CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. (THE TARIFF LAW.) 



217 



hand shows, the rate is seven tenths of a cent 

 a pound, or 53 per cent, ad valorem. The 

 Tariff Commission proposed seven tenths of a 

 cent a pound, and the Senate imposed a tax of 

 eight tenths of a cent a pound. This so-called 

 conference committee taxed them above what 

 the Tariff' Commission reported, above the 

 present law, above the action of the Senate. 

 They have divided the paragraph into two 

 parts and placed nine tenths of a cent a pound 

 upon a portion of them, increasing them from 

 $17.92 per ton to $20.16, and upon the balance 

 of them, where they are punched, to one cent 

 a pound or $22.40 per ton. Upon a portion of 

 these goods they make an increase of $2.24 a 

 ton, and upon the balance there is an increase 

 of $4.60 ; and this, though the Senate proposi- 

 tion for taxation upon all this class of articles 

 was higher than the present law and higher 

 than the Tariff Commission report. In this 

 miserable sham conference, after all we have 

 done, on articles that were imported last year 

 to the value of $2,658,977, paying a revenue 

 of $1,414,910, they make an increase of $2.24 

 a ton on half and of $4.60 upon the other half, 

 without any reason that I can see unless it is 

 to pile up burdens still higher upon every man 

 or corporation that sees tit to -build a street 

 railway, a tramway, or anything of the sort. 

 Yet we are asked to set aside the Senate bill 

 and agree to a report full of such monstrosi- 

 ties, which they seek to pass, as though it was 

 an improvement upon what we had done. 



" I will pass over a good many of the changes 

 they have made without comment. They have 

 increased the tax on boiler-iron, on line 569, 

 $2.20 a ton. They have increased the tax upon 

 polished, planished, or glanced sheet-iron or 

 sheet-steel $11.20 a ton, although that matter 

 was twice carefully considered ; and the Sena- 

 ator from Massachusetts (Mr. Hoar) at last read 

 documents to prove that that class of iron ought 

 to be reduced to two cents per pound. It was re- 

 duced on his recommendation, and yet the con- 

 ferees have put it up again, taxing it $11.20 a 

 ton more, and inserting a proviso which I have 

 not time to consider carefully, but it means 

 mischief. Let me read it to the Senate. It is 

 a new proviso inserted by them : 



" Provided, That plate or sheet or taggers iron, by 

 whatever name designated, other than the polished, 

 planished, or glanced herein provided for, which has 

 been pickled or cleaned by acid, or by any other ma- 

 terial or process, and which is cold-rolled, shall pay 

 one quarter cent per pound more duty than the cor- 

 responding gauges of common or black sheet or tag- 

 gers iron. 



" We struck that proviso out after deliberate 

 consideration in the Senate, or in committee, 

 because it was shown that all that iron had to 

 be rolled, and the imposition of that additional 

 tax was such a wrong that not one of these 

 gentlemen dared to urge its adoption in the 

 Senate ; it was stricken out, as the debate will 

 show, on proof by gentlemen on this floor that 

 the proviso ought not to be retained. Yet 

 when they get themselves in secret conclave, 



and with nobody to contradict or expose them, 

 and their report has to be voted on as a whole, 

 because a portion, however vicious or corrupt, 

 if you please, can not be stricken out without 

 defeating the whole measure, they make a bill 

 to suit themselves and their friends. Knowing 

 that there are so many things in the bill that 

 so many men are interested in, they trust that 

 the Senate can not afford to defeat their report. 

 " Skipping a good many things, I come now 

 to a matter that attracted my attention the 

 moment my eye rested upon it, because it is a 

 subject that the Senate thoroughly understands. 

 The Senator from Ohio, as the Senate will re- 

 member, near the close of the discussion brought 

 before us a new amendment to the iron sched- 

 ule. He presented it on a Saturday morning. 

 I rose to oppose it and said that I did not quite 

 comprehend the full extent and effect of it, 

 but I thought I could find out if I had time al- 

 lowed me until Monday morning. There were" 

 funeral ceremonies to be held at five o'clock 

 that day, and it went over. I had examined it 

 before it was called up on Monday, and when 

 it was understood that the proposition of the 

 Senator from Ohio was to increase the duties 

 on all steel not otherwise enumerated from 

 the present rate of 30 per cent, ad valorem to 

 45 per cent, ad valorem ; that it sought to 

 change the duties on all the classes of Bessemer 

 steel however made, whether by the pneumatic, 

 Thorn as-Gilchrist, basic, Siemens-Martin, or 

 any other process, imposing a tax of 45 per 

 cent, upon a certain grade, changing classifica- 

 tions and adding to the duties on them by in- 

 direct methods, the Senate refused to accept 

 his amendments. Upon a full, fair, and free 

 discussion in this body, and an explanation of 

 the effect of his propositions, we defeated him 

 in his efforts to tax steel 45 per cent., and held 

 it at 30. We defeated the proposed increase 

 to 45 per cent, duty upon Bessemer steel and 

 made it 40. We kept him from raising the 

 duty on crucible steel and changing the classifi- 

 cation in the way he proposed, greatly to the 

 disgust of the Senator from Ohio. Yet after 

 that defeat, perhaps smarting under it, wanting 

 to take revenge on the country and on the 

 Senate, he goes into this so-called conference 

 committee and has restored in this report every 

 provision that the Senate had voted down after 

 full debate when he sought to impose them 

 upon us. In the amendments that I have ex- 

 hibited from this conference report he has 

 placed all the manufactures of steel at the 

 points I have indicated. I say he; I speak of 

 the Senator from Ohio, because he is the leader 

 of this movement in courage and audacity and 

 intellect. I know who drove the conference ; 

 I see the tracks, though he does not sign the 

 report; I know who had iron-ore and pig-iron 

 increased. It is a Sherman-Mahpne tariff now, 

 as to all the paragraphs in the iron schedule. 

 Senators will observe that in the report all our 

 action in the Senate as to steel is overthrown 

 and the defeated proposition of the Senator 



