It does not look to the fostering of a young and feeble interest
with a view to the ultimate attainment of strength and the capacity
of self-support. It appears to assume that the present inability for
successful production is inherent and permanent, and is more likely
to increase than to be gradually overcome; yet in spite of this it
proposes, by the exercise of the lawmaking power, to sustain that
interest and to impose it in hopeless perpetuity as a tax upon the
competent and beneficent industries of the country.
The true method for the mining interests of Lake Superior to
obtain relief, if relief is needed, is to endeavor to make their great
natural resources fully available by reducing the cost of production.
Special or class legislation can not remedy the evils which this bill
is designed to meet. They can only be overcome by laws which will effect
a wise, honest, and economical administration of the Government, a
reestablishment of the specie standard of value, and an early adjustment
of our system of State, municipal, and national taxation (especially the
latter) upon the fundamental principle that all taxes, whether collected
under the internal revenue or under a tariff, shall interfere as little
as possible with the productive energies of the people.
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