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ognize it in advance that you are crying, "Vote!" "Vote!" "Vote!" Your class of people in the latter day will be crying, in similar fashion, for the mountains to fall on them. [Laughter.]

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"Oh, what was I begun for, if I'm so soon to be done for?"

Cartoon by Victor Gillam in "Judge"

Mr. Wilson expressed his great disappointment at the situation.

I had hoped and believed, until there seemed no ground

scarcely for hope or belief, that in such a contest this House, backed by the American people and enthusiastically sustained by the Democratic party, would be able to achieve some honorable compromise between the two Houses which we could have accepted, not from a sense of duty, but with a sense of satisfaction and a feeling that we had responded to the mandates of the American people.

Mr. Speaker, we have simply realized in this great fight the fact so well stated by the great leader of the tariff reform fight in Great Britain-that when the people have gained a victory at the polls they must have a further stand-up and knockdown fight with their own representatives. And we have realized, if nothing else, the warning lesson of the intrenchment of the protective system in this country under thirty years of class legislation, until the mere matter of tariff schedules is a matter of insignificance, and the great question presents itself, is this to be a Government by a self-taxing people or a Government of taxation by trusts and monopolies? [Applause on the Democratic side.]

But whatever the measure of shortcoming of this bill in its present form-whatever be its demerits in mere schedules-this I do believe, that it is not as bad as the McKinley bill. [Loud applause on the Democratic side.]

This I do know, that in part of it it does afford some relief to the taxpayers of this country, and does clip the wings of the gigantic monopolies that are now oppressing them and blocking legislation. [Applause on the Democratic side; derisive cries on the Republican side.]

[Ap

Immediately following the passage of this bill we propose to present and pass a bill putting sugar on the free list. plause on the Democratic side.] The question is now made as to whether this is a Government by the American people for the American people, or a Government of the sugar trust for the benefit of the sugar trust. And this House will show the people, I doubt not, what its position is on that question, and the Senate will show the people its position.

MR. REED.-Mr. Speaker, I am somewhat reluctant to address the House, because my feelings are divided between two emotions. One is an emotion of regret for the Democratic party and for its position, and the other is a feeling of equal regret for the country and its position, too. So far as the gentleman from West Virginia is concerned and his compatriots, there is not the slightest necessity of my commenting on the difference between this scene of sorrow and the triumphal pro

cession which carried him out of this House. [Laughter and applause on the Republican side.] He is not so joyous now, having been carried out in another branch, and more effectually. [Renewed laughter.]

The gentleman from West Virginia and his compatriots appear before us now, not as the triumphal reformers, marching to glory at the sound of their own sweet voices. They are little babes in the wood, and it will be found pretty soon that they were left there by their "uncle" in the White House. [Great laughter and applause on the Republican side.]

Out of your own household has come your condemnation. Nay, out of your own mouths has your condemnation come. For we shall read that bold and uncompromising declaration of the chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means that we were to sit here until the end of our term to put down the sugar trust. What do we have instead? Why, we have a proposition to fire one of those pop-gun tariff bills for which the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Springer] was deposed from the Committee on Ways and Means. [Laughter on the Republican side.] His successor, after filling the atmosphere with his outspread wings, finds his nest in some other bird's premises. [Laughter on the Republican side.] Why not resign if you were to adopt the action of the other person? I congratulate the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Springer] upon his personal triumph. I wish I could congratulate the country upon something, and I will— upon the speedy departure of incompetency. [Applause upon the Republican side.]

Lafe Pence [Col.], a Populist, paid an earnest tribute to Mr. Wilson.

Mr. Speaker, I am not prepared to agree with the course of the majority here to-day, although it may be the best that my fellows and I can do. But we cannot hesitate to recognize the magnificent courage as well as ability of the men who have led this fight, above all the man who is standing here to-day with blindfold off, who is a great deal bigger than he was the other day when he stood here blindfolded. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from West Virginia [Mr. Wilson] may not live to see the end of the fight for tariff reform. He may not live to stand again and sound the call to the clans for the roll of honor and every man to answer, but, if I live to be a hundred years old, when I remember him it will be as he stands to-day, accepting the inevitable. To him I address the words of Edwin Arnold:

Charge, charge once more

Then, and be dumb.

And let the victors, when they come,
When the forts of folly fall,

Find your body by the wall.

[Applause.]

The bill was presented to President Grover Cleveland on August 15. He refused to sign it, announcing the fact that he had not done so on August 28, 1894, at which date the bill went into effect even without his signature.

THE TARIFF OF 1897

[THE DINGLEY BILL]

Nelson Dingley [Me.] Introduces a Tariff Bill in the House-Debate: in Favor, Mr. Dingley, Albert J. Hopkins [Ill.], Jonathan P. Dolliver [Ia.], Gen. Charles H. Grosvenor [O.], Joseph H. Walker [Mass.], John Dalzell [Pa.], Sereno E. Payne [N. Y.]; Opposed, Gen. Joseph Wheeler [Ala.], John C. Bell [Col.], Edward W. Carmack [Tenn.], John L. McLaurin [S. C.], James G. Maguire [Cal.], John Sharp Williams [Miss.], Benton McMillin [Tenn.], Champ Clark [Mo.], Jerry Simpson [Kan.], John M. Allen [Miss.]-Bill Is Passed-Nelson W. Aldrich [R. I.] Introduces the Bill in the Senate-Debate: in Favor, Sen. Aldrich, Richard F. Pettigrew [S. D.]; Opposed, Donelson Caffery [La.], Roger Q. Mills [Tex.], Benjamin R. Tillman [S. C.]-Bill Is Passed with Amendments-Conference Report; Debate in the House: in Favor, Mr. Dingley, Mr. Payne; Opposed, Joseph W. Bailey [Tex.], Mr. McMillin-Report Is Adopted by House and Senate-Bill Is Signed by the President.

P

RESIDENT WILLIAM MCKINLEY convened Congress in special session on March 15, 1897, to revise the tariff. On March 22 a bill to this end was introduced in the House by Nelson Dingley [Me.], chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means.

THE DINGLEY TARIFF BILL

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MARCH 22-31, 1897

Mr. Dingley supported the measure.

In this revision the committee have endeavored to discard mere theories, and have addressed themselves to the framing of a practical remedy, at least in part, for the ills which have for so many months overshadowed the country.

It is a "condition and not a theory which confronts us.” Our problem is to provide adequate revenue from duties on im

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