1884. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 3871 ruay, in case of necessity, depute such clerks to act for him in his official capac should cease on the bill, and that the pending amendment and others ity ; but the shipping commissioner shall be held responsible for the a{lts of every such clerk or deputy, and will be personally liable for any penalties such clerk or to be offered shall then be voted on. deputy may incur by the violation of uny of the provisions of this title; and all :h1r. FRYE. I supposed that general debate had now ceased. I will acts done by a clerk as such deputy shall be as valid and binding as if done by ask that this bill be taken up for consideration to-morrow morning after the shipping commissioner. the morning business and that debate be limited to five minutes. Again: Mr. MORGAN. Ishallhavetoobjectto that. Ihaven4>texpressed EC. 4507. Every shipping commissioner shall lease, rent, or procure, at his any opinions on the bill, because the bill has not been in a shape that I own cost, suitable premises for the transaction of business, and for the preser vation of the books and other documents connected therewith; and these prem could gi•e my views of it properly. I shall be very brief in what I have ises shall be styled the shipping commissioner's office. to say, but I can not say it in five minutes. :h1r. CONGER. Now will the Senator read the last section but one ltlr. FRYE. I then ask unanimous consent that the bill be taken up in the act. He will see the limitation. . to-morrow morning after the morning business. M:r. VEST. The Senator means the limitation of salary. Mr. VEST. Let my amendments be read. l\Ir. CONGER. I mean the last section but one of the original act. I\1r. FRYE. The amendments can be printed, and then they will be l\Ir. VEST. In the Revised Statutes: in better condition. · The PRESIDING OFFICER. The amendments of the Senator from SEC. 4595. Every shipping commissioner, and every clerk and employe in ::ny shipping office, who demands or receives any remuneration whatever, Missouri will be printed. The Senator from Maine asks unanimous t-llller directly or indirectly, for hiring or supplying any seamen for any mer consent that it be agreed that the bill be taken up for consideration im
The House accordingly resolved itself into Committee of the Whole form. So that when the campaign nds and the Congr man takes hi ·House on the state of t.he Union, Mr. Cox, of New York, in the chair. seat be is as uncertain what hi instruction are a if the voice of hi The CHAIRMAN. The House in Committee of the Whole resumes con tituency hall never been uttered. the consideration of the bill (H. R. 5 93) to reduce import duties and How is the RepresentatiYe to know his people s will? Is it to be war-tariff taxes. The gentleman from Penn.Sylvania [Mr. BROWN] is assumed that a promise to reform'' the tariff means to reduce it? I entitled to the floor. protest against my brothers on the Democratic side being badgered into 1\.lr. BROWN, of Pennsylvania, r ·umed and concluded thtl remarks a war upon protection to American industry upon any uch pretext. commenced on Friday last. In full they are as follows: My recollection is that the last time you said anything definite in your ~lr. BROW~, of Pennsylvania. Mr. peaker, at the opening of the platform a. bout tariff the people repudiated it most emphatically; that present session it was significantly intimated by the Speaker, on as~um was in 1 0, when you declared for revenue only, or free trade. ,ing the chair, that the condition of our country was such as to demand Since that tir1te you have been for "reform only," and ::tll you have little legislation in relation to our commercial and industrial interests. said about tariff should "go without saying" at all, for it has consisted The following well-timed and eminently appropriate language was of general promises to so arrange the tarifi' a to do great good witho,lt used byhim: doing any harm whatever. This promise is as perfect as indefinite I am sure, gentlemen, that all matter of legislation presented during this quality can po ibly make it. Is it anywonderthatthegentlemaufTom Congress willrecei ve from you such careful consideration as the magnitude and Illinois [Mr. MoRRISON] thinks he is in tructed to go to the left, and character of the interests involved require, and that your action upon them will be wise, con ervative,and patriotic. iSudden and radical changes in the laws tJ1at the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. RANDALL] thinks he is and regulations affecting the commercial and industrial interc ts of the people in tructed to go to the right? ought never to be made unless imperatively demanded by some great public ir, I say again, there is no demand for a reduction of duties. Look emergency, and in my opinion, under existing circumstances, such changes would not be favorably received by any considerable number of those who have at the result in the State of Ohio. The act of 1883 was pushed through given eriou attention to the ubject. [Applau eon the Democratic side.] Congress in the la t hours of the session, in a struggle to pa n. bill Many reforms are undoubtedly nece sary, and it will be your duty after a. while the Republicans were still in power, so as to prevent the sweep careful examination of the whole subject in aU its bearings to decide how far they shall extend, and when and in what manner they shall be made. If there ing reduction threatened by the ' revenue reformers, ' soon to assume are any who fear that your action upon this or any other ubject will be actually control. The wool-growers of the country, as also the woolen manu injurious to any interest, or even afford reasonable cause for alarm, I am quite facturers, were shamefully deserted. ure that they will be agreeably disappoinled. [Renewed applause upon the Democratic side.] What was the result? Did the people complam that the reduction wa too little? Have they been calling for a horizoni.;'l.l 20 per cent. After saying that udden and radical changes in the laws and regu more? No, sir. They spoke in thunder tones of warning to theRe lations affecting the commercial and industrial interests of the people publican party. It was all in vain that the party protested that the ought never to be made unless impe.ratively demanded by some great Democrats were more hostile to the wool-growers than they. The peo public emergency, he proceeds: ple answered: "Yon have been pledged to protection. You came into And in my opinion under existing cir.cumsta.nces such changes would not be power on a platform committed to the 'American system,' and in your fa ,·orably received by any considerable number of those who h~ve given serious attention to the subject. haste you yielded to the importunities of the common enemy, and we will teach you that disobedience to the people's will is death." Sir This announcement by the Speaker was applauded with great zest I say that this treatment, though heroic, was just. Not just to the by the Democ~ts, and was, I believe, accepted by the country as an Democrats, because they gathered glory not their own, but just to the admission if not an assertion that existing circumstances were such as Republican party. To thatpartyletit be awarningforall timewcome. to determine against ,any interference with the extraordinarily satis Since the reduction is not demanded by the people why is this bill iactory state of affairs. before the House? First. It is demanded by the manufacturers of It was even more; it was an intima~ion that they who demanded a Europe. Second. It is another attempt to make practical athreadbare change were such as had not given ''serious attention to the subject," theory that through all the commercial ages has not only proved im and therefore not competent to rightly judge. practicable but impossible. The first proposition needs no proof; all How, sir, has this pledge and applauded assurance been kept by tho e admit that reduction of duties would he glad tidings to the Old World. who made and applauded the utterance? The first shock to the coun The fallacy of the econd is as manifest as the injustice of the first. try wa the announcement of a free-trade majority in the Committee of There is not a point of time in the history of the world's commerce Yvays and Means. The second was the report from that committee, on that has witnessed a practical operation of the free-trade doctrine. the 11th of March, of a horizontal tarifl' bill1·educing import duties 20 The nations of the earth have ordained free trade ju ·:t so far, and no per cent. below a point already too low. The third was the vote of the farther, as it has been totheir interest so to do. England has beend~ House on the 15th of April to consider the bill. Is it any wonder that nominated a free-trade nation. She never has been so to a greater ex tradelanguishes, that commerce is at a stand-still, that improvements tent than was deemed to her interest. Her free-list never extended wait the result of this frenzied purpose to do something striking by the beyond the line that marks the boundary between profit and loss. The majority? The marvel is not that there are so many failures in the coun protected-list was never below fifty-threein number, and, though it ha try, but that there are so few! been claimed that the tax on these is not levied for protection's sake, NO DEllAND FOR REDUCTION. an examination shows that the assertion is untrue. Take, for instance, Sir, this whole scheme of reduction by the present Congress is not only the article of tobacco, nearly all of which is imported from the United not demand.':.d by the people, it is clearly against their will manifested States. It is true that home production of the article itself is not pro in every instance where that will has been formally expressed. The tected, as England can not profitably cultivate tobacco, but see how majority of this House seem to imagine that they hold their power here craftily she incorporates the principle of protection in her- duty on because the people wantreductionofimportduties. Now, what ground tobacco. is there for that belief? Take, for instance, my own State: where the On unmanufactured tobacco the duty is 75 cents per pound, or 84 falling off of Republican representation is quite up to the average, and cents if of less than 10 per cent. moisture, w-9ile on manufactured to will gentlemen assume that the people sent Democrats instead of Re bacco the duty is 96 cents for the first and $1.10 for the second. Is this publicans from those districts beca'use they desired tariff reduction? tax for revenue only? Our exports of leaf tobacco to Great Britain in Will the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. HoPKINS] or the gentle 1880 were 33,996,486 pounds, the average value being 10.9 cents per man from Pennsylvania [1\Ir. ELLIO'IT] assert such a reason for their pound, upon which the duty at the lowest rate, 75 cents, amounted to success in the campaign of 1882? Neither they nor any of their Demo $25,497,364, or about 700 per cent. Iftheentireamounthad been im cratic colleagues will claim any such thing. I do not deny but that ported into that country as manufactured tobacco it would have paid a there were general, indefinite promises of tariff or ''revenue reform,'' duty of over 40,000,000, oratributeofovertenmillionsfortheencour but if there was a single elector supporting the· Democratic nominee agement of English tobacco manufactures. It will thus be seen that who supposed he knewwhatwas meant byrevenue reform, that person England is free trade when and where it pays, and she is protection never attributed it to a purpose to reduce duties on import.B. when it is for her interest so to be. Sir, this is another among the many instances in which the Demo When it was impossible for her farmers to supply food for her people cratic majority have mistaken the whispering of the Cobden Club for she placed wheat and corn on the free-list. . Wherever it seems appar· the majestic voice of the American people. To their credit be it said ent that any of her manufactured product is so low that no other coun the Democratic members from Pennsylvania are not thus deceived. try can compete with her in the market that article goes upon the free Brave, however, as bas been their course on this floor in this contest, list, but not otherwise. Free trade is as far from realization now as it true as they have been to their own and their constituents' convictions, was two centuries ago. I think they will now readily see how futile are all heroic endeavors Standing alone, divorced from practice, the theory is good enough; when "unequally yoked" with a party whose traditions and whose it is captivating and in many ways logical, but it starts from impossi history for more than forty years has been a ceaseless war upon the bilities and ranges through realms of impossibilities and paradoxes American system. until air seems to its votaries as palpable .as earth. It will find a And here I desire to say that it is not at all surprising that many firm foundation whereon to stand when the law of self-preservation gentlemen on the other side have been deceived into the belief that the and the sentiment of patriotism have been eliminated from human people demand a reduction of import duties. nature. Then this nation will legislate not for itself alone but for all At each campaign the platforms of that party are made up of glit nations, and all nations will legislate not for themselve alone but for tering generalities, general allegations, platitudes, and promises of re- the United States. 1884. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- HOUSE. 3873
But we are told that free trade must obtain because it is a "great able time a higher price than he had theretofore paid? Let us see? principle"-that it is a synonym for "freedom," ''equality," and Within eight years, by the aid of labor-saving machinery, all invented " human brotherhood." And the freedom-loving Cobden Club, fresh in this country, American axes, the product of American machinery, from a serene survey of the contentment of the ' ' Green Isle'' and the American brawn, and .Ainerican brain, were selling in the American happy homes of "merry England," so graphically pictured by my col market at $15 to $16 per dozen, and in 1843, under a still higher tariff, league [.M:r. KELLEY], have hung out their sign among the New York at $11 to $12 per dozen. Before the repeaJ. of the tariff of '42 we were importers and nabobs, and are organizing free-trade clubs to the delight manufacturing by far the best ax in the market, and from that hour to ()four Irish fellow-citizens on the soil of "poor oppressed America!" the present it has been a successful competitor in all the markets of the
Out upon the impostors! What a travesty upon freedom, equality1 world. a nd human brotherhood ! Shall these blessed words lose their sweet The history of American cutlery is a repetition of the history of the ness, being thus coupled? It shall not be! · Freedom thus yoked is a American ax. The tariff of 1842 gave cutlery itS first substantial pro lie, and every Irishman in this free land should say with my friend from tection. Before that year we had not made even a decent draw-shave; Illinois [Mr. FINERTY], we will have none of it! yet more than half of our constitutional history had then passed. TAXATION. Forty-two years have since elapsed, and to-day .five-sixths of our con How shall the revenues necessary to carry on our Government be sumption is supplied by the American laborer, our exports are more raised? To be logical, the free-trader should assume the responsibility than our imports, and we competewithEnglandin Sheffield and Birm of holding that all Government tax should be internal and collected ingham, the very center of her cutlery product. Has thedutyof 1842 -direct from the people. Few, however, have the courage to concede so laid upon cutlery been to the American people a "consuming tax?" much. Mr. Beecher, however, who is a fresh apostle and somewhat Nothing but the frenzy succeeding a Cobden Club dinner would ever too vigorous to be politic, speaks what he means. In his latest utter give utterance to so base a slander. ance he cries out against all customs duties. He says: What has been the effect of protection on the Bessemer-steel rail, Custom-houses in their nature are academies of injustice and dishonesty, ab first made in this country in 1867. Up to theopening ofthe :first mill horred of God, as they ought to be of man. here for its manufuctn.re England controlled the market, and we were Though all free-traders do not travel to the logical conclusion of their compelled to pay her $150 gold per ton. The production here soon theory, their purpose is just as wicked and the outcome is, in practice, forced down prices, so that by 1870 the builder of railroads in this precisely the same. Duties paid for revenue only must of necessity be country was paying only a little more than one-third, or $59. The .a tax upon the consumer, though it may be somewhat indirect, while very extensive construction of railroads in 1880 boomed the price to absolute free trade necessitates a direct tax upon some other article than $85; but now the best steel rail ever produced is sold for less than $40 that imported, so that in any event the draft is from the people with per ton. These rails are manufactured by our own people, the con .out any returning compensation. It is therefore plain that the only sumers of our own farm product, yet the Morrison bill proposes to rob real difference between the two is that the former levies a tax upon ar them of 20 per cent. of their wages and make a present of the amount ticles coming into and the latter upon property already in the country. to ''merry England! '' Now, sir, let us see how widely different from this free trade or tax I have not the time to go over the history of other American indus for revenue only is the protective system of duties upon import'!. Gen tries. Suffice it to say, :Mr. Chairman, you may run through the en tlemen speak of it as if, like their own plan; it were a tax added to tire list of American manufactured product and you will :find in each the price of the article, which the consumer must pay upon its use or item absolute and incontrovertible proof that the duty levied upon ar cons urn. ption. ticles manufactured from material existing here is not a tax upon the . Sir, the history of more than 10,000 articles, the product of iron, coal, consumer. I do not intend to be understood as taking the position .and lime, forced by protection from our own mountains and formed into that a duty on imports may not under some circumstances for a short infinite perfection, beauty, and utility, give the denial to this assertion. time operate as an apparent burden upon the consumer, but I hold that Every article from the cambric needle to the iron bar, from the steel what I have said of these is the universal rule, under the conditions ;rail to the locomotive that travels across the continent thereon, from stated, after the duty has been laid long enough to work out its full the hair-spring in a lady's watch to the hundred horse-power Corliss and legitimate effect. This rule we are not only able to establish from .engine-these and all their fellows, as they spring_ into form and symme experience, but it may be shown to rest upon perfectly logical and well try and perfection, thunder denial to the assertion. approved grounds. . Take any article you please and trace its history and you have dem First, protection produces. The world at large has new manufac onstrated the wickedness of the unpatriotic slander. Cut nails are an tories where none had existed but for protection. The article pro American invention. When the nail was first protected by duty it was duced from these, if sold, must be taken by those who heretofore supplied by an imported wrought nail that cost the consumer in this purchased from the previous producers. The increased production of .country 25 cents per pound. By the tariff of 1824 the duty was made necessity forces the prices down below the point where it had been had 5 cents per pound, at which it remained until1833. According to the not the new product appeared. But the free-trade theorist admits this .assumption of the free-trader the "tax' ' of 5 cents would of course to be true "only where the product has full range and is not advanced have compelled the consumers to pay 5 cents addition to the importer's or held to its old price by duty." A moment's examination will suffice "25 cents per pound or 30 to the consumer. But what are the facts? to show that the general result is not changed by duty regulations. By t he year 1828 the price of nails had declined to from 8 to 9 cents ! · Assuming now that when our country commenced the manufacture In 1830 a better nail than England had ever furnished us at 25 cents of her own goods that England continued to manufacture as before, .could be purchased at 5 to 7 cents. And since then the price bas what was the effect upon her products? Being partly prohibited from ranged as follows: from 1835 to 1840, 5 to 7 cents; from 1840 to 1844, coming to the American market by import duties, they were forced back .5 to 6 cents. into her own avenues of trade, there to bear her home market. Could From that time forward the American nail has been considered the England thereafter sell her product for as high a price as before, shorn be t in the world, and has regulated the price of that article down to in part of the American trade? Thequestion answers itself. Had we this hour throughout the commercial world. During the war the price all slept as remote from human commerce as Rip Van Winkle we could .advanced somewhat, but by 1873 it had declined to 3 cents, and since answer the question in but one way. But our observation adds his t hen it ha ranged from 2 to 3 cents per pound. It will be seen that tory to logic, and we have experience fortified by demonstration. in 1 30, the lowest price of that year, the price had reached precisely Now, let us look to our own side of the import-duty barrier. In the -the duty imposed only six years before, and the ruling price of the year start I think it proper to admit that if our manufacturing had been re 1876, a little more than fifty rears after its first protection, the best stricted or hampered, either by lack of ability, genius, or natural re roil on the globe sold to the ' oppressed " consumer of the American source, we must have started at great disadvantage in the world's rae~ J>roduct for just one-half the first duty "tax" levied for its protection. for pre-eminence. Such, however, was not the case. We had all these And yet men assuming to have made the question of tariff a study go in abundance. No man will say we lacked either ability or inventive .on asserting and protesting that duty on imports ' 'is just so much tax genius, nor yet any of the manifold gifts of nature. Boundless forests, wrung from the people." Is it a matter of wonder that the people exhaustless mines, mighty rivers sweeping from the iron mountains to repudiate such statesmen? the seas, majestic mountains, with foundations of iron, buttressed with I admit that I havetaken an extreme case, but it is somainly forthe silver, and crowned with gold. Hills, valleys, prairies, plains, stretch reason that the cut nail was a new invention and capable of being made ing through all climates, and productive in all that contributes to the much cheaper than the wrought nail. This does not, however, detract necessity, comfort, and luxury of man; these all beckoned the pioneer from the fact that protection has saved the American people millions of forth to independent and self-reliant achievement. · dollars on this article alone and furnished her people with an infinitely The hand that stretched out the limitless prairie for the furm, lifted better article, and all through the labor, skill, and invention of her own the high mountain for the forge. To divorce eit her from the other -sons. But leaving out of the calculation the matter of American in was self-evident treason t o both. Happily for t he greatness and the vention, and the history of the nail is the history of almost every product renown of our country, the men who framed our Constitution, ordajned ()[iron and steel. the power, and the very :first Congress of this nation sent that power Before axes ware p1anufa£tured in this country they cost our f::m:ners forth on its errand of conquest and glory. The preamble of chapter 2 from $2 to $4 apiece. The tariff of 1828 gave the American manufact of the :first session of the First Congress, on July 4, 1789, declared urer a protection of 35per cent., or 70 cents, on the lowest and 1. 40 on that, " Whereas it i&,necessary for the support of the Government, for the highest priced ax.. Did the farmer have to pay for any con ider- the discharge of the debts of the United States, and the encouragement XV--243 3874 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. MA_y 6, and protection of manufactures, that duties be laid on goods, wares, and received for the product of the farm is in a just estimate part of the merchandises imported; therefore be it enacted," &c. And yet within aggregate paid to labor, of course the high price it received helped to a week,-sir, an
Average l'oo.uction of prices of the .abov~ pr..otected manufactures, 28 general result; and considering these I wish to know where in the per cent., against an increase of 28 _per cent. ..of wages. . . world's achievements is the parallel to the growth and prosperity thus The following table shows the merease <>f manufacturing mdustry secured to this people? The gentleman from Ohio [lli. Hu""RD] the between the years 1860 and 1880. Whe!l it. is remembered that ~our other day with almost matchless eloquence pictured the growth of years of this time was devoted to war, With 1ts attendant _des~ction, English manufactures since the repeal of the corn laws in 1844. Why,. I confess I find infinitely more to kindle wonder and adm1ration than sir, it is strange that all men harassed with this free-trade frenzy never in any .Gf the aehievements of England during any like period: can see anything in their own country worthy of words that burn aud thoughts that entrance. 1860. 1880. What are the facts? Why sir, the growth of our country has sur.. passed that of England in every material industry in the ratio of five to one during the past eighteen years. Is it possible that all these gen 253, 852 $2, 790, 272, 606 tlemen have their eyes so set on the British lion that they can never $5, 369, 579, 191 see the American eagle? Where has the gentleman been during the 2, 738 895 last twenty years-years of the mightiest strides in the growth of this $346 $947, 953,795 or any other land? Sir, he seems absolutely oblivious of the matchless beauty of that flag. nless on some lone sea he seeks for and finds it not! Let him look for that banner in the land of the free and the horne It will be seen by this table that druing the twenty years, from of the brave, and here, full high advanced he will find it, "without a 1860 to 1880 :the manufaduring interest increased more than during star erased or a single stripe polluted.'' the entire ~lonial and all the previous constitutional history of the But that gentleman attributes the loss of the carrying trade to pro United States. I commend these facts to the prayerful consideration tection. As well might he attribute it to the changes of the moon. of the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. HURD]. He will search in vain for Sir, ·we have lost the foreign carrying trade, as the gentleman from their parallel in Great Britain. Maine [Mr. DINGLEY] has well said, by the application of the princi THE FREE-LIST. ple of free trade in the gu~of reciprocity tr~ty with England; and This bill, sir, proposes to plaee coal and lumber upon the free-list. I will add, also, because we have been engaged m a more exalted as well There is no industry in the country that more constantly needs the ap as a more profitable business. There has been a deluge of tears shed plication of the principle of protection than coal and lumber. The by the Cobden Club and by members of this Hou e because England charge of monopoly can not with any justice be made againt them. has all the foreign carrying trade. Is it not time that this gush had They are each offered to the consumer at the lowest possible price con ended? The gentleman from Georgia [.Mr. HA.Ml\IOND] voices my feel sistentwithanything like ajnst compensation tothelaborerwhomines ings exaetly in this matter when he says: and manufactures these commodities. The protection as now laid is not When I used to read in history of Napoleon pointing out to the great British so much upon price as against the invasion of our market by Nova Scotia statesman the little island and saying'' What a. small space England occupies on the earth," I sympathized with the Englishman's grand reply: " But with coal and Canada lumber. her commerce she circles the world." But since I have seen our rapid develop Barter away that market, sir, for which yqu get no consideration ment on land, our magnificent stretches of railroads cutting through the moun whatever, and you commit a crime against the laborer in both mine tains and cleaving the plains, I then, sir, feel a. granderpridethatwe build the e railroads which must be kept up by the laborofman, while England follows the and mill. You overwhelm in bankruptcy all the moderate owners of ocean path that God and the elements repair. If our capital brings better inter both, and you leave the wealthier ones to struggle on in a competition est, if it feeds poverty at home, if it furnishes work for the mu cle, I shall not with the cheap laborofCanadaand Nova Scotia, receiving 40 per cent. regret that it is expended on American soil. less to-day than our own. Sir, to every syllable of this I yield most hearty assent. Is it not After Canada lumber and Nova Scotia coal have captured our mar strange that after having said so much for the glory of his own country kets after many of our collieries have gone into decay and our for that within ten short minutes tha;t gentleman, true to free-trade in ests 'have been destroyed by fire, after the men employed in these stincts, should have voted to give England the control of American ship industries have become producers rather than consumers of the farm building? Oh, will there never be an end of contradiction in a Demo products, the farmerwill discover that he has lost buyers for his goods crat who would do good? and found bears upon his market. With his candle thus burniniZ; at Mr. HAMMOND. I thought you had inserted my speech as an il both ends he will look in vain for the dividends that used to appearon lustration of apples of gold in pictures of silver, but I find it was to his autumnal balance-sheet, when labor, lumber, and coal were not on abuse me. the free-list. Mr. BROWN, of Pennsylvania. No, sir; I do not oonsider it abuse But we are answered that the farmer can afford to lose his home mar to tell the House how a gentleman voted unless he himself admits that ket for he will secure in its place a larger foreign market. From the he voted wrong. If the gentleman now admits that he voted wrong I hotir this debate opened gentlemen on the other side have assumed that will be glad to take back all I have said. tariff is a burden upon our exports. They never go into detail to show Mr. HAMMOND. I would repeat the vote. how this conclusion is reached; they simply assume that it mnst be so. Mr. BROWN, of Pennsylvania. Theniwillletmystatement stand. It is difficult to answer assertion. I will content myself by simply ask [Laughter.] ing how we can hope to induce Canada or Nova Scotia or England to Butwhatisthisforeigncarryingtradethatso"horridlys~kesthedis take more wheat or corn than they need? Are we to expect these coun position" oftheDemocracyinthisHouse? Itisa beggarlybusiness, sir, tries or any others to take our product out of charity? But what has when marshaled for comparison beside that which employs the intellect, been our experience in the past in the matter of exports? the invention, and the muscle of my countrymen. Sir, I will vote for Sir, our exports were never equal to our imports during all the years any reasonable project to build up American commerce to be controlled of free trade. The balance of trade was uniformly against us during by American bottoms, but I am not so enchanted with the murmur ofthe every year from 1846 to 1860, often reaching nearly a hundred million seas that I can not hear the glad anthem of 50,000,000 of American dollars annually. Indeed, the balance of trade never turned in our citizens in their triumphant march aeross a continent. fuvor until1875. Since then it has averaged more than one hundred Sir, not all the commerce, not all the navies that e'er rode the seas millions a year, making a net balance of over 1,300,000,000 in our have left a trace of civilization or a single monument to the memory favor in nine years. Unless free trade can find other ground to stand of IWlil! On the mighty deep there are no cities and on her heaving upon than this, it certainly will fall. I turn now for a few moments to bosom there are no altar fires for home-sweet home. consider the subject of Even the magic cable, that lonely, brittle thread which couples the COMPENSATION FOR IMPORT DCTIES. continents, must tell its tales from crag to crag and peak to peak, deep If it were true that import duties are in their pra~tical operation down in the oozy dungeons of a rayless deep, far from the ken of man, added to the cost of consumption, it is not altogether certain that the until they leap into the light of civilization on a far-off shore!. Le1 gen nation, having due regard to the well-being of society and the protection tlemen listen to the siren songs of the " ever sounding sea" if they will. of labor against the avarice of capital, should not still maintain the pro They shall not stay the course of empire! The master spirits of our tective tariff. But when it is absolutely demonstrable that the general age will cleave the mountains and plant the forge; they will "fell the result is a lowering of the price of the article consumed reasons come forests, plow and till the fields, and heap the granaries that feed the to its defense in double columns. world." What is the compensation returned to this people by the levying of MONOPOLY. import duties? First, the Government is supported and direct taxar Gentlemen not content with praising England seem ever constrained tion avoided. Second, the levy, instead of being a burden, is a bless to abnse America. All things, whether good or ill, that have been fo - ing. Were a people ever so blessed as ours? Sir, each dollar of duty tered into life since the tariff has had its perfect work are passed under laid on incoming commerce performs the double service of relieving the rod of Democratic wrath and free-trade vengeance. Failing year the people i'rom a real tax, while in the same hour it nerves the arm after year to ca.tch the ear of the sons of toil by the deceptive cry of of industry to go forth into new fields of conquest, and glory, and ''buy where you can buy cheapest and sell where you can sell dearest, ' aehievement. whether by so doing we kill or make alive, they tax their powers and Idonotsay,sir, that in all cases thetariffis laid with consumllli1teskill rally all the resources of the demagogue in a universal shout that the and ttbsolute wisdom (which according to my friend from Ohio [l\Ir. manufacturers are monopolists. Could anything be more insincere? WARNER] is the Ohio plan), but I speak of the main purpose and the What has been the effect of a protective tariff upon monopoly in manu- 876 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- HOUSE. MAY 6,
Jactnres? Sir, it has multiplied every manufactory in this land by ten of their hard-hearted task-masters without any relief becau e I could and many by a. thousand. When the system of protection began we not have my way about it. I will not say to them, You shall continue were absolutely a.t the mercy of English monopolists. to be the prey ~f the plunderers, the vassals of the tariff barons because Do these orators think they can make the sons of toil believe that to I could not dictate the character of the bill. Until reducti~n can be induce two manufactories to grow where only one existed, is the propa obtained of the tax on the necessaries of life those of us who favor this gation of monopoly? Do they believe that the most humble can not bill insist the present tax shall remain on whisky and tobacco. understand how absolutely impossible it is to monopolize the manu WHAT DOES TARIFF MEAN? facture of any article by creating new manufactures? As well may you, sir, by the wave of a hand, expect successfully to stay the course Since this bill has been under discussion I have received a letter from of empire as attempt to monopolize the manufacturing of American a young farmer inquiring: ''What does tariff taxation mean? How, products, whether from forge or farm, after yon have secured to them whe_n, and fo~ wha.~ purpose ~re they collected? Also, what does pro the American market. Let me remind you, gentlemen, that you have tection mean m this connection? Who do these questions most seri invoked the one infallible law-that is, free trade in horizontal garb ously affect, and how do they affect them? What has been the posi that never fails to engender monopoly, not American monopoly, but tion of the two poli,tical parties on this question?" I now propose to foreign English monopoly-cold, calculating, brutal, and merciless I answer these questions in their order. that same monopoly which drove the colonies into the most unequal I beg that the House may bear with me, for my answers may be some-· and desperate war in all the annals of mankind; that same monopoly what tedious, as I desire to give the details in plain and unadorned lan which, after it had put out our fires by the aid of the compromise guage. '"'horizontal'' of 1833, brought to our doors the bankruptcy of 1837 ! What is tariff? It is a tax. When we talk about the tariff we are that same monopoly which broke the tariff barrier of 1842 in 1846 and ta~g. about ~es. r_r:a.riff taxes are those whi~h !1-re laid on foreign gave us poverty in 1847! that same monopoly which, in e:xchange articles Imported mto this country. They are paid m the first instance fur free trade in 1846 and 1857, gave us eighty millions of debt in 1860, by the importing merchant and collected from the consumer when the and left us in want and misfortune, bereft of credit, despoiled of inde articles are purchased by him from the retail merehan tor dealer. Who pendence, and shorn of our strength in the darkest night of modem pays these taxes? Every person pays a portion of them who buys any history! tJ:ing ~or his ~'and therefo~e every one~ this broad land has a peen MANUFACTORIES. mary mterest m these questions. If tariff taxes are high, all manu Is it manly, sir, to attempt to array the laborer against the man who factured articles purchased by him are high in proportion to the amount furnishes him employment and the farmer against both? Sir, I was of the tax, a_nd when t~e.~ is reduced the price of the goods are low reared on a farm. I know all about the privations and the struggles ered and his cost of hvmg lB reduced. Of course a low tariff leaves incident to frontier life on the farm, and that too in a period of our more money in the pocket of the consumer than a high tariff. lrlstorywhen the farmer's lotwas infinitely a more serious matterthan We are in reality now engaged in determining how much shall be taken now. My sympathies and my tenderest regard has always been and out of everyone's pocket-book by legislation. We are determining how must always remain with andforthefarmer; and, sir, I rejoice that God much of the earnings of every laboring man shall be retained by him has spared my life to denounce, in this presence with all the vigor and and how much he shall be forced to surrender for others and for other emphasis at my command, this warfare upon the American manufact purposes than his own use. By this bill we are saying the rate of tariff ners as treason against the American farmer ! taxes is too high and are seeking to reduce it 20 per cent., and thereby Day by day have gentlemen inveighed against the artisan who fur seeking to leave that much more money in the pockets of the people. Dishes through the infinite diversification of industry the market for DIFFERENCE BETWEEN STATE TA.XES AND TARIFF. nine-tenths of the farmer's product, pronouncing in the same breath The great difference between the taxes paid by persons under the oper encomiums upon England and all other countries that in the aggregate ations ofthe laws ofthevarious States and Territories known as State furnish a precarious market for the other tenth. Is this patriotism? county, and municipal taxes, and those paid under the laws of Con: Is this the true way to beget love of country, to kindle laudable am gress known as tariff taxes, consist mainly in the manner of collection bition, and to foster hope in the bosom of toil? The great Webster and the purposes for which they are collected. · never invoked to his use sweeter or braver words than when he said, State taxes as all know are levied and collected by certain officers of ''I thank God that if I am gifted with a little of that spirit which it counties or municipalities. When such taxes are paid a receipt is given is said is able to raise mortals to the skies I have yet none of that other to the tax-payer specifyingtheexactamountofhistaxes and the object pirit which would drag angels down.'' If gentlemen will forever look for which it is to be used. Theseobjectsareconfinedexclusivelytode with cynic eye upon their country I pray that they keep silence whil~ fraying the expenses of the State and local governments; but tariff taxes, he great Republic goes from conquering to conquer. Believing the known as customs dues, are levied and collected in an entirely different American citizen to be the best product of the best period of mans manner and for different purposes. :pilgrimage, I would foster the plant with all the care and all the vigi lance that human wisdom can summon to its support. I would have TWO K.INDS OF TAXES UNDER TARIFF. that na:me honored and respected and protected, with all the love and There are two kinds of taxes paid under the operation of the tariff all the valor of a chivalric people, from the rising of the sun to the going laws. One kind is that which goes into the Treasury of the United States down thereof. and are calledrevenuetaxes; they are used for the maintenance of the Mr. TOWNSHEND. Mr. Chairman, I have chiefly two objects in Government, or purely for governmental purposes. The other kind goes view in addressing the committee on this subject: one of these is to into the pockets of American manufacturers and are called protective show the effect of our present tariff system upon the interest of the tarifftaxes, and are used for the profit of manufacturers and those in in farmer, and the other is to present the record of the Democratic party terest with them. When the latter is the object it is a process by which upon the purposes for which tariff taxes should be collected. wealth or money is without remuneration transferred from the pocket THE OBJECT OF THE BILL. of one man into the pocket of another. This transfer is made from I will state one proposition in which all here will agree. It is this: the poorest as well as the wealthiest in the land. No one is exempted no one will deny that we can with safety to all interests involved re from it. duce the large surplus revenue now flowing into the Treasury and that This protective-tariff system is established, as it is said, for the pro his ought to be done by reduction of taxation. Does any one deny tection of the home manufacturer against competition with the manu thatproposition? So far, then, weagree. Butwedividewhenwereach facturers of other countries, and compels the consumers in this country the question of deciding upon what articles the reduction shall operate. to buytheir goodsatamuch higher pricethan they would payforthem Upon this question there are really but two sides-the one declares if no protective-tariff laws existed. Those who advocate this bill say that reduction shall be made of the taxes on whisky and tobacco, so that these taxes ought to be reduced in order that the people may buy that thepeople shall have cl;teaper whisky and tobacco; the other side their goods cheaper, and insist that the present high rate of tariff is not insists that the reduction shall come from the necessaries of life, so that needed for Government purposes. This is demonstrated by the fact the people shall have cheaper food to eat and raiment to wear, cheaper that there is over one hundred millions of surplus now lying in the shelter to live under, and cheaper tools to work with. Treasury. Ou the other hand, those who oppose this reduction insist The bill before us is aimed to accomplish the latter object. It does that the people shall pay higher prices for the necessaries of life in not go as far as I desire. In the first place, I would be glad to vote for order that bounties may be provided for the home manufacturers. a bill providing for a thorough revision of the tariff in detail. If I WHAT IS PROTECTION? can not have that opportunity now and must take a horizontal reduc This is protection pure and simple. Some regard this as a system of tion I would prefer that the rate of reduction should be 40 instead of legalized robbery of the many under the forms of law for the benefit 20 per cent. But, sir, the committeewhoha.ve had this subject under of the few. Each will form his judgment of the proper name for this consideration for a long time have thought it the best policy to com process according to his views of the moral law and the objects for mence the work of tariff reform in the manner and to the extent here which our Government was founded. As I have already said, the taxes presented, and I obey a law ofDemocracy when I yield my individual which under the tariff go into the Treasury are collected by the cus epinion to the will of the majority of my party associates. As eao-er as tom-house officer on goods as they come into the United States and are I am for further reduction, I will not go home to the people wh~ are paid in the first instance by the importer. Those which go into the eppressed by the present unjust and extortionate tariff system and say pockets of the manufacturers are collected in the first mstance when the hat I v.oted against all reduction and left their earnings in the clutches articles are sold by them to the dealer. All of them are finally collected 1884. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 3877
by the retail dealer when the goods are sold to the farmer, mechanic, his chains, abolish this slavery, and restore him and his children to free or other consumer. dom by reforming and reducing this tariff system. To learn that im HOW TO ASCERTAIN AMOUNT OF TARIFF PAID BY COYSUlllER. portant fact he will only need to read the history of the two great A person may know exactly how much he pays for State county political parties now before the country, and watch the course of the and municipal taxes by examining his tax receipts; but the only way Representatives in Congress on this bill. I think that he will soon for him to ascertain how much tariff taxes is paid for revenue as well reach the conclusion that his own as well as his country's best interest; as for protection-for that which goes into the Treasury as well as that demand that he should hereafter give his support to that political which goes to the manufacturer-is for him at the end of the year to party which will reduce the tariff to a revenue basis. But before I go add up all the sums be has paid out during the year on all the manu into the history of the parties upon this question I will endeavor to ex factured articles he has purchased for himself and family. He must plain the cost of protection. take an inventory of every article he has bought for his personal wear, for COST OF PROTECTION. his shelter, for every article in his house, on his farm, or in his work In a speech delivered by myself on the Tariff Com.miSsion, April 20, shop; every article of farm machinery, every article of woolen or cotton 188'2, I made the following estimate of the cost of protection: dress goods, every garment for himself or his family, :from the oldest Let us for a. while consider the nature and effect of our revenue laws. During even to the youngest-though it be but a new-born babe in the cradle the past nineteen years the Federal Government has collected from the people of this country the following amounts from customs duties and internal-revenue or·some one who during the year has been shrouded and coffined for the taxes, which are in addition to all the other taxes annually collected: grave; all the sugar, canned goods, and nearly every article of food except those which are produced with the help of God on the farm; for ~: fuu:e~~ ;::t~ ~-~.~~:.~~~- :::::: ~:: :::::::::::::::::: ::: ::::::::·::: ::::::: ~: ~: ~: = w bile there is protection for almost every other thing there is practically none for what thefarm produces. Nobody protects or helps to protect Total custOms and internal-revenue receipts...... 5, 954, 834., 788 In addition to this va.st sum "for the support of the Government the people the ordinary farmer, but he is forced by the tarlff law to aid in the pro have paid about five times as much into the private purse of the protected in tection of the manufacturing classes. dustries on manufactures by reason of a protective tariff, being $15,063,754,645, The sugar and rice planters and some few other producers are pro making the grand total of the amount paid by the people for the support of the tected, but the cotton and tobacco planters, the wheat, corn, and other Federal Government and the protected manufacturers during the past nineteen. years the astonishing sum of $21,018,589,433, a sum about t~ n times as large as grain-growers, the beef and pork producers, &c., are without protec the public debt of the United States, nearly four times as large a s the public debt tion. It is true that in framing the tariff law, for the purpose of hlUll of Great Britain, and within four billions as much as the public debt of all the bugging the farmer, they did go through the farce of putting some duty nations of the world. If this vast sum was now in the hands of the people and distribut~d equally on the importation of these articles, but all know that no amount of among the 50,000,000 in this country, each man, woman, and child would have duty can raise the price of these articles or protect them from foreign $420. Let us reflect for a moment as to where all this money has gone. Only about one-fourth has found its way into the national Treasury, while the re competition, because these products are not imported into this country mainder has found a lodgment in the pockets of the protected classes. This is to any appreciable extent, but are exported, and their price is fixed in the direct result or cost of nineteen years of protection. These figures are ob the European Illal"ket, where they compete with the cheapest labor and tained by adding together the customs and internal-revenue receipts for the total taxes, and by multiplying the customs receipts by five for the profits of the cheapest producers in the world. protected classes, that being the proportion of revenue to the profits produced Now, after the consumer has added up all the sums of his purchases by the protective tariff, it being a well-established fact that the domestic manu for the year, then he will be able to ascertain how much he has paid for facturer usually adds the rate of tariff duties to the price of his products. tariff taxes by taking the tariff law made by the last Congress and ascer Since that date two years more of collections have increased this vas~ tain the rate of the tax which he will find is there laid on every one of his sum which has been taken from the pockets ,of the people under the purchases. For instance, he has paid on his rice a tax of 95 per cent. ; operations of our Federal tax system to the enormous sum of nearly glass, window and other glass, an average tax of 55 per cent. ; on all ar $23,000,000,000, of which sum over 16,000,000,000 went into the pock ticles manufactured of iron, an average of37per cent.; on paints, an aver ets of the protected classes. age of 32 per cent. ; cotton dress goods, an average of 37 per cent. ; woolen WHO IS BEJ:\""EFITED BY PROTECTION? dressgoods, anaverageof63percent.; flannels, anaverageof74percent.; hosiery, an average of 52 per cent.; carpets, an average of 53 per cent.; Now the inquiry arises at once, who is benefited by this protective sugar, an average of 50 per cent. But the list is too long for mP. to give system? An examination of the statistics furnished by the census re them here. ports of 1880 will show that a very small proportion of the population of It will be difficult for any one except an expert to ascertain fully the this country received any benefit from protection; indeed, the number of rate of taxation under the tarifflaws. They are purposely made com those engaged in manufacturing and protected mechanical pursuits are plex and complicated to conceal from the people the manner and extent surprisingly small. To avoid the charge of partisan exaggeration I will to which they are fleeced in the interest of the protected classes. If give the figureS and comment thereon of a Republican journal in very the consumer has not the time nor the skill to make these computations, high standing with the members of that party. I read from the Chi let him remember that the average of all the various taxes paid under cago Tribune of February 27, 1883: the tariff law is about 42 per cent. thereof. On tbe sum total of all The census reports that of the fifty-odd millions of our population there are engaged in "gainful occupations" 17,392,099 persons. Of these but 3,837,112 are he has bought he has paid a tax of about 42 per cent., being over credited to manufacturing, mechanical, and mining pursuits. It is upon this two-fifths of the whole sum. For instance, our present average rate class that the blessings of protection are focused, but it will be a surprise to of tariff taxation is nearly 42 per cent. If a man has bought for him most p e rsons who have not looked into the matter for themselves to see the ex- . R{)t figures, that show that only a small minority of this small section of our in self and family five hundred dollars' worth of such articles during the dustrial classes receive even the nominal advantages of the all-comprehending past year he would have paid 210 in the way of tariff taxation, that "taxes levied at the demand of employers. The following list selects out of the entire enumeration made by the census being 42 per cent. of the total of purchases. If, however, the average those whose industry is so "to the manner born," or is so obviously injured by rate of taxation bad been reduced to 21 per cent., he would only have paid $105 in tariff taxes and would have 105 more money in his pocket ~~d~~~: bt:;eefi~i~i~~ of~~f~~i}~at they are to beregarded as the victims to-day t han he now has. Nwmher engaged. It will be seen, th ~refore, that this question deeply affects everyman's pocket-book. HOW MuCH THE CONSUMER CO!'<""TRIBUTES TO THE MAlo."'UFACTURER. Then if he wishes he may ascertain how much he has contributed out of this sum to the support of the Government, and what portion of his earnings has been contributed by him to the manufacturer by remem bering that only one dollar of every five which he has been forced to pay under the operations of the tariff law goes into the Treasury; the other four go to the manufacturers or protected monopolists; and if he will compare the amount he has paid for State, county, and municipal purpo eswUhwhathe has paid underthetari:fflaw, he will be amazed at the comparative insignificance of the amount of the former and of the enormous amount of the latter, and if he will add together a1 l the taxes he has paid for the local and national governments, and compare that sum with what he ha paid to protect the monopolists, he will see that the amount which they have cost him is vastly greater than what he has paid for all other governmental purposes whatever.
