a : po : Ee pp— wo al # ob Rg aA A gle Contre Democrat, "HONEST POLITICS Mill's’ Closing Speech in Support of His Bill. Speech of Criateway MrLys, delivered In the House July 21, 1588, Mr. Speaxcr: The report of the Treasury Dooartment shows that we fave in the United States over $I,- 900,000,000 1s gold, silver and paper m . Of this amount, exciusive of Ballion, thers is securely locke! with- a the vauls of the Treasury the sum of $300,000,00), Of this latter sum «ne hundred million is set apurt to srcure the redemption of the Govern: ment Treasury notes; one hundred sad nineteen millions is set apart to sroure the red-mption of gold certifi- eases; two hundred millions is set spars to secnre the redemption of «il- wer certificates. and ninety-eigbt mils fins to secure the redemption of Hanks which bave failed or are in tiqiidation. After all dewaads . ag dost the government have been provided for there is left a balance of $129,000,000, which represcuts the sua 4 wrung from the people by ex. ceive and unjast taxation, TH I LARGE AND INCREASING SURPLUS, \When [ mate this statemen’, sir, I have said ennuzh to arrest the atten- tiny not only of Chagress but of the whole country. Bat this is not all. U «dar the rates of taxation now exist- ing the excess of receipts over expen- dit 1res is increasing over nine millions of dollars per month. To take from tha people this large excess uot re- quired for anv just and necessary ex- | ditare of government, even oe bya joet and equitable system |trade? It seems to me an enormous did not of taxation, would be vicious and the President in his message defise the situstion when he said it was aot a question of theory, but a questson of condition, that confrout- ed us. On thisside we have made an honest effort to relieve this condition of affairs. We have brought before the House a bill which will lessen the inflow of money into the public treass- ary and permit the excess to remain where it rightfully belongs, in the pockets of the people. By existing law the average rate of taxation on dutiable goods imported is $47.10 on every $100 wortn. The bill now pending when report ed by \he committee on ways aud means reduced the average rate from $47.10 to $40. But the amendments which have been adopted in the coms mittee of the whole have restored to the datiable list many free articles which we had redaced, so that the average rate of duty on dutiable gods by the bill as amended is $42.- 49 on every $100 worth imported. This is 84.61 reduction on the present average rates on each £100 worth im- ported, The total reductions ou the reven: ues derived from imports by the bill as amended amounts to $50 501,856, of which £30,832.791 are reductions on the free list. These are small re exceedingly mo erate, yet this bill has been stigmatized as a free trade measure. A p oposition to make a reduction amounting to less than 85 | denunciation and characterized the combined | against competition as a free trade proposition that is to ruio all the | rate of taxation, more than twice the entire labor cost. Is there any danger to chemical in- dustry in reduction of 4,7 per cent? The demand of the government for reveus will more than double the en- tire labor cost, so that the labor is vot endangere. But it scems a little strange that the tariff is levied to protect American labor and the pro- tection is 32 87, that the laborer onl gets 10.9. There seems to be a lea somewhere, The next isearthen and glassware. The duty ender the existing law is 859.55 on every $100; by this bill it is $52.17. And this is free trade. too. A reduztion of 87.88 oo a hundred, and leaving a tax upon the consumer of 852,17 in every 8100 worth of pro- duct imported into the conntry, will shut up the glass and eartheaware business, they say sod they eall that free trade, £100 worth of property imported in 10 the United States from foreign countries is free trade, in Lrod’s name will some one tell me what is ment by Mr, Speaker, if $52.17 taxation on | the support of government. other side tell us we have been sec tional; that we have protected sugsr and rice and aimed at the destruction of Northern industries. The charge is absured. We have not looked at the section where any article is pre- would do. We havetried to deal fair iy with all, and in doiog it we find that we have cut it far heavier than woolens, or cottons, or hemp, or jute, or flax, put together, except woolens, plause. ] article on the dutiable