CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. (THE TAEIFF LAW.) 



215 



lould be free. No man ventured to make an 

 argument worth calling such against that pro- 

 vision. It was admitted that when a bottle 

 once reaches this country, whether it has apol- 

 limiris water in it or anything else, it competes 

 when it reaches here with the domestic manu- 

 facture of bottles precisely to the same extent 

 whether it comes free or pays a tax. We all 

 agreed that if the people wanted these waters 

 they had a right to have them. 



" We thought there were some things the 

 people ought to have without being taxed to 

 death, and that the water of the springs of the 

 world that they might prefer as conducive to 

 their health or their pleasure ought not to be 

 taxed; all agreed that was right. Yet this 

 conference committee, this secret conclave 

 they were in no proper sense conferees, yet I 

 shall speak of them as such not only imposed a 

 heavy tax upon all the bottles in which apolli- 

 naris and other waters come, as you will see 

 by turning over to the free-list, but they in- 

 creased the tax upon all the other bottles used 

 in tliis country from the present tax of 30 per 

 cent, to about 100 per cent., although we had 

 voted down the proposition to do so, as I have 

 stated, every time it was offered, both in com- 

 mittee and in the Senate, until every advocate 

 of the increased tax had given it up. Yet 

 these gentlemen secretly and wrongfully bring 

 it back with the tax of 100 per cent, on these 

 things. I regard their action as an outrage, in 

 flagrant disregard of the known will of Con- 

 gress. 



u The Milwaukee brewer who bottles 100,- 

 000 barrels annually, consumes almost as many 

 bottles as are imported into the United States 

 in a year. The Senate of the United States 

 refused to increase the tax above 30 per cent. 

 But our would-be masters, disregarding our 

 will, have increased it to a cent a pound, or 

 100 per cent, upon all that class of bottles in 

 the interest of the bottle-makers, adding to the 

 tax paid by a single brewer who bottles 100,- 

 000 barrels of beer annually over $200,000, in 

 order to put the money into the pockets of 

 some of their friends. Tlv^y have, I repeat, in 

 plain violation of the orders of the Senate, 

 placed the bottles in which apollinaris, vichy, 

 and other natural waters are imported, on the 

 taxable list, and whether they will impose a 

 charge on them of one cent a pound or whether 

 they will be taxed at 30 per cent, ad valorem, 

 will depend upon a careful construction of the 

 conflicting clauses contained in the conference 

 report, which, if Senators will read, they will 

 see were inserted, if not for the purpose, cer- 

 tainly with the effect of deceiving and of re- 

 quiring the Treasury Department to give the 

 manufacturer here the benefit of the doubt and 

 thus force the officials to decide that they shall 

 pay 100 per cent. ; because after the long and 

 apparently successful struggle that we made 

 not to allow the highest duty to be imposed in 

 doubtful cases, the conferees provide and I 

 believe that was the point at which the Sena- 



tor from Delaware and myself left the confer- 

 ence, it being the first important change in our 

 tariff amendment, as there was no question in 

 regard to the internal-revenue taxes which 

 both Houses had acted on, and as to which no 

 difference of opinion was developed, I suppose 

 the relief given there is relied on to carry 

 through on the single vote to which we are 

 now confined all the atrocities of the tariff 

 amendments : 



" If two or more rates of duty should be applicable 

 to any imported article, it shall be classified for duty 

 under the highest of such rates. 



" They have one rate of 30 per cent, for bot- 

 tles filled ; that is, they shall pay 30 per cent, 

 ad valorem in addition to the duties on the 

 contents. Yet the conference committee in- 

 sert another amendment in these words : 



" All glass bottles and decanters, and other like 

 vessels oi glass, shall, if filled, pay the same rates of 

 duty, in addition to any duty chargeable on the con- 

 tents, as if not filled, except as in this act otherwise 

 specially provided for. 



" That is one cent a pound, or 100 per cent, 

 ad valorem on common bottles. One of these 

 conflicting provisions in regard to bottles makes 

 them pay 30 per cent, if filled, and another 

 provision makes them pay the same duty 

 whether filled or not. By the general clause 

 as to the highest rate in doubtful cases they 

 will be required to pay 100 per cent., in my 

 opinion. If that is not a trick I 'do not know 

 what to call it. I do not intend to charge any 

 Senator with trickery, but the provision they 

 have made that whenever there is a doubt, or 

 it can be construed that there are two or more 

 rates applicable to the article it shall pay the 

 highest, these two conflicting provisions will 

 give the officials a chance to tax it at the high- 

 est rate. 



" I will speak next of pig-iron. The Senate 

 of the United States had a long and earnest 

 discussion as to the propriety of a general re- 

 duction of tax in the iron schedule, as all 

 agreed that reasonably cheap pig-iron was in- 

 dispensable to enable the people to obtain 

 cheap finished products. We agreed upon $6 

 per ton as being the proper rate to charge on 

 pig-iron, with a like rate on scrap-iron, both 

 steel and cast. It was debated long and ably 

 in all its aspects. I have the debate before me. 

 I had expected to read part of it, but -I find 

 that I can not. We agreed upon a duty of $6 

 a ton. After a while, when we had gone 

 through the bill in Committee of the Whole, the 

 Senator from Ohio threatened to vote against 

 the bill, and to defeat all our efforts at giving 

 the people any relief in internal or tariff taxa- 

 tion unless we increased the tax on pig-iron 

 and upon such articles in the iron schedule as 

 he demanded. I will read ( from his speech be- 

 fore I close. He read telegrams from Hon. 

 Henry B. Payne, of Cleveland, and .others, 

 telling him to vote against the bill, and he 

 said he would obey their orders unless we 

 obeyed his. 