WHO MADE THE TARIFF? Then if he is a thoughtful man and loves his family aud his freedom better than he does the monopolies, he will ask himself what party bas so framed the law which has made him the hewer of wood and the drawer of water for others- forged his chains which has enslaved him to the aris ~~:r:,;iiib:~:::::::::::::::::.·.·::: : ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::·:::::::::::::::.:: : :::: :: :: : : : ::::: ~ : r~ tocratic few who own the manufacturing establishments. He will also Total ...... 2, 259, 903 a.""k himself the further question, what political party proposes to break This list of those who help pay the taxes to the protected bosses without evea 3878 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. MAY 6,
ostensibly getting any b~nefit from it could be very ~ uch enlarged: if the census PROTECTIO ~ PRODUCES SLAVKRY. went into any such detail that we could separate, for rnstance, the uon and steel industries into those which are original and subsidiary. If the Pennsylvania In all ages the cunning few have sought to secure power and pelf at the makers of pig-iron are helped by the tariff, all the derivative manufactures of expense of the many. The prerogatives and powers of kings and no iron that must use taxed raw material are certainly hurt, just as the makers of bility and of the aristocratic classes were born of this desire. The agricultural implements are injll!ed by the tax on st~el. .(1.. ~arge part of ~he 234 228 miners whom we have not rncluded are as certainly Vlctrms of protectiOn struggle between the few seeking special privileges over the masses as ~ny other class of the community. All the bituminous-coal diggers in the has continued from the earliest ages. It has existed in every land. West· all those employed in rich iron mines which, as the great iron-miner, 1\Ir. Slavery is not confined to the condition which existed between the HEwiTT declared, need no help from the tariff; the copper miners, whom we have sh~wn to be paid less than the average wages; the anthracite coal-miners ancient Israelite and the Egyptians, the bondage of the feudal ages, of Pennsylvania, who are among the most wretched workers in this country; to erfdom in Russia, or the negro in the South of later years, but as the gold and silver miners-all th~se sh.ould be subtracted: Of the ~10,533 oper the learned professor of a New England college, Professor W. G. Sum atives in the cotton, woolen, and silk m1lls, a large proportiOn labor m branches that are native and could not be crushed out of existence. The Southern cotton ner, says: mills are exporting their goods to South America and Asia. A slave is a man who earns and another takes hi earning; therefore a man We are far within t.he limit offactin putting down the number of those who who pays double t.o an American manufacturer what he would pay another for are included within the delusive circle of" protection" at less than 1,000,000 out goodio is a slave. ofthe total of 3,837,112 reported as engaged in manufacturing, mechanical, and mining occupations. As early as the reign of Elizabeth monopolies of a similar character Ind ustriully, then, the situation ofthis country is: were denounced as subjecting the people to bondage. In a Parliament Population to be supported, 50,155,783. Number to do the work, 17,392,099. of that reign brave old Sir Francis Bacon declared: • Of these, 1,000,000tax-eaters produce a deficit that must be made good by taxa I can not utter with my tongue or conceive with my heart the. great grievances tion. that the town and country for which I serve suffereth by some of these monopo Proportion of victims to beneficiaries of protection, 50 to 1. lies. It bringeth the general profit into a private hand, and the end of all is bond age and beggary to the subjects. HOWlS THETRIBUTE MOJI."EYDISTRIRUTED?-THESHARES OF CAPITAL ANDLABOR But how is this tribute money distributed which is coined by the As Christianity, civilization, and knowledge diffused their benefi brain and brawn of the millions who are without protection. It goes, cent influences among men the ruder forms of slavery have given way, as we have seen, to the 1, 000,000 of the prbtected class-the owners of but the wickedness and cunning of a class to-day have devised a new the manufacturing establishments, as well as the laborers employed form of slavery, and have put it in operation in this land of boasted therein. . freedom, The late bloody war broke the sha-ckles of the negro slaves Now what share does each of the protec~d classes receive? Com in the South, but designing men devised a system of t.:uation which putations based upon the census returns of 1880 show that the average enslaves the whites and blacks of the whole land, so that now we have return to the capital invested in manufacturing in thatyearwas between white as well as black slavery. The slavery of old was that of force; 36 and 37 per cent., and yet with this large return the manufacturers that of to-day is by the legerdemain of legislative enactments. only paid their employes, including clerks, superintendents, foremen, THE EVILS OF PROTEOTIOY AND DANGER OF OVERPRODUCTION. and all laborers, at the average rate of $1.16 per day. · But let us consider some further evils growing out of our tariff sys The profits made by the owners of the fa-ctories actually exceeded the tem. Our present and greatest future danger is overproduction. In whole sum paid for all the labor employed in making the goods. Pro other words, we are making more manufactured articles and producing tection puts the lion's share of the spoils into the pockets of the few more agricultural products than we can consume in our own country lords of the factmies and the loom, while barely a crumb reaches the or market abroad. Indeed, we are already suffering from this evil. workingman. Thus it will be seen the claim that the tariff protects The present stagnation in business is due to it, the low price of our AmericiD1labor is a false pretense, hypocritically used for the purpose grain and other agricultural products is caused by it. Many manu of beguiling the workingmen into the support of this plundering scheme facturing establishments have reduced the wages of their laborers and of injustice and inequality. reduced the number of their employes, while others ha>e closed their PROFITS OF AGRICULTURE. factories and turned th.eirwage-peopleadriftwithout means of support. Many thousands of willing hanq...c;; are idle to-day because more goods Now let us compare the profits of agriculture with the profits of manu are in stock than can be sold. · factures. For this purpose I will take the computations made by the Can any one fail to trace the cause for this sad condition of things to eminent statesman from New York [Mr. S. S. Cox]. He said in are our system of protection, which on the one hand fostered and stimu cent speech: lated manufacture until it has reached the point where the supply is The estimated value of all farm products for the year 1879 is given in the cen greater than the demand at home, while at the same time it has be sus report at $2,213,402,564. Deduct from this cost of fertilizers, $2 ,586,397, and we have a gross return of $2,184,816,167 on the $12,104,081,430 capital invested in gotten a feeling of unfriendliness toward our commerce abroad to such agriculture, which is equal to 18 per cent. on the latter sum. But I have not de an extent that foreign countries are discriminating against us and closing ducted for seed or wages. Theseitems·are not reported. As towages, I assume that 50 cents a day, with board and lodging, are at least equal on a farm to 1.16 their markets to our goods? We have so long maintained this barrier a day in a manufacturing town where renLS, fuel, and provisions are at climax against their products that they have been provoked to a spirit of re ntes. But I will, for the purpose of the comparison being drawn, admit that taliation against us. the wages of farm labor were in the year 1879 at the rate of only 50 cents a day, witll board and lodgings, or 75 cents a day without board or lodgings. These AGRICULTURE OUR DEPIDi"DENCE FOR NATIONAL WEALTH. average rates I consider better relatively than those paid to labor employed in manufacturing industries. At the rate of 75 cents a day or its equivalent, the We are now sending but very fewmanufactured articles abroad. If amount paid to agricultural labor by our farmers for the year 1879 was $747,872,- it were not for our farm products, which constitute 77 per cent. of our 100. Deducting this sum from the $'2,184,816,167 gross profits which accrued on products, the balance of trade would be against us and we would soon farming capital that year, we reduce the latter to 1,436,944,067, which gives a gross return to that capital of about 11 or 12 per cent., as compared with the re become pauperized, notwithstanding we have every natural advantage turn of 36 or 37 per cent. which accrued on the capital employed in manufact for manufacturing over any nation on earth. uring. Our total exports for the year ending June 30, 1883, amounted to If any error has occurred in Mr. Cox's figures it will be found in over 804,222,632. An analysis of these exports will show that agricultural estimating farming profits. Enjoying such enormous profits on their products constituted 610,269,449 or 77 per cent. of all this vast sum. investments, it is not surprising that the subsidized owners of the fac The table I will now read shows how small in comparison are the ex tories should oppose all efforts at reduction of their bounties; but it is ports of protected manufactures with unprotected agriculture. surprising that those who are sent here to represent the people should aid in enforcing this unjust exaction upon their constituents to enrich Products. Value. Percent. this favored clru3S. ------1------There is no danger t~at legitimate manufacturing will suffer by are Agriculture...... , ...... $610, 269, 449 77.00 duction of taxation. As long as we have such a large public debt and Ianufactures ...... 111, 890, 001 13.91 pension-list it will be necessary to collect the bulk of our revenue by Mining, including mineral oils...... 51,444,857 6.40 Uu-iffta:xation, and a wiseadjustmentofthe tariffduties will afford all the Forestry ...... : ...... 9, 9i6,143 1.24 Fisheries...... """· ······················· 6,276,375 .78 protection against foreign competition that will be necessary to develop All other commodities...... 5,366,8Cf7 .67 and maintain American manufacturing interests. The English manufacturers grow rich enough on 8 or 10 per cent. profit Total...... 795, 223, 632 100.00 on the sales of their capital invested, and the American farmer is com pelled to content himself on 11 per cent. or less. WHY ENGLAND OUTSTRIP t; IY TRADE • .Mr. Joseph Medill, of the Chicago Tribune, said in an address deliv We have all the raw materials in inexhaustible abundance within ered before the American Agricultural Association, when alluding to our own borders, the best and most intelligent workmen in the world their figures: in our midst, yet the little storm-beaten island of England, 3, 000 miles If our manufacturers would accept similar profits our tariff might be reduced away, ha.s outstripped us in all the markets of the world in the sale of more tha.n half without requiring them to cut down the wages of their hands a manufactured articles. She undersells us everywhere. She sends her single cent. It is quite clear that of every S4" protection" adds to price of goods three goes into the pockets of the employing capitalists and only one to their ships to our ports. She buys cotton of our planters, transports it back workmen who fo.bricate the goods. And this accounts for the phenomena that to her shores, manufuctures the raw material into articles of commerce, the hotelsof Washington and the HallS of Congress are fiUed to overflowing with then comes right to our door and undersells us in Mexico, Centra.l a hired lobby, not only cla!Doringa.gainsta.ny reduction of the present war tariff, but actually hounding and bulldozing the members of Congress to raise it still America, and South America; yea, even passes contemptuously be higher on the people. yond us to the other great ocean, and wrests from us the trade of the 1884. ·CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 3879
Pacific. Why is it so? Is it because the Englishman is more enter that it is diseased, but really because our tariff discriminates against prising or energetic than the American? All the world knows that is their manufactured products. If England should pursue toward us not true. It is because she has established friendly commercial rela the same course as Germany and France, what a deplorable calamity tions with the world, she has cast down all her barriers of protection, would befall the farming classes of this country. and opened her market to the products of every country. England takes far more of our pork than either of the countries men REMEDY FOR OVERPRODUCTION-MARKET FOR OUR PRODUCTS. tioned. If she should close her ports to it the price of ourpork would fall Seeing the stagnation in our own trade and the danger of o-verpro o low that its production would cease to yield a J,>rofit to the producer. duction upon us, I turned my thoughts as a legislator orne time ago Suppo e England should lay an average tariff duty of 42 per cent. or to the question of devising a policy for extending our markets abroad. even one-fourth as much on our wheat and other grains a we do on her My attention was rurected, ofcourse, to the rich countries that lie south articles she sends us, can any one tail to see the disastrous effects of of us, Mexico, Central America, and South America. It seemed to me such action to our farmers. The price of our farm products to-day is that with such an advantage of position and juxtaposition we could con regulated by the market in Liverpool. Wheat is lower now than it trol that grand market. We have now one railroad in operation and has been for twenty-four years. If England should feed us out of om: are building other lines, which will penetrate to the very heart of the protective-tariff spoon and lay a tariff duty upon our wheat the many ancient dominionofthe ~,Iontezumas. The Boston merchant may ship millions of bushels which we now send her annually would lie on our his goods by rail without breaking bulk to the city of Mexico, exchange hands and rot in our granaries and its production would cease to be them if he will for the rich products of that land which are so much profitable. She is not forced to take our wheat. Russia, India, Aus needed in this country; whereas the English merchant must brave the tralia, and other countries would soon be able, if they are not already, perils of the sea for 3, 000 miles, then reship his goods by rail at Vera to supply her demand for wheat. Cruz. Our communication with Central and South America is not as Sir, this policy of protection is a standing menace to the welfare of clo e and easy as that with Mexico: but it is still far better than the the American farmer, a blight on his prosperity, a curse to him and his <:ommunication with Europe. children. Whatever benefit there is in it flows into the pockets of the The similarity of our political institutions naturally produces a greater few constituting ~he manufacturin~ class; whatever evil in it falls desire on the part of those countries for trade with us than with the upon the farmer. No man upon this floor who represents a farming monarchies of the Old World. The products of the southern countries, constituency can vote to maintain this system and vote against a re in the main ·being different from our own, are just such as are needed duction of the tariff without betraying the interests of his constituency by us, while our agricultural and mechanical products are equally as into the power of monopoly. much needed by those countries. This makes it of mutual advantage RECORD OF DEMOCRATIC PARTY ON TARIFF. for trade with us. Having the facility for supplying them with all I will now p~esent the record of the Democratic party on this great they need, I have no doubtwe ought to and cancontrol that market to question as made by the declaration of its founders and the enunciation the exclusion of all other countries. An examination of the official of its principles in its national and State platforms. statistics will show that the annual foreign commerce of these countries In the beginning ofour Government when our fathers had just emerged .amounts in the aggregate of exports and imports to 653,701,000. They from the despotism of England's rule which prevented the establishment will further show that England imported into those countries $88,.620, of manufactures in the Colonies a justification existed, if any could ever {)00; France imported $62,771,000, and that the share of the United exist, for laying duties with a view to protection. We had then no States amounted to only $36,044,000; that even Germany's exports to manufacturing interest of consequence. The antipathies to England tho e countries outstripped o~. were very great, and, together with the great necessity of building up Now, why has England taken from us this trade which is within our our home manufactories, which were in reality in their infancy, the reach? The answer is easy. It is because commerce with England is fathers had strong temptation to advocate protection. free, while that with the United States is shackled and hampered by MADISON'S VIEWS. ()ur accursed tariff system. But, sir, in the first Congress that assembled under the Constitution, AMERICAN CUSTOMS UNION. in 1789, Mr. ~fadison, who has been quoted by some gentleman as favor In order that we might reform this blight on our commerce and secure ing the doctrine of protection defined his position, which is decidedly that market for the surplus of our own workshops and farms I intro antagonistic to every principle of the heresy of modern protection. It .(luced in January last a joint resolution of which the following is a copy: is as follows: Whereas the establishment of free commercial intercourse among the nations In the first place, I own myself the friend to a very free system of commerce, now ~:risti?g upon the continent ?f America will promote the friendly political and J;told i~ ~a tru~h that commercial. s~a.ckles are generally unju t, oppre sive, relatiOns, rnternal commerce and rndnstry, and secure a. more extensive market and 1mpolitic. It 18 also a truth that if rndustry and labor are left to take their tor the surplus products of each of said nations: Therefore, own course they will generally be directed to tho e objects which are the most Resolved by the &na~ and House of Representatives of the United States of productive, and this in a more certain and direct manner than the wisdom of the .A~ in Congress assembled, That the President of the United States be and most enlightened legislature could pointont. Nor do I think the national inter he is ~ereby, ~equ~t-ed to. invite the C?-operation of the governments of the est is more promoted by such restrictions than that the interest of individuals Amencan nat10ns rn securmg the estabhshment of a. commercialleagne by and would be promoted by legislative interference directing the particular applica between the said nations, to be known as the Customs Union of America the tion ofits industry. .arrangement of a. common basis of import duties from othe.r countries than For example, we should find no advantage in saying that every man should those which may compose said league, and that the commercial intercourse be obliged to furnish himself, by his own labor, with those accommodations among the people of all the .American States may be freed from the payment which depend on the mechanic arts, instead of employing his neighbor who of any customs or other dues w~atever; and that a common system of weights could do it for him on better terms. Itwouldbe of no advantage to the shoemaker .and measures may be also establlshed for the purpose of facilitating such inter to make his own clothes t-o save the exp~nse of the tailor's bill, nor of the tailor course. to make his own shoes to save the expense of procuring them from the shoe maker. It would be better policy t-o suffer each of them to employ his talents It will be seen that this joint resolution looks to the establishment in his own way. The case is the same between the exercise oftheartsandagri of a customs union with a common basis of duties as against all other culture-between the city and the country, and between city and town-each capable of making particular articles in abundance to supply the other; thus countries and the establishment of free trade among the nations on this all are benefited by exchange, and the less this exchange is cramped by Gov .continent. Such a proposition is no doubt acceptable to protected ernment the greater are the proportions of benefit to each. The same argu manuf~ct~ers as ~ell as to the advocates of free trade in this country, ment holds good between nation a.nd nation, and between parts of the same for while 1t establishes the same freedom of trade with these coimtries nation. that now exists among our own States, great advantage would flow to Who can doubt if Madison was sitting with us to-day he would not ()ur manufacturers in having an exclusive market protected against com denounce the present system of protection and vot~ to reduce our pro petition from all other countries. Our own manufacturers surely can tective duties? have no fear of competition with manufacturers in the southern coun JEFFERSON'S VIEWS. tries, for they have no manufacturing establishments of any conse The farthest verge in the direction of protection to which Mr. Jef .quence located there. If that market could thus be secured then the ferson ever went, and this was in the infancy of our manufacturing in danger of overproduction would pass away, and every mechanic and dustry, was when he said: farm laborer who is idle to-day would find constant and remunerative .Agriculture, manufactnres, commerce, and navigation are the most thriving when left most free to individual enterprise. Protection from casual embarrass .employment. Thus would the marvelous resources of this continent ments, however, may sometimes be reasonably interposed. be d~veloped and the busy hum of prosperity be heard on every hilltop Jefferson wrote to Mr. Giles in 1825: .and ·m every v_alle! of our laD;d. T~ joint resolution, if adopted, would accomplish for the Amencan natiOn what the customs union or Under the power ·to regulat~ commerce they Zollverein of Germany has accomplished ior the prosperity and trade The Federalists- -of the people of Germany. assume indefinitely that also over agriculture and manufactures, and call it regulation to take the earnings of one of these branches of industry and that. RETALIATION AND DISCRIMINATION AGAIN T AMERICAN COIDIERCE. too, the most depressed, and put them into the pockets of the other, the most flourishing of all. If o~ pr~nt high protective duties are maintained greater evils than JACKSON'S OPPOSITION TO PROTECTION. n_?w exu~t ~ also be produced by increasing the unfriendliness of for Now let us see how Andrew Jackson stood on this question. In his eign countnes toward our trade and commerce. If we continue to ex eighth message, at a time like the present when a large surplus existed dude by our tar~ the products of other lands they will retaliate against us to a greater degree than ever before. Some of them have already in the Treasury, that apostle of Democracy declared: The influence of an accumulating snrplus upon the legislation of the General .commenced the work of retaliation. Germany and France have ex Government and the States, its effects upon the credit system of the country duded our hog product. They have done this on the false pretense producing dangerous extensions and ruinous contractions, fluctuations in ~ 3880 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. M.A_y 6,
price of property, rash speculations, idleness, extravagence, and a deterioration clare themselves in favor of free seas and progre ive free trade throughout the. of morals, have taught us the important lesson that any transient mischief which world. may attend the reduction of our revenue to the wants of the Government is to be borne in preference to an overflowing Treasury. In 1860 both the Douglas and Breckinridge platforms reaffirmed the resolutions of 1856, quoted above. Again he said: In 1872 the Democratic convention (so called) at Baltimore-which The safest and simplest mode of obviating all the difficulties which have been mentioned is to collect only revenue enough to meet the wants of the Govern- · was, in fact, a Greeley, and not a Democratic convention at all-did ment, and let the people keep the balance of their property in their hands to be not adopt any Democratic resolutions, but indon~ed the platform of the used for their own profit. Liberal Republican convention held at Cincinnati, which contained In his farewell address (1837) the Sage of the Hermitage, as his parting the following curious declaration, making the tariff "a local issue: " advice, said: * * * ''We remit the discussion of the subject (protection and free The taxes which it trade) to the people in their Congressional districts and the decision of' The United States- Congress thereon, wholly free from executive interference or dictation.'' lays upon commerce-being con~led from the real payer in the price of the This is the only hiatus in the chain of assertions by the Democratic article, they do not so readily attract the attention of the people as mailer sums party of the doctrine of a tariff for revenue only. It resulted in the demanded from them directly by the tax-gatherer. But the tax imposed on shameful defeat of a candidate supported by the party in defiance alike goods enhances by so much the price of the commodity to the consumer, and as many of these duties are imposed on articles of necessity which are daily ofprinciple and of policy. nsed by the great body of the people, the money raised by these imports is drawn In 1876 the Democratic convention spoke with no uncertain voice: from their pockets. We denounce the present tariff, levied upon nearly four thousand articles., POLK OPPO ED TO PROTECTIOX. as a masterpiece of injustice, inequality, and false pretense. It yields a dwin Mr. Polk is sometimes charged with beingaprotectionist. Read his dling not a yearly rising revenue. It has impovensped many industries to sub sidize a few. It prohibit
favor of a low revenue tariff which closely approximates to free trade." This doctrine of discrimination, as insisted upon by these gentlemen,.. 1871: ''We are in favor of a strictly revenue tariff." 1875: "A tariff when boHed down to its essence, is virtually the same thing. They for the sole purpose of raising revenue." 1876: ''We are in favor of would lay taxes so as to discriminate in favor of those who engage in a tariff for revenue only." 1877: "A tariff for revenue only." and are dependent upon manufacturing. Now, when you discriminate Indiana.-1870: .,, We are in favor of a tariff for revenue only." by laying t-axes in favor of somebody, you must discriminate against Illinois.-1871: "Taxes should be levied solely for the support of somebody. Whom do they want to discriminate against? Why, o! Government." 1878: "Revenue only." 1880: "No tariff for protec course all those who pay such discriminating taxes. And who are tion." they? They are all those who are not so employed. These are the Michigan.-1874: "We demand a tariff for revenue only." 1882: farmers and farm laborers and those in interest with them, who con ''Aggressive revenue reform in the direction of free trade. ' ' stitute a majority of the people as well as every one interested in man Iowa.-1877: "A tariff for revenue only." 1878: "A tariff for reve ufacturing. The law of discrinlination is at their expense, for it causes. nue only." 1883: "A tariff for revenue only." 1884: Saint Louis them to pay higher prices for their manufactured articles than they platform of 1876, and Cincinnati platform of 1880. would pay if they were left free to buy them from those who will sell Minnesota.-1874: "A tariff for revenue only." 1876: "A tariff for them the cheapest. revenue only.'' 1883: '' Revenue only. '' The census of 1880, as I have said before, shows that there were 50,- Wisconsin.-1871: "A tariff fo r revenue only." 1876: "A tariff for 000,000in this land, and that of this vast number only about 1,000,000· revenue only." were engaged in pursuits that were protected by the tariff. Now, sir, Kansas.-1878: "A tariff for revenue only." can it be said that a law so unjust to the vast majority is in the inter Nebraska.-1874: "Atariffforrevenueonly." 1878: " Perfectcom est of the people at large? If it is not, is it constitutional? Is it Dem mercial freedom, wherein we may sell where we can sell the highest and ocratic? Is it just?· Is it honest? I for one answer, no. If such be buy where we can buy the lowest." Democracy, then I have been deluded all my life, for I have always Nevada.-1878: "A tariff for revenue only." been a Democrat and have always entertained the belief that the prin Oregon.-1872: "We are in favor of a tariff to raise money only for ciples of that party taught that legislation should operate for the equal the necessary expenses of the Federal Government. " 1882: "A strict advantage of all and that no enactment should be made exclusively in.: revenue standard.'' the interest of any special class. Californ·ia.-1876: "A tariff for revenue only." But some of these gentlemen assert that this doctrine of discrimi Oolorado.-1878: "Opposition to all monopolies and class legislation." nation was the doctrine of J effe:rson, :Madison, Jackson, and Polk. .lJ.fissou,ri.-1874: ''A tariff for revenue only." 1878: "A tariff for Shades of the great departed! What desecration of their memory revenue only." andpatrioticlaborsamongmen. Sir, thereingentlemenarewrong. The Kentucky.-1876: "A tarifffor revenue only. " cardinal principles taught by those great men in governmental affairs Louisiana.-1876: Saint Louis platform of 1876. was that the greatest good to the greatest number should be the aim of' Arkansas.-1878: ''Revenue alone.'' aU legislation, and when they laid the foundations of this Government Al4bama.-1880: Denounces protective tariff. Favors a" simple rev they made that principle its corner-stone. And now while these gen enue tariff." tlemen advocate the system which spoliates the vast majority of the Tennessee.-1870: " No candidate is worthy of support who is not in people for the benefit of the few, they still claim the right to lead the favor of a low-revenue tariff which closely approximates free trade.'' Democratic party. · 1874: "Solely with a view to collection of the necessary revenue." BAD LEADERSHIP THE ISSUE. Texas.-1882: "A tariff for 1·evenue only." Where will their leadership on that line land us? Will it not be into Thus it will be seen that thirty-two of the thirty-eight States have the camp of the enemy, where class legislation is the quintessence of' declared for a revenue tariff and against protection. the creed and monopoly the object of worship? God deliver us from For many of the quotations from Democratic leaders and State plat such leadership ! forms I am indebted to the advanced sheets of the forthcoming work To-day, sir, the issue will be presented which will test their sincer on Caucuses, Conventions, Platforms, and History of Tariff Legisla ity for reductions of the burdens now lying so heavily upon the peo tion, by General DuncanS. Walker, a son ofthelateRobertJ. Walker, ple. How will they lead us in this contest? Will they stand with us whose labors upon this subject while Secretary of theTreasury and in and resist the assault against reduction which the Republican leaders. the United States Senate distinguished him as one of the ablest of advertise us will be made? Notwithstanding all they have said in American political economists and statesmen. criticism of this bill I hope they will not ally themselves with the The position of the vast majority of the Democratic party on this enemy. I trust their love of Democracy will catise them to scorn the floor is in harmony with the principles announced in the foregoing position of followers of Republican leadership. What will be the· platforms and declarations. issue to-day? It will be the question whether we shall stop the accu PRESENT POSITION OF DlOIOCRATIC PARTY. mulations of the hard earnings of the people which are to become the We do not believe the Constitution has conferred on Congress the prey of subsidy-seekers and jobbru-s, or whether we will go back to the power to lay taxes for any other than for public purposes, that the people and say we failed to reduce your taxes because certain Demo object of all taxes should be revenue, and that when you raise a. tax crats followed the lea.{lership of Republicans and killed with one fell above the revenue point it transcends the constitutional limit; but we blow the only bill upon which we could vote that was presented to us do not believe that ab olnte free trade is practicable while we have a for the purpose of reduction. large public debt and such a long pension-roll, nor do we believe that Let me warn these gentlemen that they are departing from the faith direct taxation is wise or proper, therefore w.e are in favor of most of of the Democratic fathers, the solemn declarations of their party in the revenue being collected by duties on foreign importations, and national and State conventions, on this question. also if the tariff duties can be so adjusted as to aid and encourage our In 1870 that brave, patriotic Democmt of Connecticut--Governor domestic industries without increasing the burdens of the people be English-was elected governor of that State on a State platform which yond what would otherwise be necessary, then to that extent we be declared for ''a tariff for purposes of revenue only. '' That same gallant lieve such incidental protection is admissible, and we believe such a leader of the :pemocracy of Connecticut but a few days ago announced policy wisely· exercised will afford all the protection that any legitimate in unequivocal terms that he was in favor of this bill, which has been industry will require. so bitterly denounced by :1 Democratic member from that State. In 1874 Ingersoll, Democrat, was elected governor of that State on a. POSITION OF REPUBLICAN PARTY. imilar platform. And in 1 76 Hubbard was elected governor by the The position of the Republican party is, as it was de:fin~d in my speech Democracy of Connecticut on a platform of the same character. The delivered in the last Congress, which I will beg leave to repeat:. call for a Democratic convention in that State, which was i ued by the The policy of protection has indeed been favored by the Republican party since its organization, but, a,s I have intimated, its leaders have never been so bold proper authorities about one month ago, shows that the heart of the and open in its advocacy as within thepastfewyears. They formerly concealed Democracy of Connecticut is with those of us who are struggling for their real purpose behind the mask of friendship for American labor, to raise the passage of this bill. revenue and other hypocritical pretenses, but now, obeying the behest of the late conventions of protectionists at Chicago and New York, the more advanced AGITATION THE DUTY OF DEMOCRATS. leaders announce that they are for protection for the sake of protection, and that the protection of labor and the raising of revenues are but incidents to the Those Democrats who oppose this bill sa,y they are oppo ed to the agi main and primary object. For this rea' on we have heard the declaration made tation of this question at this time. They think it unwise while ::.p during this debate that if no tariff was required for revenue at all, still a tariff proaching the Presidential election. When do they expect to agitate for protection pure and simple would be advocated. it? Do they imagine that the position of our party can be concealed THE KTh'D OF DISCRDITIIATIOS WHICH MEANS PROTECTION. by ignoring this issue, and that we can silently lip into the Presidency Some Democrats on this floor from the States of Connecticut, New without discussing the mot vital ic;sueoftheday-an issue uppermost York, New Jersey, Ohio, and California have declared it to be their in the public mind? Sir, we were defeated in 1880 by just such :1 policy purpose to vote against this bill, and while they.deny they are pro as they advocate. Our enemies very cunningly pursued the policy of tectionists, yet they advocate the same doctrine under another term, silence on the prairies of the West and in the localities where they knew which they call discrimination in favor of the manufacturing classes. the majority of the people were plundered by protection. In those Protection is simply a process by which one man is forced to surrender localities they avoided it and endeavored to arouse prejudices ove1· false a portion of his earnings for the enrichment of another. war issues, and when these failed resorted to their last and surest re- 3882- CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. l\1.A.y 6,