list, As Democrats, we believe that a We be- live, with the commentators and eco- it ought to be xo laid as to be as light as possible on the tax payer. the term protection? [Applause] | wages in Europe and here. {in the United States in 1882 was 46) : { our labor is cheaper than the {our manuf ctures, { earthen and glassware, as shown by * get to the laborer. only 41 hartfal enough ; but when we remem- tion that if levied on the wealth of bis pocket? ber that taxation is levied not upon | the country would not be permitted | the wealth of the country, pot upon stn ks, its gol! and silver, but upon the products of labor, as they go from | to stand for one hour. tion equal to 5 per cent? | Taxation in the States is levied on What State its lands an! houses, its bonds and | in the Union imposes a rate of taxa- | have reduced the daties from an av- Tue Merar Duties, | The next We schedule is metals. {erageof 40,77 per cent, under the preasent tariffto 13847 under pend i prodaction tH consumption, and cons | lands, houses, bonds, stocks, notes, | ing bill. This i# a reduction of $2.30 sa aption neerwary to sustain human | horses, cattle ; in short, on all kinds | on 8100 worth © existance ; when we remember that the burden flis heaviest upon those | realizes fully what he is doing when | that nothing to excite alarm, feast able t» bear it, and that the (he pays taxes on his property, and | is a long way yet to free trade. smount required by law is so much taken from tie anneal supply that {of property. The owner sees and {no party and {tion could ¢ f imported metals revolutionary ia and it There is nothing duced in order to determine what we Now, Mr, Speaker, we get by the Well, these manuafactuers are alarmed | present duty on sugar and molasses | pensation for the tax on wool, snd | ported. about cheap foreign labor, too and {about 58,000,000 per snoum. tively benefited to the amount of $5 m the hundred wore than he mby the existing law. I want to resd at this point what the woulen manuftcturers said to Congress a number of years |g). munication to the United States Rev- enue Commissioner to be submited ww Congress, in which they said. The committee do not hesitate to iron. or glass, or carthenware, or faffirm that, indipendently of consider- 'ntions of general public policy de- In short, the cut on sugar is wanding a duty on wool, the woolen nearly twice as much 28 all the others | manufacturers of this country would | fiscated? Our people sre '[Appisue on the Democratic side. ] | I. Hayes, their secretary. i i the manufacturers come and asid | Congress: * Now we want compenss- {tion for this, two.” They bad com In 1886 they sddressed a com- | This is sigoed by the execotive | thx is a tribote from the private pro- | committee of the National Association (and wool-growers’ amociations and perty of a citizen exucted by law for of Wool Mannfacturers and by Joka | their allics are determined dutisble list. Yet gentlemen on the Ir stead of being injured, be » posi- | and that is that the cheap wool that now comes in as carpet wool shall not be manufactured int clothing, a It is being done to day. because the bet- ter wool is kept out of ihe country now by high duties. How is this law if enscted 10 be carried out? Are we to have Pinkerton deteciives examin- ing people’s clothing, and if some garments are made of esrpet wool, instead of clothing wool grown on American ranches by alien flock: masters, a. ¢ the garments 10 be teken off the back of the people and eon- to-day LAp- prefer the to al abolition of the speci- | wearing carpet wool in their elothin But, on correct principles fic duties, provided they could have ! because the duty on Lhe clothing woo of taxation, there ought to be a high- all their raw material duty free and | keeps it our. er duty on sugar thao on any other | an actual net protectin of 25 per esar. | pounds of woul imported in 1887, over Out of 114,000 000 | 80,000,000 pounds was carpet wool, And now the wool manufacturers that shall pot even wear carpet wool, we On Afier the internal revenue tax was [the 14:b day of last Janvary they nomiste, that it is & burden, and that | placed upon the domestic production met in this city, In “» dark lantern to | room,” aod agreed on a schedule that | raines the duties on wool and woolen gods so high that neither can be im- Now, what are our people Ac | now they wanted compensation for the to do for woolen clothing? Mr, Doge. they want protection enough, they | cording to the estimate of the gentle. | tnx of 10 per cent. lmposed by the | the statisticisn of the Agricultaral gay to cover the difference between | man on ther side who offered the internal revenue laws, The duty was | Department and a proieciionest, says One of | amendment providing for free sugar raised to 35 per ceut; but they are in hiscMecinl report that we only grow ductions from articles placed on the {our Consuls in England tells us that {and a bounty to the sugar-grower, the | fine diplomats, and a short time after | 265,000,000 pounds of wool. Others free list. These are small reductions | the average Isbor cost of earthenware | present rate of duty affords protection | that they come before Congress and | sav more, but we put it safely when to the domestic sugar-grower equal to | got Lhe internal revenue tax on wool- | we say our product does not exceed interests protected | ough to pay the whole labor cost of | to pay 500,000,000 to 600,000,000. We and still they say to ns: The labor cost of | produced in 1880 $670,000,000 of sli [isa free trade measure ¢ H manufactures of iron and steel, It is manufacturing interestsof thecountry. | the census of 1580, was, 41 per cent | certainly over 700,000,000 now, We | Is £42.29 of taxation on every $100 and we have left 52,17 per cent, Why | produced about $ if | worth of dutiable goods imported free | is it that all of that 59,55 per cent iy -it cotton and woolen goods. These fig ures I have from the Bureau of Sta It is & rate of taxs- | per cent, having found its way into | tistics, Now if protection protects, and that | is wha it is for, it increases the price of the domestic product nearly as | much as the price of the imported product plus the duty. This is admit ted by the gentleman who offered the proposition for the sugar bounty and by those who supported him. " This is admitt:d by the constant arguments made by the other side, that if we re per cent, and in Staffordshire, Eng | 6,000,000, so that the whole cost to en goods repealed, But the 30 per | 300,000,000 poonds | Iand, 47} per cent. If this be true | the people is 64,000,000. In order | cent. still remains, although they had consumption is about 600,000.000 Foreign | to get 62,000,000 of revenue from man | said that 25 per cent. protection was pounds, in a hundred is wet with a storm of | Bat if the foreign labor cost noth- {ufactures of iron and steel and wool. | all they wanted, by | ing then we have left per cent, en len and cotton goods, the people have | free wool and 40 per cent. protection, | fy the wool-growers and refuse the Now we give them Your bill ¥ [Laughter on the Democrat side} On the schedule embracing books, 5,000,000 each of papers ete, the daty under existing vote the 3 : law is £22.13, and we aft it at 822.06, ' a reduction of less than ten cents on a | hundred dollars, THE FREE LIST, Now, Mr I bave gone through with the schedules of the hall and 1 come to the free list. We have placed upon the free articles amouniy g in round nom Lo 000,000, The largest item t 86 30 Why have we Speaker, hie : iis i : 1 i ’ { Is a $20 wool FE) : UL Wi ol They say that this They fay io 3¢ on the is ful { x 13527 Fee jisil free trade. ne; ihe mist satisfy the necessary wants of | hour in any State in the Union that | heavy duty, and the tax of $5 per |8re getliog more than that now. OF ie parted.” Is that roe? Why, sir, life, and tha: the sum of the exaction | would impose a tax of 85 on the $100 | ton which we propose is the war taiiff these an required is egal to $47.10 on every $170 of taxed articles, it is enough to | of property. ‘ed. It would produce insurrection. {on steell rails from 8433 per cent, st:rtle the country and srouse it to | But a tax of $42.49 levied on the pro- | to 54,87 leaves a duty higher than it 2Y pe! Mts | ducts of labor and concealed and dis- | was from 1865 to 1870. It was then 45 ©00.000 to get $56,000,000. ac‘ion. Bat this is not all of the vicious | guised by the methods of indirection | per cent, In 1870the duly was chao eoasequences that flow from unjust { adopted in its collection is boldly pro- led 10 a specific rate of $28 per ton anil excewive taxation. Wrongs naver go alone. They huntio fl ks. | claimed a free trade measure, In a The equivalent ad valorem was They are gregarious. | majority of the States the rate of tax- | aoout 28 per cent® It seemed a re This large sam | ation does not reach $1 on the $100 Juetion. Doubtless it was done under of money extra ted from the channels | for State and county purposes, and | the pretense of preventing underval- | | with $560,000 000 of bounty. 