CONGRESS. (REVEXCE REFORM.) 



199 



"Now, Mr. Chairman, what did these same 

 blankets cost in 1860 under a revenue tariff, 

 under the free-trade domination of this country 

 by the Democratic party ? What did we pay 

 for the same blankets that year, as contrasted 

 with what we pay now? The blanket that 

 sells to-day for $1.02 sold in 1860 for $2. The 

 blanket that sells now for $1.45 sold in 1860 

 tor s2.50. The blanket that sells now for $1.31 

 sold in 1860 for $2.25. The blanket that sells 

 now for $1.90 sold in 1860 for $3.50. The 

 blanket that sells now for $2.58 sold for > 

 in 1860. The blanket that sells now for 4.35 

 sold for $7.50 in 1860. The blanket that sells 

 for $5.85 now sold for $10 in 1860. The 

 blanket that sells now for $0.80 sold for $13 

 in 1860." 



After appealing to the experience of the 

 country in support of a protective system, and 

 citing its prosperity as a result of such a system, 

 Mr. McKinley said : " Who is objecting to our 

 protective system? From what quarter does 

 the complaint come? Not from the enterpris- 

 ing American citizen ; not from the manufact- 

 urer; not from the laborer, whose wages it 

 improves; not from the consumer, for he is 

 fully satisfied, because under it he buys a 

 cheaper and a better product than he did under 

 the other system ; not from the farmer, for lie 

 finds among the employes of the protected 

 industries his best and most reliable customers; 

 not from the merchant or the tradesman, for 

 every hive of industry increases the number of 

 his customers and enlarges the volume of his 

 trade. Few, indeed, have been the petitions 

 presented to this House asking for any reduc- 

 tion of duties upon imports. None, that I have 

 seen or heard of, and I have watched with the 

 deepest interest the number and character of 

 these petitions that I might gather from them 

 the drift of public sentiment I say I have seen 

 none asking for the passage of this bill, or for 

 any such departure from the fiscal policy of 

 the Government so long recognized and fol- 

 lowed, while against this legislation there has 

 been no limit to petitions, memorials, prayers, 

 and protests, from producer and consumer 

 alike. 



" This measure is not called for by the peo- 

 ple ; it is not an American measure ; it is in- 

 spired by importers and foreign producers, 

 most of them aliens, who want to diminish our 

 trade and increase their own; who want to 

 decrease our prosperity and augment theirs, 

 and who have no interest in this country except 

 what they can make out of it. To this is added 

 the influence of the professors in some of our 

 institutions of learning, who teach the science 

 contained in books and not that of practical 

 business. I would rather have my political 

 economy founded upon the every-day experi- 

 ence of the puddler or the potter than the 

 learning of the professor, the farmer and factory 

 hand than the college faculty. Then there is 

 another class who want protective tariffs over- 

 thrown. They are the men of independent 



wealth, with settled and steady incomes, who 

 want everything cheap but currency ; the value 

 of everything clipped but coin cheap labor but 

 dear money. These are the elements which 

 are arrayed against us." 



Mr. Randall, in a speech delivered May 18, 

 advocated reducing the revenue by a repeal of 

 the internal-revenue taxes: "These taxes have 

 always been the last to be levied and the first 

 to be repealed when no longer needed. It was 

 the boast of Jefferson that he had given the 

 death-blow to the excise tax, 'that most vexa- 

 tious of all taxes,' at the commencement of his 

 administration; and among other things for 

 which he received the thanks of the Legislature 

 of his native State on his retirement from office 

 was for ' internal taxes abolished.' 



" The first tax also to be repealed after the 

 war of 1812 was the excise tax, which was rec- 

 ommended by Madison, and was the first law 

 enacted under the administration of Monroe. 



" The Democratic Convention of 1884 declared 

 that the system of direct taxation known as 

 the internal revenue is a ' war tax,' and this 

 declaration, taken in connection with other 

 declarations in the platform which I will quote 

 further on, clearly establishes the fact that the 

 opinion of the convention was that the internal- 

 revenue ' war ' taxes should first go, and should 

 all go whenever a sufficient sum was realized 

 from custom-house taxes to meet the expenses 

 of the Government, economically administered. 

 We are practically in such condition now, and 

 a true response to these instructions warrants 

 the repeal of the internal laws to the extent 

 the bill proposes. 



"I favor now, as I have always done, a total 

 repeal of the internal-revenue taxation. In 

 the bill which I introduced I proposed to sweep 

 all these taxes off the statute-book except fifty 

 cents on whisky, and I would transfer the col- 

 lection of that tax to the customs officials, if, 

 upon examination and reflection, it was found 

 to be practicable." 



Mr. Randall argued that the amount of pro- 

 tective duty is not added to the price paid by a 

 consumer for an article except in cases where 

 home production can not supply the market and 

 so let competition fix prices ; he held, too, that 

 a tariff tax is not a bounty paid by one class to 

 another, as there is an equalization of profits 

 among all who partake of the benefits of an 

 industrial system ; and he argued against the 

 notion that farmers could sell their products in 

 dear markets and buy commodities in cheap 

 ones under a free-trade system : " If the farmer 

 ceases to buy the products of the manufact- 

 urers, he will certainly cease to sell to them, 

 and must sell his products in the market where 

 he buys what he consumes himself. Suppose 

 last year we had manufactured a thousand 

 millions' worth less than we did and had gone 

 abroad for these products, expecting to pay 

 for them with agricultural products; could a 

 thousand millions more of agricultural prod- 

 ucts have been sold abroad at the price such 