liance, the corruption of the ballot-box with money furni bed to a great the roll is called, and he makes a record which Win last as long as the ·extent by the monopolists protected by the tariff which we desire to archives of the Government are preserved. reform. But, sir, in localities where the protected classes were in the majority they forced the fight on the tariff issue and made the people APPENDIX. believe it was about the only issue involved in the election. Sir, silence [Jefferson to Washington, September 9, 1792. Washington's Writings, Volume .and non-action on this question would be unwise, would be suicidal. X , page 518.] But suppose we could conceal our position by holding our tongues, When I embarked in the Government it was with a. determination to inter would it be manly for us to do so? 'Ve all believe that protection for meddle not at all with the legislature, and as litt-le as po sible with my co department . The first and only ins tance of variance from the former part of the sake of protection is unconstitutional; that it is an iniquity; that it my resolution I was duped into by the Secretary of the Tieasury and made a is robbery. tool for forwarding his schemes, not then sufficiently under:>tood by me; and Now, if we are sincere in these professions, will we deserve the con of all the errors of m.y polit ical life this has occasioned me the deepe t regret. * * * If what was actually doing begat uneasiness in tho e who wished for fidence of the people, will we deserve victory, when we cowardly stand virtuous government, what was further proposed was not le s threatening to by and see the people wronged and plundered without any effort on our the friends of the Constitution. For in a report on the subject of manufacture part to change it, and possessing as we do the power in this House to (still to be acted on) it was expressly a um.ed that the Gene ral Government has a right to exerci e all power which may be for the general welfare; that is to reform this great evil, when we go back ,to those who sent us here and say, all the legitimate powers of Government, since no government has a legiti should confess that we did not have the courage to right these wrongs, mate right to do what is not for the welfare of the governed. will they meet us with the gladsome tidings,'' Well done, thou good and There was indeed a sham limitation of t !te universality of this power to cases where money is to be employed? Thus the object of these plans taken together L'l>ithful servant?'' Sir, the pathway of duty lies plainly before us, and is to draw all the powers of Government into the hands of the general Legisla if the party has the courage and integrity to walk in it, as sure as the ture, to establish means for corrupting a sufficient corps in that Legi lature, to sun will rise again it will lead us to victory. divide the hone t voter, and preponderate by their own the scale which suited, and to have that corps under the command of the Secretary of the Treasury for THE GREATEST ISSUE. the purpose of subverting step by step the principles of the Constitution, which Gentlemen ! ignore this issue as you ma.y, this great question will not be bas so often declared to be a thing of nothing, which must be changed. down. It will continue to press to the front until it ab orbs public at [Jefferson to Giles, December 26, 1825.] tention. .All others will pale into insignificance before it. The Dem DEAR Sm.: I wrote you a letter ye terday, of which you will be free to make ocratic party has ever been the champion of the rights of the people, what use you please. ThiS will contain matters not intended for the public eye, I see, as you do, and with the deepest aflliction, the rapid strides with which the .and as its champion it has now a great mission to perform. It is Federal branch of our Government is advancing toward the usurpation of all to emancipate them from the slavery of protection. We can never the rights re. erved to the States, and the con olidation in itself of all powers, gain power by pandering to the protected monopolies. They will have foreign and domestic; and that, too, by constructions which, if legitimate, leave no limits to their power. no eonfidence in any professions we may make. They know the Re Take together the decisiona of the Federal court, the doctrines of the Presi publican party is their best friend. I tell you plainly that one reason dent, and the misconstructions of the constitutional compact acted on by the why I am a Democrat is because I am an enemy to all forms of monopoly. legislature of the Federal branch, and it is but-too evident, that the three ruling branches of that d epartment are in combination to strip their colleague , the If I did not believ~ that my party when in power would reform the great State authorities, of the powers reserved by them, and to exercise themselve~ .abuses occasioned by this infamous tariff system which so grievously all functions, foreign and dome tic. Under the power to regulate commerce .afllicts the people I should be deeply aggrieved. they a ssume indefinitely that also over agriculture and manufactures, and call it regulation to take the earnings of one of these branches of industry,and that The great work of reform can only be accomplished by agitation. It too the most depressed, and put them into the pockets of the other, the most was only after years of agitation that Cobden and Bright and the Eng flourishing of all.-Memoir.~, Correspondence, &c., volume 4, page 431. lish reformers freed England from the bondage of protection and made The Democratic House of Representatives, in 1877, resolved: her the queen of the world's commerce. Agitation will a1so free us That the Committee of Ways and Means be instructed to so revise the tariff from this bondage, and then will we wrest this scepter from England. as to make it purely and solely a tariff for revenue, and not for protecting one With the declaration of political independence our young Republic con class of citizens by plundering another. -quered England on the bloody field of battle and established the greatest Voted for by 60 Democrats and 7 Republicans. Voted against by 12 political power on earth. Now with a declaration of commercial free Democrats and 64 Republicans. December 1, 1877. -dom we shall as surely conquer England in the field of commerce and May 6, 1882.-Mr. MILLS moved in the House of Representatives to supplant the flag of Britain w\th the flag of the Republic in every sea. recommit the bill to the Committee on Ways and Means with instruc But the first great victory must be fought here at home. Scatter the tions to report within thirty days a bill framed in compliance with the eeds of truth; they will take root. Let us marshal our forces on this following instructions: line. 1. That no more money should be collected than is necessary for the wants of the Government economically administered. The enemy will be a powerful one, well organized and well supplied 2. That no duty be imposed on any article above the lowest rate that will with the sinews of war. They will do all that cunning can devise. yield the largest amount of revenue. All that money supplied by monopolist, contractors and office-holders 3. That below such rate discrimination may be made descending in the scale of duties, or for imperative reasons the article may be placed on the list of those -can accomplish. But our quarrel is just, and thus are we thrice armed. free from all duty. With constant agitation we will make known the truth. Let us be 4. That the maximum revenue duty should be imposed on luxuries. -true to ourselves, be true to the people, and they will give us victory. 5. That all specific duties should be abolished and ad valorem dutie sub ti tuted in their place, care being taken to guard against fraudulent invoices and THE TWO PACKED JURIES WIDCH ROBBED Olffi PEOPLE OF THEIB. RIGHTS. undervaluation and to asse the duty upon the actual market value. Twice in the history of this country have the fruits of victory been 6. That the duty should be so impo ed as to operate as equally as po ible throughout the Union, discriminating neither tor nor against any class or sec .snatched from the people by the trickery and j ugglery of packed juries. tion . .One was the so-called electoral tribuna] and the other was the Tariff Voted for by 74 Democrats and voted against by 21 Democrats and Commission. 137 Republicans. The first was when by a quarter of a million of majority the people The foregoing are the principles for revising the tariff suggested by had elected a reform President who threatened a war upon monopoly Robert J. Walker when Secretary of the Treasury in 1845. .and thievery and who would no doubt have relieved the people of the Mr. GIBSON. It is conceded uponallsidesthattherevenuesofthis oppression of monopoly and the pillage of thieving officials. A packed country amount to about $100,000,000 more than the Government has jury was organized to try his title to the Presidency, although it was any need for. As one of the Representatives from my State I am ready as clear and indisputable as any which had ever been held since Wash to cast my vote for a revision and :i. reduction of the tariff rates so as to ington's day. Misguided Democrats fell into the snare spread by the make the amount of taxes collected by the GQvernmentcommensurate .cunning leaders of the Republican party and the right of suffrage was with the demands of the GQvernment. thus most shamelessly and foully stricken down. I am sorry that the bill now pending as prepared is not exactly in Afterward, sir, when under Democratic leadership public sentiment such form as would do justice to my State, nor exactly in the form which had demanded the reform of our unconstitutional and unequal tariff I can support. But like all other legislation before all legislative bodies, -system another packed jury was formed to protect monopoly and thwart it comes here to be acted upon and to be amended according to the wis the will of the people. And again some misguided Democrats fell into dom and the patriotism of the body which acts upon it. To decline the snare spread by the cunning enemies of the people, and the work now to consider it and to amend it is an obstruction in the way of -of reform was suppressed. When the scheme for relegating this ques needed legislation. To take it up and undertake to amend H is to act tion to a commission was presented in 1882 I then denounced it as an in good faith for the perfection of legislation. -evasion of this great living issue. Reference to my speech of April 20. 1 am not willing for one to enter into a coalition with the Republican 1882, will show that I then said : • party of this House to obstruct wise and patriotic legislation by the This dodge to take the issue of tariff reform out of the next election will fail -of its purpose. The people will discover the hollowness of this makeshift, and Democratic majority. I am willing to trust to the patriotism, to the tlley will put your party on trial in the next election for its unfaithfulness and wisdom, and to the honesty, to the good sense, and the good faith of .dereliction of duty in this regard. the friends of this measure, and I have every reason to believe that the The people at that election did put that party on trial, and, as I had Democratic party of this House will endeavor to do exact justice to my predicted, convicted it of dereliction of duty and supplanted it with the State and to all sections. Should they fhll, it will then be time for me pre entDemocraticmajorityin this House. This resultwasmainlydue to condemn their action. My State asks the same protection for her in to the agitation of the tariff issue in the last Congress. Shall we now terests that is given the interests of other States-that and no more. o0bey the will of the people and faithfully discharge the duty for which Upon that platform I am willing to go before the <'ouutry and abide by we were intrusted with power? Let each answer for himself wben their honest and their fair consideration. \ 1884. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 3883
Mr. RANDALL. Ur. Chairman, there is nothing in life so sensitive both parties and from all section supported it. The report of the to ad>erse criticism and which takes alarm so quickly as capital invested commission, embracing the testimony of all who cho e to appear and in large induslrial enterprises. In this connection w~ are reminded of the conclusions on all that had been seen and heard, was submitted to Lord Chatham's celebrated expression, ''Confidence is a plant of slow Congress in December, 1882. That report was fully and ably discussed _growth." Upon it is superimposed a structure involving the welfare until March 3, 1883. A large surplus revenue, looked upon a a cry .of millions of all classes, and to them withdrawal of that confidence ing evil, was then to be got rid of, which, while it was unjust to the means panic, disaster, ruin. Therefore aught that unjustly tends to people to insist upon taxation longer than it was required by the needs ·that end is in legislation not a blunder only, but a crime. of the Government, was also a constant temptation to extrayagant ap While in common with all other interests it is liable to be called upon propriations and every conceivable scheme to deplete the Treasury. Be by taxation to aid in support of the Government, we owe it to ourselves side, there were faults and incongruities to be corrected in the tariff that nothing like a vindictive policy shall be adopted. In the nice laws which experience had shown to exist. And so general was this .adjustment of business affairs there is nothing more conducive to suc feeling that even the Industrial League publicly announced its approval ·Cess than stability. If there be stability it is the sure foundation of of such reforms. ·confidence in the administration of public affairs, and as a natural re- Legislation after all, and especially on economic and business mat ult capital and labor move forward in their r~pective spheres in con ters, is a compromise between conflicting individual views of members tent and accord and with mutual profit. and communities and interests. And, as the best thing that could then To judge from the intemperate language and exaggerated rhetoric be done, Congress passed the act approved March 3, 1 3, to reduce in which have o frequently marked this debate it would seem as if those ternal-revenue taxation, and for other purposes. It was designed to -engaged in industrial pursuits were robbers and outlaws. We know make reductions in the revenue; but exactly how much was one of those .as a lllll>tter of fact they are nothing of the sort, and that it is wicked problems which baffied prophecy. Experience and time alone could as well as unjust vituperation. They are a part, and no mean part, of tell. Yet before the interests affected by the reduction could adjust the business of the country, and under the law have been invited to themselves to the changed conditions a new agitation was set afoot in ·engage in these employments, and therefore, if for no other reason, are this House and, as far as possible, over the country, producing unrest entitled to the protection of law. They are a part of our resources as in every industry and business. The panic was as dangerous and as ..a nation, and to develop those resources is according to the wisest states- hurtful as if there really was to be radical changes, although it has come men the test of true statesman hip. to be understood no result can be reached at this ession of Congress I rejoice in the growth and prosperity of every section of the country, with an adverse Senate and a Repu~lican Executive. knowing fuU well that what helps or hurts one must necessarily have If I wished, I might quote Judge Story's celebrated summary, pub .an effect for good or for evil on the other. Swift, in Gulliver's Travels, lished in Elliott's Debates, of the position assumed and the arguments .says: made in nullification times; and I might recitethe earnest efforts made And he gave it for his opini<>n that whoever would make two ears of corn or in the First Congress by Virginia Representatives to have her mineral two blades of gras to grow where only one grew before would deserve better coal pits protected as well as her hemp and beef, asking e>en in the .of mankind and do more essential service to his country than the whole race of politicians put together. latter case prohibition of the foreign article. It would be cnrious read ing, as it is like so much of the hot debate we have heard on this floor. But if we would believe the wild denunciations of the men who so But I do not like to cause prejudice or bias of a sectional character, or unjustly characterize tho e who are engaged in productive industrial even to seem to do it, and therefore I refrain. pursuits, those who have built up our own manufactures and freed us It is submitted to every member's judgment whether to apply at from dependence upon foreign producers, have committed an unpar once to this bill the heroic remedy, or to let it linger out a sickly ex donablesin. Icanseeagoodreason whyourgreatcompetitor, England, istence, bringing in its wake commercial disaster, business confusion, should think so, but not why such should be the feeling of our own and general bankruptcy. •citizens. The bill reported by the Committee on Ways and 1\Ieans, and now Great Britain has never ceased to deplore the loss of her American Colo under consideration, is a sharp 20 per cent. horizontal cut of existing nies and their remunerative trade. She struck us, as she thought, a schedules of all duties on imported articles embraced therein. It is -deadly blow in the war of 1812, and during our late civil war she did not based on any sound principle. We have had apologies for it but her best to sunder the two ections and to cripple us. Since then she no defense. It is "guessed" it may reduce the surplus revenue likely has changed her policy, and instead of force she resorts to persuasion to be collected in the future, but nobody pretends to speak with cer and ad vice. Her agents everywhere recommend free trade to us. She tainty. . ekes out the lion's skin with that of the fox. It does not escape us, There is no attempt at adjustment. It slices reckless of the injury however, the conditions of the two countries as well as the elements it may do to certain interests and industries or to the revenue. It is like of the two governments are diametrically opposed. A sea-girt island, the fa,mous bed of the old robber, Procrustes: if the man was too small, .she has sought to absorb the commerce and markets of the world, and he was stretched out to its inexorable length; and if too long, he was she has not been scrupulous how she did it. Wherever she could she cut down to fit it exactly. [Applause.] It is an arithmetical tariff; it has seized the controlling points of the great water ways of trade. She is a thing of measurement, and not a wise, well-digested scheme of ad holds with the grip of death Gibraltar to dominate the Mediterranean, justment of duties laid, notonlywithregard to revenue but to the inter .and she controls the Red Sea by occupying Bab-el-Mandeb. So it is and ests of people and Government, which are equally involved. For if ..always has been with her. With all herpreten e of morality, she has there be inequality it is because of unjust adjustment, and a horizontal •COm pelled the hundreds of millions of Chinese to poison themselves with reduction affords no remedy. On the contrary, it makes worse what her opium. was bad before. It is a palpable confession of inability to handle the No, .Mr. Chairman, it will not do, for we remember the warning of the intricate and difficult problems in issue, or else a rash eagerness to do Trojan priest to fear the Greeks even when they brought gifts, and that what was alike uncalled for, unready, unwise, and unfortunate. It Pericles said: appears to be agitation only for the sake of agitation; always a mistake. For he who repents the seldomest of gratifying the wishes of his foes will pass
•.of like products from other countries coming here because of reduced One thing is certain: you will not act without a warning, and it is kindly -duties? It could not, for then the Government would be still richer, meant, but is none the less emphatic, as it springs from serious and while our people, driven out of their own markets, would be impover severe study and deep conviction of its truth. ·ished. If, however, Mr. Chairman, the inexorable logic of events should Free trade never did and never will exist between countries having demonstrate my apprehensions to be groundless, there is no one who will -different governmental institutions and of course existing under differ "be more willing to acknowledge my error and rejoice that my associates ent conditions, because these different conditions vary the cost of pro have been right. But to me it seems inevitable that the action of the duction. It will not be denied that the rate of interest indicates the Ways and Means Committee will fall little short of public condemna ·cost of living, that the cost of living indicates the price of labor, and tion. I tis to be deplored, therefore, that such an ill-advised step should that the price of labor indicates the cost of production. This rule may have been taken, for the triumph of the principles of the Democratic ,sometimes be disturbed by abnormal conditions, such as crop failures, party has been dear to me, and I have sought it steadily and ardently war, or overtrading. The country which has the lower rate of busi in the severe labors in tliis House for now nearly a quarter of a century. ness interest will drive the country having the higher rate of business If disaster shall come, I at least shall have the consolation of know interest out of the world's markets, and eventually out of its· ow:n do ing it was led to defeat by other advice than mine. mestic ma-rkets; it will absorb all its means of paying its debts, in No reactions are more sudden or more complete than where pledges ·cluding all its specie, than which nothing can be worse. have been given to the people and those pledges have been unfulfilled There is no mode of recovery from such disaster save, first, by the after a successful party enters upon power. All history is full of in reduction of the rate of business interest to a par with low-interest coun structive examples. Therefore it is our bounden duty with honorable -tries, or, secondly, by the imposition of such duties on imports as will alacrity to do exactly what we promised. And what did we pledge raise the cost of the foreign article to the cost of the domestic article in ourselves to in the elections of 1883 in Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, -the home market. The first of these remedies must resultindepreciar West Virginia, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania? It is not necessary I tion of all values, and therefore in insolvency, in disemployment, dis should repeat all the platforms of the Democratic conventions of these -content, and general disturbance. The best cure, therefore, is imposi several States. I will content myself with quoting a few of them. tion of duties equal to the protection of American labor, to be repeated North Carolina resolved, July, 1883, in these words: just as often as theorists disregard the lessons of experience in this re We demand such a revision of the tariff as will produce a. revenue sufficient spect. The degree of credit bears relation to the disaster ihflicted, and for the economical support of the Government, with such incidental protection as will give to domestic manufactures a fair competition with those of foreign when the former is large it promotes and increases the latter to the same production. or a greater extent. All the conditions to which I have alluded are Pennsylvania declared: more to our disadvantage in this country than in most of those we trade 4. We favor a ta.rifffor revenue limited to the necessities of the Government, with, and it is therefore clear a greater degree of distress is sure to fol economically administered, and so adjusted in its application as to p revent un low here than elsewhere under these circumstances. equal burdens, encourage productive industries at home, and afford just com We have to-day about 55,000,000 of people, 25,000,000 living by pensation to labor, but not to create or foster monopolies; and to this end we favor the abolition of the internal-re'\'enue system of taxes and sucjl adjustment agriculture, and 30, 000,000 on the earnings of personal property in of the existing tariff duties as will be consistent with these principles. vested in general business or by their daily labor with head and hand, or by all combined. The agriculturists re.ceive high prices for all The Virginia State convention resolved, July, 1883: their farm products, their farms are free frolll debt, and no commercial ill. We favor unconditional and immediate abolition of the internal-revenue system--il. nursery of spies and informers, and menace of the freedom .of elec .embarrassment denies them the necessaries of life. Not as fortunate tions, an intolerable burden on the tax-payers and source of the greatest corrup are the other 30,000,000, and consequently considerate if not more tender tion, and in its practical operation a special burden on this State and our inter to ests. treatment is essential their success so far as our trade and commerce IV. We favor a ta.ri:ff for revenue limited to the necessities of a government, with other nations are concerned. economically administered, and so adjusted in its application as to prevent un Seven thousand millions of personal property are invested in 120,000 eqnal burdens, encourage productive industries at home, and afford just com miles of railroad, three thousand millions in manufactures, as much pensation to labor, and not to create or foster monopolies. more in merchandising, banking, and other employments, all facilitat And so they all declared, repeating one after the other the famous ing exchange between producers and consumers, and all extremely platform of the Ohio Democracy. It was on that ground we made our sensitive to every change of statute and consequent disturbance in trade successful campaigns in nearly every one of those States; and is it not .and commerce. Of this 30,000,000 of people 3,000,000 are engaged in apparent to the least observant the pending bill with its arbitrary manufactures, while as many, or nearly 7,000,000 altogether, are de horizontal cut of 20 per cent. is in direct violation of those pledges? I pendent on them for support. I mention these facts to prove to you shall at whatever cost keep my faith, and in so doing I know I shall how cautious we should be in legislating as is proposed by this bill. seek the highest good of my country by advancing the welfare of its If we are to listen to the counsel and advice given us to abandon the industrious people. Theoretical zealots may contend for impossible heretofore settled policy of the Government in favor of incidental pro doctrines, and madly attempt to control human nature and force it to tection and thus enable the foreigner to glut our markets with the bend its free energies to the caprice of their will, but I know by expe products of ill-paid toil, panic and bankruptcy are certain soon to fol rience how futile in government is mere theory and how valuable is low. Now, would it not be wiser to postpone the consideration of so common sense. I believe in that which has stood the strain of long important a question until after we have passed through the excite practice and has blessed us with beneficence. Nor can I be expected ment of a Presidential struggle, and with better information of what to yield it for something impossible, impracticable, and which comes the lait change of the tariff has accomplished and whatthere is still to recommended to us by those whose interests it is to seek our ruin, that do, await the sober second thought and profounder reflection for the upon it they may build up their own trade, their own manufactures, adoption of a ;real measure of reform which will remain undisturbed and their own prosperity. [Great applause.] for years and which will be safe, steady, and universally aeceptable? I shall append to these remarks the speech I delivered on the Tariff Then the business interests of the country will have tili).e to adaptthem Commission bill. It is as follows: - :Selves to whatever changes may occur. It should be stripped of all l'l!r. RANDALL. :Mr. Chairman, it is my purpose in this debate to be as brief and purpose of the one party or the other to look only to party advantage practical in the expression of my views as possible, preferring, for obvious rea sous, the postponement of all general discussion of details of necessary legisla in securing public patronage as the result of an impending election. tion until the revision of the present ta.rift" shall be directly under consideration. Although this subject ought not to involve any question of party al It is a subject at all times, and in every country, full of difficulty and embarrass legiance or be viewed as a means of party success, it may be well to ment, and yet it is as old as government itself, and has exhausted, as we know, the highest mental efforts of the most celebrated statesmen. Some few points -consider how far its agitation may advance or retard the march to have been settled and accepted generally, but ther, are not many. Hallam, the victory of the great Democratic party. However certain some of my ju tly esteemed constitutional historian, in his 'Europe During the l'l!iddle political associates may feel of carrying every Southern State, those Ages/' lays down thi axiom, which our experience as a people justifie and whicn will not be disputed : .alone are inadequate to success. And which of the Northern States "It is difficult to name a limit beyond which taxes will not be borne without is likely to accept the new dispensation? I am fully coll8cious I should impatience when they appear to be called for by necessity and faithfully applied; :Speak plainly and utter my fears even in the presence of our political nor is it impracticable for a skillful minister to deceive the people in both these respects. But the sting of taxation is wastefulness. What high-spirited man opponents. could see without indignation the earnings of his labor, yielded ungrudgingly to Take the four_ great States of Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, the public defense, become the spoil of parasites and peculators? !tis this that .and Pennsylvania. The census shows that more than 1,100,000 per- mortifies the liberal hand of public spint; and those statesmen who deem the security of government to depend not on laws and armie , but on the moral . .sons are engaged in manufactures in these four great CommonweaJths. sympathies and prejudice of the people, will vigilantly guard against even the The election returns show that the Democratic votes in those States are suspicion of prodigality.' but little in excess of that number. Do gentlemen believe depriva It is equally true that exces ive taxation, even when it is ucce sful in secur ing excessive revenue, is ultimately destructive of the sources of labor from tion of employment or reduction of wages is a potent factor in win which it is drawn; while at the same time it engenders ext:-avagance, corrup ning the support of these people, and especially when the Republican tion, and decay. For when the Government. sets the example of extravagance, -organization, aroused by Republican orators, backed by a powerful it is soon followed in every walk of life, and one does not need to be a prophet to foretell the general ruin which must inevitably result. Frugality and econ ;press, sustained by ample me&nS, will thunder in their ears by day and omy ne'\'er destroyed any government, while they have built up the mo t pow by night the too plausible charge that the Democratic party has been erful empires the world ha ever witnessed. the main cause of their distress? So much for general statement. Revenue laws have been a subject of discus sion, agitation, and anxiety from the earliest days of our political history. In I beg you to ponder the e things and not lightly dismiss them from deed, Sabine, in his" Loyalist of the American Revolution," states positi'\'ely _your minds. Let them prompt your action to-day and all will be well. his coL.victious after careful tudy of documentary history and state pape~ that 3886 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. MAY 6, they '' teaeh nothing more clearly than this, namely, that almo t every matter book accounts, there is no reason why the payment of our bonds in excess of the brought into discussion was practical, and in some form or other related to la legal requirements of the sinking fund should not equitably be credited, thus bor, to some branch of common industry." He states further on there were no protecting us against a deficiency in the event that the internal taxes are largely less than twenty-nine laws which restricted and bound down colonial industry. reduced or altogether abolished. The manner of raising the necessary revenue for the support of the Govern The amount which is required by law to be plaeed tothecreditofthe sinking ment has been, as I have said, at all times in the United States the cause of irri fund for the year ending June 30,1883, is $45,122,110.80. By rea on of the pay tation to the people. A.nd we need not be surprised at t.his, when we consider ments already made there is, therefore, due only an equitable balance of $4,698,- the vast extent of our domain, and the almost endless diversity of productions 410.80 to be credited to sinking fund for year 1883, with period of time from July of the soil, and of manufacturers, and every other bra nch of human industry. 1,1882, to June 30, 1883-an entire year. The existing overflowing Treasury brings a demand for reduction of the tariff In my opinion $75,000,000 of payment on account of current pensions and ar and internal-revenue taxes. In my opinion, in such a condition of our finances rears is as much ea
' 1884. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-. HOUSE. 3~87
creating monopolies; and we favor the appointment of a coin.D;lission t-o suggest The Democratic convention of 1864., at Saint Louis, on August 29, passed no a method of revision which shall accomplish this result." tariff resolution. Let me quote from one whose views are accepted by those who claim reform The Democratic platform of 1868, in New York city, has the following resolu in the direction of free trade, as they are set forth in the North American Re tion: view ofDecember, 1881, in an elaborate article by l\1r. David A. Wells. After "And a tariff for revenue upon foreign imports and such equal taxation under discussing fully the subject of " Reform in Federal T axation," he says : the internal-revenue laws as will afford incidental protection to domestic manu "What, then, is to be done? There is but one answer. There must, or ought factures, and as will, withont impairing the revenue, impose the least burden to be, a compromise, on the basis of patriotism and common sense, of all antag upon and best promote and encourage the great industrial interests of the onizing interests in furtherance of a reform which has become imperative; and country.'' such a compromise is practicable by all parties agreeing to urge upon Congress The national Democratic convention of Baltimore, July 9, 1872, resolved as to do at its next session those things only in respect to which a majority of all follows: parties may agree should be done. At first thought such a proposition may "We demand a system of Federal taxation which shall not unnecessarily in seem absurd and impracticable, but a little reflection will soon convince to the terfere with the industry of the people, and which shall provide the means nec contrary. In the first place, no one is likely to object to the appointment of a essary to pay the expenses of theGovernment, economically administered; the commission to investigate and report on the whole subject of Federal tax re pensions, the interest on the public debt, and a moderate reduction annually of form, although Congress,judging from all precedents, is not likely to be much the principal thereof; and recognizing that there are in our midst honest but influenced by any report or recommendations which such commission may irreconcilable differences of opinion with regard to the respective systems of make, unless public attention has in the mean time become largely interested protection and free trade. we remit the discussion of the liUbject to the people of in its work and recommendations." their Congressional districts and to the decision oftheCongress thereon wholly The public attention to which Mr. Wells alludes has already been very fully free from Executive interference or dictation." called to this subject, and to an extent which he himself did not expect when he The Saint Louis convention of 1876 declared as follows: penned that article. • "Reform is necessary in the sum and mode of Federal taxation, to the end The Senate has shown at this session an indisposition to respond to any effort that capital may be set freE';, from distrust and labor lightly burdened. which might haye been made in this House, for it has anticipated the House in "We denounce the present tariff levied upon nearly 4,000 articles as a. monster the creation of a tariff commission by an overwhelming vote. It has been fre piece of injustice, inequality, and false pretense. It yields a dwindling, not a quently charged in this debate that the object of this bill was delay. There is yearly rising revenue; it bas impoverished many industries to subsidize a few; no justification, in my opinion, for such an assertion. Its inevitable tendency it prohibits imports that might purchase the products of American labor; it has and effect must be in the nature of things to hasten a thorough anq speedy final degraded American commerce from the first to an inferior rank on the high seas; adjustment of all questions in dispute as to tariff amendment and reform. When it has cut down the sales of American manufactures at home and abroad and the ground of a / 3888 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. MAY 6, .11.ppall the members of this House. Let the overburdened and groaning I address. He was peaking of a theme upon which the very stones .record muddle the curious in>estigator, but let it be ours to speak could be eloquent; but he was talking in advance of his time. His simple ense to sensible people. speech may have been the language of a prophet, but it certainly was I want within the few minutes allowed me toaddressacommon-sen e not the sound judgment of a statesman. He was speaking of the time .argument to the gre.,;1.t American Commons as to why I, a member of when the entire world, advanced to a higher civilization, will have .the Democratic party, vote against this measure. given in its adherence to the brotherhood of man. But, unfortunately, There are three schools of thought on this question. There is the we have not arrived at that glorious period of cosmopolitanism. We protectionist, who advocates ofprotection for its own sake, and would arestillstrugglingin thedaysofnationalism. Thepolicyofthenations acknowledge no limitation as to amount from any constitutional view. of the earth is against cosmopolitanism and in favor of upholding their No Democrat who has learned his creed aright can be found upholding own industries and their own people to the exclusion of all others with -.such constitutional construction. After him, on the opposite extreme, whom they are either unwilling or unable to compete. comes the free-trader, crying either revolution or reform, as may best I do not wonder that the gentleman gave vent to a burst of eloquence .suit his convenience and subservehis end. He maybe constitutional, when he spoke of that glorious epoch to which he looks forward when but he is impracticable, un-American, visionary, and dangerous. He he said that the whispering waves that break upon the sands of the .advances to the music of our chief commercial competitor and wins seashore speak freedom-when he told us that the winds that whistle his triumphs to thestirring notes of "Rule Britannia." He is cosmo- around the eaves of the farmer's dwelling in the West speak freedom. politan; talks of the brotherhood of man, the fraternity of races, the Sir, nature proclaims peace and harmony, but unfortunately sin has .coalescing of all creeds, and addresses himself to a millennium of uni- plantea discord and strife. ·versal peace and catholic freedom. His soul pants, and not in vain, The advance of humanity to complete accord with the teachings of .for the martyr's crown, while he contemns the victor's sword. He is the evangels and the lessons of nature has been slow but sure. Over the for this bill as a feeble step toward his great goal. wastes and moors of degradation and poverty, up the flinty paths of suf- I admire him when honest and hate him when masked, but pity him fering and martyrdom, besprinkled with blood, humanity has toiled always. It has been said that truth is sometimes found at the bottom through weary centuries of wrong and crime. It has not yet reached ..()fa well. Certainly here it is found on the solid rock of self-evident the universal brotherhood of which the gentleman from Ohio· speaks. truth, between the shifting sands that constitute the promontories of .Mutual charity and reciprocal kindnessmustprecedesuch catltolicfra error. On this momentous question, founded upon the life-long teach- ternity. While one nation goes armed, universal pea.ce is impossible. rings of the immortal Jefferson and the heroic Ja.ckson and a great gal- National selfi.shnt-.ss compels national protection. The unholy caste of axy of illustrious Democratic statesmen, it found a voice in the much- monarchy puts up barriers against complete social and mercantile in -criticised Ohio platform, and was re-echoed in New Jersey, Virginia, tercourse with the free people of a republic. Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. Sir, we are practical men; and we are compelled to deal inpraetical In brief, it took the middle and constitutional Democratic grounds. times with a practical question. I tell the gentleman from Ohio, in the Itdemandedarevenuetariffasprescribed bytheConstitution, butrecog- light of every-day facts, that the people of the United States are not .nized and witnessed for the protecti-ve feature within the revenue line. prepared to adopt his theories, and that free trade can not yet be ac It demanded a discrimination and honest revision in the interest of eomplished in this land by the voice of the American people. I, sir, labor alone, and cried out between every line, "From the horrorsofhori- am candid enough to confess in connection with what has been said by .zontal humbnggery good Lord deliver us!" It asked for the abolition the illustrious statesman from Pennsylvania [.M:r. RANDALL] that I .of the internal-revenue war taxes of which on another occasion I have am jealous of English influence, whether it is in the market or in the spoken in this House. It deprecated free trade, scourged unconstitu- field or in the forum, in the social circle or the political Congress. ·tional protection, and demande~ careful revision to put down monopo- And, sir, I am reminded that in another nation dominated by British lies. It is opposed to this bill, which, having free trade for a beacon, power, which forced its trade upon those downtrodden people, com =Bwings its remorseless scythe to horizontally reduce, without regard to pelling them to accept a debased currency and forbidding them to ex .gize, shape, or condition; which pierces the heart of the struggling in- port anything and compelling them to buy everything English- a great dustry and barely touches the towering locks of giant monopoly; which man arose in the majesty of his genius (I allude to Dean Swift) and in inaugurates a ruinous agitation while impotent to aooomplish the slight- ad vising his countrymen to ostracize in the markets of the world British est result. Sir, in the course of events we will outgrow unnecessary influence, gave vent to this memorable sentence: '' 1\Iy fellow-country imposts, and in the mean time our tariffs must be founded on the dif- men, I would burn everything English except English coal." And ierences in wages, the bettering of the condition of labor, and the up- I know, sir, that there are millions of American citizens in this land holding of home markets for our agricultural products. I do not be- who are as jealous of that influence as I am, and who would voice the J.ieve this country is solely great by reason of tariffs, but I much fear sentiments which I do here to-day, could they be heard on the floor of .she would not be so strong but for restrictive imposts. this House. I love the noble and historic party to which I belong because I love We have been told, sir, that this bill is a step toward free trade, and my country, and I am convinced my country would be happier and a panacea for the evils which this land is suffering. I do not be more free, more dignified, and more honestly conducted under its rule. lieve, and I have not been convinced, that this land is suffering alone This great and constitutional party has ever-living issues in the nicely from the evils of overprotection. When I look around and see the suf .adj usted balances of our Federal system; in upholding the rights and fering millions of this land ground down by railroad monopolies, tel dignity of the individual citizen, maintaining his freedom, and securing egraphmonopolies, imported pauper labor, extravagant and centralized his happiness; in curbing monopoly and restricting government; in · government, and by iniquitous land laws, I am unwilling to concede forever defending home rule and the proper sovereignty of the States; that overprotection is the only evil and the only bane from which the in reforming the Government and purifYing its branches; in a word, American people are suffering. keeping alive by precept and practice grand, yet simple, constitutional Seeing the zealous conduct of members here in advocating this meas .democracy ! It must not be allowed to chase an ignis jatttus in the de- ure to the exclusion of every other method of redress for the evils lusive hope of victory upon the platform of a chimera of the brain. Its against which the people are crying, one would almost be led to believe .platform must not be built upon the tracts of Cobden and the selfish this to be the sum of all iniquities and the only disease of the body arguments made to order in Birmingham and Manchester. The free- politic. trade enthusiast is ever turning to England as the Mecca of his hopes. Why do not members of this House address themselves to other prac For six hundred years they say England groveled and groaned under tical reforms? When millions of free lands of the United States are the protective system, and only became "roast-beef, merry England" being taken up by the acreocracy of Europe; when that public domain qrnder free trade. . which is the foundation of our prosperity and the only hope for the per- Sir, there is a crushing and demonstrative answer to this-an answer petuity of this Republic is being taken up by foreign syndicates; when which appeals to the eye and needs no sophistry of argument to render it is the duty of this House to pass a law that shall stop the London, it more effective. If England under free trade is happy, merry, pros- the Scotch, and the other European companies from taking up the perous England, then, sir, account to me if yon can for the long train of lands that belong to free Americans; when it is our duty to take back -emigrant ships that under her free-trade flag disembark annually their and make part of the public domain that immense acreage which be thousands of poverty-stricken emigrants on our shores. Account to longs to the American people, but which has been robbed from them me, if you can, for the pathways of hlllilan bones ofher famine-stricken by railroad corporations; when there are such things to be done for the 'Subjects thatcoverthe bedoftheAtlantic, whose souls took :flightfrom laboring people; when bureaus are to be established; when labor is to their hunger-blighted tenements ere they could reach our tariff-pro- be educated by correct figures and statistics; when conspiracy laws are iected shores. to be repealed; when centralization is to be checked and Government Sir, I say this without prejudice, and I trust I am too sensible and reformed; when labor and capital are to be harmonized on just princi patriotic, were I even now convinced that this was a reciprocity of pies; when commerce between the States is to be regulated in tb.einter ·benefi.t to her and u , to advocate the absurd policy of the boy who est of the merchant and farmer; when a thousand evils t!re crying with went without his dinner to spite his schoolmaster. But as yet I do a million tongues at the doors of this House, the only answer they can not see such reciprocity. get is that there is but one evil from which we sn:ffer, and that is the I listened with great pleasure to the gentleman from Ohio [1\Ir. protective tariff. HlJRD], admired his eloquence, and was struck with his zeal. But, Millions are watching our course as to the public lands for the hun- ir, I can not coincide in his judgment. He did not make a practical dreds who are-interested in radical tariff agitation. Free land for free 1884. OONGRESSIONl\.L RECORD- HOUSE. 