REDUCTION OF REVENUE.

It is, Mr. President, important that the people should be advised as to what reduction in the revenue is to be brought about by the passage of this bill. Any revision of the tariff at this time which does not involve a very large reduction in the annual revenues collected, whether by customs or internal tax, or both, would not meet the demands of the people, and would be regarded by them as an abandonment of party pledges. Let us inquire, therefore, what reductions are proposed and likely to follow the passage of this bill. These depend of course in a measure on the precise manner in which the differences of the two Houses may be ultimately adjusted in a conference between the two Houses, as the bill as it passed the House is somewhat different in this respect from the same bill as proposed to be amended by the Senate Committee on Finance, although this difference after all is not very great in so far as it relates to the probable reduction of the revenue, as under each proposition there will necessarily follow a very large reduction in the annual revenues.

Listening to some of the speeches made on the other side of the Chamber,.one not properly informed, not conversant with the bill and its provisions as they really are, would naturally conclude the effect of the passage of this bill would be to largely increase taxation, advance customs rates all along the line, swell the annual revenue, and oppress the people. If such were, in my judgment, to be the effect of the pending bill it never could receive my vote. Such, indeed, is not the pending measure. And in this connection it may be properly stated that never, perhaps, in the history of legislation has there been such studied, deliberate, persistent attempt to misrepresent any proposed legislationits nature, character, and probable effect, such determined, yet poorly concealed, efforts to deceive and hoodwink the masses of the people as there has been in reference to the pending bill. The bill is precisely what it purports to be-a bill to reduce the revenue and equalize duties on imports-the effect of which will be, if enacted into law, most unquestionably, to reduce the revenue to the extent of very many millions of dollars and to equalize the duties on imports, so as to operate more equally and fairly in reference to all the industries of the country.

THE FREE-LIST.

The House bill, as it passed that body, transferred to the free-list some forty-seven articles dutiable under existing law. This list has been but slightly modified by the Senate committee; some four or five new articles have been added. The question as to what effect this will have on the reduction of revenue is, of course, a matter of certain ascertainment when considered in connection with the amount of duties paid on these same articles the last fiscal year.

The value of the importations for the fiscal year 1889 of these articles transferred to the free-list by the action of the House of Representatives was $107,921, 735.34, and the revenues collected thereon amounted to $60,736,896.12, while modified in this respect, as proposed by the Senate committee, it covers articles the importation of which for the same period was $108,919,907.15, and on which duties were collected to the amount of $60,599,343.69. So it will be seen that in any event, no matter which list should finally be adopted, or even should there be a compromise as between the two, by taking a fair average there will by the proposed bill be a reduction of the customs revenue alone by the one act of transferring articles heretofore dutiable to the free-list of considerably over $60,000,000.

1

This much is certain. The average as between the amounts proposed by the two Houses being $60,668,119.90, and a great portion of this has been collected heretofore from articles of general use in this country, and which can not be produced in this country either at all or only in very limited quantities. To what extent the annual customs revenues may be further changed in amount by the proposed changes in the rates of duties on dutiable articles, many of which have been reduced and some increased, can not be so definitely arrived at except calculation is made on the assumption that the value of importations of these articles in reference to which duties are charged should continue the same in the future as in the past. Estimating on this basis, the total reduction would under the bill as it passed the House amount to $26,128,649.90, and under the bill as proposed to be amended by the Senate committee, $20,318,283.40.

The average total reduction as between the proposition of the two Houses is $23,223,465.50. These statements and estimates relate, of course, only to revenues arising from duties on foreign imports, and have no relation whatever to the proposed reduction upon the part of the House of $10,000,000 more in the revenues by changes in the internal-revenue taxes. In other words, the total value of dutiable goods imported into the United States for the fiscal year 1889, and which by the present bill are still retained on the dutiable list, was $390,437,117.07, upon which duties were paid to the amount of $161,408,846.49; while the estimated duties under the proposed legislation, assuming that the quantity and value of importations will be neither reduced nor increased by the proposed change of rates, is, under the bill as it passed the House, $206,344,977.77, and as proposed to be modified by the Senate committee, $201,689,907.08.

It is but fair to state, however, that it is believed by the advocates of this revision, and indeed such is the intention, that one effect of the change of duties will, in respect of certain articles, especially where the duty is largely increased, for instance the articles of wool and woolen goods as notable examples, be to largely reduce both the quantity and the total value of the importation of such articles, and thus, while the revenue will doubtless be largely reduced, a more adequate protection will at the same time be afforded to the producers of these articles in this country.