000,000 worth. If they are protected 40 per cent. it costs the people §300. Now, which is the better tax fo which brings 860.000,000 of revenue Be- lieveing that a tax iz a burden, and three branches of manufactures | It could not be collect: | rateof 1863. Thereduction of theduty | ¥* #1€ producing to-day fully $1, 400,- | few years ago gomebn dy put cotton on the free list a They shot the middie link out and pared the chsin thea. | There were millions of our fellow-citi- | zens who were affected by that miss. iug link in the chain of protection, Ol | keep, the one that brings $58,000,000 | but the chain was parted by geotle- | then | with $6,000,000 of bounty, or that | men on the other side o { the Houce, who have been so loudly erying free trade at us. It is our greatestexport- ing product; it gives employment to Our sonoal ! Now if we refuse the im. porietion of the foreign wool to satis importation of woolen goods to satisfy | the woo!, manufacturers, what are we {to do for clothing? | suppose they expect the people to go paked and tepublicans tioket. [Ap plause. | Bat we say 10 you we shall have plenty of good woolen clothes. Serve the Lord and vote Demg- erat ticket. [Renewed applause on the Demoerotic side. ] s ithe Mr. Speaker, we have put wool on the free list not only to cheapen the clothing of the people, but also in . {order that we may give to our own : i workmen in this country the making of the £44, 000,000 worth woolen goods thet are sowually imported. [Applause.] Instead of importing from ¢ v A rel duce cottons and woolens and iron | “When you strike wool out of tne | $40,000,000 to $50,000,000 worth of no administra- | duction on pig-iron from 5960 to and steel to 40 per ceut. they will be | taxable list you have sbot out remain} in power one | 5050 per ceot’ still leaves it with a | rained. This argument admits they | middle link in the chain and the chain { woolen goode, which we are now com | pelled to do because you will not Jet | us import the wuol, we propose to ad | mit free all the wool that our people | require snd let our own people make thi se woolen goods, and thos increase | the demand for their work, and in in- | creasing the demand for their work | increase their wages. [Applause] Bir, the main object in this bill, the | great central feature, is that it is a | bill to better the condition and increase ithe wages of our laboring people. { [Applause.] We are the greatest man- of business circalation and locsed up there are but few cities in the United | yation and fraud ; that is the pretense in the Treasury is constantly lowering | States, extravagant as they geoerally i under which specific duties masquer- tha price of the n-oduets of labor pot | are in their municipal administra { ade; but when Eoglish rails come patected agaist competition, and | tions, that support a taxation of three ! down to $26.96 per toa in 1879 the while increasing the demands of the ' per cent. { duty on steel rai's, though remaining Hs gatharar it focreate the hility | NOT A PREE TRADE MEASURE | the same per ton, amounted Lo 104 of the tax-paver to comply with those | ; thi : . r cent. Why should the present Hamands. ed y one Or that the | Aud yet this bill, carrying a taza. i pe Sian duty be retained 4 Steel ios of fities $n th ket ition of 42.49 per cent, is character- | hry - . 1108 in oa. 8 | ized as a “free trade measure.” The iat O in | ” co : : . term “free trade” scems to have a asaal ¢'real tia, and when the cir Some gentlemen | qs : : | double meaning. elation is depl od price fall, prop- | goo i wo A that free trade | erty shrinks in vidue avd loans and mo inercave. The load grows untry as in England or elsewhere. I received a letter a few days ago from a geotleman engaged in steel manufacture who said he conld make the best cutlery steel in Alabama at a ‘rails can be made as cheaply io this | that it ought to be as light as possible ' millions of laborers. It bad a duty | v'actoriog people in the world. We { Yo the taxpayers, I would keep a high | of three cents a pound, but they ye. | are the greatest agricultural people in (duty on sugar and lower the Cuiies on | moved it and pul cotion on the free the world, We are the wost skilled | cotton goods, woolens und manufect- | list, and they did righ . There could people in the world. We are the ures of iron and steel. If the rate of | be po justfication for its tax, as there | most intelligent people in the world. 