3889 men is more than free trade for men who can not buy and have not any the indiscriminate fury of Herod, for it not only slaughters the inno thing to sell. From the quaking castles of feudalism in Europe the bogus cents of 2 years and under, but it lays its murdering hand upon all in lords and masquerading marquises are hurrying to erect their robber dustries, young or old, alike. holds on the free prairies of the West. If these invasions are not Sir, the first petition considered by the First Congress under the Con checked the American freeman farmer, noble, manly, and self-reliant, stitution ofthe United States came upfromthecityofBaltimore, from will soon give way to the cringing tenant of a transplanted lord. The mechanics and tradesmen, seven hundred strong, in favor of pro independent and intelligent freeholder is the hope of the Republic, and tection of American industry. The workingmen of that day at least the Republic is founded upon a free soil, not shadowed by feudalism believed that a judicious tariff was what it was afterward declared to and not blighted by monopoly. The public domain is ~he heritage of be by General Jackson when he took the Southern heresy by the throat, our people; and no people can be happy; free, and prosperous who are a wise measure for the fostering of home industry. not strongly intrenched on the soil thay till. That petition was in strict consonance with the growth and develop Sir, the action of these gentlemen reminds me of a false diagnosis of mentor those institutional ideas of which the Constitution was the em a physical disease. The patient comes to the physician suffering many bodied expression. The first petition brought before the confederate evils, and he diagnoses the case .simply .to please a hob~y or in the congress on this subject, if any such there was, must, in the nature of light of a specialty, and he offers him a umversal panacea mth the same things, have been the direct opposite. It must have recited in ac effrontery and audacity that a quack vender of nostrums peddles his cordance with section 8 of the constitution of that government that a wares to the sound of a drum and an absurd eloquence. tariff for the protection of any branch of industry was an economic I have heard it said by members of this Honse that they have edu error, a philosophical fallacy, and an enormous commercial blunder. cated their districts, that they have gone to Republican districts and There is a reason and a deep one for this. The United States Gov planted this sentiment of truth and justice, as they call it. I tell ernment was formed in part for the creation, extension, and promotion them, sir, to-day, but I hope I am a false prophet, that the crop which of manufactures. The Confederate States Government was formed for they planted in the fall, when they were elected on free-trade princi the purpose of stimulating and encouraging agriculture. Its labor was ples, was seed sown upon thin soil, and thatwhen thestormshall beat slave, and no other form of development was possible. For this they upon it, when the scorching sun of this summer and the fatal frost of went to war-not for slavery, but for free trade. The thinkers, the next November shall blight it, they will find they have made a great great men of the South, the seers of the people, reveled in the vision mistake. They have diverted the patient with the novelty of the rem of a commercial alliance with England, of which the basis was to be edy, but they have not eradicated the disease from which he suffers. unlimited cotton and cheap manufactures. That is the vision of the I perceive by the clock my time is limited. I wish to say, so far as free-traders of to-day. It is not20 percent. off to-day, 10 per cent. to we of the Democratic party who are opposed to this bill are concerned, morrow; it is not merely to get rid of war taxes, but war-tariff taxes; that we have no hesitation here to-day. We believe we are doing our which means, if I understand it, the tariff itself. duty to our country and to our people. We believe that we are advo There is no use trying to disguise or dodge the issue. It is protection cating the cause of eternal truth and justice. We believe we are up on the one hand and free trade on the other. Every sentiment which holding the dignity of American labor, making stronger the Republic, has been applauded on this side of the House is a free-trade sentiment. and perpetuating a great and historic party. The more extreme, the louder the applause. '' Down with the walls and I know we will not be applauded in this hour of passion. I want no outtotheseas!" cries an enthusiastic disciple ofthis doctrine which is to applause ·from that side of the Chamber. I do not court Republican give a new force to a national pace already tremendous. "Do not be smiles, but I wish to say, as a noble Virginian said when Cornwallis content with the coping or a layer or two of stone underneath. Away surrendered and the American Army, with bad taste, gave vent to with a horizontal cut; .down with the wall, the whole wall, foundation cheers-I wish to say with the noble Virginian George Washington, who and all! '' cries that impetuous son of Ohio, and thunders of applause raised his hand in a deprecating attitude and said: ·"My countrymen, roll out the sentiment to the country. It is not reduction of duties do not cheer; let posterity cheer." [Applause.] When the passions of that you are after. The title to your bill is a sham; it is free trade and this hour shall have subsided, when reason resumes her sway, the Dem internal taxation. ~crats who vote against this bill will look with confidence for vindication There have been times, Mr. Chairman, since I became a member of from their countrymen and for the approbation of their party. this body when I was inclined to think that the record of its proceed [Here the hammer fell.] ings as published was a mistake, on account of the opportunity it of Mr. :MORRISON. I will yield ten minutes of my time to the gen fered for printing the views of gentlemen-the only genuine raw ma tleman from Maryland [Mr. FINDLAY.] terial that I know of--at the public expense, and thereby promoting 1\fr. FINDLAY. Mr. Chairman, it is a familiar experience in boat that active elocution which has been wittily described as the natural racing to take a man's water, but as this is in the open course of com state of the average American. I have seen cause, however, to revise petition it passes without comment or objection. Here in the House this judgment, and now regard the RECORD as a friendly conductor to we reverse the process, and take a man's wind with his permission and take the sting, as it were, out of the tail of the storm, and thus emas use it against him. culated to permit it to rumble aE.d lighten overhead in intermittent I would much rather have spoken in my own time than to be under thunder and harmless heat lightning. eeming obligations for courtesy which I am forced to use against the Why, sir, imagine all this spontaneous eloquence in manuscript, all gentleman granting it. It seems an impoliteand an ungenerous thing this indignant passion on paper, all this fresh sympathy for the suffer to get ten minutes and then use them in trying to defeat a measure which ing masses, gushing from the perennial fountain of Maynard's ink, and the gentleman who has yielded the time has so much at heart. no outlet for it. Who· could picture the consequences of such enforced But I am against his bill in principle and details. It is to me like congestion? Who could measure the loss of a generous constituency Dr. Johnson's mutton, ill-fed, ill-cooked, and ill-dressed. Whether it or a humbugged public? Let us have the RECORD by all means. It .shall be ill-killed or not depends upon the vote we are about to take. is nature's safety-valve, a crater for pent-up volcanoes, a national boil It is entitled "A bill to reduce import duties and war-tariff taxes." or ulcer, by which when the flow is freest we may gather, upon the ·was it not enough-would not the title of the bill have discharged any soundest principles of pathology, that there is something wrong in the proper function belonging to it if it had stopped with the reduction of system. Ubi flu.-c-us, {bi irritatio. duties? Why "war-tariff taxes?" Ls this an appeal to the anti-war The bill before the committee, :Mr. Chairman, is entitled ''A bill to .sentiment? Is this the reverse side of the bloody shirt? Ls it your de reduce import duties and war-tariff taxes.'' I voted against its con .sign to stir up enmity against the tariff not only upon principles of free sideration, and it is my present purpose to present in as brief and com trade, but by appealing to the memories of the war in that quarter pad form as possible the reasons of a public character which induced where they are coupled with a sense of oppression and defeat? Let me to give that vote. I had other reasons of another character which· your bill stand upon its true basis; let it fly its true colors. it would be improper ·on this occasion to bring into the discussion. You denounce the gentleman from Connecticut, who was carrying the I have always regarded the tariff as the debatable ground of political banner of Democracy before the most of you were born, because he insti economists and not of politicians. The deep questions which lie im tuted an argumentative comparison between the Constitution of the bedded far beneath the surface of this subject are to be brought to the United States and the Confederate States. You said that it was not fair light by some prospecting apparatus of long reach and persistence like to appeal to prejudice in a discussion of this kind. I did not understand the diamond-drill. The ordinary Congressional probe will not answer. him as appealing to it. But your bill in its very title is an appeal to I do not believe that it is a local question or that it should be remitted prejudicefromanotherquarter. It is as much as to say, "Men of the to each Congressional district for settlement, as at least one Democratic South, here is an t>pportunity; abolish this war tax; get rid of this relic platform declared, but I believe that the question is national in its of conquest and subjugation; get back to that tariff which took effect scope, and as such should be determined by this House upon considera just previous to the actual outbreak of hostilities." Whether this was tion as purelynon-partisan as a shipping bill, a bankrupt bill, or a bill the motive or not, the South, with some few notable exceptions, has regulating interstate commerce. to a. man seconded every attempt from the organization of this House to Approaching its consideration from this standpoint, the first observa the present time to wage war upon the tariff, and is now almost a unit tion I have to make is that certainty is the essential and fundamental in favor of this bill. idea of all law. No man has any difficulty in colifonrung to the re I am against the title of the bill. It is a bill to get rid of war taxes, quirements of the physical world, because they are certain and uniform and at the same time proclaims a principle of eternal war against in their operation. Hemaynolate them if he sees fit to take the con American mechanics and manufacturers. It smit·es with more than sequences; but he knows with absolute certainty that those conse- XV-244 3890 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. MAY 6, quences will follow, and that there is no possible escape. The sun urdities of the present tariff by a single stroke of the pen, on the has risen in his appointed place without the deviation of a millionth principles of free trade, moderated and chastened by the Republican of an inch; the seasons have succeeded each other in regular order, and standard of protection in 1861? the whole economy of nature has been conducted from the beginning, Who shall say that we do not with a single leap go far beyond those like the ongoings of the Almighty Himself, without "variableness or degenerate prophets of England and Germany when we accomplish all shadow of turning.'' this by the simple contrivance of trimming all the trees in t·his orchard The laws which we make for ourselves, however, necessarily partake the same length without regard to whether they are big or little, young of human infirmity, and will be more or less distinguished by fickle or old, or whether they require or can stand any trimming at all? I ness or caprice, as that infirmity is excessively or moderately developed. use a figure which implies that the reforming hand is applied to en The moral economy, too, is continually changing, while the physical courage and stimulate, and not to check and dwarf, this growth. The remains comparatively stationary, and this constant fluctuation requires pruning-knife is put in here, not to kill the trees, but to develop them corresponding changes in the laws. It is impossible, therefore, that into more vigorous shoots, yielding a larger and more generous frni tage. any law of human devising should attain to that degree of certainty Is not the horizontal process a somewhat singular one to accompli h this and stability which distinguishes the operation of natural law, and result? If encouragement is really what is meant, is it not patent to very wisely too, since if it were not so bad and foolish legislation the dullest observation that the depleting process which may add new might be difficult of modification or repeal. But while this is true, it life and vigor to one will kill another? is also true that uncertainty in the laws as well as in everything else But, sir, thisisnotwhatis meant. The avowed object is not encour is the mother of confusion and disorder. This is specially true of any agement but obstruction. The charge is that these sources of revenue are law which affects the people in their business, commer£ial and indus drains upon the prosperity of the people, and that this bill of pains and trial, relations with other nations and among themselves. penalties is only a step in the right direction. That. means, if it mean There are about eleven hundred items entering into the daily use and anything, that a tariff is not the proper mode of raising the national rev consumption of the people which are made the subjects of tariff changes. enue; that the true principle regulating the commercial relations of the The most of these items represent articles of manufacture or growth modern world is the frees~ interchange of commodities, and that any which are made or produced at home, passing through a process of dis burden or restriction upon this intercourse by the levy of the impost tribution more or less complex before they reach the consumer, and duty is a mistake, and a barbarous relic of a crude and exploded system most, if not all, coming into competition with similar articles made or of taxation. produced in other countries. The tariff is thus directly connected with This bill, which is the "step," and the" right direction" which is to the importers, the manufacturers, the laboring classes, the transporta follow, if it means anything, means that the internal revenue is to tion agencies, the middle-men, and the consumers of the country, and succeed the external as the fixed, steady, and permanent source of sup in fact there is no law upon our statute-book that affects so many and ply for the Federal Government. Thisisdenied, !know, bytho ewho so vast interests and with which it is so difficult and dangerous to choose to call themselves revenue reformers, as distinguished from free meddle. traders, but every one at all familiar with the history of political Such being the general necessity for stability in legislation, and such changes knows that the moderate men of a party are invariably dragged the special necessityfor it in the case of the tariff, I was unwilling to up to the plane occupied by its more extreme members. Revenue re disturb a status scarce ten months old. It seemed to me that one of form, if by that is meant mere reduction in the revenue, is a meaning all the infant industries which stood most in need of protection, and I less cry. That can be accomplished by reducing the internal as well was not willing to change the legislative bases of industry and com as the external revenue. merce as I change my clothes, with the recurrence of the season. I do The free-trade clubs, the doctrinaires and hobby riders, the men of not believe that any law which concerns so many interests ought to be enthusiasm and convictions, the radicals, in a word, in the party only changed except upon the gravest considerations, and when change is re look upon this bill as a short step in the direction of the true goal, solved upon it ought to be carried out in pursuance of a system, con which with them is free trade. There are men to-day protesting that ceived and executed upon the ba is of large and permanent results. they are not free-traders who in a very few years will be compelled to This brings me to my second objection l<> this bill. Its distinguish atone for their early shortcomings by a more daring ad>ocacy of the ing feature is what is known as the horizontal cut, by which the ex cause than even its leaders will now attempt. crescences of a system confessedly overgrown and abnormal as well as Consider for a moment the principle, if principle there be, under]y the healthy parts are to be lopped off by a uniform rule of excision, ing this bill · Opinion upon the tariff seems to shade off into three dis applicable to all alike. This has been fixed at 20 per cent., not because tinct and well-defined classifications. There are those who believe in that sum bears any relation to the reduction which any particular item protection for protection's sake; there are tho e who believe in such in the schedules can stand, but because the net result of the reduction protection as may be incident to the raising of revenue by such a dis in the aggregate, as estimated, calculated upon this rate per cent., will crimination in the levying oftne impost duty as will encourage domestic amount to about such a sum as may be safely abated from our redun manufuctures; and there are those who believe in a tariff for revenue dant revenue. In other words, this revenue can be safely reduced, say, only, to be established without regard to protective discrimination. thirty to thirty-fiye millions; and treating the problem simply as an In what class do the supporters of this bill fall? Apparently in arithmetical one, the majority of the Committee on Ways and Means neither. They deny the right to protect for protection's sake. They find that 20 per cent. off will give the required result. They have affirm the same policy when they lop off protective duties at the same coolly marked down the whole list at a certain rate per cent., and have rate through the whole list of dutiable articles, and yet they can not made the laborious and remarkable discovery that this per cent. re be classed with the "revenue only" disciples, because by a singular duction will diminish the totality of revenue to a certain figure. Per contradiction their project rests upon the high protective tariff of 1861. haps I should be nearer the truth if I said that they arrived at this The result of this curious jumble puts them in favor of substantial pro result not by a process of their own, but by a deduction accomplished tection and yet against it, in favor of incidental protection and yet by an expert in the Treasury Department. against it, in favor of a tariff for revenue only and yet in favor of the The work of the majority of this committee was simply to resolve Morrill tariff, which had protection in its eye quite a much as revenue. that they would take off 20 per cent., with a limitation that the rate This I say is their apparent position, but when we come to examine should not fall below the basis established by the Morrill tariff, and it a little more closely we find that it is not their actual one, but that then the expert came in and showed by comparative tables what in underlying these apparent inconsistencies there is a specific, defiui te pur detail upon each article or group and what the aggregate in general of pose that gives method to their madness. This bill ta.kes off 20 per cent. ; such reduction would amount to. bnt, like faith, it is declared to be the substance of things hoped for and But, sir, a bill is to be denounced not simply because it is upon its the evidence of things not seen. It is to be followed up at the next ses face a lazy bill. Sir Isaac Newton wa.'3 not very busily engaged when, sion-I will not say the next Congress, for that is a materialization of according to tradition, the apple fell, which, unlike that other apple faith I would not be bold enough to attempt-with still other and fur that brought chaos and confusion into the world, started the imagina ther reductions upon the horizontal plan, which of itself is an irrecog tion of the philosopher into a conception of the universal law of order. nition of the principle of protection, and which, then as now, will be a The fact is, if tradition is to be believed, this profound mathematician necessary sop to be thrown to the free-trade Cerberus. Wher6 is this was flat of his back, enjoying perhaps his after-dinner repose beneath course to end? It must end in the comple'te abolition of the tarift~ ex the shade of the tree, when he received that shock which, like that fired cept possibly upon such articles as are not. produced in this country. at Lexington, was heard round the world. Even Enghi.nd, which in these modern days has become the great ex The genius of intuition is not confined to physics. It is not to the emplar and model for American statesmanship, raises; I believe, in the philosophers alone that such brilliant strokes occur. The statesman, neighborhood of a hundred millions by~er tariff; so that as long as we too, has his rapt moments of high intellectual frenzy when he feels are under the influence of this example her admirers here would not de the future in the instant and sweeps from the zenith to the nadir. So clare for absolute free trade. But the protective feature of the tariff Beaconsfield was stirred by the impulse of immortality when he forged would be gone, and it is against that feature that the free-trader makes the Egyptian link in the British chain of commercial supremacy. So open war, and ~aainst which the revenue reformer will be forced by Bismarck's lofty soul caught the first dawnings of the Germanic Empire. sheer party momentum to declare equally pronounced hostility or drop And who shall say that we lag in the rear of these comprehensive in out of the ranks. There is a difference in degree merely between ab tuitions, when we can point to a Democratic Committee of Ways and solute and incidental protection, and the men who oppose the one must Means rectifying the inequalities, iniquities, contradictions, and ab- logically in time oppose the other. 1884. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- HOUSE. 3891 We have reached 1:1> period, therefore, in the his lory of this Govern- Ieven a lawyer to understand, by which the tax io:: laid and collected? ment when we are forced to elect between the two great systems of I will say nothing of its being a tax upon the products of the soil. So taxation the external and the internal, for revenue we must have from on corn and barley. Let that pass. But I speak ofa system which per some qnit.rter, and quite a handsome sum, too, for some time to come. mits a man to be dragged hundreds of miles aw.n.y from his home and, in The latest calculations made at the Treasury Department show that a distant Federal court, fined and imprisoned for selling a bunch or two for this present quarter the probable expenditure will be $62,000,000, ofleaf-tobacco to a neighbor. and this added to what we have already expended for the three previous I speak of a system which, under my own eye, permitted the solemn quarters of the present :fiscal year gives a grand total of $242,000,000, judgment of the district court of the United States for the district of to which is to be added also the reserves for the sinking fund, amount- Maryland, in the good city of Baltimore, to be trampled under foot by ing to $45,000,000 more; in all, $287,000,000. Of this SlllD the tariff an executive ukase issued here at Wa-shington. I am not dreaming and yields about $200,000,000and theinternal revenue about $120,000,000; speculating now about economic theories and their conjectural results. a total say, of $320,000,000. There are $24,000,000 from !lliscellane- I am speaking of facts, fucts which fell under my own observation and ous so~rces. Allowing a margin for other appropriations and expendi- of which I was a part. I can not speak of them even now, after a cool tures there is about $50,000,000 more going into the Treasury than is ing time of nearly six years, without emotions of the bitterest and in absol~tely required, unless the excess should be applied to the imme- tensest indignation. I swore an oath of vengeance, nay, of perfect fealty diate extinction of the debt, the greater portion of which is not due to truth and justice, that I would never let the matter rest, and I am for a long time to come, which, therefore, would have to be bought at hexe to keep the vow. a heavy premium, and which, as the base of our banking circulation The Commissioner of Internal Revenue issued an order to take effect and for other reasons, ought not to be disturbed. on the 1st of 1\Iay, 1878, that manufacturers of cigars, when they oc- The estimated reduction by this bill is $30,000,000, but as this is cupied a single room, should separate the portion used as a factory from only one step in the right direction, we should expect the next one to the sales-room by a substantial partition extending from the .floor to the give the :finishing stroke to tariff reduction by cutting off the remain- ceiling. To the manufacturer of limited capital who had bq.t a single ing $20 000,000 of the $50,000,000 surplus. What does that mean? room within which to manufacture and sell this was a hurtful and an It m~s the perpetuation of the whisky, tobacco, and fermented-liquor annoying regulation. It cramped him for room and cut him off en tax with all the galling and oppressive machinery devised for its col- tirely from the light which came in from the front. The association of lection. It means a permanent departure from that method of raising manufacturers in Baltimore asked my opinion as to the validity of this the Federal revenue which has existed without change, except in the regulation, and I advised them that it was not warranted by anything I exigencies of war, from the foundation of the Government. It means could :find in the Revised Statutes, and was, therefore, illegal. Wemade the permanent occupation by the United States of the field of direct a test-case with the consent of the local authorities representing the taxation, which has hitherto been exclusively enjoyed by the States. Government, the manufacturers in the mean time putting up the parti I t means, in a word, the perpetuation of a system which has done more tions as required by the Commissioner. already to consolidate the central power and extend its overshadowing The case came on to be tried, and after full argument and deliberate influence over the States than all other causes combined. Do not let consideration ofthe learned judge of the district court of the United us make a mistake. States judgment was rendered in favor of the manufacturers, and an That which distinguishes the genuine statesman from his counterfeit opinion expressed by the court that the order of the Commissioner was presentment is the faculty of seeing the end from the beginning. The not only illegal but absurd. The learned judge in delivering that end of the movement in which this bill originated is free trade and opinion said that he could not understandhowthewildestimagination internal taxation as the fixed policy of this Government. Are you could conceive of any other construction than that which I had placed prepared for it? It is said that free trade, or even the conventional upon the law, and more than sustained the opinion which I had given free trade such as exists in England, is impossible. Why? The same to the manufacturers. paragraph in the Constitution which gives the power to levy the im- After this decision by the court in this test-case the partitions were port duty provides also for the excise. The one tax is just as con- taken down. What happened? The Commissioner was not satisfied, stitutional as the other. There is, therefore, no constitutional obstruc- and asked the opinion of the Attorney-General. That official held that tion in the path of this new departure. What can create the impossi- the partition was lawful, and ordered the Commissioner to act accord bility, then, if the tariff is founded in an economical fallacy, and if the ingly. Then he did that which cut me to the bone. He ordered the internal method of taxation be the true one? I can see none. Yon partitions back again under pam of immediate seizure and confiscation. men of the South who followed the banner of State rights until it went Again these law-abiding citizens, dazed and bewildered by this conduct down in mire and blood; you who in the evil days of reconstruction of the Government, applied to me for advice, and I advised them that felt the heavy hand of the Government not only in the exercise of pub- the judgment of the court must stand until reversed, and that the opin lic control but in the privacy of your very hearthstones, are you to be ion of the Attorney-General could not affect their rights. But it did the :first in giving fresh force and direction to that power by introduc- nevertheless. The Commissioner gave instructions to seize the stock ing the Federal tax-gathexer into new and unfamiliar fields. of every man who refused to put up a partition, and these instructions Our taxes will be this year in Baltimore about $1.80 on the $100. were rigidly enforced, resulting in the seizure of 55,000 cigars. Sup~e we add to this our proportion of the Federal tax under the So here under this cursed system, which the supporters of this bill benign system of free trade and direct taxation and make it, say, $3 on would fasten upon the country forever, these innocent, law-abiding men, the $100. I am afraid the people would say at once that they could who had first taken down their partitions, in obedience to the judg not appreciate the utility of two governments instead of one, that the ment of a court of the United States, had their property seized because idle pageant of State sovereignty scarcely paid for the expense, and the they refused to put them up again in compliance with executive orders sooner it was abolished the better. The General Government repre- pronounced by that judgment to be illegal. I say, down with the sys sents the people in its external relations and t.he States in their inter- tem. I know that there has been so much clamor about the tariff, in a nal affairs. And there is a natural propriety and an obvious wisdom certain quarter, hereditary and acquired, that gentlemen are compelled in confining the taxa.ble areas of ea.ch within its own proper jurisdic· to share the fate ofthosewho by sowing the wind must reap the whirl- tion. Direct taxation means destruction of the States. wind. The General Government is now raising about $200,000,000 by the But it is not yet too late to make a new issue or to escape from the indirect system of taxation. 'fhere are over $300,000,000 raised in the fatal embrace of an old one. (}o home to your constituents, tell them States by direct taxation for State, county, and municipal purposes. since you left that the narrow lines of .local interest have widened Do you wish the General Government to abandon its own customary and expanded into the all-encasing, all-embracing horizon of people field of taxation and enter that which has been exclusively enjoyed by and country. Tell them that from this elevated plateau upon which the States? Are you prepared, in other words, to have $500,000,000 the Capitol rests you· have caught a larger view of nationn.l great instead of $300,000,000 taken directly from the pockets of the people? ness. Picture to them that solidarity of interest, that interdepend States stand or fall as the taxing power is wisely or unwisely used, and ence and nice correlation of parts which has built up in less than a nothing has tended more strongly to preserve our own form of govern- century the most stupendous fabric of human development the world ment than this separation and appropriation of different sources of rev- has yet seen. Tell them that agriculture is nothing, that commerce is enue to the States and the United States respectively. nothing, that manufactures are nothing, standing alone in frigid and I will say nothing of the whisky tax. This House has passed a reso- sterile virginity, but in the happy union of reciprocal interchanges are lution declaratory of its sense that this tax shall neither be abolished the blessed mother of all that enriches, ennobles, and dignifies a people. nor reduced. There is a very prevalent opinion, particularly among the If they will not listen to you, if they can hear nothing but the rq,ttle advocates of prohibition, that the collection of this tax tends to dimin- of trace-chains or feel nothing but the compress of cotton-ties, if noth ish the consumption of whisky, but as far as I can observe consumption ing rouses them but the trumpet-blast of per centum and cost, then goes on without anyperceptiblechange, exceptwhereprohibitorymeas- teach them the cost of that system which has oppressed their persons, ures have heen enforced. I look upon the tax as an obstacle in the way confiscated their property, and debauched and demoralized their poll- of prohibition. tics. Bnt that is neither here nor there. Let the whis1..-y tax stand. But Nay, more, sir. This internal-revenue system not only affects the you men of Virginia, North Carolina, Missouri, a.y, and of Kentucky, local politics of the South and crops out even in contested-elect ion cases what have yo_u to say abOut the tobacco tax? Do your people like it? in this House, but extends its baneful influence to national politics, and Do they relish the infernal system ofln.w and regulation, which puzzles at this moment is exerting all its power to name a Presidential candi- 3892 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. MAY 6, date in a dozen Sta,tes where be will not receh·e a single electoral vote. upon the best authority that not 10,000 tons of this coal are constlined It can not be possible, if the South realized that now was her .chance for domestic purpo es on the seaboard. The cry of cheap fuel for the and her only chance to get rid of this pest, that she would not eagerly poor is the cry of the demagogue or of the enthusia t who overruns the embrace the opportunity. I call upon her here in the presence of the facts. Anthracite is the fuel of the ma es, and nature herself has country to witness that if this bill passes she will not only carry the protected anthracite. burden she now bears, but in time it will be as a man s little finger to Under the present tariff the duty of 75 cents a ton scarcely gives our his loins. product a living chance in the market. But this Morrison bill does ·The vote of the South to-day, yes, sir, before the stm goes down, can not even show it the cold favor of a partial reduction, but wipes out the break the fetters of a chain as galling as ever fretted or annoyed a free duty altogether. Coal is put on the free-list as one of the mw material . people; but if the opportunity is missed which an imperative demand Why, pray? It may be raw in the sense that it is not cooked. You for reduction. in revenue now presents, she will not find it in this gen can not eat it, and it would be rather difficult of digestion-if you did; eration or the next. Bnt, oh, I forget-the moonshiners are to have but raw in the economic sense it is not, and can not be in the nature relief! There is a tub for you of the South. Spirits distilled from fruits of things. Raw it may be in the mine, but it can not be brought to are to pay 10 cents a gallon-a nominal duty, or perhaps none at all. the point of use without coming in contact with la.bor at every step. Ah! indeed. And labor, too, diversified all along the scale, from the mere work of It is not in horizontal cuts alone that modern statesmanship realizes the hands, with pick and shovel, up to the skill which constructs and itB mo t perfect intuitions. Think of the brilliancy of that conception operates the most powerful engine of transportation which the genius which proposes to exercise the taxing power upon the principle of of man has devised. select discrimination, under a rule requiring absolute uniformity, which How it has been most cunningly formed by the band of the Almighty ays to the distiller of grain, ''You shall pay 90 cents a gallon,'' and in long processes, which would tire out any other artificer who bad less to the distiller of peaches or grapes, '' You shall pay 10 cents,'' and time than eternity to work in, I do not speak. But when it has been holds this promise out as a bid for votes. dug up, when these black diamonds have been extracted from their Was it not the great Kepler who exclaimed when he made his splen sunless treasure-house and made to sparkle upon the myriad fingers of did discovery : art, when you come to think of the many agencies connected with its I ·will triumph; I have stolen the golden secret of the Egyptians; nothing transportation and distribution as well as production, you might as shall restrain my sacred fury. well say that the car in which it is carried or the locomotive by which Perhaps that much-abused and sometimes forgotten instrument the it is drawn is not a manufa-cture. Constitution of the nited States may put a quietus upon the triumph All this talk about raw material is_ founded in a singular fallacy. of this discovery. I take it that a tax upon spirits, however produced, There is no such thing in existence except when it is beyond the power must be uniform; that as the tax is necessarily imposed upon the of man to use -or control. Timber s ~a,nding upon some of those un proof and not the wine gallon, the law must define what a proof gallon forfeited lands in Oregon, remote and inaccessible to market, may be is; and that whenever it is ascertained that there is the requisite vol called raw material. The uses it has for man are prospective and fall ume of alcoholic liquor to make a proof gallon of spirits, then the same within the claim of his proprietorship only under the terms of the orig rate of tax must be applied, it matters not what the material from inal grant which g~e him dominion over the earth and all things in which the spirits have been produced. And if authority is wanted to it. Every now and then in these vast timber tracts a cyclone bows show the necessity of uniformity in levying the excise, I think it can the head of the mighty, and there is a fall and a crash like the over be found in the case of the United Statesvs. Singer (15Wa1Jace). You throw of a Cresar or a Czar. may l'ely upon it that there is more moonshine in this proposition than Three thousand miles farther east this neglected windfall, which can substance. only decay and rot where it lies, would h~ve been by the genius and 1\Ir. Chairman, the tax on tobacco and fermented liquors and the art of man transplanted to a new element and made to bloom and blos special taxes connected with them, according to data furnished by the som, like Aaron's rod, with strange and unaccustomed flowers. In 'l'reasury Departmeut upon actual and estimated receipts for the present Oregon it is raw material, whether it lifts up its venerable head to the fiscal year, will amount to about$42,000,000. The country demands a heavens in the full pride of primal growth or lies. prone upon the 1·eduction of revenue, so we all say. Why not begin the reduction here. earlh a dismantled wreck, but in the ship-yards of Maine and Mary It will be ab olute; it will be in accordance with the settled policy of land it is a part of subdued nature appropriated to art, a remote and this Government, and it will at the same time rid us of an obnoxious potential vassal on the outposts of ideal empire, reduced into immediate and perniciqus system of taxation. It will not only accomplish all this, and effective homage. but it will remove a tax from articles which enter into the daily use The fact is, besides Congressional speeches before alluded to, I know and consurn ption of the laboring masses. I believe that there is a large nothing which falls within the definition of raw material except cer cla s of our population that would sooner go without sugar and coffee tain natural products which in some few favored spots of earth spring than beer and tobacco. I believe that the removal of the tax on them up in spontaneous abundance as a reminder perhaps of the orignal para and its retention on distilled spirits would produce temperance, as ex dise. perience has shown that the lighter stimulants, when broughtintogeu I have before me the picture of a native, before the darillg of Colum eral use, are sufficient to allay that thirst for excitement over and above bus had di turbed the tranquillity ofhis indolent repose, reaching out the normal which seems natural to man. a languid band to pluck the banana that dangled in tempting luscious ness before his eyes, while he dexterously dodges the cocoa-nut which TAX ON CIGARS, DOMESTIC AND IMPORTED. some malignant monkey, mad to see a man so happy, throws at his The tax on manufactured tobacco, cigars, &c., under the intricate bead. system of law and regulation by which it is collected is not only a bur Nature, stinting in nothing, has so tempered the wind to this shorn den upon the consumer and the producer, but an annoying restriction lamb of the tropics that he needs no clothes, and so he follows the as well upon all the labor employed in this very general and useful shadow of his cocoa-nut tree all day long in naked bliss, cramming industry. But the Morrison bill, among its other eccentricities, pro himself with the raw material which every bush supplies and wa b poses to reduce the tax on imported tobacco and cigars the regulation ing it down with the sweet milk of the fruit, over which he and the ~0 per cent., at a time, too, when the domestic grower is confronted nionkey exel'cise a divided anq disputed dominion. with a serious enemy in Sumatra leaf, under a classification in the This is the Eden of the materialist, the raw materialist; but outside present tariff which nobody seems to understand but the Attorney- of this paradise I know of no country Ol' clime where there is such a General. · thing as raw mat~rial which in its production, transportation, and dis Why liquors should not have been scaled in the same bill with to tribution does not require labor, and in some cases labor of as high bacco is one of the mysteries of this bill. Champagnes, other wines, order as any finished article usually styled a manufa-cture. &c., p~y at the existing rate, but the fragrant Havana, consumed only Take wool, whel'e the most desperate attempt is made to pull it over by the rich, gets off with a 20 per cent. reduction, while the home our eyes in the effort to show that the public is in some mysterious way grown and home-made article, consumed to a large extent by those who being fleeced. It is true that man has nothing to do with its creation. earn their daily bread by ma,nuallabor, is still taxed at present rates. The combined genius of the civilized world could not make a sheep, I will vote for no bill which makes such a discrimination against an although it produces a plentiful crop of lambs' every now and then, article of domestic growth and of such universal consumption. Silk, particularly in Wall street. His mysterious evolution out of the dark too, is recognized as an infant in its swaddling-clothes, and the strong into the light, like that of man himself, is the act of a higher power. arm of the tariff is thrown around its cradle; but tobacco, one of the While this is so, it is also true that without the care of man sheep con principal agricultural products of the country, and in its manufactured tending with their natural foes would carry on such a doubtful conflict state the sola-ce of millions, is stripped of a large portion of its defen that it is probable the species would soon cea e to exist. It is the mo t sive armor and left naked to its enemies. I will vote for no bill that tender and timid of all the animals, and its proverbial gentleness ha maintains the duty on silk and scales the rate on imported tobacco. supplied those beautiful figures of speech which our Saviom· uses when The mining and transportation of bituminous coal is one of the great he sinks the God in the effort to claim a closer affinity with man. It industries in my State~ millions of capital and thousands of men are requires constant watching, careful tending, and frequent nursing ere employed in its production and distribution. It is used almost uni the bleating lamb, that comes with the violets and robins, grows into versally, with nominal exceptions that do not count in the aggregate, the full-fleeced buck ready for the she~. Woolls no more raw ma for the manufacture of gas and for fuel for steamships. It is stated te.rial than a blanket. 