CONGRESS. (THE DINGLEY BILL.) 



181 



. that additional revenue is wholly unnecessary. 



Notwithstanding this declaration, a tariff bill was 



formulated wholly at variance with all past ]: 

 sious of the Republican party on The tariff ques- 

 tion. It is admitted everywhere that the House 

 bill is not and was not intended to be an expression 

 by the party of its views. It has been and is now 

 distinctly asserted that it is not a Republican meas- 

 ure. It is a measure to meet an alleged emergency 

 which the chief executive officer of the nation. 

 chosen by a majority of the people in 1892. stoutly 

 asserts does not exist at all. The party, then, is in 

 the attitude of forcing uncalled-for relief upon a 

 reluctant Democratic administration. 



" Aside from this unenviable attitude and the 

 manifest embarrassment that must come to the 

 party in the future in consequence of it, the meth- 

 od employed is seriously objectionable. It builds 

 upon existing law as a foundation. The Wilson 

 tariff bill has been everywhere condemned by Re- 

 publicans as notoriously inequitable and unjust. 

 It assumed to protect the manufacturers and cast 

 the producers of so-called raw material throughout 

 the country into open competition with cheap labor 

 everywhere. The pending bill now proposes to 

 make this injustice more glaring. The Wilson bill 

 was framed upon a theory favoring ad valorem in 

 preference to specific duties. On high authority it 

 is asserted that an ad valorem tariff has been repu- 

 diated by the principal commercial nations in their 

 tariff systems: by Austria. Denmark, England, 

 France. Germany. Italy, Norway. Russia, Sweden, 

 and Spain. 10 nations which, with tariffs on 3,957 

 articles, have only 10 on the ad valorem basis and 

 the remainder specific. When and where did this 

 obsolete and discarded cloak for fraud and evasion 

 become sacred in Republican eyes ( An ad valor f. in 

 tariff has been condemned so emphatically by the 

 Republican party on all occasions that it stands no 

 better with the party than does the Wilson bill. 

 The pending bill makes a 15-per-cent. horizontal 

 raise on 12 schedules of the Wilson bill. When 

 and where did the Republican party become com- 

 mitted to the horizontal movement in tariff legisla- 

 tion ? The Wilson bill, the ad valorem tariff, and 

 the horizontal scheme have each in turn been em- 

 phatically condemned by Republican platforms, 

 orators, and papers, and never commended any- 

 where by Republican authority. How then, sir, 

 could it become treasonable for a Republican to 

 oppose all three of these elements combined ( 

 Well-settled convictions, supported by practically 

 one half the electors of this country, should not be 

 lightly sacrificed on the altar of supposed expedi- 

 ency. 



" But, assuming that the Administration requires 

 funds, which it avers it does not, and that in the 

 name of patriotism we must sacrifice ancient and 

 time-honored principles and convictions, let us en- 

 deavor while making the sacrifice to be reasonably 

 just. This bill is not understood by the country 

 correctly. I submit that the general belief obtains 

 that it provides a slight duty for wool and lumber, 

 and then increases the existing duties 15 per cent., 

 except as to sugar. Even Senators and members 

 of the House generally accept this view of the bill. 

 I freely admit such was my general understanding 

 until brought to a critical analysis of its provisions 

 in regard to wool. 



" It will be observed that while the first para- 

 graph allows 60 per cent, of the duty imposed on 

 first and second class, and restores the ad rnlori-m 

 duty of from 32 to 30 per cent, on third-class wool 

 by the McKmley act. it expressly retains all the 

 limitations and conditions of that act. Experi- 

 ence has clearly demonstrated the fact that the con- 

 ditions and limitations thus expressly retained were 



so faulty and unjust in practice that the protection 

 intended was reduced about one half: that \\liere 

 the McKinley act provided 12 cent-, per pound on 

 a given grade of wool the condition:-, and limitat ions 

 reduced the figure in actual practice to about (j 

 cent- per pound. 



" The retained ' conditions and limitations' would 

 reduce the proposed tariff to a trifle more than one 

 fourth of the nominal rate of duty fixed by the 

 McKinley act. 



"Turn to section 2 of the bill and mark well the 

 manner in which the manufacturer of woolens is 

 taken care of. You will find no 15 per cent, hori- 

 zontal increase here. It must lie borne in mind 

 that the woolen goods referred to in the first sub- 

 division of the section are subject to ad mlnn-m 

 duties ranging from 25 to 50 per cent, and averag- 

 ing about 40 per cent, under existing law. To the 

 existing duty the bill proposes to add 60 per cent, 

 of the specific square-yard duty imposed on each 

 of the articles by the McKinley act. In the sec- 

 ond subdivision of the section it will be observed 

 that per centum is wholly omitted and the entire 

 specific square-yard duty imposed by the McKinley 

 act on carpets and other articles is added to the ad 

 valorem duty imposed by existing law. 



"I do not assert that these provisions will in- 

 crease the duties on manufactured woolens beyond 

 the rates fixed by the act of 1890, but I do assert 

 and call attention to the fact that the proviso in 

 section 4, intended to preclude such result under 

 the operations of that section, does not apply to the 

 section under consideration. Nor do I assert that 

 unreasonable or even adequate protection will be 

 afforded woolen manufacturers by the doubling up 

 of duties in the manner provided. I do, however, 

 emphatically maintain that the bill displays mani- 

 fest partiality for the manufacturer. 



" Entertaining these views, I can not vote for the 

 bill as presented. Amendment in the open Senate 

 would be wanting in that careful consideration for 

 the revenue-producing quality of the measure which 

 is the only possible justification for its existence. 

 The motion to recommit the bill to the Committee 

 on Finance without instructions will leave that 

 honorable body at liberty to prepare and present to 

 the Senate a fair and just bill which every Repub- 

 lican can conscientiously support. The veto mes- 

 sage of the President on a true Republican measure 

 would raise an issue; while his veto message on the 

 pending bill would raise a laugh at the expense of 

 the Republican party." 



Senator Carter then spoke upon bimetallism, with 

 a review of measures to show that its advocates had 

 been loyal to Republican principles. 



" In the plain view of these facts, the drift of the 

 Republican party in this Eastern section of the 

 country toward Clevelandism and the gold stand- 

 ard is to me an appalling spectacle. In the name 

 of all the Republican party means to human civili- 

 zation, let Republicans in and out of Congress take 

 counsel of their own party platform and traditions 

 and cease blind devotion to the false god who deals 

 in mysterious phrases. Upon our own platform of 

 protection and bimetallism honestly and fairly car- 

 ried into law we may securely rest the present and 

 the future prosperity and greatness of this repub- 

 lic; under that platform honestly carried out the 

 clearing house of Christendom would be inside of a 

 decade transferred from London to New York ; in- 

 ternal activity would be so far stimulated and vi- 

 talized that our exports would exceed our imi 

 giving unto us the power to proclaim a money sys- 

 tem of our own, based upon gold and silver as 

 money of final redemption. In conformity with 

 that platform, the departed greatness of our mer- 

 chant marine would be restored ; our navv would 