40 per cent. on these three articles can be pone for a tax on wool, | We have the hbandsomest men and the only raised the price of the domestic In 1872 hides were put on the free | prettiest women in the world. (Laugh. product 30 per cent. it would increase | list and by the same party thatboasts | ler sud applaure.) Ail we want is for their cost to the people over $400,000 - | itself the special champion aud friend | Our government to take its meddling 000. Why, then, should we repesl | of protection. Did the chains ; art | bend out of our business. (Applause | the duty on sugar and keep the high then? This isa great sheepgroning | o0 the Democratic side and cries of duties on the others. The duties ov | country. Jt is a great estile-growing | “That's itl” “That's the point!™) { the others ought to belowered and the | country. We produce all torts of We say to the government: Call up- { duly on sugar ought to be put at the | hides, on the people and tell them bow much | means an absolute exemption of our heavier on the back of the debtor,and { foreign commerce from all taxation. his ‘pathway g-ows darker and his straggles ‘harle- day by day. Those who have means, and who have been excused from sharing with their fellow-cit zens the burdens of axation, find tn. ir fortunes improved, while the less favored citizen, who must live by bis daily toil, finds him- self saxiously inquiring how he is to obtain employa nt and support for himself and t" ns: dependeni oo him. Dpleting the ~li von els of circulation necossari oy arrests Consumption. — When ability « bay all things that want requires i. decreasing the de- mand for them will decrease in the sme iw, and when the de- mand decrease« the production will eorrespondiogly decrease. Then em- ployment is reswricted, laborers are ot dis h rged, and suffering, and «5 ;0n tent are seen on every hand, THE MANUFACTURING LABORER. What, thes, is to become of the manufactariog lahorer! He has no income to draw npon. If he has, it is a smail one ne has laid op with a frugal hand. and it is son gone. He must wander around and hunt em- ployment, and in its stead find hunger him at | pelled to have | Gentlemen on this side of the House and the Democratic party in all its history bave uscd tha term free trade to mean freedom of our foreign com- merce from all obstructions save that of just and necessary taxation for the support of an honest sod economical administration of the government. [Applause.] The tariff of 1846 was framed to raise revenue and for that purpose only, and it was ealied by both par ties a free trade tariff. The tariff of 1857 was a still lower tariff and framed for revenue purposes alone, and it was called a free trade tarifl Bat nobody ever contended for the abandonment of the policy born with the government of raising revenue by daties on imports. I have often spoken of these tariffs as free trade tariffs, and the decade from 1850 to 1860 as a free trade decade, because under those tariffs and during that time the foreign commerce of the United States was not then fettered by obstructions in the interest of individ. uals and sfonopolists. [Applavse.] But let us examioe the schedule of this bill and see if we can find any free trade concealed in them. 0 have not touched the liquor schedule, nor the silk schedule, because we thooght that those who used the articles embraced in these could afford to pay the duties levied on them by existing law. The tobacco sched: ule has been stricken from the bill jo the committee of the whole. We have tried to reduce the duties upon the necessaries of life because the great body of the people are com- them, wedule is that of drogs The The first rate of toisl cost of $16 per ton. The aver- | age price of steel rails imported last yeas was 20.61 per ton. From 1875] to 1878, inclusive, steel rails were | cheaper io the United States than in | Eogland, aod cheaper here because they could be produced ata lower | cost here than in Earope. And if they could be mede cheaper here for four years, why not all the time ! From 18756 to 1878 the importation fell from 43,000 tons io 2 tons. The aver- | age Eoglish price last year was 20- 16; the average American price for the same time was 37.13; difference in price, $16.97; tariff duty, $17! Now, if the Steel Rail Association could make rails as cheap