1884. ·coNGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 3893 But my more immediate concern is with coal. I will vote for no bill that philosophic insight which can penetrate to the core of the mystery. that puts coal on the free-list and keeps up the bar of protection in favor Still less do I pretend to be able to prescribe with infallible certainty a of other articles not one bit more meritorious. If you wantfreetrade, remedy for the evils. But I believe if you can invent someway of say so; be honest abouth; butdonotcome in here with a measure that checking the combined genius and greed of man you will get nearer to is neither sea nor good dry land and ask my support. the root of the disease than by following the quack prescription offered Right here I beg to call the attention of the House to another anom by this bill. aly of this hybrid bill, compounded in equal proportions of Demo John Stuart Mill has said somewhere that it was melancholy tore cratic free trade and Republican protection. flect that all the improved machinery which man had brought to his There are no tin-plates, I believe, made in this country. That was aid had not lightened or c4minished the hours of labor by a single one of the infant industries that fell still-born. Perhaps there is no minute. It is indeed a mournful and humiliating reflection that the article in the whole tariff schedules in which the people of Maryland genius which has been able to capture and domesticate all the wild have a deeper interest than in cheap tin-plates. forces of nature and impress them into the sen-ice of man has not been One of the principal articles of export from the city of Baltimore is able to make of man himself anything more than a beast of burden. canned goods, for which that city enjoys a world-wide reputation. It is The saddest part of it all is that when the world is fnll to O\erflowing; one of the few things on which the nited States still maintains a decent when granaries and elevators are bursting with plenty; when ware position in foreign trade, about which so much is said and which this houses are overstocked with the materials forraiment, there are so many bill is to do so much in restoring to its former prestige. And yet the who go without sufficient food or shelter, or even decent clothes to their same bill which proposed to kill one great Maryland industry by put backs. If there is any man in this world for whom I feel the profound ting coal on the free-list refuses to do anything to aid another in a case est sympathy it is he who is able and willing to work and who can find where confessedly the doctrine of protection has no application. no man to hire him. It is the same old sad and sickening story which I will vote for no bill which admits competing coal free of duty for has come down to us from the parable of the vineyard, and which, the benefit of the manufacturing interests alone and yet taxes at a doubtless, had made itself felt long beiore the Son of .M:an entered upon heavy rate tin-plates, which are non-competing. I will vote for no un His course of suffering and sorrow. equal discriminating bill which while it blesses other sections of the Is there no mode by which we can lift labor out of the ruts iii which country blasts my own by two opposite and contradictory courses, free it has wearily revol•ed for so many ages and place it upon the high ing one article and taxing another. road that leads to comfort, independence, and self-respect? Can not There is another, among a dozen objections, I have to the bill. It is we by constitutional amendment, if in no other way, provide some wrong in principle and all its details. Take cotton-ties. I express the means by which the hours of labor shlJ>ll be reduced, and stop the clang opinion with considerable confidence that the South will not get the of this infernal machinery that goeS on grinding forever and forever benefit of the reduction on these articles made by this bill. I can not what the world can not consume, and ruins la~or by the exce s of its here assign the reasons for this opinion, but with the leave of the own production? There is the true field for the display of American House I will print with these remarks a statement showing the inac statesmanship. curacy of the bill in this and many other matters. It is a house of Sir, I listened to the eloquent speech of the gentleman from Ohio with cards built upon a quicksand; it has no certain base; it is a contra that pleasure and exhilaration that lofty sentiments clothed in fitting dictory mixture of free trade and protection, with discriminations against diction always inspire. If I did not follow him in th~ connection he both, and an impenetrable jungle of ad valorem rates, specific, com sought to establish between the tariff and the wheat-fields of India, it pound, and complex duties. was not because the way was not made smooth or the journey easy by It reminds me of a picture you may see in any of our drug stores. the soft blandishments of a pleasing rhetoric, but because with even all Free trade is sitting in the person of a naked little boy and a dog by this help I was too feeble in thought or imagination to bridge the tre his side, both of them squatting on a rail and looking wistfully out to mendous chasm. J do not believe that business concerns itself with to the sea, where, under full sail, dipping with the waves, rides a ship either magnanimity or revenge. carrying the old flag, which, under the benignant influence of this new I do not believe that the tariff forces tribute from our wheat by this economy, is to chase its dancing shadow over forgotten seas. Such is roundabout process any more than the farmer of Ohio will pay tribute the picture, sir, at a d~tance; but on closer inspection the delusion is to the King of Siam when he goes to see Barnum's white elephant. I dispelled, and on the bare back of the boy you djscover a protection know there is a connection between cats and clover, for Darwin pointed plaster, and around the neck of the dog a protection collar; and, sad that out long ago by a process that my scientific friend from Massa dest of allrregenerated, rejuvenated, disenthralled commerce, upon the chusetts [Mr. LYMAN] will readily recall. Quite singularly it turned broadest and the whitest of her expanded wings, bears the same disas out the other day in a case tried in Baltimore, and in a manner that trous sign and symbol. Poor free trade, writhing in the throes of al will baffie even his philosophic mind, that there was a close relation ternate constriction and depletion, how shall she survive the ordeal of between mint-juleps and baked potatoes. Allcock's porous plaster and Brandreth's pills? It is a matter of history how intimate the connection was between Mr. Chairman, I have said nothing of the economic questions under chops and tomato-sauce, and the responsive affections of ~1rs. Bardell for lying this discussion. I am not a free-trader. Ab tra-ctly it may be the innocent and unsophi ticated Mr. Pickwick. I shall not, and there right, and possibly the distinguished gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Hmm] fore, endeavor to show that ifindia can sell wheat in Liverpool at 80 cents may live to vote for it when he ceases to be a Representative of that to the bushel, so far from our tariff, which levies a duty of 20 cents a great State of the Union and takes a higher seat in the parliament of bushel on grain, being an enemy to the farmer, the day is not far dis man as a representative of the federation of the world. tant when the farmers of Ohio will beg for an increase of the rate to But this country is not ready for free trade and willnotbeuntil there save them from the pauper labor of India. is_an equilibrium of the labor forces created between the United States But, sir, I have wandered a little from the point. I was discussing and Europe. All theargumentthatcan bemadefromnowuntildooms the labor aspect of this question. I understood the gentleman from day will not alter the fact that labor is chea.per over there than it is here, Ohio to say that it was useless to attempt to stay this agitation, because and that as long as that continues foreign will undersell domestic man the culture and the chivalry of the country were moving, and that when ufactures. When this country fills up by natural increase and immi they come down on anything it was like Mulberry Sellers-heavy. gration, and European ratios of population to the square mile are estab Sir, I have read history wrong if the culture or the chivalry ever led lished here, we shall also, who live to see it, witness a nearer equaliza... the van of any great movement that reached or touched the popular tion of the rates of labor, and then the race of competition may be heart. Greatrevolutions, tho e which agitate society to its profoundest fairly begun. depths, come from below and not from above. Such a revolution swept There is a higher law, sir, than tariffs or the law of free trade, and France with a storm of fire and blood in the days of tlie first republic; that is the law of supply and demand. The world with the aid of im Cromwell led another in England, and it was the great Commoner of proved machinery can produce more than is required, and just now, Virginia who sounded the tocsin of '76. It was not the culture or the after a run of unexampled prosperity, we have reached a period when chivalry of Judea that followed Christ, born himself in a manger and the market is suffering the consequence of overproduction. This is of humble parents, but the poor fishermen and the common people true the world over. England is suffering as much from it as the who heard him gladly. United States. Her warehouses are bursting with the products of the If you are listening for the firstrumblings of that ground-swell that loom and the forge. Suppo e you abolish the tariff to-day; the only portends revolution and change, turn away from the culture and chiv consequence would be that England would work off her surplus and the alry; get your ear down, if you can, close to the popular heart; take a American manufacturer would be ruined. How would that give us careful account of what is passing ther~, and reckon by its pulsations trade to South America? If there was any trade to be had in that the violence of the coming ~orm. Speak of labor and its emancipa quarter what hinders England with her cheaper labor from supplying tion, and you will hear that great heart beat quicker and quicker· tell the demand? There is none. it that it shall yet hear its matin and vesper in the prattle of children Machinery has done its work, and the world has more than it can at home and not in the roar of the mill and the forge, and you will consume. Twel•e thousand men out of work on the Clyde, reduction find it throb high with exultation. Whisper to it that the dawn of the of :wages among the iron workers in the north of England, strike in day is at hand when the di -.-me rnle, ''Do unto others as you would have the middle, that is the story that G1·eat Britain tells to-day. If we others do unto yon," is about to take the place of that other rule which tell the same story here, under different t!<:onomic conditions then be has so long governed, but which wa>< only recently formulated by :1 assured thr.t the cau e lies deeper than the tariff. I do not pretend to cleri0ll free-trader, that the law of price is the law of brains, but 3894 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- HOUSE. MA.Y 6, whisper gently, lest the great hearts should burst in excess of joy. Third. That ~t would change ad valor.em to specific rates, and vice versa, when years of experience have shown the Wisdom of one or the other as fixed in act This is the movement that the gentleman had better turn his attention of March 3, 1883. to, for just as sure as the culture and chivalry are moving in one direc Fourth. That owing to the different grouping and wordings of the act of tion, the labor of this country is moving in another. March 2, 1861, and act of March 3,1883, it would confuse rates revive compound and complex duties, where these have beendoneawaywithir't the present tariff One thing more, Mr. Chairman, and I am done. Threats of disci _and would be destructive of the principles of the decision of the courts, dec~ pline have been thrown out if we do not accept the dogmas of this new Ion~ of the Tr~ury Department, and Attorney-General; and school. We are gravely informed by the gentleman from Ohio that it F1ftb. That It would be destructiveofrelativevaluesof imilarclasses of mer chandise and detrimental to manufacturing and producing interests of this is our duty, on a great economic question like this, in which, as we country in a variety and multitude of ways. understand it, there is involved a complete and radical departure from the old and customary methods of taxation, to be governed by the will of SCHEDULE I.-Cotton and cotton goods. _Cotton yarns, 'Yarps, &c., are under act of March 3, 1883 (page 4 of table), pro a caucus and accept its dictates with blind submission. I repudiate the VIded for at specific rates per pound. These under thls bill would be subject to suggestion. I defy the threats. Why, the caucus resolution bad iu it, duty by the pound, or accordmg to value at 30 per cent. ad valorem, owing to if I remember, that pitiful subterfuge by which votes were to be capt whether the act of 1861 would bar the reduction from present rate or not. Cotton cloth (page 4 of table)," if dyed, colored, stained, painted, or printed," ured, not by threats, but by the bribe of free brandy distilled from under the act of March 3,1883 provided for at a specific duty of 5 cents per fruits? square yarrl, while the bill wouid have the effect to restore the a1l valorem rate Sir, this is a question that concerns the business interests of this vast of 19 per cent. ~nd 34- cents per yard under the act of March 1,1861, thus making compound dut1es. country, and when such a question arises I will follow the dictates of SCHEDULE :I.-Hemp, jute, and.flaiv goods. my comscience; I will follow in the lead of no party, but I will cast my On brown and blea-ched linen, ducks, canvas and all textile fabrics gener vote on my oath as a Representative in this national Congress. If the ally ofli~en (page 5 of table), on which duty of .!,468,701 was collected in fiscal gentleman can afford to repudiate the Democratic platform of his State, year e ndm&" :June 30, 1883, the rate of duty under present tariff is 35 per cent. ad if he expects denounce it as a heresy and trample it under foot, he valorem, w1thout regard to square-yard value, while this bill has the efi'ect to to ~evive t?e ~quare-yar? rate as basis of value, thus making the rote complex in must permit me to exercise the same liberty of opinion in dealing with Its application. So With re~ard to burlaps (page 6 of table), on which a duty of the behests of a Congres ional caucus. I will not be bound by it, and . 1,317,502 was collected for fiscal year 1883. ~be reduction of duty on burlaps I trust that every Democrat of this House who had the courage to vote ~~~~~~ii~ ~~def~R~!~t of March 2, 1861, owmg to former grouping, hence no his convictions in December will not have lostitinl\1ay. !voted then The effect would be if the bill were enacted in its present form to make bur against the present Speaker of this House, with strong personal predi laps dutiable at t!Je same rate as t_he fine fabrics of hemp, jute, and flax, whereas the present law Justly makes a difference of 5 per cent nd valorem in favor of lections in his favor, formed on the very highest opinion of his ability the burlaps ; in other words, the fine goods are now dutiable at 35 per cent. and and character. the burlaps at 30 per cent., bu.t this bill would make them both30percent. This If nothing else had been at stake but his own illustrious merit I would. have. a te!ldency to diSturb val~es n~t only directly but indirectly, for other Items m thiS schedule are barred m theU" reduction by the rates of a-ct of think the chances are more than even that my ballot in that election March 2, 1861. would have been cast6with the majority. As it was I voted for his dis - SCHEDULE K.-Wool and woolens. tinguished opponent, a man who has rendered eminent service to both Owing to the difference in the wording of the act of March 3 1883 and act of his country and his party, and who in the crucial hours of the South's l\Iarch 2, 1861, and the limitation clan e of the bill, it would be impossible to struggle won a battle in her defense, of which it may be said that peace scale the rates in equal proportion. Some of the wools would be scaled at 10 per c~nt. _an!l o~hers at_20 per ce~t. in reduction, thus again de troying values hath her victories no less renowned than war. He was opposed to re and discrunmatmg a.,aa.Inst certam grad e of wool, and without reason or seem opening the tariff question which had just been closed, and in favor of ing intent, but wholly from trying to merge two acts and one bill into one act giving the country a breathing spell after the long and trying agitation at a r educed rate, subject to limitation, bit or miss. So much has been said regarding the effect of a reduction of duty on wool through which it had just passed. He believed in the reduction of that it seems unnecessary to more than point to the facts above stated. revenue, but it was a reduction which could be safely accomplished S CHEDULE 0.-Metals. without shock or disturbance to the business interests of the country, The rates and groupings under the act of 1\iarch 2, 1861, here also act as a bar and the amount of which could be stated with absolute certainty. He to the equal scaling of rates of duty at20 per cent., t.he effectbeingto leave many believed if war taxes were to be gotten rid of, then the place to strike items at rates now fixed by act of :March 3, 1883, while others are reduced 20 per cent. or less, and all without the least regard to how they may affect either values :first was at that system, which was the creature of the_war, devised or the manufacturing interests of this country. The advancement of the arts purely as a war measure, and not at the customary and permanent and sciences and the superior mechanical d evices and proce ses since the enact. source of supply recognized from the beginning of the Government and ment of the Morrill tariff in 1861 have worked a marked change in the mode and co t of productions of various forms and character of manufactures of iron enactedinto law in the second statute pa edbytheFirstCongress. He and steel in Europe and America, and the basis of protection and revenue as believed that he who serves his country best serves his party best; and framed in 1861 for this country would not be a safe or correct basis for the present recognizing this policy as the best for the country, he saw in it also the even if applied intact, and hence an indiscriminate reduction of 20 per cent. of the present rate limited, while it might be well and safe in some things, may also certain means of his party's a-dvancement. have the effect to destroy interests which it is the part of good legislation to foster. Has anything happened since to alter the stern logic of the situation? The limitation of the act of 1861 therefore rather aggravates than otherwise the If we were right then, we are right now. If it wa-s right to attempt to relation of values of various forms of iron and steel. I m ay instance" boiler or other plate iron," the rate of duty under present kill the movement for permanent internal taxation while it was yet in law being It cents per pound, or $28 per ton; under the proposed law the duty the egg, it is right to strangle it now as it struts about this Hall in the would be $22.40 per ton; a difference of $5.60 per ton (page 11 of table). full pride of flesh and feather. ''Sheet-iron thinner than li inches and not thinner than 20 wire-gauge," is now dutiable at $24.64 per ton. Proposed rate is $20 per ton; a difference of A distinguished representative of this new-fangled Kentucky idea $4.64 per ton. . has said that we of the Democratic opposition were cowards and sneaks " The same," thinner than 20 wire-gauge and not thinner than 25 'vire-gauge, if we did not march to the tune of free trade under the banner of the is now dutiable at $26.88 per ton. Proposed rate, $25 (because it is limited by act of March 2, 1861 in its reduction); a difference of only $1.88 per ton. Morrison bill. I will not adopt the polite language of the gentleman, Now, how might these disturbipg rates of duty in their differences, as com but I think that any man who flinches now may well dread that his pared with present rates, affect manufacturers and the markets in this country? character for consistency and firmness may be justly questioned. The Referring to the disturbingelementsof the proposed law as affecting decisions of the courts or the Departments, or v-ice versa, let us look at the item "Iron and proper, the wise, and. conciliatory course for all sides, for Democrats as sleel cotton-ties" (page 11 of table). These are now provided for under act weU as Republicans, is to recommit this bi1l, with in tructions tore of l\Iarcb 3, 1883, at a duty of 35 per cent. ad valorem, which yields a duty of about $13 per ton. The proposed law is intended to reduce this rate to 28 per port a bill framed on the principles declared in the resolutions! offered cent. ad valorem, or say about $11 per ton, if not barred by act of March 2,1861. yesterda:y-. The table accompanying the bill shows the rate under act of 1861 to be 30 per But if this proposition is voted down, if every offer of compromise cent. ad valorem as "manufactures of iron not otherwise provided for." But is here arises a complication. Were cotton-ties imported in 1861; if so, at what refused, if pressed to the wall and there is no retreat, I should be rate? Cotton-ties were not named in act of :March 2, 1861. Under a-et of :June compelled to break the ties that-bind me to this side of the House on 30, 1864., they were held to be dutiable as "hoop-iron," and the rat-e of duty on a purely economic quuestion-while I should most regretfully part hoop-iron was under that act H cents per pound; and hoop-iron under act of l\Iarch 2,1861, was $20 per ton. Not until by circular letter of :July 11,186iS, issued company with so many frienfls who have won my confidence and es by the Treasury Department (see Treasury Decisions for 1868, page 54. No.181), teem, and w bile I could not and would not cross yonder aisle, I could were cotton-ties admitted to duty at.35 per cent. as" manufactures of iron not at least take refuge in a sentiment of nationality under the folds of the specially enumerat-ed or provided for," and then under act of :June 30,1864. This deeision was based upon a. decision of the United States circuit court at old fla-g, -where I sought and found shelter in the early days of my po New Orleans. So we see that not until1868werecotton-tiesadmitted to duty at litical life, and where its sweetest and tenderest memories still cluster. a less rate than $20 per ton, the rate for hoop-iron (with which they were held to assimilate by the Treasury Department), until the decision of the court on a subsequent act. Hence under the proposed law, taking the limit of 1861 acl APPENDIX. into consideration, the question would arise, can a reduction of 20 per cent. on A PRACTICAL DISCUSSION OF THE CASE. the present rate of duty be applied to cotton-ties, or taking the rate as held until The first objection to the bill is that it takes the present tariff law, actof:r.Iarch 1868 as a guide for the interpretation of 1861 act, are they barred from a reduc 3,1883, and proposes to scale all the schedules excepting two by a reduction of tion? To enact the bill in its present form as regards cotton-ties we would be 20per cent., limited, however, to rates of duty as fixed by an act approved March involving the rat-e of duty in doubt, and leaving again the Treasury Department 2, 1861, which, however well calculated for the interests of the country at that or the courts to settle the rate after appeals and suits and many embarrassments date, i'3 only a stumbling-block as applied under this bill- to the disadva-ntage of the cotton interests of the South.. And this condition of First. Because it would make the rate of duty in every instance depend on mixing tariff rates leads to endless other it-ems on which a doubt would be sim whether 20 per cent. off the present tariff would be less than was collected under ilarly enacted. act of 186l, and every invoice or part of invoice would have to undergo the test 8cHE:DULE 1\1.-Books, papers, &c. of two acts instead of one in order to fix the rate of duty, and thus render the Attention is called to inconsi tencies in the bill compared with the present rates uncertain and fluctuating. law: .-f! 1r Second. That it-would destroy the carefully prepared rates of duty as applied The act ofl\I.arch3, 1883, makes the duty on books, engravings, and all printed to certain fixed grades and cia es of manufactures as imported under act of matter similar 25 per cent. ad valorem, and it provides for paper, sized or glued, March 3, 1883. suitable only for printing-paper, 20per cent ad valorem, and paper on wWcb en- ' 1884. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 3895 grnvings are printed ~ per cent. This bill would ~ffect the t~e and manu fashion that was rather sectional instead of being national. I regretted factures seriously as 1t would reduce books, engravmgs, and pnnted matter to that he should have found it necessary to appeal to prejudices and to 20 per cent., or the rate of duty it provided for the material itself1 and would actually make engravings cheaper t~ the rate for pa~r upon which they. at:e passions that should have been buried with the war that gave them usually printed. A reduction ofratemduty couldonly,mconsequence ofhm1t birth, and that he should have undertaken to flaunt a bloody shirt in of rate by act of 1861, be applied to two groups in the schedule. the face of an American Congress when a sense of dignity on the part ScHEDULE F.-Tobacco. of the Republicans themselves has long since consigned it to oblivion. This schedule should-have been left out and exempted from reduction1 same [Applause.] as Schedule H-liquors. To reduce the ~uty would bet-e seriously questioned if we can safely tie down the present tariff to a stake driven Mr. EATON. The gentleman will see that I said, when speaking of in 1861. No, sir; the changed condition and relative values of nearly every the late terrible civil war, I would have laid my life down-- commodity and the steady increase in volume of business forbids it. Mr. BLACKBURN. I hope the gentleman will not undertake tore It would seem to be the trne policy to foster all manufacturing and produc ing interests at home, so that internal developments may keep pace with the pea~ his speech for I have not time to yield him for that purpose. But growth of the country and furnish all needed materials for the building up of I have this to say: if the gentleman's opprobrious epithets were in the great West in railroads, mills, factories, and the implements of hwbandry tended. only for those who figured unfortunately in the Revolutionary and daily wants of a. growing population. The tariff act of March 3, 1883, contains some unintentional inconsistencies, struggle, I had no cause to complain on that score, and I am glad to but in the main is the clearest we have had; but the provisos ia House bill No. have him say so. 5893 in their entangling ramifications are highly objectionable, and to enact Mr. HUNT. Mr. Chairman- them into a law would be vicious. Mr. BLACKBURN. I think I have given up time enough. . NoTE.-" Ad valorem duties" are rates fixed at a percentage of value; "specific duties" are rates fixed at a given amount per pound or measure; "compound Mr. HUNT. Will the gentleman allow me-- duties" are both ad valorem and specific rates to one article; "complex duties" Mr. BLACKBURN. Certainly. Take my hour. . are both ad valorem and specific rates to au article the duty on which is reg Mr. HUNT. I will not take your hour. I desire to take one minute. ulated by the value per pound or measure. The CHAIRMAN. Does the gentleman from Kentucky yield? Mr. BLACKBURN. Mr. Chairman, the discussion evoked by the Mr. BLACKBURN. I will yield to anybody. I yield to the gen bill under consideration appears to me to have assumed and taken a tleman from Louisiana [Mr. HUNT]. . wider range than was necessarily involved in determining its merits. Mr. HUNT. I think the gentleman owes it to me to yield now. He I for one do not regret it. The measure pending does not propose a came to me and asked me why I had suggested the provisions of the con complete revision of the tariff system of this country. It is pri.marily federate constitution by way of argument to my distinguished friend a bill for the reduction of taxation rather than for the revision of a from Connecticut. He asked me if I had done it. I said I had. tariff system. .And yet the tariff laws of this Government, from its Mr. BLACKBURN. That is all I said. foundation to the present hoqr, have been passed in panoramic review. Mr. HUNT. No, sir; just one minute. They have been defended upon the one side and assailed upon the other Mr. BLACKBURN. Now, Ur. Chairman, I must go on. I can not with a fairness and an ability in excess of any tariff discussion to which yield all my time. I have ever listened since I became a member of this House. Unlike Mr. HUNT. Allow me one minute. the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania [.Mr. RANDALL], who Mr. BLACKBURN. I have allowed you three already. Go on, but has but recently addressed this committee, I am not here to complain for God's sake get through. of the conduct of this debate or its general run of utterance. In the Mr. HUNT. The object was to show that a constitution, to wit, that main it has been fair; fair from the dilferent standpoints from which of the Confederate States, where it contains a certain clause giving con this bill has been reviewed. In the main it has been courteous, lacking gress the power to la.y and collect taxes, duties, &c., for revenue nece:r that acerbity and acrimony that is always to be regretted. sa.ry to carry on the government, but providing that no bounties shall be I did regret, Mr. Chairman, that the distinguished gentleman fmm granted from the treasury, nor a,ny duties or taxes laid on importations Connnecticut [Mr. EATO "'] sh sion of the committee to proceed. The rightful taxing power of the Gov other side of thls Chamber, and upon the evidence of all men pro>ed ernmentislimited to that Government's necessities. There is and there itself to be a mot consummate failure. can be no claim to any rightful taxing power possessed by this Congress Yet he would ask us to accept him as a safe counselor and a tru t except it be employed for the purposes specified in the organic law, the worthy leader upon the question of the tariff. Hardly o. That gen maintenance of this Government and the meeting of its obligations. tleman has changed his own opinion upon the subject of tariff legisla We are at last to-day this near together; I mean all sides, all sec tion, and that quite recently. I :find that in 1882, with this urplus tions, all shades of political opinion. It is asserted that we are raising revenue and this burden of taxation staring him in the face, he made more revenue than this Government requires. No man denies it. It a speech in this House in which he used the following language: is contended that the taxes are consequently heavier than there can be The existing overflowing Treasury brings a demand for a reduction of the any necessity assigned for. .All men admit it. It is asserted and con tariff and internal-revenue taxation. fessed that a surplus of revenue rests yonder in the vaults of the Fed · Mr. RANDALL. If the gentleman will allow me, I wish to say that eral Treasury idle and unemployed. I will print that speech in connection with the one of to-day. Under these circumstances each of the two great political parties of Mr. BLACKBURN. And I will print that part of it, for it answers the country have committed themselves openly and fairly to a reduction my purpose. oftaxation rates, and to the aba.tement of that surplus revenue. The 1\Ir. RANDALL. I would be glad to have the gentleman print the opportuni~y is now offered; here is the bill. We propose by it to abate whole of it. tariff taxation to the extent of 20 per cent. Is it an unreasonable bill? 1\fr. BLACKBURN. Now, we :find the gentleman from Pennsylva What objection is urged against it? Does it propose to insert the knife nia does not want any reduction of tariff taxation. Ay, more, he has too deeply? Will you undertake to say, you gentlemen upon the gone further, and illustrating that aggressive nature for which he is other side, will you dare to claim that the reduction is too heavy? justly proverbial, he protests against even a whisper in the direction of Mr. BRUMM. Will the gentleman allow me just one moment? an agitation of the tariff. If it was necessary to combat the surplus Mr. BLACKBURN. I can not. Meaning to be courteous and polite, revenue in 1882 by the reduction of tariff tax..'ttion, tell me why it is I must decline to be interrupted at all. not more necessary now ? You heard him say that. if you would abol Mr. BRUMM. Only a half a minute? ish the internal-revenue system of taxation, there would be no surplus Mr. BLACKBURN. Not for one second. of revenue that would amount to anything. I ask you, sir, in common Mr. BRUMM. Does not ·your own side deny that proposition? candor, to tell me how close did that avowal approximate tQ a confes 1\fr. BLACKBURN. The gentleman can speak in his own time, not sion that the war now waged upon the internal-revenue system of tax in mine. I trust I may be spared the annoyance of further efforts at ation is for the single and ill-disguised purpose of maintaining high interruption. If I can start again with a reasonable prospect of being protective-tariff rates? allowed to proceed for a single minute, I will make my profoundest I was sorry that the gentleman made at least one blunder as to fact. obeisance to this House. He told us we were insisting upon free trade and wanted to drive this I say that the bill which is now presented has not proposed to cut the Government back to the policy of the old Confederation-a resort to rates of taxation too deeply. I will prove it by competent witnesses. direct taxation. I was amazed at the gentleman's lack of familiarity I subprena for that purpose every man who belongs to the party on the with the early history of his country. The old Confederation never had other side of this House. I do so for this reason: In the last Congress any taxing power. The old Qonfederation never claimed any taxing we saw a bill pa ed which is known as the Tariff Commission bill. .A. power. The old Confederation never did, by tariff or direct taxation, commission was raised and appointed and the work of tariff revision was undertake to raise a dollar for its maintenance or its support. It was farmed out to it. It drafted a bill which passed through the House a "free-love" affair. It received voluntary contributions from the from a conference committee and was crystallized into law. Its authors States, but admitted that it stood shorn of all power either to lay a tax promised us that the bill would reduce the tariff rates from 20 to 25 per or enforce its coUection. cent. That bill went into operation, but it has failed to make good the But, sir, we have various phases presented in this discussion. My pledges that were given. Instead of reducing the tariff rates 20 or 25 friend from Maryland [Mr. FINDLAY] tells us that the issue is made per cent. it reduces them but 1! per cent. here now for incidental protection upon t~e one side, and absolute free I know that the necessities of party required that there should be trade upon the other. some supplemental statement made in order that it might appeay that 1\fr. FINDLAY. I said this bill was the beginning. possibly the reduction may be greater. But according to the last report Mr. BLACKBURN. It is neither the beginning nor will it be the obtained from the Chief of the Bureau of Statistics you were not able to end. extort from him a promise based upon hope or supposition that would Ur. FINDLAY. I do not think it will be the end. carry the reduction of tariff rates by the bill of 1883 above 5 per cent. 1\fr. BLACKBURN. I claim that I have aright togo to the majority, instead of 20 or 25 per cent. not the minority of the opposition to this bill, when I seekfor a decla The bill that is here before you, if it shall become a law supple ration of their purposes. I choose rather to take the gentleman from mental to the measure of 1883, will still fall short of the tariff taxation 1\fassaehusetts L1tir. RussELL], a distinguished member of the Commit relief that the Republican party promised to the people of this country. tee on Ways and Means. He has forced the issue; he has not allowed us There is a saving clause in this bill which it seems to me would be suf:. to shape it or frame it. He told you on this floor the other day that :ficient to commend it to the support of every protectionist. While the issue was made; that it was protection for the sake of protection. putting this h<;>rizontal cut on the tariff list, it expressly provides that Gentlemen, we ask you what is it you mean by your opposition to the duties on no article that is to be affected shall in any case or under the bill? Is it revenue that you want? If so, we tell you to take it. any circumstances be reduced below that rate of protection which was Take all you need. Take until you yourselves admit that you have afforded by what is known as the l\Iorrill tariff·bill of 1 61. It carries all that you can use. Take what the necessities of the Government an omnibus or a basket clause into which fall for protection, to the demand, but when you have obtained that say ''halt'' to