But while this will be the effect in most cases where the rates of duty are increased, just the reverse will generally be the effect in cases where the rates of duty are lowered, as in such cases it is generally the case that there is such a large increase in both the number of articles and total value of articles imported as to materially increase the total amount of annual revenues collected therefrom, although the rates of duties, ad valorem or specific, may be much less. This is almost invariably the case unless indeed the rate of duty is so largely reduced as to be merely nominal.

But, notwithstanding the fact that the duties on some of the schedules have been advanced in the bill under consideration for the purpose of more adequately protecting certain American industries which have been sorely pressed, and in some instances their very existence threatened by being compelled to compete with like articles, the product of European pauper labor, it is a fact nevertheless, clearly susceptible of demonstration, that the present bill, both as it passed the House of Representatives and under the modifications proposed by the Senate com

mittee, largely reduces the average per cent, of duty rates when considered in connection with our total annual importations.

This last year, that is, the fiscal year ending June 30, 1889, excluding gold and silver, they amounted in value to $745,131,652, including those articles admitted free of duty as well as those that were dutiable. The total amount of duties collected was $222,145,742, or but a slight fraction less than 30 per cent, average rate on our total importations; whereas under the present bill as reported to the Senate, in the event there should be no change in the amount and value of importations, the duties would be but $201,689,907.08, or an average of but 27.15 per cent.

While, therefore, the rates on certain schedules are slightly advanced, there is on an average, by the increase of the free-list to the extent of $108,919,900.15 in value of importation and the reduction in rates on certain dutiable articles, a marked decrease in the general average of duties on our importations, amounting in all to within a small fraction of 3 per cent. on our total importations of the fiscal year ending June 30, 1889, $745,131,653. Our total importations, however, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1890, were $789,335,855, or $44,204,203 in excess of those of our importations for the year ending June 30, 1889; consequently the average ad valorem rates of duty under the pending bill, if applied to this latter amount, are but 25 per cent. In this statement as to the probable reduction of revenue no account, of course, is taken of the proposed reduction of internal-revenue taxes, which by the bill as it passed the House is, as stated, $10,327,878.06.

FREE RAW MATERIALS.

Our Democratic friends have had much to say in the past, and the contention is still kept up, in favor of the proposition that raw materials should be admitted free. There is something in this, but in the demand thus made unqualifiedly two considerations seem to be entirely overlooked and lost sight of. First, a careful distinction is not noted or indeed attempted as to just what articles may properly be classed under the head of raw materials; and, secondly, the fact seems to be entirely overlooked that already under existing law, enacted in 1883, we have an extensive free-list, while the present bill proposes to increase that free-list to the extent of over $100,000,000 more, under which (I now refer to the existing law) hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of raw materials are annually being imported into this country and here manufactured.

In fact, more than one-third of all the importations of merchandise into this country are now admitted free. Of the $745,131,652 in value imported during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1889, but $498,358,852 was subject to duty, while $246,873,800 worth came in free, and by the pending bill, as I have stated, $108,819,907 more are to be added to the free-list, giving us a free-list, should the pending bill become a law, of not less, based on present importations, than $355,793,707. True, under the bill as it passed the House, some seventeen articles are transferred from the present free-list to the dutiable-list, which will yield a revenue, in the event the importations of these articles equal in quantity and value those of last year, of $2,456,030.14, while forty-seven articles now on the dutiable-list, and on which duties last year were collected to the amount of $60,736,896, will by this bill be transferred to the free-list.

And of the $246,873,800 worth of articles which came in free the past year more than $125,000,000, or over one-half of the whole amount,

were articles that can in every proper sense be termed raw materials. They were articles such as are described in the reports of the Bureau of Statistics as articles in a crude condition which enter into the various processes of domestic industry." Should this bill, therefore, become a law, either in the shape it passed the House or as modified by the Senate Finance Committee, the free-list will be increased to nearly, if not quite, 50 per cent. of the total importations into this country and nearly, if not quite, one-half of which will consist of what may be properly termed " raw materials."

So, Mr. President, when we come to define properly what are raw materials" and then take into consideration the fact so universally overlooked that over $125,000,000 worth of raw materials are now admitted free of duty, and the other fact that this list is to be so very largely increased by the proposed legislation, it would seem that there is not much room left for just complaint or criticism on this score.

