise rice or vegetables 4 ’ 11 AIRE of of we | teenth district of New York. tected is tu come here and cry out at or reduction of the tariff taxes, in the interest of the great principle of pro- tection, we, in our turn, shall ask that our monthly wages and the limited incomes on which many of us must live shall have the protection promis- ed us by both political piatforms. and that not by and by, but now and in the Fiftieth Congress. We shall ask this courteously and modestly now. If we are only met by selfish and determined refusals the | request will have to be made more | emphatically. Certainly we are wil | ling to have a protective tarifl, but we | do not want an uoreasonable ana an 'unchangesble tariff. We want a tariff | ghich shall protect where protection | is needed, and a freelist which shall | give us the necessaries of life on crm that are wut least fair 10 all. | Gentlemen say that the tariff builds {up & home market. Very good. ln | the residence district of New York | City we are the home market, We use | our monthly pay the whole year around to buy your goods, Now that you have an opportunity. now that you ean afford it, now that you bave romised it, be fair to your home mar ny Show us by timely and reasona- ble concessions that you ate not en- tirely selfish, and we will, as we have heretofore, go on cheerfully paving more for thing which we use than we think the goods ought to cost us, The answer tu this seemingly reason. able demand on our side of the House seems to be this in substance: 1% is true that the wariff ought to be revised. to | touch | iff. or! | sugar; we mine no eoal in the Thir {son ] whose 43,000 votes at If every | | inteaest in this country which is pro-| | bas any proposed addition to the free-list | still find some new reason why action | shiould be postponed for another in- | definite period, and that their repre- sentatives would vote again as many | gems of poetry and prosaic tables of | figures as we have heard for the last | two weeks to demouvstrate that the | slightest elteration of the sacred iariff 4 { for the relief of the people, on whom some portions of it would end forever the the country. And it is still more likely that gen tlemen who are interested in the pres. erxation intsct of the present tariff would claim that the election of a Re publican House was a verdict of the people against any revision gwhatso ever. [ Laughter ] For my part i consider this question sow, in the Congress to which I was elected partly for the purpose of considering it. Whether the Fifty-first or Fifty second or Fifty third ( Republs their sction may be in the changed circumstances under which they may meet, 18 some- thing which concerns me st presente very little. I propose to do what I can—recognizing how very little it is —towards fuifilling the promises of the party on this subject now, when I have an opportunity. [ Applause. | Second. It ie an unpatriotic asswer to the reasonable demand that our promises to reform the tariff be fulfill ed to say that as a condition prece- dent we must first have a success of our hwn party. If the revision is right, if it is in the interest of the busi- ness and development of the country, as our conventions and onr leading statesmen have said it was, [I for one am willing to make it, wether there is any political capital in it or not. It is a business gvestion more than a political question, and it is a busi- oc: question on which we are com- mitted. 1 If & revision of the tanifl is neces sary, it seems to me to be as absurd to vole against it on pariy grounds as it would be to oppose the admittedly necessary appropriation for the Gov ernment because they are prepared in a Democrat committee and proposed to a Democratic House. weigh heavily, prosperity ol 3 (desire DETesses are WO can or Democrat, what he il I am one of those who were disap pointed that we have as yet before us no Republican bill tg reform the tar I do not forget the excellent bill to puiting coal, sugar, molasses, rice, wool, and some raw materials on the free- list, introduced by my Republi can friend from Minnesota [Mr. Nel the Jast election demonstrate what a hold on his people his fidelity to theia interests iven him. I admired his speech and I would gladly vote for his bill. Bat I mean that I bad hoped this we would havs had submitted o us a bill put forward by authority, framed by gentlemen whose length of service and grert ability fitted tham for euch a task, a bill in regard to which all ¢ us would have been consulted, § which our varying views could bave been bompromised, a bill in which all of us — have yielded something to reach & common sgreement. For such a bill, framed by such high authority, 1 ctfected by such con. sultation, and giving to the beople of our city some of the benefits to which we think they are entitled, even if it 2id not give us all which we could de- sire, I would have given my support most heartly. Iostead of such a billy those of us who thiok that the reform | of the tariff is a busivess question, and who are committed 10 its support, are given so far only an eloquent denun- ciation of the manner in which Uhis bill under covs'deration was made For myself, I do wot know that 1 care particalarly how it was made or who made it. Jithe gentlemen who de pounce its authors and the place where it was constructed will brepare, in a manner in their jodgment me suitaple for the purpose, a better bill than this one, 1 shall certainly glad to give my support 3 ir measure in Tho junly pratiunin ploduisnd is; de . |
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