the tax-gath extent of the war-tariff rate of 1861, every article no matter how little erer, for whenever you go one inch beyond that limit the ta,x:-gatherer's the duty upon it may now range above the rates of that statute. hand becomes a robber's hand. [Applause.] The tariff bill of 186 was pa&;ed in the face of the greatest civil war What is your estimate of the people with whom you are dealing? of modern times, '" hen the necessities of this country forced Congress to Do you think the people will think you sincere when you tell them exaggerated attempts upon the tax-paying people of the land, when that a tariff is a tax, and in the same breath assure them the laying of producers by the million were tuxned into consumers in the persons of that tax upon a certain article will cheapen its cost to the man who soldiers; when armies and fleets and navies were to be raised and builded buys and consumes it? What is your estimate of popular intelligence, and maintained; when war was to have all of its frightful exactions if you expect the people to believe you, when you tell them that your met. The tariff that was deemed sufficient for that purpo e constitutes policy is either fair or friendly to the laborer while you force him· to sell the minimum rate of protection contemplated in the bill before you. the coinage of his sweat in the cheapest market known among men, the The distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. RANDALL] free-trade market of the world, and at the same time compel him to tells us that if we pass this bill it is going to be fraught with all untold buy that upon which he lives in the dearest market that either human horrors; it is going to work injury to invested capital; to destroy estab or de>ilish ingenuity can construct through the agency of protective lished industries; to mar the prospect of commercial development, and arbitrary tariff laws like this? to bring ruin generally upon the industrial classes of the country. Why, Mr. Chairman, I do not believe that the victims of this deception so sir, the gentleman from Pennsylvania, as everybody knows, stands long practiced will continue to endure it. The time will come when here to-day complaining of the Committee on Ways and Means, and they will grow weary. The time, I believe, is not far distant when says that the bill it has produced is a confession of incapacity to handle they will repudiate such bald political hypocrisy and refuse to submit the intricate subject of the tariff. to such politicaljugglery. Yet, sir, that gentleman stood here in the last Congress advocating The people are aroused for the first time in our lives upon this tariff at its every stage, supporting in every shape possible what can only be issue. It is the issue in American politics to-day. It will not down. described as a tariff abortion in the shape of the Tariff Commission bill. Cunning and insincerity have for years been able to evade the issue. He supported the Committee on Ways and Means in the last Congress It can not be longer deferred. Parties are ranging themselves upon when it farmed out its work of tariff revision, farmed it out to a com this line, and whether we will or no we must :fight the battle out mission who by their own works, upon the united testimony of the in that direction. I do not care what gentlemen may say about free President of the United States, embodied in his messages, upon the trade and the ultimate purposes of the party here. That is not the testimony of the Secretary of the Treasury, upon the testimony of the issue. It is not the question presented. Their effort is not sincere 1884. · CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 3897 when they seek to evade it through such a subterfuge. There is no man he can get what supplies he needs, and he answers and tells you, yes, proposing free tmde. I do not know a man who wants to destroy a but he says if the home supply of manufactured goods shall not equal single dollar of invested capita.J.. I do not know a man who wants to the home demand, then you compel him to pay tribute to the manu cripple a single established industry. I do not know a man who wants facturer of exactly the difference between his demand and the price at to put under the ban of proscription the great m:mufacturing interest which the foreign article can be had. of this country. For my part I want to see that interest put upon a But suppose on the other hand the home supply of manufactured normal and natural footing. I want to see it kept there, and I want goods exceeds the home demand, what then? If the home supply is to see it promoted and expanded, moving on and keeping pace with in excess of the home demand what follows? An overstocked market other honest industrial interests of the land. [Applause.] and a shrinkage of value, and either a diminution of the amount of Mr. Chairman, protection is an enemy to barter and trade. Its only manufacturing labor employed or a reduction of the wages of the la purpose is to choke those channels which commerce has fashioned and borer. In this case the producer and the consumer are plundered, and opened for itself. The commerce of this country or any other can in the second the laborer is robbed, but in both the manufacturer is riot be carried on with a foreign nation upon a gold and silver basis. . safe and he alone rises superior to the exigency. There is not coin enough among the civilized nations of the earth as a But, sir, thatisnotall. I say theprotectivetariffpolicy of this country basis of transaction to support the trade of this country or England for is baneful in its results for many reasons, that it tends to concentrate a single twelvernon th. It can only be conducted on the basis qf exchange capital in a particular section and in the hands of a particular class. of commodities. If you deny it, I ask you to look at the tables. I will not detain this What fairness is there, what honesty is there in your telling the House with reading; but will print them with these remarks. Tell me, American laborer he can take the product of his toil and sell it in open if you please, what was it unless it was protection that brought about the market, bnt he shall not receive in exchange the wares, goods, or mer results shown by these tabuL'tted statements furnished me within the chandise he may need of him with whom he traffics? You force him last ten days from the Treasury Department? Of thirty-eight States in to sell abroad, you oblige him to J:my at home, and the only reason you this Union nine are, par excellence, protected; I allude to the six New can assign is that the home manufacturer must needs be cared for. England, and New York, New .Jersey, and Pennsylvania. This is class legislation, and no one can successfully deny it. You tell I find in 1850 they had a total population of 8,626,851 people. In him after l:e has carried the productions of this soil into the open mar 1860 the same States had 10,500,000; in 1870 this hadincreas~d to 12,- kets of the world and sold them there in competition with this pauper 200,000, while in 1880 it was 14,500,000. All the States of this Union labor, as you are pleased to call it-you tell him he must. return home had 23,000,000 in 1850, 31,000,000 in 1860, 38,000,000 in 1870, and and make his purchases here in the protected market for the benefit of 50,000,000 of population in 1880. Of this total population the nine your pampered and favored classes. He answers that this is not fair; States to which I have alluded had the proportion that I have stated that if you have forced him to sen what he had to dispose of in open before. But mark you here: their percentage of population in 1850 was market and in competition, why not give him the right to buy upon 37 per cent. of the total. From 1850 to 1860 the percentage went down the same terms, if it is barter and trade he is engaged in. from 37 to 33 per cent. ; from 1860 to 1870 they changed from 33 to 31 We all know, Mr. Chairman, that the home demand here will not per cent., and from 1870 to 1880 it went still further down, and stands consume the produce of our soil. You tell us 90 per cent. is consumed to-day at 28. How is it, Mr. Chairman, with their percentage of wealth by our own people and 10 per cent. goes abroad. I will not say that if! or their per capita fund? The per capita wealth of these nine States not true; I will content myself by saying that it is a questionable if was $360 in 1850. In 1860 it was $527, being a fa..ir increase for that not an exaggerated calculation. But suppose it to be true. That sur period. But from 1860 to 1870 under a protective tariff it jumped. from plus which is sold in the foreign market determines the price of the $527 to $1,243 per head, and went from 1870 to 1880 and stands to-day commodity. It determines it at home and abroad. Then it can not be at $1,353 per head. How was the per capita with the other twenty fair to put the determination of the product of the farmer in the hands nine States of the Union during the same period? I find that in 1850 ofthe foreign nation and putthedetermination ofthepriceofcommod the per capita of the other Stntes was 274. In 1860itwas$506. Mark ities upon which he lives in the hands of the protected class. you, it had nearly doubled in that revenue-tariff decade. But from But you tell me you are going to furnish him a home :mu.rket in which $506, in 1860, it only went to $562 in 1870, and stands at $673 to-day. Wealth and population of the United States. Population. Estimated true valuation . 1850. 1860. . 1870. 1880. 1850. 1860. 1870. 1880. The United States...... 23,191, 876 31, 443,321 38,558, 371 50,155,783 $7,135, 780,228 $16, 159, 616, 068 $30,068,518,507 $43,642,000, 000 1======1======1======1======1======1======1======:======1\Iaine...... 583,169 628, 279 626, 915 648,936 122,777,571 190; 211,600 348, 155,671 I 501,000,000 NewHampshire...... 317,976 326,073 318,300 346,991 103,652,835 156,310,860 252,624,112 328,000,000 Vermont...... 314., 120 315,098 • 330, oo""l 332,286 92,205,049 122,477,170 235,349,553 289,000.000 1\Iassachusetts ...... 994, 514. 1, 231, 066 1, 457,351 1, 783,085 573,342, 286 815,237, 4.33 2, 132, 148,74.1 2, 795,000,000 ~~!!c~i~~.~:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Mb:~ ~~:~~ ;~::: ~~:r~ 1::~:~ ~~:t.S: ~::1:~~ ~:~:~ NewYork ...... 3,097,394 3,880,735 4.,382,759 5,082,871 1,080,309,216 1,848,338,517 6,500,841,264 7,619,000,000 New .Jersey ...... -...... 489,555 672,035 906,096 1, 131,116 200,000,000 467,918, 3?.A 940,976,064 6, 433,000,000 Pennsylvania ...... 2, 311,786 2, 906,215 3, 521, 951 4, 282, 891 722,486, 120 1, 416,501, 818 3, 808, 340,112 ~. 393, 000,000 Total for nine States...... 8,626,851 10,594,268 1 12,298,730 14,507,407 3, 130,989,851 5,591,607,424 15,290,032,687 19,630,000,000 Per cent. of population and valuation of the nine selected States ...... 37 33 31 28 43. 88 34. 60 50. 85 44. 98 P er capita. wealth of the nine selected States ...... $363 $527 $1, 24.3 Sl, 353 ...... All other States...... 1-=1=4,=565=).;.=025== :1==20=,=84=9=, 053==i' l· =2=6,=25=-9=,=64l= ll =35=-=,648=,=37=6= l==$t,=004=· =, 7=90=,=37=7=ISI==o=,=568=,008=,=64.4.=, I=SI=4=,=77=8=,4=85=- ,=82=0=l1 ==$124,=0=12=,=000=, =000= Per capita. wealth, all other Sta.t~s ...... ~:.:74 $506 $562 $673 ...... Whatwasit, now, tha.tbroughtthisunnaturalaccumulationofwealth you demand more protection than you pay for labor entering into the with a constantly decreasing percentage of population? How did the commodities that you manufacture. There can be neither justice nor largest and most thoroughly developed of all the States in the Union honesty in the claim. · manage to gathertogetherthisunnatural increase of accumulated wealth unless it was the direct result of the protective-tariff system of which ·Rate of duty under present and proposed laws, and per cent. of labor in they are the special beneficiaries? If there is any other explanation manufactu?·e. that may be offered I ask any man on this floor to give it to this House. There are the figures, there are the facts; now what is the explanation ? Articles. Present r.Iorrison Labor. But we are told frequently by the advocates of a protective system law. bill. that all they want to do is to equalize the wages of American labor with those of foreign countries. I answer and say that that is not a case of Per cent. Per cent. Per cent. sincere explanation. That is not what they mean to do; nor, Ur. Cottons...... 38. 29 31.50 21.6 Hemp, jute, &c...... 28.04 24.61 23.6 Chairman, is it the effect of what they undertake to do. "\Vool, &c...... 57.71 46.43 16.1 I hold in my hand, and I will print it here that all may see it, a list Metals...... 35. 19 29.81 28.4 as long as this [indicating], covering the most important textile fabrics Sugar...... _...... 43.59 34. frl 1.8 Tobacco...... 72. 70 58.16 28.9 of the countryinwhich the protectivedutiesimposeduponthemamount Wood, &c...... 33. 98 29.35 31.7 absolutely to more than ali you have paid for the labor in the production Earthen and glass ware...... 53. 16 44.12 43. 0 Qf tbe goods yourselves at borne. It is not to equalize labor, then, when 3898 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. MAY 6, But your protective policy has done more. It has checked production of this measure to-day declares to his people aud the country that he at home and crippled our trade abroad. Look at this statement: is not willing to have the tariff revised, taxation reduced, or surplus Imports into Great Britain. revenues· abated. [Applause.] The man who votes to strike the en RAW OOTTON. acting clause out of this bill admits to the country and the world that From the United States: he dare not face the issue either of a revision of the tariff or a reduc 186(>...... pounds ... 1,115, 890,608 tion of taxation even on the terms which he himself may offer. [Ap 1882 ...... pounds ... 1, 154,732,208 · From East lndJes : plause.] 1860 •..•••..•.••...... •..••...... •••...•..•..•.... : •...•...••.....•...... pounds... 204,141,168 Mr. Chairman, we are receiving to-day a hundred millions of money 1882 ...... •...... pounds... 406,515,424 more than the Government's requirements now call for. It is useless From Egypt: 1860...... pounds ... 43,954,064 for the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. RANDALL] to undertake 1882 ...... pounds ... 1!~418,080 to tell this House that the surplus of revenue this year will be $60,000,- Per cent. of increase from the United Stat-es in twenty-four years .. . .Nothing. 000. He knows that the estimate is made by the officials of a party that Per cent. of increase from British lndJa in fourteen years ...... 100 Per cent. of increase from Egypt in fourteen years ...... 246 stand almost in solid phalanx protesting against the passage of the bill WHEAT. for whose defeat this stratagem is paraded here. There are a hundred From British lndJa: millions and more of surplus revenue; two hundred and sixty millions 1870 ...... hundredweights... 8, 600 of bonds subject to call, none of them being called. With that surplus 1882 ...... hundred weights... 8, 461, 004 From Australia: in your Treasury you will decree here to-day if yon carry your motion 1870 ...... - ...... hundredweights... 85,222 to strike out the enacting clause that that burden must remain, when 1882 ...... bundredweights... 2,475,127 neither justification, palliation, nor excuse can be offered for its con The result of the prohibition of the export of cotton by the war, and tinuance. the cramping, strangling coru;eqnences of your protective policy since Now, sir, if yon shall defeat this bill by this summary proce , I the war, did this. The increase in our production of cotton from 1850 to wish to appeal to every man, whet.her he sits upon this side or the 1860, under a revenue tariff, was 118 per cent., while from 1860 to 1880, other, that there shall be a frank and candid statement of the i ne under your protective policy, that increase was but 6 per cent. Prior made; that the people shall understand, without any guise or gauze to 1860 the culture of cotton was the sole employment of the planter, being thrown over the question, that this measure was not either an because with unobstructed trade with Great Britain it was m01·e remn initial step in the direction of free trade nor a demand that went be nemtive than. any other crop or product. Then the cotton-planter pur yond the single proposition stated-that it was an effort at a reduction chased all his breadstuffs, his pork, his mules, horses, and provender of useless taxation and an abatement of a redundant revenue. I do from the people of the Northwest. He was content to give all his land, not know, sir, what the fate of this bill is to be. I say if it is a good his labor, and his efforts to the production of his own peculiar staple, bill it should be passed; if it is a bad bill it should be amended and while furnishing this great home market to his neighbors of the North perfected. And no excuse can be offered for this Honse if it refru:es west. Your policy has transformed the planter into the rival instead and withholds that effort. of the•customer of his Northwestern neighbor, and he is now raising his I say, sir, the issue is made up. The gentleman from Massachusetts own corn and pork and mnJ es, and this home market has been destroyed. [:M:r. RussELL] upon this floor on the 18th of April declared: These figures will not be q 1estioned, for they are taken from the high Both parties should clearly and boldly assert their positions. Let the people est official authority of the British Empire. This is a part of the work be no longer deceived by meaningless and deceptive platforms. Let now the protective feature of the tariff be submitted to the people in the next election. of protection. If after a fair and full discussion they desire to eliminate from the tariff laws the Bat, sir, objection is made to this as a tariff bill upon the ground that element of protection for protection, let them assume the responsibility, choose it fails to correct existing abuses and irregularities in the present tariff between the two systems, and accept the consequences. system. That does not come well from your side of this Chamber. Yon That gentleman has a right to speak for his party. He is among its made this tariff bill yourselves, with the assent of some few who sit ablest advocates. He is among its most honored exponents. He upon this side of the Honse. Yon made this tariff bill and you took stands pre-eminently high and worthily respected. Protection for pro eight months in which to perfect it, and yon employed at a heavy ex tection is his battle cry. That is the ground upon which he throws pense a lot of men better known for their capacity in politics during his gauge of battle. And I answer we can not lift it soon enough. the early part of this or the latter part of the last century than they Let the issue come. Let the great national contest before us be in are at present. You made it as it is, and now refuse to voteforareduc augurated upon the ground of his own selection. Let the one party tion of taxation because you say~hat we have not corrected the abuses go with its banners blazoned to the field "tariff for tribute " and we and inequalities in that production. • will carry upon ours "tariff for revenue." (Applause. J Let that be My answer to that argument is that if the present bill does not cor the issue. We want no better. rect the abuses that exist it makes them no worse and it abates them If it were possible for men to rise above the ruts of party, if it were to a certain degree. It cuts down one-fifth of the enormous exactions competent for us by an honest appeal to lift them above the bias of the imposed upon our people. As a tariff bill yon seek to quarrel with it. partisan, I would make a final appeaJ. to all, no matter upon which side As a tax-reduction bill you are left mthont any rational reason to assign of this Chamber they may sit, to agree at least to this, to lighten the or objection to it. You can not do it, and in sheer desperation you say burdens of taxation in proportion and to the exact extent of the de that instead of reducing the surplus revenues of the Government the ~ands ofthe Government and make our party divisions on some other effect will be to increase them. Why, what do yon mean by that? Yon ground. But for party's sake I welcome the rontest where Massachu say you are afraid to reduce the taxes $30,000,000 for fear of adding to setts pitches it. I like to have it here and want to see the party lines the Federal revenues ! dra.wn as sharply and as well defined as possible. You can not make Gentlemen, if yon have honest, intelligent constituencies behind you it too clear. The fighting will be made hot enough, and we will ap I defY yon to go and tell them that. Tell them you refuse to reduce peal to the people. the burden of taxation upon them for fear that the Federal Treasury If this bill shall die in this House or the other, if it shall fail to be would be flooded with a stream of coin that comes from foreign coun crystallized into law, there is nothing left for us to do except to go to tries. Go home and tell your people that you vote against the bill that the country and another court higher than this. There is another tri looks to the relief of their burdens of taxa.tion, because yon wish to bunal that is thelastresortwheretheAmericanpeoplewill be impaneled keep from getting more money into the people's Treasury, and there as a jury. To them we will take it, and there we will make our ap fore wrench more money out of the people's pockets. The answer of peal for the triumph of a set of principles that have been battled for for those who support the protection minority report as an argument for nearly a hundred years; principles that for more than half of its exist not supporting this bill upon the floor will be that the bill reduces the ence have shaped and guided the destinies of this great Government; revenues thirty millions only, but it will reduce taxation under the principles whose reacceptance by the American people accounts for the present tariff system $125,000,000 a year. ponderous majority that sits about me. I trust that while it does that and works such a benefa{)tion it will We will go there and the advocates of these principles and the de increase your revenues a hundred millions annually. If that should fenders of this faith are rP.ady for the fray. Armed in a cause that we be the result, as you foretell, then with caution and with prudence we know to be just, proud of its history and p1·oud of its hopes, remem will proceed in our effort to obtain tax reduction until we will bring bering the many victories with which it has blazoned the century that the revenues of this Government and its taxing limit to exactly the lies behind us, trusting to the fairness of its tenets, recollecting all the demand~ for administration and for maintena.nce. There is no free glorious traditions that cluster about its past, cheered by the opening trade in this fight. It is a proposition to limit the taxation of this promise of its future they await in confidence the issue that is to come. people to the demands of this Government. He who refuses to stand If I lacked faith in the people I could hold no confidence in popular by it finds new ground on which to plant himself, unh.rnown till within government. My trust in the ultimate triumphs of my party and the the last twelve months either~ Democrats or to Republicans. maintenance of our institutions rests deeply rooted in my unwavering But, Mr. Chairman, that is not the question submitted for determi and unfaltering faith in the intelligence, patriotism, and . ~he manhood of nation here to-day. It is not whether this bill shall become a law so the American people. The end of this conflict must come, and when 1ar as the action of this House is concerned. The first vote that you it comes the people will stand for the right. are to be caned upon to give is to determine whether this bill shall be Let us br9aden our policies. Let us liberalize Ei'ur 13ws. Let us give considered up to a point where it may be amended and perfected if it a free American register to which each citizen may go and under its be not perfect. The man who votes to strike the enacting clause out regis may fly the American flag from the mast-head of every Ameri- 1884. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 3899 can-owned vessel, whether built here at home, or upon the Thames, taxation and to revise to a degree an admittedly bad tariff. [Great the Mersey, or the Clyde. Do this; repeal your cramping statutes, re applause.] lease your throttling grasp from the strangling trade of a struggling Mr. KASSON obtained the floor and said: I yieldfiveminutes to the people, rebuild your shattered and wasted merchant marine. And gentleman from. Kansas [Mr. ANDERSON]. when you have done that, put your country upon the high road of that Mr. ANDERSON. I am much obliged to the gentleman from Iowa destiny for which her location, her power, her advantages, and the [Mr. KAssoN] for his courtesy. genius and the manhood of her people have fairly entitled her. Un Mr. Chairman, in this debate two wholly different questions have hand this young commercial giant and leave him to work out his own been largely considered: First, the general doctrine of protection or the grand destiny among the nations of the earth, unfettered by the shack opposing one of free trade; and second, the precise application which les with which folly and selfishness would bind him. should be made of these principles in fixing the rate of duty on the 3, 000 The gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. EATON] told us that England articles embraced in our tariff, or in determining what articles shall and for six hundred and fifty years was busily engaged in following the 'lg what shall not be placed on the free-list. Deferring a discussion of these n·is ja;tuus of protection; that she refused to allow goods to come from doctrines to a future occasion, I now wish simply to restate my position, foreign countries into her ports, but went there and obtained foreign and to indicate the course I shall take respecting the pending bill, and · skilled labor and made it the possession of England. So she did, and do so only because I have been misconceived by some gentlemen and groveled on in poverty and comparative obscurity until within the misrepresented by others. , present century she shook off these commercial shackles, declared her Upon the first of these questions I stand to-day as I have always broader policy against the dogma of protection, swept the seas, and be stood, and shall always stand, upon the principles of the Republican came the admitted arbiter of universal commerce. party as enunciated in its national platforms, fully believing them not We arc doing to-day what he complained of England's doing for so only to be grounded in economic truth, but to be the safest policy for many centuries. Read the testimony of one of the constituents, I be our national guidance, and the most beneficent for all our people. I lieve, of my colleague on the committee, the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. quote all of them: l\IcKINLEY], a glass manufacturer, who testified before the Committee 1872. And that revenue, except; so much a.s may be derived from the ta.x upon on Ways and Means that he, too, was busily engaged in importing tobacco and liquors, should be raised by duties upon importations, the details of which should be so adjusted a.s to aid in securing remunerative wages to labor what? Foreign skilled labor to run his manufacturing establishments and to promote the industries, prosperity, and growth of the whole country. here, thereby forcing and crowding down the wages of the home laborer 1876. The revenue necessary for current expenditures and the obligations of or displacing him from employment, practicing this philanthropy toward the public debt must be largely derived from duties upon importations, which, so far as possible, should be adjusted to promote the interests of American labor the object of his affections, and proving that he was both a philanthro and advance the prosperity of the whole country. pist and a Christian, but somehow after the iashion of the Pharisee 1880. We reaffirm the belief avowed in 1876 that the duties levied for the pur who thanked G<>d that he was not as other men, but blest with better poses of revenue should so discriminate as to favor American labor. opportunities for plundering the poor and robbing the helpless. [Ap I maintain the doctrine of protection in its truest and fullest sense, plause.] I doubt not that the devil will apologize for the prese:pce of and, as it is variously understood, shall specifY" its outlines. I advo such a hypocrite when found in the limits of his dominions. [Laugh cate the principle of levying such a tax upon certain imports as shall, ter.] by increasing the price thereof to the consumer, give a greater profit These aretheadvocatesofa policythatshall have but one object and one to American than to foreign manufacturers or producers, and so protect result-to protect the American laborer. Mr. Chairman, I do not know American labor, capital, and industry against the cheaper labor, capital, that an appeal from any one would have the effect of influencing a single and industry of other nations. I favor a tariff which will, by virtue vote. I wish to protest here and now against the injustice that has of this extra profit, secure such a competition between our own manu been done and the effort that has been made to create the impression or facturers as shall cause them to divide this extra profit with those the conviction that there were purposes cherished by us to excommuni whom they employ in the form. of better wages, and with the farmer or cate and drive from place or to exile from party any who may differ miner whose products they use in the form of better prices for mate from us. I have no mission to issue a threat against any man. I hold rial, thus securing remunerative wages to American labor in jts broad no powe1· of expulsion. It rests with each and all of us to determine sense; a tariff which will also protect the American people against the our party affiliations as we will. Any man can vote himself out of the cupidity of American manufacturers by maintaining such competition party if he wants to; itisnotforanotherto drive him out. We have no between them as shall insure the lowest reasonable prices to the con harsh words to employ, no threats to utter. sumer of the articles they make, and which, while fixing the duty suf But upon a measure as broad andas fair as this, as clearly defensible ficiently high to assure these results, shall not place it so high as to and as easily maintained, having for its object these beneficial results free them from foreign competition and deprive the people of this safe- · which no man dares to oppose, I do appeal to those who sit around me guard against exorbitant profits; one which will promote the prosperity to let us stand together, having assumed the people's cause, and keep of the whole country by fostering those industries which, after due the faith that we plighted to that people. [Applause.] protection, Rhall become self-depending and of national value. I ad We told them-thesegentlemenknowthat I utterthetruth-wetold vocate such a tariff, on the one hand as against free trade or a tariff them in the last Congressional campaign that if we gained power in this for revenue only, or one for revenue with incidental protection; and country we would revise the tariff lawR and make them equitable. We on the other hand as against a prohibitory tariff, which, by lifting told them we would reduce their taxation that was burdensome and manufacturers above the plane of competition, may give them a mo needless. Here in this Honse at least we hold the power to make that nopoly hurtful to the American operative, farmer, miner, and pur promise good. If we fail, then we will not be worthy to receive and will chaser alike-in other words, a competitive as distinct from a prohibitive not receive the indorsement of the people. tariff, and fully indorse the following words of the late President It is a solemn contract that we have entered into. The conditions Garfield, uttered on this floor: have been complied with at the polls by the sovereigns of this land. We have seen that one extreme school of economists would place the price of The power has been vested in our hands, and let him. who would strike all manufactured articles in the hands of foreign producers by rendering it im down his party, its principles, its measures, and its policies, show by the possible for our ma.nufaeturers to compete with them; while the other extreme school, by making it impossible for the foreigner to sell his competing wares in record upon whose hands that blood is to be found. our market, would leave no check upon the prices which our manufacturers Ati I stand here looking up I see over me the broad and grand and might fix upon their products. I hold, therefore, t.hataproperly adjusted com wise motto of my own beloved Commonwealth. I can dono more than petition between home and foreign products is the best gauge by which to reg ulate international trade. Duties ehould be so high that our manufacturers can to emphasize that motto which is above us in an earnest, an honest, and fairly compete with the foreign product, but not so high as to enable them to a final appeal to those of my faith. If we stand united we will con drive out the foreign article, enjoy a monopoly of the tra.de, and regulate the price as they please. quer; if we are divided disaster may likely come. * • * • • * * I appeal to my party friends to recognize this as a party measure, I regret that narrow view which considers industry any one particular form made so not of its own essence or character, but by the adion of the of labor. I object to any theory that treats the industries of the country as they other side. I appeal to them, recognizing it as such, not only to main were treated in the last census, when we had one schedule for "agriculture" and another for "industry," as though agriculture were not an industry, as tain and defend the position which their party has assumed, but to re though commerce and trade and transportation were not industries. American deem the pledges which were given to the people and which can not industry is labor in any form which gives value to the raw materials or elements be forfeited except by an abandonment of faith. of nature, either by extracting them from the earth, the air, or the sea, or by modifying their forms, or transporting them through the channel& of trade Mr. Chairman, I will not go further, except to express the hope that to the markets of the world, or in any way rendering them better fitted for the in the near future we may be able to bring to this House enough of en use of man. All these are parts of American industry, and deserve the careful lightenment, of patriotism, and progressive intelligence to repudiate the and earnest attention of the legislature of the nation. Wherever a ship plows the sea or a plow furrows the field, wherever a mine yields its treasure, wher bigotry that disgraces politics in the shape of protection, as bigotry is ever a ship or a. railroad train carries freight to market, wherever the smoke of a disgrace even to the cause of religion. No bigot, whether he be Chris the furnace rises or the clang of the loom resounds, even in the lonely garret tian, so called, or politicia~ ever contributed one atom to the advance where the seamstress plies her busy needle, there is industry. ment ofhumanity's cause. The bigotry in connection with this ques I am for such a protective tariff because it will aid in securing re tion is driveling in its tendencies; it curbs and restricts the natural munerative wages to American labor and increase the jndustry, pros course to greatness which commerce would bring. I ask at the hands perity, and growth of the whole country; because it is republican, of this House, with a :firmrelianceuponafavorable answer, that it shall framed on republican principles, deeply rooted in fertile truths, safe~ never be said that a Democratic House in an American Congress re guarded 3oo-ainst abuse by rapacious greed, and finally mellowing inro fused even to consider a bill that proposed to reduce admitted excessive that cessation of action which we call ripeness in fruit and which is em- 3900 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. MAY 6, blemized by the bronze and golden tints of an autumn forest. I am for the latter because being of more importance to our national pro perity it, whether yielding revenue or not, because insuring to our nation the and because embracing by far the greater number of our people. For mo t. diversified industry and highest art of which the human mind these reasons I voted to consider the .Morrison bill, as it afforded the only can become capable or the best genius of civilization unfold; because opportunity we are likely to have this session for revising the tariff, with affording a defense to our own arti&'Lns against foreign labor cheapened the intention of proposing as a substitute therefor one placing lumber • below the point of common humanity; because insuring to our farmers and salt on the free-list, reducing the tariff on sugar as indicated, and markets at the bam-door, mills on streams, and the bright light of wife- restoring the duty on wool, which amendment I shall make whenever hood and home in the gloomiest forest; because, in due. time, over an opportunity occurs. For these same reasons, and until yesterday every sea and in every harbor that commerce visits, flaring out our flag I had intended to vote against the motion to strike out the enacting from American topmasts above American hulls filled with American clause, and my reason for changing that purpose is a belief that products. owing to the exceeding closeness of the division of the House and to th~ The doctrine of protection is a party doctrine; its principles are held certainty that the lump process will be followed, the results which I and defended by the Republican party as a party issue. To it the desire can not now be obtained, and because of a fear that any changes Democratic party, in various degrees, opposes the doctrine of free trade. which are now likely to be effected will give still further advantages to But the details of a tariff bill never were and never can be made a the manufacturing in1erests by reductions of the whisky and tobacco party issue, because gentlemen will differ according to the interests of revenues rather than to the agricultural interests by free lumber and their constituents as to the exact application which shall ~ made of salt. I shall vote accordingly. these principles to the thousands of articles which may be included by Mr. KASSON. Mr. Chairman, I had hoped at the conclusion of the a tariff. The line of division here to-day is not that between political last Congress that both this House and the country would be relieved parties so mnch as that between the manufacturing and agricultural from further agitation upon the tariff long enough to enable both the industries, and everybody on this floor knows it. House and t he country to know what would be the effect of the measUI'e The Republican voters of Americawhoreallyconstitute "theparty" so recently adopted. I feel that in entering upon the debate again at are living in forty different States, having diverse material interests with this time, at the very next session following the pa sage of the present different vocations, necessities, and opinions as to the details of economic law, we are traveling over beaten ground, and very little can be said subjects. They not only may bnt do and will stand athwart a conti- to further enlighten either this body or the country upon the great nent, elbow to elbow, in solid and unified phalanx upon the prote~tive questions at issue. We are to a great extentnecessarilythrashing the principles of our national platform, without a shade of difference as to straw-stack of last year's harvest. their truth and beneficence; and what is more they will elect the next A new bill has been formed and presented before six months had President, whichresultthisdebatehasfully assured. But they equally elapsed of the operation of the previous law. This bill was inaugu may and should exercise the right to discuss and differ as to just what rated under circumstances differing from any which have previously application shall be made of these principles, to what articles, at what existed. Ordinarily a tariff bill is formed clause by clause under the mtes of duty, aud for what period. And so let me persuade some of consideration of a regular committee. This tariff bill, it is an open you gentlemen on this side to preserve the continuity ofyour faultless secret, sprang full-armed from the brain of our Jove of the Ways and raiment and heartily concede to tho e Republicans living in the district Means Committee, or of the Olympian council which surrounded him. which I represent, who believe that lumber or salt should be placed We of the minority were not permitted even to share the duties of a on the free-list, the same right and liberty which you exercise in be- nurse of this promising infant when it made its appearance among us. lieving to the contrary, without questioning the genuinen of their So jealous of the child were its authors, that they allowed no change to. Republicanism, their sense of justice, or their patriotism. A larger be made in its garments, no suggestion to be accepted, but insisted proportion of them wore the blue than can be found in any other State. that it should be brought to your baptismal font, Mr. Chairman, with And whether you do this or not, just so long as they hall pla~ me out any aid from us, there to receive its baptismal designation of "20 on this floor I will use the best industq and judgment of which I am per cent.'' · capable toward ascertaining their interests both as Republicans and I object, sir, to this bill in the fu t instance because of the twelve Americans, as affected by proposed legislation, and will maintain those chedules affected by its provisions six are aimed at the interests of interests as I shall believe necessary at any and all personal acri:fice. the agriculture of the country. The propo ed reduction strikes a blow If some of you gentlemen on this side who represent manufacturing in six instances at one or another branch of this great interest, and that districts want a party vote, you can have mine the very instant you at a moment when the advocates of the bill are claiming on this floor present a true party issue, and dismiss your Democratic allies led by that those interests are depressed and need relief. the distinguished Presidential candidate of the Pennsylvania Democ- I object to it, because in one especialparticnlarittouches largely the racy. Till then I shall believe that you, though stanch Republicans, interests of the Northwest. I have before me a telegram received this are not voting in that character and upon a party issue, but according morning urging that on account of its effect upon flax and flaxseed this to the iri.terests of your constituents, as I also shall do; because I just bill should be defeated. It affects injuriously this interest to which po itively know that, however estimable they may be, the gentlemen, Northwestern farmers are to-day turning their attention, a the profits from Pennsylvania Mr. RANDALL, from State-rights Mr. EATON, and on the wheat crop diminish. That interest is one which needs a con all the rest of that half-hundred Democrats, are not Republicans, or tinuance of protection during its growth. Recently at the Institute in a bit zealous to promote the interests of the Republican party; on Boston a new process was disclosed for reducing the flax fiber which the contrary, "quite the reverse." The bond between you is not a now goes to waste to the condition necessary for the manufacture of linen, political one, it is the mutuality of industrial interests, and every man largely cheapening the process in that particular which ha alone dis man on this floor knows it. abled us hitherto from successfully introducing the linen industry into Now, with respect to these details as presented by the bill before us, the United States and adding it to the profits of our agriculture. At I hold that the duty on each one of the thousands of articles in our this juncture, when our people are most encouraged to develop on a tariff should be determined by its exact merits and surroundings, and large scale this branch of industry,. when they most need an enlarge am therefore opposed both to the plan of horizontal and of lump re- ment of the diversity of agriculture, comes the blow by this bill to in duction. That the recent revision was alike imperfect and inadequate fl.ict greater di couragement than before. is certain, but scaling down these inequalities 20 per cent. will not But I object to the bill also because as an administrative law it is remove them. The existing ratios between the manufacturing and pro- simply impossible of administration. Not a member of the Ways and clueing interests will remain the same. We reduced the duty on wool Means Committee can tell the importing merchant to-day what duty an average of lot per cent., and that on manufactured woolens but 6t he will be obliged to pay on numerous articles in its schedules. A per cent. I advocate a return to the old ratio. variety of questions must be asked touching every article imported_ That the surplus mnst be reduced is also beyond question. Within under its provisions, and these questions must be separately investi thirty months we will have paid all the bonns which can be redeemed gated. The fu-st is, what did the article cost; next, what is the pres except at an exorbitant premium. Then the 100,000,000 surplus will ent duty; an~ third, what is 0 per cent. of the present duty; fourth, either act as a bonus for public plunder and corruption, or o contract is that above or below the tariff of 1861; :fifth, if below, how much. the currency a to beget universal ruin. I favor its reduction by stop- will exactly equalize it with that tariff? In the case of cotton an ad ping the collection of more money than is needed for a liberal support ditional question is to be a ked: is it above or below 40 per cent. ad of the Government and the payment of the interest and principal of valorem? In the case of woolen goods an additional question will be the debt at maturity. asked: is it above or below 60 per cent. ? In the ca e of metal an ad- I am opposed to the manufacturers' game of abolishing the internal ditional question will be propounded: is it above or below 50 per cent..? revenues, and especially to its most recent phase, that of abolishing the I challenge the tariffs of the world to produce a legislative enormity, tax on tobacco and of reducing the whisky tax under the guise of free a principle of confusion, equal to that presented by this bill which is alcohol for manufa-cturing purpo es. I prefer free lumber to free now commended to the country. [Applause.) Neitherinourhistory whis1..