in the Uni- ted States in 18785 as they could be made in England, they csuld do it in 1887, and the 16,97 difference io price was put in the pockets of the manu- facturer. It is claimed to be in the interest of laborer, but be only gets from 3 to 5 per ton; the balance the manufacturer to make millionaires of men that they may build castles in Scotland and go coaching through her mountains. [Applause on Democratic side. | We have reduced the duty on steel rails to 11 per ton. It is equivalent to mere than double the entire labor cost of the rails. Why should not this reduction be made? There is but one reply all along the line. It is free trade. On wood and weoden- : A That is too small to require farther notice, THE SUGAR REDUCTION, {at 2339. revenue standard and kept there. The duty on provisions by existing { law is 24.33 per cent. and we leave it | The reauction is #4 cents | in a hondred dollars. This isa very moderate reduction. We might have gooe farther without injury to any interest THE REDUCTION ON COTTON. The average rate of duty on manu- factures of cotton by existing law is 89.99 per cent. We leave it by the pending bill at 3907. A difference of 92 cents in a hundred dollars will bardly drive the cotton manufactur ing industry off this continent. The whole labor cost in cotton manufact- ures averages 21 6 per cent, and there is but little difference between this country and England in the labor cost of cotton goods. But if England paid nothing for her labor, we have left duty enough to nearly double the la- bor cost here. The t reveoues from cotton s is nearly 812.000 000. We reduce it$277,000. Where does the free trade skeleton hide in this schedule? Hemp, jute and flax goods we found at $28.10 in the existing law, and we leave them at $21.94. There is a re duction of something over $6 in the hundred, but that occurs by putting " number of items of hemp, flax jute, manilla and sun snd sisal gras on the free list. Stull the re uetion is very small, WOOL AND WOOLENS WHY WOOL 18 MADE FREE. Bat when we propose to touch wonl, | | which affords in winter the clothing | : of 60,000,000 people, we strike at the | | combination that bas made this pro- | tective tariff, and they say: “You shall not touch it, that is free trade.” Let us see whether it is or not. The first tariff Jaw that ever was enacted by this government alter the Consti- tution was adopted—the joint product of Alexander Hamilton, James Madi- son, Thomas Jefferson and George Washingion—embraced in its tive the declaration of the principle that it was made to encoursge home indus- tries; and the method adapted by them to carry out that policy was to put wool on the free list. There it remained until 1824, the fathers and founders of thie goverument neve: proposieg to disturb it during all that Hn a in all that gra yl talent there was only one, whe could have Bs Mh of lean- ing toward free trade; and that was he who wrote the great Declaration, and in ooe line of it indicted the King of Great Britain and arrsivged him before the bar of mankind for cutting off our trade with all parts of the re [Applause on the Democratic de. We are proposing to reduce the price of woolen by taking the tax off wool, Now we come to wools and woolens. | other We found the duty on that schedule under the Inw average $8 81, a | | you want to support an hovest, eco- nomical sdmivistration. We . will give you what you want for that pur- pose; we will give it toyou cheerfully; but we are not going to be standing around as papers, craving the pro- tection of political power, when our own intellects are superior to the in- tellects of any people on the globe. [Applsose.] We canvot only manu- facture all there woolen goods, but we can manufacture our own cotton, two thirds of which we are now exporting to foreign countries for manufacture and then buying back a Jarge amount of it in the shape of cotton goods. HIGH TAXES A BARRIER TO INDUSTRY. We are the greatest cotton-growing country in the world; we mre the greatest ore-producing nation in the world; we have got all the elements to wake us the grestest manufacturing netion on earth. We can give em- ployment, to all our wage- at fair wages aod keep them constantly employed if Congress will only let us alone, [Great applause on the Dem- ocratis mde,) e nek 10 remove as far as you can these barriers. ut have free raw materials that we may reduce the cost of the
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