As already suggested one great difference between the two Houses in a matter affecting a reduction of the revenue relates to the proposed repeal of internal-revenue taxes. By the bill as it passed the House a total reduction of $10,327,878.06 is proposed, as follows: First, repealing the tax on dealers in leaf-tobacco---Second, by repealing the tax on retail dealers in leaftobacco

Third, by repealing the tax on dealers in tobacco---Fourth, by repealing the tax on manufacturers of tobacco

Fifth, by repealing the tax on manufacturers of cigarsSixth, by repealing the tax on peddlers of tobacco. Seventh, by reducing the revenue from smoking and manufactured tobacco from 8 to 4 cents per pound. And, eighth, by reducing the tax on snuff from 8 to 4 cents per pound......-

Making a total of.

THE FARMER.

$48, 570.88

270.84 1,280, 015. 93

5, 128.25 120, 195. 53 12, 701.88

8, 538, 449.97

322, 544.78 10,327, 878.06

The effort, Mr. President, in the past few years upon the part of the advocates of free trade, or a tariff for revenue only, to impress the farmers of this country with the belief that their interests do not lie in the direction of a protective tariff, and that by such a policy they are being robbed and their interest sacrificed to those of the Eastern manufacturers have been both persistent and able, if not to say prodigious, but never was a more untenable position assumed by any party or set of men. It is a contention which flies directly in the face of the whole history of this country from its earliest period to the present time, and is an insult to the names and memories of those illustrious men under whose inspiration and counsels our Government was brought into existence.

All concede that any discussion of this question that omits, as a most important and influential factor entitled to the highest consideration, the farming class is out of place. By the last census there were in this country 7,670,493 persons engaged in agriculture, just about double the whole number engaged in manufactures, mechanics, and mining. There were engaged in the last-named three occupations, all told, only 3,836,112. In all employments the number engaged was 17,392,099. This was about the number who earned wages. The balance-33,000,

000-earned no wages. Of these, 3,837,112 persons were engaged in trade and transportation; 4,074,238 in professional and personal services, and 7,670,493 in agriculture, or only 25,555 persons less than onehalf the whole number engaged in all the professions and occupations known to man.

Any attempt, therefore, to ignore the interests of the farmers in any proposed legislation is simply to repudiate and set aside nearly onehalf of all those who in the aggregate seek employment in the various industries and professions of the United States, while any attempts at deception must come under the head of political crimes, the just penalty of which should be, if it is not, political ostracism and political death. There are doubtless to-day in this country over nine million persons engaged in the business of agriculture. The farmer, therefore, being the great central column of the industrial structure, the keystone of the great industrial arch, is, more than any other class-yes, more than all other classes combined-entitled to protection. If the farmer fails, every other person, whether manufacturer, artisan, laborer, or professional man, must fail also.

Many things which ordinarily may be regarded as necessaries of life, but which, after all, are more luxuries than necessaries, may in an emergency be dispensed with, but the products of the farm-bread, potatoes, eatables-can not be dispensed with. These are necessaries, and men, and women, and children, too, must have them or die. This being so, agriculture, more than any other industry known to man, should be, and under our protective policy is, protected, if not more, at least to the same extent and with the same care as that of any other industry in which the citizens of this country engage. The farmer must have a market for his surplus products; otherwise, while he may not die for lack of bread, he may freeze to death for lack of clothing, shelter, and the other absolute necessaries and comforts of life.

Man can not live on bread alone, and it is only by means realized from the sale of his surplus products that the farmer and his family may be properly clothed, otherwise provided for, and live.

What special consideration, therefore, does the present bill give to the interests of the farmer aside from those general benefits that must necessarily flow to all classes, the farmer included, from the application of a general policy that shields us from the industrial tax of foreign nations, and thus promotes the general welfare of all our people? It is presumed that the farmers themselves, as represented in the national organization known as the National Grange, understand their wants and wishes in reference to tariff legislation, and it is a further fact, perhaps not generally known, but I believe true and worthy of note, that this organization through its legislative committee, submitted early in the present session to the proper committees of Congress, the Ways and Means Committee of the House of Representatives and the Finance Committee of the Senate, the schedules of rates (which they desired incorporated into tariff legislation.

And it is further worthy of note that these requests have been respected almost literally; in fact, in but one or two instances have any less rates of duty been imposed on farm products than requested, while in numerous instances even much greater protection than asked for has been given both by the action of the House and by that of the Senate Committee on Finance. Some slight departures may be noted in the amendments proposed by the Senate Committee on Finance, but on the whole there has been substantial favorable response, indeed, lib