--y, free salt to free tobacco, and favor such a reduction of the sugar nor in any other has it been required that there ball be a complicated tax as will still give ample protection to sorghum rather than a reduc- catechism, with numerous catechumens to answer the questions which tion of that on national-bank circulation, because preferring to ease the you propo e at the custom-house before a foreign article can be intro burden of taxation on those who use the former articles instead of on Iduced into our markets. In less than six months every importing mer those who use the latter. As between the agricultural industry and the chant will clamor at your doors begging you for Heaven's sake to re manufacturing, I shall still endeavor to protect the former rather than store the old or any other tariff, that he may be able to get hi, goods int() 1884. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 3901 the country at any rate of duty whatever. I repeat that as an admin repudiates the principle that we can protect our national· interests istrative measure this bill is impracticable. It is impossible of admin... under our Constitution. We demand that this question shall lie open istmtion except with great delays, hinderances, and embarrassments, at least for another session, until a better start can be taken for the and anadditional corps of custom-house employesfar beyond all calcu care of both the commercial and the productive interests of our country. lations of the authors of the bill. Mr. Chairman, I am glad to have this opportunity of contesting the But, sir, another objection to the bill which may fairly be offered on views of gentlemen on the other side of this House who incline to free both sides of the House to-day is this: It gives to yon and me, now trade and who rest their arguments on the unconstitutionality of pro legislating for the revenue and for the interests of the country-it gives tection. Your position is that we have no constitutional right to im to you and to me no information as to what the duties are to be on the pose a duty for any other purpo e than to meet the necessary expendi articles embraeed in the chednles. This·was so patent to the gentlemen tures of the Government. A..m I not right in this statement? You who are its authors that they proposed to remedy it for the information maintain that under our Constitution-not under the confederate, but of the House by producing these crowded pages of .figures which you see under our own Constitution-we have no right to impose duties for any here, attempting and professing to show the present and the proposed other purposes than to get revenues for the support and maintenance rates of duties. But I beg gentlemen not to OYerlook the introductory of the Government. Is not that your theory? [A pause.] There is note to those statements. They procured from the Treasury an expert, no denial of your position. On the other hand there are gentlemen who was consulte ·-~ during the progress oftbe construction of this bill, here who rely upon the "general-welfare" clause of the Constitution, and who desired to be accurate, but could not be. He says at the head and say that under that we may protect our home interests. I go fur of the schedules what his attempt has been, and I call to that the at ther still, and say that under the clause giving authority for the regu tention of the committee. "It is not claimed, ' says he, "that the lation of foreign commerce you have a distinct, absolute1 constitutional column of estimated receipts and rates under act of .l\1arch 3, 1883, is right to take care of the American people as against foreign interests. more than a proximate exhibit of results; with the changes in both clas [Applause.] sification and rates made in act of March 3, 1883, an absolute exhibit One of the greatest causes of the Revolution was the continued effort is not practicable." Yet the committee publish that with their bill as ·on the part of England to rob us of all our manufacturing facilities. giving trustworthy information to the Honse and the country as to what It was the desire of that government to keep us poor in all save raw the old duties are and the new duties are to be. I assure gentlemen that materials. They prohibited even the erection of slitting-mills in the if they will study, even so far as I have done in the attempt to appre Colonies, they restrained the manufacturing of hats, and prohibited hend the effect of this bill on our rates and revenue, the effects of the even the transportation of wool by wate1;; and many other restrictions 20 per cent. reduction, subject to the various conditions of 40 per cent., upon the productive interests of the country were imposed to compel · 50 per cent., 60 per cent., and of the tariff of 1861, and of the addi the Colonies to receive all their manufactures from England. I beg to tional ad valorem elements introduced, you will be utterly discouraged. read a statement of historical interest, being some questions anc. .. an- • On the arrival of every ship from abroad your accountants at the ens swers of Benjamin Franklin before a parliamentary committee in tom-houses will be thrown into inextricable confusion in their effort to 1766: ascertain what the duty is on a large part of the merchandise imported. What will be the opinions of the Americans on those resolutions?- You declare your wish to remo'"e the hinderances and embarrassments Asserting the right of Great Britain to tax the Colonies. from the foreign trade of the country. Yet you have made a bill here Answer. They will think them unconstitutional n.nd unjust. which means at every step almost insurmountable hinderances and em Q,. Was it an opinion in America, beforel763, thattheParliamenthadno right barrassments without precedent in the history of your legislation. The to lay taxes and duties there? parties most interested in having accurate knowledge of the conditions A. I never heard any objection to the right of laying dttties to regulate com merce, but a right to lay internal taxes was never thought to lie in Parliament. upon which that foreign trade may be conducted must remain in igno Q,. On what do you found your opinion that the people of America make any rance of them till their goods are actually passed by the custom-house. such distinction? • I object to it further because, with the exception of a single clause, it A. I know that whenever the subject has occurred in conversation it has ap peared the opinion of every one that we could not be taxed by a parliament tosses into the lap of Canada and of Europe one-fifth of the duties which where we were not represented. But the payment of duties, laid. as regulations now flow into the Treasury of the United States without an equiva of commerce, was never di puted. lent or compensation from those countries which have imposed hin You observe here that Franklin, afterward one of the framers of our derances and embarrassments on our commerce. With Germany still national Constitution, speaking the "unanimous" voice of the Col excluding our meat products under as we believe inaccurate pretensions; onies, as he said, regarded the laying of duties as a power inherent in with Italy doing the same; with France still resisting our just claims; the authority "to regulate commerce." Imposition of duties is of it with Spain embarrassing our commerce with her colonies; with Cana self the regulation of commerce by the custom and usage of all nations. dian obstruction, while our executive government is trying to-day to Lord Chatham, a few days after this testimony was given by l\fr. procure from these governments better conditions for our commerce, Franklin, on the 14th of January, 1766, in his celebrated speech in the what do you now propose? At this time of all times you say to them, house of commons on the right of taxing America, pointed out the we give freely into your laps one-fifth of the revenue of the United same distinction. He said: States and demand nothing in return. To call that statesmanship is There is a plain distinction between taxes levied for the purpose of raising a to nullify the meaning of the English language. The authors of the revenue and duties imposed for t.he regulation of trade. bill recognized this rule of reciprocity in the case of coal placed on the Go with me one step further. After the defeat of the British at free-list, but in that only. They provided that this clause should not Saratoga they became convinced that by war this country could not be take effect until Canada admitted our coal free instead of under a duty as at present. The committee was right in that. Why did you not conquered. Then it was that they passed a bill, under the direction of Lord North, in 1778, yielding the demand of the Colonies, but too late. extend the principle to lumber, on which the duty which Canada now imposes on American lumber is higher than our duty imposed on Cana That bill declared: It is expedient to declare that the King and Parliament of Great Britain will dian lumber? Yet you say to Canada, youmay.fillourmarkets; we will not impose any duty or tax for the purpose of raising a revenue in the Colonies, permit your lumber to come in free, and you may still by your higher except only such duties as may be expedient to impose for the ,·egulation of com- duty shut all American lumber out of Canada. Is there justice in that? 7nerce. · Such legislation does not de erve the name of statesmanship. You I should be glad to read you what that eminent historian, for whose give away our interests, demanding nothing in return, when for these long-preserved life the whole country is gra,tefnl-what 1\ir. Bancroft great concessions of duty you could obtain important advantages to the says on the occasion of the formation of our present Constitution; and commercial and industrial people of this country. For that reason, and to read from Hildreth's History of the Uni.ted States what he says. I commend it to both sides of the House, I demand a new bill instead But enough to say that at the close of the war with England, as soon as of going into the details of this, in order that the interests of OUJ' coun peace was made, we were deluged with foreign goods, even from the try may be protected on more just principles of legislation. miserable second-hand hops of Dublin and of London; that our .people Ah, Mr. Chairman, there are two kinds of protectionists. There incurred debts they could not pay, and that in a short time they im are men on this side of the Honse, and some on that also, who are for ported thirty million dollars' worth of goods, and could export only protecting Americans and American interests. There are men on that $9,000,000; that the country was drained of its specie, and that impov side, I am sorry to say, who are by this bill proposing to protect the erishment and poverty everywhere prevailed. interests of Canada and of Europe instead of the American people. It was under these circumstances that our Constitution wa.S framed. [.Applause on the Republican side.] I should much prefer-it would It was to secure the regulation of commerce by the imposition of duties be far _better than this bill-to act on a report from the Committee on that that clause was put into the Constitution. In the light of Frank Ways and Means asking our executive government wha.t better con lin's statements, of Chatham's speech, of the British act of Parlia ditions could be obtained from foreign countries in respect to the ad ment; in the light of the condition of the American Colonies as certified mission ofour exports if we would concede 20 per cent. on this schedule, by authenic history, it is an established fact that our fathers under 30 per cent. on that, or 10 per cent. on the other, or if we should put stood by the right to regulate commerce with foreign countries the riglft certain articles on the free-list. to regulate it bJ the imposition of duties. That fact was further estab Now, sir, we are not to be understood as objecting to all further re lished by the first general act passed by the First Congress which met vision and reduction of the tariff. We do object to that sweeping under the American Constitution. In the very title which they gave to reduction which professedly ignores the interests of our national indus this first act imposing duties they declared it to be "for the encourage tries; which professedly marches to free trade, and which professedly ment and protection of manufactures" in this country. And yet gen- 3902 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- HOUSE. MAY 6, tlemen sa.y, aJid my friend from Kentucky [1\Ir. BLACKBURN] said an plauded [l\Ir. HURD], and the gentleman from Kentucky who last hour ago, that our constitutional power was limited to raising revenue spoke [Mr. BLACKBURN]. I assume that they substantially concur. for the purpose of revenue only, and therefore that there was no right If! am incorrect let me be corrected now, that I may make the proper dis whatever in Congress to impose duties for the regulation of commerce tinction. The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Hmm] declared this to be the and thus protecting the interests of our own country and of our own first step, and that you are going on with reductions-how much? Ten people. . per cent., 20 per cent., 30 per cent., or 50 per cent.; the country knows Now, sir, in proceeding with my argument, I turn to that offered by nothing of the result at which yon will ultimately arrive. If you suc the eloquent gentleman from Ohio [Mr. HURD]. If your right exists, ceed and by a<:eident or design reach that point where any one of the if it has been established in this country from the b~ginning of the industries of this country is substantially broken down and its doors Government to have two objects in view in levying duties, one the rais closed, then will you arrive at the establishment of a monopoly, and ing of revenue and the other the regulation of commerce, then you gen that monopoly in Canada, in England, or in Europe, and not in this · tlemen can go with us the next step in the inquiry, whether such duties country. [Applause.] So long as you foster American production imposed for the regulation of commerce are beneficial to this country and enable it to grow, so far you increase that competition which d.e or not. The gentleman from Ohio, in his admirable speech the other stroys monopoly. day, said: Is ita bounty to individuals? I have had occasion heretofore to im Subject to the necessities of the Government, every man has the right to sell plore this House to recognize the fact that for some reason or other the where be can get the best. price for what he bas produced and buy where be can buy most cheaply. old principle of patriotism is decaying in this land. I repeat to-day that this free-trade argument on the other side shows that the element He treats our Government and ourpeopleastwoindependent bodies; of American patriotism has somehow disappeared from too many of the the Government on one side, the people on the other; the Government Democratic breasts in public life. Why was this protective principle to take money out of their pockets and the people to submit without established? Why was it introduced in the first act of the First Con benefit inreturn. The Government may tax to fill its owncoffers, but gress? Why was it enlarged in 1816 v."ith an addition of 42 per cent. it can pass no legislation to refill the empty pockets of the people. The of duties at a single jump? Why was it further continued in 1824? Government may take from the people, but it can give nothing to the Why was it still further continued in 1828? Why was it again perpet people in return. I dissent by the width of the heaven from the earth uated in the bill of 1832? It was so perpetuated because our patriotic from that proposition There are no two adverse sides in this country fathers of both parties knew that no nation in the world could be in as Government and people. The people are in the Government and dependent if it did not have the means of self-support both in peace the Government is in the people, thank God! [Applause.] and in war. [Great applause.] What the people have a right to do for the Government the Govern We are of that kind of protectionists to-day. It is not bonnty to in ment has a right to do for the people within the linlits 'of the Constitu dividuals; it is bounty to the country of our birth. It is not because tion. The Government is not a power of exaction alone. It is a power a factory is in my district or a mine in yours that we are protectionists. of protection also to the interests of the American people. It has been I am a protectionist because my country can not live in the presence of for mo t of its existence a power of blessing; it ought still to be a power the great powers of the world, liable to war on land and to disaster by of blessing in all its years to come. When, if ever, the theory offered sea, without she·has in her power, within her grasp, the means of by the gentleman from Ohio shall be established by the laws of the clothing her people, of feeding her people, of defending her people, sum land, and the Government exhausts without protecting in return, that mer and winter, in peace and in war. [Renewed applause.] moment will the people find an opportunity to choose a different gov From the beginning of the Government that has been the principle ernment, and one which can bless as well as burden the citizens who of protection. It is to make our people independent, and you can trace are subject to its laws. . it step by step before theRevolution, after the Revolution began, after Sir, I am reminded ofwhatJohn Quincy Adams, as a member of the the peace, in the formation of the Constitution, and in the laws passed minority of the Committee on Manufactures, said in 1833 : under the Constitution. We stand here to-day supported, I regret to It has been said there is no philosophic falsehood so absurd but it has been maintained by some sublime philosopher. Surely there is no invention so sense say, by only a SIIULll minority on thatsideoftheHouse; we stand here less, no fiction so baseless or so base but it has been maintained by some learned, upon the platform of our fathers, both Democratic and Whig. The intelligent, amiable, and virtuous but exasperated and bewildered statesman. Demcratic majority of this House in this latter time has left that plat It may be said here that in the course of this debate there is no eco form, has introduced a new interpretation of the American Constitution, nomic theory so baseless, no free-trade sophism o absurd, that some which denies the right to protect our own people. The gentleman ''exasperated and bewildered statesman'' of that flock bas nota<:eepted from Kentucky, in his speech just made, has attempted to support that it and advocated it on this floor. [Laughter and applause.] interpretation by pointing above us to that coat-of-arms of Kentucky, There is on the other side of the water a sort of religious meteor, ''an with its motto "United we stand, divided we fall." I reclaim that exasperated and bewildered'' fanatic, who has appeared in the deserts of motto given to Kentuck-y by Henry Clay himself, the constant supporter Africa, and the whole world has become familiar with the name of El of the .American protective system. [Great applause.] Mahdi, the false prophet. He preaches a new doctrine, and insists that It was Henry Clay who forty years ago uttered words in the debate his followers shall Mcept and circulate it through the world. Are there which preceded that fatal law of 1833 which we are now asked tore not El l\Iahdis in .Americn.? I submit, Mr. Chairman, that the El enact in principle-words full of warning for us to-day. Speaking of l\Iahdis on this floor, the false prophets of free tra.de, surpass in the ex the probable fall of the protective policy in the then condition of par traordinary character of their teachings and in the extraordinary abun ties in Congress, he said: "The fall ofthatpolicy would be productive dance of their prophecies the original El Mahdi of the Soudan. [Ap of consequences calamitous indeed.'' I ask the Clerk to read the pas plause.] sages I have marked. Let me refer to some of these teachings and prophecies. They say The Clerk read as follows: that protection creates monopolies, gives a bounty to individuals, en But in my opinion, sir, the sudden repeal of the tariff policy would bring ruin hances prices by the amount of the duty, is robbery and oppression and destruction on the whole people of this country. There is no evil, in my of labor, obstructs trade, has robbed America of half the markets opinion, equal to the consequences which would result from such a catastrophe. * * * And what is the just complaint, on the other hand, of those who sup of the world, and impoverishes the country. In the fervor of his port the tariff? It is that the policy of the Government is vacillating and un eloquence my honored friend from Ohio [Mr. HURD] said the other certain, and that there is no stability in our legislation. Before one set of books day that ''the fruits of protection in America are want, penury, and are fairly opened it becomes necessary to close them and to open a. new set. Before a law can be tested by experiment another is passed. Before the present starvation.'' So teach our El Mahdis. law has gone into operation, before it is yet nine months old, passed as it was I 'vish to examine these teachings. How does protection create under circumstances of extraordinary deliberation, the fruit of nine months' monopolies? Must you assail not only the laws of your country: its labor; before we know anything of its experimental effects, and even before it interests, and its history, but must you assail even the standard dic commences its operations, we are required to repeal it. tionaries of Webster and of Worcester in their definition of monopoly? Mr. KASSON. Thus you find that Kentucky then was of a different A monopoly, they tell you, is that which one man or one set of men opinion from Kentucky to-day. And I would Wl.'est back from the alone c.w. do or possess. It is a privilege confined to one from which hands of my eloquent friend the motto which he misappropriates in aid others are excluded. Now, where is your American industry which is of free trade and apply it to the holy cause of American labor and home not open under our legislation, and on equal terms, to rich and poor, interests. [Applause.] Here and now I beg to say to the protection to high and low, and even to the ioreigner who comes upon our soil? members of that side of the House, "United we stand, divided we fall," Where is the element of monopoly in a system which creates conditions and our country falls with us. Acting on the principle of that motto for increasing rivalry and competition? Where is your monopoly in a we shall defeat this bill and continue the prosperity of our country. system under which where ten manufacturing establishments existed [Applause.] years ago ten hundred exist now to supply the wants of the country? I ask you to mark the similarity of conditions in 1833 and now. The ·where, I repeat, is the monopoly in a system of protection which enor- country was prosperous then; it is prosperous now. After 20 per cent. mously augments competition? The only monopoly that threatens to reduction under thatlaw was effected the ruin and all the evils which be created is the British monopoly, gentlemen, that you propose to Mr. Clay predicted fell upon our unhappy country in 1837. You pro foster by this bill and its sequences. You say this is the first step in pose now to break down the policy, beginning with the same reduction the progress toward free trade. I speak now of all the three gentle- of 20 per cent. We haYe not had one year's ~t of the existing law; men, the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means [Mr. 1\foR- and you propose to sweep it away and introduce this conflicting and im RISO~], the gentleman from Ohio whose speech was mo t loudly ap- I possible system of assessing one-fifth less duties. Your effort, if sue~ 1884. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- HOUSE. 3903 cessful will be followed by like disastrous consequences. The law of others I would invoke that gentleman to encourage the introduction 1833 p~ovided that of the existing duties all were to be taken off down into his own and other States of diversified industries, bring 3mong his to 20 per cent. in nine and a half years. This change was effected by own people these new elements of wealth, and then he will find that a reduction of 10 per cent. in January, 1834, 10per cent. in 1836, 10 per the per capita of wealth amongst them will grow as rapidly as it is cent. in 1838, 10 per cent. in 1840, half the residue in January, 1842, growing anywhere else in the Union. [Applause.] and the other half in July, 1842. Time fails me, Mr. Chairman, to speak at length of the effects of Now, you are proposing a reduction of 20 per cent. only; but you protection on the prosperous history of my country. Is it true that have avowed by the utterances of your leaders that you intend to go the system is one of robbery and of oppression? Has it obstructed trade; on further hereafter; that this is only the first step. And you propose has'it robbed Americaof half the markets ofthe world; has it impov to go on in this way without notifying the years in which you will do erished the country ? it. The law of 1833 provided for a gradual reduction, and it gave ten In these two decades of protection the population of the country has months' notice before it was to go into effect. It was passed March 2, risen from 31,000,000 to 51,000,000. It has not, then, embarrassed the 1832, and was nottotakeeffectuntil January, 1834. By this bill you unprecedented growth of the population of the country. The immi provide for no notice at all. It is to go into effect on the 1st of July gration, chiefly of laborers, has risen from 150,000 in 1860 to 593,000 next, though if it should pass it can not pass before the 30th of June. in 1880. It has not, then, been opposed to the interests oflabor, for labor You are reckless in your dealing with the intere::."""ts of the country. migrates from worse to better, and not from better to worse. The value Aiming at free trade you have no motive to consider the interests of offurms has risen from $320,000,000 to $10,197,000,000. The annual the country. Your principle does not admit it. The chairman of the value of their products has risenfmm$1,600,000,000to$3,600,000,000, Committee on Ways and·Means said in his speech that if the bill were according to Mr. Dodge, the statistician of agriculture. It has not to be formed upon the principle of protecting American industry, then then impoverished or even retarded the farming interests. the people should turn it over into the hands of the friends of protec Our production of manufactures has risen from $1,885,000,000 to tion. I accept that declaration, and I wait for that time speedily to $5,369,000,000. Our exports of domestic manufactures have risen fro m come when the people will turn this question over into the hands of $45,000,000 to $111,000,000. Our whole domestic exports have ad the friends of protection, whose blows they would rather receive than vanced from $373,000,000 to $825,000,000. Our total imports have the dangerous caresses which the enemies of their industry are offering advanced from $362,000,000 to $751,000,000. It has not, then, ob them in their false teachings and false prophecies. structed but promoted trade, with the balances in our favor. The total I pass without special comment the revival of our industries and of wealth of the United States has increased by the census from 16,000,- popular prosperity after the restoration of a protective tariff in 1842. 000,000 to $43,000,000,000. Its annual increase is put by a free-trade I also pass without comment the recurrence of disaster and distress economist at $825,000,000-more than double that of any other nation in 1857, after the free-trade politicians had again reduced the tariff to in the world. mere revenue rates, without discriminating for protection. It is enough Yet El Mahdi by the mouth of one of his prophets says that "the to say that the people turned out of power in 1860, as they did in 1840, fruits of protection in America are want, penury, and starvation," and the reckless party which persistently ignored the rights of American li.ft:s up before us "the protection giant ofrobbery and oppression.'' industry and labor. Since 1861 your tariff has been continuously and I turn now to the false prophecies of free trade. It is directly de unquestionably protective, and it has been one continuous history of clared that if you would introduce free trade into the United States all prosperity, with the exception of 1873, when the whole world suffered the markets of the world will then be opened to us in generous rivalry. from panic, from which our country, still under the protective policy, My eloquent friend from Ohio promises us, in the exuberance of his was the first to recover. rhetoric, two thousand millions of people who will be waiting for our Now, Mr. Chairman, I have presented this sketch of the period of supplies. These El Mahdis of ours, like the false prophets of antiquity, 1833-'37 to show the effect of a persistent horizontal reduction. We make up for their deficiency of facts in the past by liberal promises for then had a surplus of revenue to be got rid of. We have a surplus of the future. In this case they enlarge the figures of human history in revenue, it is claimed, now to be got rid of. Then it was done by a order to create a population out of their imagination to be supplied by gradual flat reduction of duties, as you propose to do it now by hori an imaginary condition of free trade in the United States. [Applause.] zontal gradation of duties. It was then accomplished, and emptied the It is a slight excess in the world's population of only about six hun Treasury most effectually. I believe if accomplished now it will empty dred millions, including the breechless sons of Africa. [Laughter and the Treasury far beyond yom desire. It emptied the pockets of the applause.] people then, and brought them to ruin, absolute and universal ruin. Sir, after the establishment of free trade are you not subject to the I believe the same result, because of the same causes and conditions, same competition of the whole world? Will not the cheapest still be will follow if adopted now. :first sold in the foreign market? Can you sell a bushel of American Then it was effected by the votes of a nearly solid South, headed by grain against a bushel of Indian wheat , unless you can furnish it as South Carolina. In 1832, at the very time of the consideration of this cheaply as the Indian? Can the manufacturer find a market unless he question, that State was organizing troops to resist the power of the can sell cheaper than free-trade England? It is self-evident that the United States. Then it was that South Carolina passed an act declar elements of production must be as cheap with us as with any other for ing that the revenue laws of the United States should not be executed eign country before we can take away the markets from it. Our man in South Carolina, and were null and void. The South stood together ufacturing plant has cost more, our rate of interestishigher, our labor for free trade; and while, thank God, South Carolina proposes no such costs higher wages, and you will still, even under absolute free trade, extreme measure now, I am sorry to observe that the South does stand have these embarrassments to contend with before you can drive foreign to-day largely for repeating the ruinous process of 1833. They are de countries from any market of the round world which they now possess. manding a reduction of the duties now with far less reason than they Your proposition would simply cost ns our home market by turning demanded it then, because the very industries which have grown pros it over to foreigners, without enabling our people to manufacture on perous under the protective system have since that time been largely equal conditions with tho e which foreigners now enjoy. Even wheat developed in the Southern States. On the testimony of their own citi can be delivered in New York to-day from India as cheaply as it can zens prosperity is spreading over the entire South as it has never spread be delivered in Liverpool, and under the mena-ce of this competition before. Mines, forges, furnaces, factories: railroads have largely in you ask us to take off one-fifth of the duty which saves the wheat· creased, and manufactures have been extraordinarily developed in market of this country from the surplus of India, with which you have N orthem Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Virginia. been threatening our farmers in this debate. Farms and real estate in their neighborhood have shared the general Yes, free trade must open up the markets of our own country to the advance. The home consumption of cotton has increased from 20 per products of all Europe and Asia, or we are tola by the gentleman from cent. in 1860 to over 30 per cent in 1883. In a word, all the elements Ohio that- of national development have advanced as rapidly in the South as in Before January next the price of wheat will be so low that it will not pay the the North. Prosperity has not only dawned upon them, but it beams cost of production, and the corn raised on the Western prairies will be burned with the light of the midday sun all over the regions of the South. again for fuel, as was the case years ago. When that time arrives the farmers will be beggars in the midst of their own plenty and paupers by the side of their [Applause.] own golden gathered sheaves. Sir, I repeat my regret that we should find the South still lingering in the bondage of the old South Carolina interpretation of the Consti And the Democrats burst out with applause as he made that predic tution, and still declaring that free trade must be forced upon the pros tion of misfortune to our farmers. Sir, the census shows that there has perous North, because in some States they have not yet re.."'.Ched that been an increase beyond all precedent in value of all of the products of degree of prosperity which prevails in the Northern States of the Union, the farmers of this country during this period of protection. Even with their diversified industries. wheat has advanced on the average 15 per cent. in price. From 1847 to The gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. BLACKBURN] appealed to the 1861 the average was $1.48ft per bushel in New York; from 1863 to statistics of the different States of the Union to show that there was 1877 the average was $1.69f!. Everything produced on the farm has larger per capita of wealth in the manufacturing States than in the on the average increased in value throughout the length and breadth of States from which manufactures were largely ab eut. Why, then, does the land under the principle of protection. Meanwhile the manufactures he not encourage in the ,South the growing mauufactures, w bicb bring in which our farmers buy have greatly fallen in price. Our American crease or wealth, instead of depriving the prosperous States of the very system has produced an unexampled aggregation of wealth and distrib elements of their prosperity. Instead of diminishing the wealth of uted it among our people of all classes; it has saved. labor from pauperism 3904 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- -HOUSE. MAY 6, and made the United States the admiration of the world. In thi<~ con fourscore years since the MissiSsippi River marked our western border dition of our country the eloquent gentleman from Ohio is obliged to and Iowa, the home of his adoption, was part of the dominion or terri~ invoke dumb and inanimate nature to support his theories. Every ~ry o~ a natio~ :ill-en to us in language, laws, and civilization. The ripple of the water upon the seashore, he says, is an invitation to free mdo~~ble spmt of our people, guided by a wise statesmanship which trade, and every stormy wa-ve a denunciation of our existing policy. He now 1t IS the ~us~m. of ~orne to decry, extended our territory-om own declares thatr- . country and 1ts mstitutions-- totheotherocean, sethisowniowain the The culture and the chivalry of the nation, long anxious for this hour, are heart of the Republic, and laid the foundation for much for most of ready to take the lead. the prosperity which the gentleman credits to his pet system of bo~ I recall his eyes, 1\fr. Chairman, from the sandy shores a.nd dreary ties, restrictions, and burdens. wastes of ocean and from the beggared homes of labor abroad. Let This territory is now the home of 20,000,000 of om people. It may him look upon our farms, into our contented villages and thriving be the home of 250,000,000. Its acquisition postponed for centuries towns, and into the school-hou:ses of town and country, where the I trust, that crowded condition which is now the chief misfortune of children of toil and of wealth sit side by side in preparation to become the inhabitants of the Old World. It was from this territory we took sovereign citizen$ of a great and free Republic. Every murmm of in that 700,000,000 which during the existence ofthe present tariff we struction that rises from a myriad of the e school-houses in valley and ~ave sent abroad to pay balances of exchange against us. In this ter on hilltop is an invitation to maintain ur system of home industry n tory even the poor and landless may :find and enjoy their own homes and gooq. wages which has made our people happy and our nation great. and escape the burdens of the taskmaster. It was from this territory [Applause.] we carved out and gave ro the railroads tying together om two great And I point him, sir, to the million of laoorers who at eventide seas 200,000,000 acres ofland. Acres less than these in Germany and come from the caves of the earth, where th.ey produce the infinite neighboring nations support a population larger than om OWJ;l. value of ore and coal, both more precious than gold, and to the other Among all the agencies which have contributed to our great material million who come forth with the declining sun from the doors of growth the extension and development ofrailToads rank :first for a!:rri blazing furnace and forge and from countless factories in mountain culture, :fir t among om industries, has found its too meager profits valleys and on the plains. These all unite against tl;te degradation of not in higher markets, but in lower cost of reaching them. wages and of labor involved in free trade. Their concentrated voice, Protection .has not helped to build, but has been a great hinderance more powerful than the roar of the inanimate billow, is lifted up in to the building of railroads and lower cost of transportation. It will denunciation of the reckless Democratic and free-tra.de policy which be remembered that two years ago, when the Tariff Commission scheme you seek to inaugurate to-day. [Applause.] ''The culture and the wa-s un~er consideration, it :wa-s s~own upon unquestioned authority chivalry" may be ready for it, but the enterprise and the labor. which that railroad were then bemg bmlt through Texas and into 1\Iexico have made your country prosperous and powerful protest against it. upon terms with the 1\fexican Government which admitted locomo Ah, says El Mahdi, away with protection ! It enriches you, but tives, rails, and railroad materials free of duty for use south of the Rio away with it! Everyday's sun, according to yomownprophetMulhaU, Grande, while north werequired thepaymentofhighprotectiveduties, ''sees an addition of two and a half million dollars to the accumulated and that , as the result of this, the same railroad built at the same cost wealth of the Republic, which is equal to one-third of the daily accumu for labor cost 25 per cent. more in Texas than in 1\Iexico. Upon this lations of mankind." Still away with it! But we will not throw basis is it not apparent to all not blind to truth that the vast sums used away this giant's shield of om national defense, under whose shelter, in building the 80,000 miles of railroad since 1860 with the help of with God's blessing, we have reached the foremost rank of the nations protection would have built 100,000 without such help? of the world. We will :fight the battle out and we will win the victory. Railroad_s m~~ be renewed once in twelve years; that is to say, the All hail to that giant of protection who strews his pathway with gold cost of mamtammg them twelve years equals the :first cost, and the and plants all its borders with theflowersofpopular comfort! [Great yearly cot of maintaining and keeping in repair our 120,000 miles is applause.] equal to the cost of building 10,000 miles. If we estimate the :first cost [During the delivery of the foregoing remarks the hammer fell.] as low as $20,000 per mile, one-fourth of which is shown to result from 1\Ir. STORM. I hope unanimous consent will be given to the gen so-called protection, it will be seen that this bounty system increases the tleman to continue his remarks. annu~ co tofrepairingour120,000milesofrailroad$50,000,000, which The CHAIRMAN. That can not be done by the committee. sum IS an annual tax on the people, charged up to them in the cost of Mr.l\10RRISON. I will yield to the gentlemil>n :five minutes of my carrying the products of their labor to market. No State in regulating time. rates and charges on railroads fails to take into account the cost of build Mr. KASSON resumed and concluded his speech. ing and maintaining them. As it taxes the people on their transporta. tion, so this bounty system follows them in all their pursuits and exacts MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT. a part of their earnings; for to increase the cost to the producer is to The committee informally rose; and Mr. BAGLEY took the chair a-s increase the price to the consumer. Speaker pro tempore. Often asithas!>eenshown ~be aprotectivefallacy, itisto-dayagain Two messages in writing from the President of the United States were repeated that this bounty-taxing policy lessens the cost of commercial and business intercourse on land and sea and of carrying over both; communicated to the House by ~fr. PRUDEN, one of his secretaries; who also informed the House that the President had approved joint resolu that it has cheapened the cost of fuel, food, clothing, and shelter of the tions and a bill ofthe·following titles: people, added to their comfort, and given them increased abundance. Joint resolution (H. Res. 236) authorizing the Secretary of War to Need I again expose this false claim of those who make it that exist loan two hundred flags to the city of Charlotte, N.C., for the celebra ing abuses may be continued and again show that all thi~ abundance tion of the Mecklenbmg declaration of independence; and plenty results from our ever-growing control over nature's forces. Joint resolution (H. Res. 240) to print 12,500 copies of the eulogies This growth continues not by reason but in spite of tariff-tax restric on Thoma-s H . Herndon, late a Representative in Congress; tions and is not confined to any country. Why it is so may be shown Joint resolution (H. Res. 223) authorizing the Secretary of War to by a most homely illustration, which I do not now use for the fir t loan to the mayor of Richmond, V a., a certain amount of flags and time. bunting for use at a fair; and Not forty years ago corn was mostly shelled by hand. An industri An act (H. R. 5966) to change the name of the Marsh National Bank ous man might then shell as much as :five bushels in one day. If he of Lincoln, Nebr., to thatofthe Capital National Bank of Lincoln, and received but 50 cents for his day's work it cost 10 cents to shell a bushel to increase the capital stock of the First National Bank of Nashville, of corn. In the gentleman's State of Iowa last fall I saw men shell Tenn. ing corn and receiving a dollar for a day's work. They were using machinery of most simple structure and shelling corn for 2 cents a bushel. THE TARIFF. The wages were double, while shelling corn was one-fifth the former The Committee of the Whole resumed its session .. cost. But for the protective tax on the machinery and on the cost of 1\'Ir.l\IORRISON. ltfr. Chairman, should the motion soon to be made living wages would be higher; corn-shelling lower. What is true of of which we have notice, prevail, it will cut off all legislation for re: shelling corn is true of the cost, and consequently of the price, of mak duction of taxes proposed by the bill in its present form or as it may be ing articles for use in our :fields, homes, and ·shops, for most of all that amended. It will be a declaration of this Congress at least that tariff contributes to the health and comfort of the people. Itis true of every taxes are not too high and ought to be continued. It will mean an thing that is made largely by or with the help of machinery. Such are appeal from the Congress to the country, and the people will so under the means and the methods by which, in spite of protection's burden stand it . and not with its help, the people enjoy their greatly increased abun In opening the debate I anticipated and answered, so far as I am dance. [Applause.] capable of answering, mo t of the objections which have since been By offering bounties we have induced our people to invest in manufact urged against the bill. ures and to abandon the sea t o our chief commercial rivals. English In his anxie~ that the country's wonderful progress shall be credited men now take to themselves all the profits of carrying orir products to to his favorite theory of protection, the gentleman from Iowa [:Mr. foreign markets. Competing with themselves, they have made greater K A oN] who has just spoken forgets the high comage, the im·entive reductions in transportation on t he sea than we have made on land, genius and industrious skill of our people, their endless wealth of mine greater reductions than we have made on anything in our own count ry. and field and puts aside the history of his State and country. It is but In the lower cost of ocean freights surplus agricultural products ha ve 1884. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 3905 found their profits, and certainly this can not be claimed for protection speech on .the pending bill the honorable gentleman from Pennsylvania by its most greedy advocate. points to the necessity of saving ''our laboring classes " from "justi The gentleman from Georgia. [Mr. HAMMOND] suggests that reduc fiable discontent" by securing to them "a larger proportion of the tion in the cost of all manufactured articles resulting from the use of joint production of labor and capi.tal. '' This he proposes to accomplish machinery has occurred in and is common to all civilized countries, and by so increasing protective taxes on our people that they can afford to I may add, this reduction has occurred here under revenue tariffs, under pay themselves more money for less work. all tariffs. On this subject Mr. MORRIT..L said here in 1860, that a com In my remarks on this bill while disc~ing the unequal burdens im parison of our tariffs, includillg 1846 and 1857, "will show that we posed by indirect and protective tariff taxes I said that estimates based have made more rapid strides in cheapening manufactures, and there on census statistics showed that as many as 18,000,000 of our people do fore lessening the necessity of incidental protection, than ever England some work and are eugaged in what are called in the census returns made herself in any equal period of time.'' gainful pursuits; that all that was saved by or all the surplus earnings In his argument for the continuance of existing customs duties the of the whole went to about two millions of the eighteen, and that the honorable gentleman from Pennsylvania [Judge KELLEY] gave us de average earnings of the other 16,000,000 did not much exceed $300 per tails of his recent travels abroad and some account of the discontent, annum and were consumed in the means of dally subs~tence; that our and he says the ''indescribable sufferings, which the masses of the boasted accumulations of national and individual wealth go into the people of all transatlantic countries feel they can no longer endure." hands of one-tenth of our people. These estimates the demure gentle Finding the people in Great Britain in like suffering condition with the man from Massachusetts [Mr. RussELL] criticises in a manner not the people of ''all transatlantic countries,'' some with, others without, the most courteous, but of which I do not complain, for his terms of criti protective system, he, with accustomed protective logic, finds that the cism are courtly courteous compared with the brutal coarseness and people of England, Ireland, and Scotland are suffering because of free shuffiing insincerity of the criticisms made here on the bill, its author, trade and for want of a protective tax on their too scanty means of and all who favor its adoption by those who professealy favor a modi subsistence. fication and reduction of the tariff while striving to prevent such reduc While I am not called upon to defend any commercial system to tion. justify a moderate reduction or partial removal of unnecessary taxes, I The statement questioned by the gentleman from Massachusetts is will be pardoned the suggestion that an unbiased look at the history substantially true. There are more than 4, 000,000 persons engaged in of the countries visited by the honorable gentlem.a:n could hardly fail manufacturing, mining, andmechanicalindustries, thehands employed to discover to him other causes for the misfortunes of the English peo numbering nearly 3,000,000. In the census year 1880 their average ple than their lack of that protective system which has not saved neigh wages was $346. At a great public gathering last year in New York boring nations from like misfortunes which he found in'' all transat city, Mr. Jarrett, president of the labor organization, declared that lantic countries." wages had been reduced 20 per cent. since the census year. The truth The merits of any governmental policy or bounty system can only be of his statement, which has not been questioned, shows annual wa-ges ascertained when tried under like conditions. The effect of Great to be $277. With reductions made in the last year, the stoppage of mills, Britain's commercial policy must be determined by a comparison of and loss of time, annual wages are less than $277 for hands employed. that country with other densely populated countries, or by a compari Classed with those engaged in manufactures are a large number of· son of England to-day with the England of f9rty or fifty years ago un miners and mechanics, whose average earnings are not much more, and -der a protective policy similar to our . own, and to the want of which together they do not equal $300, the amount stated by me. the gentleman attributes all her woes. Of the 6, 000,000 engaged in trade and transportation, professional and Whatever might be its good or evil effects upon our own country, the personal service, one-half are laborers or in domestic service, and most .condition ofthe English, Irish, and Scotch people, badasit stillis, has of the others are in employments where the compensation is not large. been bettered since the adoption of a freer commercial policy. In a Taken together they are not better paid than those engaged in ma.n late paper or address of Robert Giffen LL. D., presidentoftheStatis ufactures. tical Society of Eng'land, already referred to in this debate, it is shown Of the 8, 000,000 in agriculture, the farmers outnumber farm laborers that the working classes have made such progress in the United King about 1,000,000. The estimated value of all farm products for 1880 dom that in some employments their wages haveincreasedone-half, in given in the census is $2,212,000,000. Divided equally, it leaves to some they have doubled, in others they are three times as much, and those engaged in agriculture but $289 each. Having challenged the taken altogether it may be fairly stated that wages are twice as high correctness of my statement as to the earnings and savings of the mass -as they were forty or :fi.fty years ago. of the people, the gentleman from Massachusetts sustains himself by On the same authority it may be correctly said that if the honorable his own assertion that the laboring people have made large deposits in gentleman from Pennsylvania had sought anything but suffering he the savings-bank at Lowell. It mary be true that such deposits have could have ascertained that where there was no nationalsystemof edu been made. The census shows it to be the most industrious of all our -cation fifty years ago, now nearly all the children of England are in cities. There are none where so many women and little children toil -school; he would have found there less crime, less pauperism, the hours all the day. long. Counting all the men, women, and children, one of daily labor shortened, the cost of better living cheaper, and as a con half of them are at work. vincing proof to all but a protectionist that the people are better fed, Lowell is the great seat of the cotton industry, and the wages in 1880 better clothed, and better housed he could have found the duration of hu in cotton-mills was 81 cents per day. With the 20 per cent. or more manlife extended, the mean (or average) age at which men and women reductions since made, the laboring people who deposit in the Lowell die nearly three years longer where he found nothing but misery and banks earn 61 cents per day; and I now again insist that those who earn misfortune. but 61 cents per day can only make deposits, as they pay their unequal The itinerant humanity of the gentleman from Pennsylvania might portion of tariff taxes, by subtracting them from their too scanty means find temporary exercise in his own country. There is more of what is of comfortable living. -called defective population, more suffering, where society is old than The gentleman from New York [Mr. HiscocK] in his speech only a where it is new. And so it is ~th States or nations. Proportioned few days since insisted that the value of the agricultural product for to population in the comparatively old State of Pennsylvania there are 1880 was, in fact, '3,600,000,000, and not $2,212,000,000, as taken by twice as many criminals, twice as many paupers, a-s in the newer State myself and others from the census. Tbis discrepancy or error he claims -of Iowa; more persons in Pennsylvania who can not read and who can is because· ranche products and meat and maple sugar, &c., are not not write. There are more fools in Pennsylvania in proportion to pop included in the lower census estimate. ulation. [Laughter.] I mean more idiots and insane people. I do 1\Ir. Dodge, of the Agricultural Bureau, seems to be the author of not lay the greater misfortune of this older State to protection. They both estimates. I find a meat product valued at $303,562,413 counted come to Pennsylvania as they come to all the more densely populated as part of our manufacturing wealth, and it may be that neither esti countries where the people ¥e in each other's way; but protection, which mate of the agricultural product is correct. But supposing the higher is but another name for taxation, aggravates these evils of society. estimate to be true, and remembering that agricultural products, like Gentlemen who attribute our national growth and greater. prosperity labor, have decreased in value, and allowing a low rate of interest on of the people to the progressive and creative power of taxation forget farms, the cost of fences and fertilizers, and the income of the farming all the advantages of this newer world of ours, which yields to both cap ·classes falls below 268 each. I do not care to go more in to details. But ital and labor greater profits than they obtain elsewhere, although labor at page 300 of the Agricultural Report for 1882 there is a statement, gets less than its share. The older countries, the miseries of whose peo made by the same 1\fr. Dodge, showing the income for that year of ple are so often reiterated in behalf of p:r;o,tective taxation, have but more than 2,000,000 farmers to be $160 each, aB.d more than 3,000,000 one or two acres ofland to the person; he ewe have forty or fifty acres. to be $261 each, thus showing the average earnings of 5,042,937 per Do gentlemen wonder, then, that our people produce more and earn more sons engaged in agriculture to be $220 in 1882. Of course there are both in wages and profits on their forty acres than'' transatlantic'' peo many engaged in all these industries who ea.rn much more than $300, ple do on their two acres? As often as I have discussed this subject of but there are so many more of the 16,000,000 who are to-day earning protective taxation I have urged as one of its chief objections, ifnotits less, that the estimate given by me is above the actual earnings. greatest wrong, that it resulted in an unjust distribution of the earn Remembering that the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. RUSSELL] ings of labor, and enabled those who worked least, or not at all, to profit and the gentleman from Rhod~ Island [Mr. CHACE] come here session most from the lalilor of others. And so much at last seems to be con after session, and by vote and speech maintain tariff taxes that money ceded by the ablest advocates of the protective doctrine. In closi.Dg his may be put in their purses through their protected business pursuits, XV--245 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. MAY 6,. I accept with some qualification their assurances of special care for about equalizing if I can first take from you your bounties. These I and sympathy with the workers and planters in the fields of agricult am trying to cut off a little, leaving for the pre ent the adjustment ure. From their fields they gather corn as pious men gather godliness, made by you and which you still insist is too perfect to be disturbed. down on their bendedknees, because the stalks are so short. [Laughter.] On the authority of some officer in the Treasury my friend the gen-· In our fields we reaeh the ears of com with the help of a ladcler, the tleman from Ohio says the bill will be difficult to execute. I call him sta.lks are so long. And yet these gentlemen are continually offering my friend, for that is what he called me [laughter], and I feel so nearly us their services in protecting our agriculture by taxing us. In oppos that, that I am not going to vote to put him out of his seat unless there is ing this bill thegentlemanfromMaryland [Mr. FINDLAY] only to-day a good case against him, for he is one of the best of his kind. [Laughter invoked censure on the internal-revenue system because of its horde and applause. J But somebody, an officer in the Treasury, told him that of tax-gatherers. Sir, the tax-gatherers in the customs-revenue service the bill had in itabsurditiesand would be expensive to administerand outnumber the other by hundreds of thousands. Whoever buys a nail, execute. Who this officer maybe is a protective secret which the gen a hoe, an ax, a yard of cloth, or spool of thread in all the ten thousand tleman will not disclose. I suppose there is such an officer, because the stores and shops where merchants sell their wares, meets there the gentleman from Ohio has said so. If there is, he is doubtless the same tax-gatherer taking taxes for the Government or bounty for the malm description of pel'90n as the president of the Tariff Commission, of whom facturer. Mr. Delano, the ex-Secretary of the Interior, said-- .Mr. FINDLAY. I have never seen him there. Mr. BLACKBURN. Columbus Delano? . Mr. MORRISON. You do not work for $300 a year or you would Mr. MORRISON. Yes; onceamember of General Grant's Cabinet, have felt him. [Laughter.] and before that a member of this House. He said of the Tariff Com So much sympathy has been expressed here for men who toil in the mission that after it was gotten up by themanufaeturers they took their field or who toil anywhere that it needs to be accepted with something hired agent and made him president of it; I suppose to give them an . of caution. In this I have no ref-erence to anything said by the gentle- impartial report. I suppose the officer who imparted the information man from Maryland. · mentioned by the gentleman from Ohio is not unlike the president of In the progress of the remarks lately made by the gentleman from Ohio the Tariff Commission in his relations to the manufacturers, whose hired [Mr. McKINLEY], when he was telling over the advantages of a home agent he probably is. One of the absurdities which he thinks he dis market afforded to agriculture by taxing it to support manufactures, I covers ·in the bill is the proposed cut of iron ore, which would reduce asked him what part of the agricultural product was consumed by those it to 60 cents, and under the Morrill tariff it was 20 per cent. ad valo engaged in manfactures? Taking refuge in his usual adroitness, here rem; that it might fall so low or go so high in price it would be diffi plied, ' ' All they need." cult to tell on which side of the ad valorem line it was dutiable, and With greater candor he would have replied, ''Less than half as much confusion would result. as we export;" but such frankness wouldhaveexposed the home-market Remembering that we have collected duty on ore under the ad valorem fallacy, which is an unkept promise a century old and yet growing rate always before the present law, why need we be confused about it. away from realization. Do gentlemen who so idly talk of a home mar The confusion is all in the reduction. He fears confusion from the rates ket ior the products of farms and fields forget that all wheat and com on files, rasps, floats, &c. A great many hard-working carpenters have now grown in the country can be grown in Iowa and the adjoining Ter been filed and rasped by this tariff. [Laughter.] The duties on these ritory of Dakota? That Texas alone will grow all the field products he finds uncertain', because under the Morrill tariff the duty was 30 per now grown in all the States and Territories? Do gentlemen forget that cent. on the value. Under the p~ent law it is by the dozen. Under all the cotton consumed in the whole world will grow in the State of the old law it was by the pound. The changes heretofore made created Mississippi? These fads are apparently overlooked by gentlemen who no confusion except to those who pay the high existing rates. The pro are continually promising here to tax agricultural people into a profit posed reduction is the only inconsistency which pinches the friends of able market. the file-makers. I believe I have already said that the trouble with gentlemen who Out of one of the rates fixed or clauses made in the last tariff bill professedly oppose this bill for making a horizontal reduction do not by the gentleman from Ohio and his associates, experts who have made oppose it because it cuts horizontally, but because it cuts at all. all the tariffs since 1860, I am told 5,000 protests have already come [Laughter.] The gentleman from Ohio [:Mr. McKINLEY] finds noth and 5,000lawsuitsmayfollow. So itwould appearthat there is some ing in the bill which commends it to him, and while commenting on its thing defective, more or less imperfect, in all tariff bills. And dread (to him) objectionable features assumes to find in the bill some confes confusion haunts the gentleman from Ohio because the duty on ·grind sion of incapacity and some evidence of indolence. These are terms stones is to be lowered. He came confused from yonder conference near akin to those employed by his Democratic allies and incidental con room, where he wa.s a member of the conference committee, to the con federates, and therefore I do not complain of his use of them. [Laugh fusion of all tax-payers. The office and duty of a conference is to ad ter.] just the difference between the two disagreeing Houses. This House When I inquired ofhim whether ifthe formofthe bill wassochanged had decided that bar-iron of the middle class was to pay $20 a ton; as to omit the features criticised by him it would then have his sup the Senate that it was to pay $20.16 a ton. The gentlemen· of the port, he very candidly replied it would not. He had elsewhere said conference, including the gentlema,n from Ohio, reconciled this differ he would not vote for any bill putting anything down, but would vote ence-how? By raising bar-iron above both House and Senate to for a bill putting duties on several articles up. When asked if any cut $22.40 a ton. [Great laughter.] would receive his support, he declared the20 per cent. proposed ruinous, The Tariff Commission at the end of its deliberations reported that because he asserted twenty inches off of a long-legged man would still the tariff on iron ore should be 50· cents a ton. The Senate said that it leave him ''stumps," while a like cut would leave a short-legged man should be 50 cents a ton. The House said it should be 50 cents a ton. no stumps at all. A 1 per cent. horizontal reduction of that stumpy Gentlemen of the conference committee, including the gentleman from witticism will leave it the shallowest nonsense. Ohio, neither indolent nor wanting in capacity of a kind, reconciled the The gentleman feigns ignorance of the fact that the great, oppressive, agreement of the House, Senate, and Tariff Commission into a disagree taxing monster stands with its unequal burdens on legs of unequal ment, where there wa.s none, and made the duty on ore 75 cents a ton. length. Does he forget that woolen rags an·d shoddy and waste wool [Laughter and applause on the Democratic side.] and rags, not wool but mixed, used in making woolen goods are taxed The gentlemen of the conference did a similar service for the great cor 10 cents per pound? He remembers that. Does he remember that poration of corporations, the Iron and Steel Association, by giving it a. cloth made of the 10-eent rags is taxed a dollar a pound? Then the tax of $17 on steel rails, which the House fixed at $15 and the Senate question is not whether a horizontal cut is right or wrong as a test be at $15.68 per ton. In all this there is no confession of want of capaeity, tween the gentleman and myself. This is the question: Is the tariff but an exhibition of it which commends itself to the gentleman from too high or too low? Is 10 ce~ts too much on rags and a dollar too Ohio. It is such an exhibition of talent and special fitness as in Ohio much on cloth? [Applause.] When I make the horizontaJ cut I would be a breach of public trust and drive· him from an honorable pro leave the one at 80 and the other at 8-the same proportion he left to fession. Here it is statesmanship. Itgives bounty to corporations and them. [Applause.] If they are not left in right relations the fault is royalty to mine-owners. [Laughter.] It adds·to the burdens of the his, not mine. people, who are mocked with the pretense that it protects labor. The Mr. REED. Oh, no; you are doing the cutting. . more of such evidences of capacity as were exhibited in that conferencer Mr. MORRL'jON. I did not put 10 cents on rags and a dollar on cloth. of which the gentleman from Ohio was a distinguished member, that Mr. REED. But you are complaining of inequality, and yet you per- might be shown in this horizontal bill, the more infamous it would be petuate it. . and the less support it ought to have. [Laughter and applause.] Mr. MORRISON. In addition to some inequality I complain that Some right-thinking merchant in Boston, anxious to commend his duties are all too high, and in this bill I propose to make them lower. wares with a good name, has given out that they are of the ''Carlisle If I can cut off the ugly tops of these things and others like them you shape.'' The gentleman from Ohio discovers in this an aspiration for will be the first man to come in and help me to regulate and adjust the reduction of war-tariff taxes, and so he will have none of the Carlisle any inequality. [Laughter and applause.] If I can deprive you of shape. He longs for the Keifer shape. [Laughter and applause.] your bounty, your unjust exactions secured to you under the false pre Let him take comfort in the fact that his allies about me who are stri v tense of protecting labor [cries of'' Good !'' J, you and the gentleman from ing to defeat this bill, and with it all legislation necessary to relieve the Ohio will be the first men to come in and say, "Let us equalize." That people from unnecessary taxes, are speeding the return of the Keifer is what all protectionistB will hasten to do. There will be no trouble shape. 1884. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 3907 These gentlemen who come here from Iowa, Wisconsin, and Mic~aan any bill reducing tariff taxes would resort to direct taxation is a mean pledged to abate something from taxes taken from the people to go into ingless subterfuge. The assertion that the friends of tari..ff reform would a treasury already full come as the representatives of a people who be abandon tariff taxes as a principal source of revenue is a weak in•ention lieve the Tariff Commission scheme was a sham and a cheat, devised to of those who would hide their own rightly distrusted purposes and maintain and not to reduce taxes. And now they are here, and the chief evasions ofpublic duty. financial officer of the Government tells them (whether it is a cheat.or But there is the horizontal cut into the bounty-fed Congressional not) that this scheme has not reduced taxes as it was promised they favorites, and therefore I can not have the assistance of these gentle should be reduced-as all advocates of the commission plan promised men even to amend the bill or to legislate upon the subject of taxation they should be reduced. because for the purpo es of tho e by whom it is oppo edit cuts wrong If the gentlemen from these States must return to their constituents in cutting at all. And yet most of them (I believe the gentleman from with their pledges unredeemed and promises unkept-unkept not be Pennsylvania does not) pretend to believe taxes too high, and assume cause of the votes of the gentlemen from Ohio and his party associates, a willingness to reduce them, while voting to prevent all reduction. . but because of the votes of their Democratic allies-what answer shall [Here the hammer fell, and Mr. MoRRISON resumed his seat amid they make to the people, who had their assurances that with the help loud applause.] of their own party associates here they would give to the people that The following tables were presented to the Statistical Society of Great. relief which had hitherto been first promised, then denied? Must they Britain by its president, Robert Giffen, LL. D., November 20, 1883: return with faith unkept by reason of the action of their own party associates, who are always professing a willingness to grant relief, whi<:h Comparison of wages fifty years ago and at the present time. when they have the power to grant they take care to refuse? Is this to [From miscellaneous statistics of the United Kingdom and Porter's Progress be the result? · of the Nation.] The CHAIRMAN. The time fixed for debate has expired. Mr. MONEY. I move that the gentleman from Illinois be allowed Wages per week. Increase. to proceed. II'} Mr. KASSON. The gentleman from illinois has not occupied the 1-< ~ Occupation. Place. .e s:l Q) ~ time to which he was entitled, ha,ing yielded to me a portion of it. 4>Q ~ Q) ~»o :::1 0 [Cries of" Go on!"] :.,bll 1118o .... 0 The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from illinois yielded six minutes ~= 1-<~ s '"'0 !lot !lot to the gentleman from Iowa. If there be no objection the Chair will rr.c < recognize him for that time. £. s. d. £. 8. d. 8. d. There was no objection. Carpenters ...... Manchester ... 1 4 0 114 0 10 0 4Z Mr. MORRISON. With such a result of course the Keifer shape will Carpenters ...... Glasgow...... 14 0 1 6 0 12 0 85 Bricklayers...... Manchester a .. 1 4 0 116 0 12 0 5() return to comfort Ohio statesmen. But will the gentlemen already Bricklayers...... Glasgow ...... 15 0 1 7 0 12 0 8()t referred to return or will they be considered unfaithful because their 1\Iasons ...... l\Ia.nchester a .. 1 4 0 1 9 10 510 24: Democratic associates have been so? Then those by whose votes on this 1\lasons ...... Glasgow...... 14 0 1 3 8 9 8 691 1\liners ...... Staffordshire . b2 8 c4 0 1 4 5()o bill all reduction of taxes shall be postponed will be further comforted Pattern-weavers ...... Huddersfield. 16 0 1 5 0 9 0 55i with the return here of the genial Governor Pound, who weighs a ton W ool-scourers...... Huddersfield. 17 0 1 2 0 5 0 00 for many purposes. [Laughter.] The gentle Hazelton, and the ami Mule-spinners...... Huddersfteld. 1 15 6 110 0 4 6 20 Weavers...... Huddersfield. 12 0 1 6 0 14 0 liS. able gentleman from New Jersey; Mr. Robeson, may be here again. Huddersfield. 17 0 1 7 0 10 0 5S Probably the budding statesman from California may gi•e place to jolly ;f~s:: =~~ ~~::.~.:::::: Huddersfield. 6 0 ll 0 5 0 83 Mr. Page. Weavers (men) ...... Bradford ...... 8 3 1 6 0 12 3 150 Reeling and warping...... Bradford...... 7 9 15 6 7 9 100 Mr. WILLIS. And besides that ''My dear Hubbell.'' [Laughter.] Spinning (children) ...... Bradford ...... 4 5 ll 6 7 1 100 Mr. MORRISON. Yes; my dear Hubbell and my Ohio friend and all his Democratic allies here will be made happy in the assurance that a 1825. b Wages. e Per day. all the ''industries '' are safe in the hands of men of ''capacity.'' The gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. RANDALL], who does not Cpmpari on of seam~n' s money-wages per 'ITWnth 1850 and the present time.. honor me with his presence- [From the Progress of Merchant Shipping Returns.] Mr. RANDALL. That is a mistake. Mr. MORRISON. I am glad to know the gentleman is here. He too Increa~e. was once in favor, or professed to be in favor, of a substantial reduction 1800-sail Present tariff time- 1-----:---- ofhigh taxes; said so in a speech to the convention which nomi ing. steam. nated him as a candidate for the place he.holds in this Congress, if the Amount. :fer cent~ Evening Telegram and his own city papers correctly report him. It is true that since then the commission scheme of revision procured by his £ 8. d. £ s. d. £8. d. assistance has been made, but I think it is substantially conceded by Bristol ...... 2 15 0 315 0 110 0 all that this is not such a revision as was promised by him and his as Glasgow ...... 2 15 0 310 0 1 5 0 Liverpool !1) ...... 210 0 3 7 6 16 6 sociate advocates of that measure, for they promised reliefwhich it Liverpool 2) ...... - ....••••••••..• 2 10 0 4 5 0 115 0 did not afford and which is still refused. Liverpool 3~ ...... 2 5 0 3 0 0 15 0 The gentleman with his associates in that work reduced the tax on Liverpool 4) ...... 2 00 0 2 10 0 10 0 2 2 6 3 ()() 0 17 6 silks from 60 per cent. to 50 per cent. or 16 per cent. On the cheaper 2 5 0 315 0 1 10 0 woolen goods, some of them taxed as high as 100 per cent., he voted 210 0 317 6 1 7 6 with other revisers and tariff adjusters to add another 30 per cent. I 2 5 0 3 5 0 1 ()() 0 ask him now to help me to reduce this .onerous tax that was already n~lfrl(::~.:~i·Hi.H~H::Hi:::::: 2 5 0 310 0 1 5 0 2 ()() 0 3 7 6 1 7 6 too high, and his answer is, not that it is not too high-he does not say ~~~~~ ~:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 2 ()() 0 3 7 6 1 7 6 that-but he says he does not like the horizontal cut. Then whydoes he not offer a proper plan-another cut? He claims to ha\e the power to strike out the enacting clause of ~his bill and thereby defeat any leg Paupe:rs in receipt of relief in, the yeari given below. islation. If he and his Democratic adherents have the power to do that they have the power to amend the bill and make it what they desire it 1849. 1881. to be. [Applause.] But this is not ::1. horizontal cut. It removes part of the monstrous England...... 934., 000 803,000 tax put by him on woolen and other goods, but leaves silks taxed ashe Scotland...... a122,000 102,000 taxed them. I do not propose an indiscriminate reduction. When 20 Ireland ...... -...... 620,000. 109,000 per cent. is taken off, those now as high as 100 per cent. will still be 1------1------80 per cent. Another provision of the bill reduces them to 60 per United Kingdom...... 1, 676,000 1, 014,000 cent. Does the gentleman from Pennsylvania and the Democrats who a1859. act with him think 60 per cent. on woolen goods too low? In God's name how much would you take as bounty for those for whom you Average attendance at sclwols aided by parliamentary grants. have spoken here to-day? Do you know there are a million women to-day in this country earning with their needles dresses made of goods 1851. 1881. thus highly taxed, and that when they buy ten yards for a dress, even with this second cut, they must give the price of six to the Govern ment? Is that not enough? England...... 239,000 2, 863, 000 Gentlemen but deceive themselves if they expect to avoid responsi Scotland...... 32, 000 410, 000 bility with a pretense that a bill open to amendment is objectionable in form or in detail. The pretense that the advocates of this bill or The CHAIRMAN. The time for general debate limited by order of •· 3908 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSEe MAY 6, · the House has expired. The Clerk will read the first paragraph of the NAY8-155. _pending bill. Adams,J.J. Deuster, Kleiner, Shelley, The Clerk read as follows: Aiken, Dibble, Lamb, Singleton, Alexander, Dibrell, Lanham, Skinner, T. G. Be it enacted, &c., That on and after the 1st day of July, 1884, in lieu of the Bagley, Dockery, Lewis, Slocum, .odu~ies and rates of duty imposed by law on the importation of the goods, wares, Ballentine, Dorsheimer, Lore, Springer, and merchandise mentioned in the several schedules of" an act to reduce inter Barbour, Dowd, Lovering, . Stevens, -na.l-re'""enue taxation and for other purpose , " approved March 3,1883, a.nd here Barksdale, Dunn, Lowry, Stewart, Charles rinafter enumerated, there shall be levied, collected, and paid the following rates Beach, Eldredge, McMillin, Stockslager, .of duty upon said articles severally, that is to say. Belmont, Ellis, Matson, Strait, ..., Blackburn, Evins,J.H. l\Iaybury Sumner, D. H. Blanchard, Follett, 1\Iiller,J. F. Talbott, .Mr. ·KASSON. I will ask if it is not the proper time to subrillt a Bland, Forney, Mills, Taylor, J. I'lL motion, unless some one desires the floor? Blount, Fyan, Mitchell, Thompson, Mr. CONVERSE. I move to strike out the enacting clause of this Breckinridge, Garrison, Money, Throckmorton, Broadhead, Gibson, Morgan, Tillman, bill. [Applause on the Republican side.] Buchanan, Graves, Morrison, Townshend, The CHAIRMAN. The Chair, in reply to the suggestion of the gen Buckner, Green, Morse, Tucker, tleman from Iowa. [Mr. KASSON], will say that this is the proper time Burnes, Greenleaf, Moulton, Turner, H. G. Cabell, Halsell, Murphy, Turner, Oscar for the motion now made by the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. CoNVERSE]. Caldwell Hammond, Neece Vance. Mr. MORRISON. Before the·vote is taken I ask unanimous consent Campbell, Felix Hancock, Nelso~, ....> VanEaton, that the committee rise informally for the purpose of obtaining an ord~r Candler, Hardeman, Oates, Wakefield,~ Carleton, Hardy, O'Ferrall, Ward, 'from the House to vacate the evening session for to-day. . Cassidy, Hatch, W. H. O'Neill, J. J. Warner, Richard Mr. KASSON. I think we had better go on with this for the present. Clardy, Hemphill, Pierce, Wellborn, The CHAIRMAN. The question is on the motion of the gentleman Clay, Henley, Peel, S. W. Weller, !rom Ohio [Mr. CONVERSE] to strike out the enacting clause of the Clements, Herbert, Potter, White, Milo VI' Cobb, Hewitt, A. S. Pryor, ;llii:ms, lbill. Collins, G. w. Pusey, Mr. MORRISON. Upon that motion I call for tellers. Cook, :il.rtt, Rankin Wilso;., W. L. Cosgrove, HoblitzeU. Reagan: Winans, E. B. Tellers were ordered; and Mr. CoNVERSE and Mr. MORRISON were Covington, Holman, Reese, Winans, John .appointed. Cox,S.S. Houseman, Robertson, Wolford, The committee divided; and the tellers reported-ayes 156, noes Cox, W.R. Hurd, Rogers, J. H. Woodward, 151. . Crisp, Jones,B.W. Rogers, W. F. Worthington, Culberson, D. B. Jones,J.H. Ro ecrans, Yaple, So the motion to strike out the enacting clause was agreed to. · Dargan, Jones,J. K. Scales, Young, [The announcement of the result of the vote was received with great Davidson, Jones, J.T. Seymour, Carlisle, John G. -