ts, it passed the House. In the
Senate, on the next day, it was referred to the committee on finance.
On the 20th of March it was reported to the Senate, with amendments,
by Mr. Voorhees. Mr. Morrill said:

"I desire to say that so far as the Republican members of the
committee on finance are concerned they did not object to the
reporting of the bill, while they are opposed not only to the
proposed income tax, but to the many changes of specifics to _ad
valorems_, and to the great bulk of the provisions of the bill."

On the 2nd of April Voorhees made a carefully prepared speech in
support of the bill. The debate continued, occupying much the
larger part of the time until the 3rd day of July, when the bill
passed with radical amendments, which changed it in principle and
details. Two conferences of the two Houses were held on amendments
disagreed to, but failed to agree, and it appeared, after the long
struggle, that he bill would be defeated, when, on the 13th of
August, upon motion of Mr. Catchings, the House agreed to the Senate
amendments in gross and thus the bill passed Congress. The President
refused to approve it and it became a law after ten days without
his approval.

This skeleton history of what is now known as the Wilson tariff
partly discloses its imperfections. Framed in the House as a tariff
for revenue only, and radically changed in the Senate to a tariff
with protection to special industries, it was not satisfactory to
either House, to the President or to the people. So far as it
copied the schedules and the legislative provisions of the McKinley
law, it met with approval. Its new features were incongruous, were
decidedly sectional, and many of its provisions were inconsistent
with each other.

The vital defect of this bill is that it does not provide sufficient
revenue to carry on the government. This is the primary and almost
the only cause of the financial difficulties of the present
administration. The election of Mr. Cleveland in 1892, upon the
platform framed by him, naturally created distrust as to the ability
of the government to maintain the parity of the different forms of
money in circulation. Added to this, the broad declaration of the
purpose to reduce taxation led to the reduction of importations
and the diminution of the revenue from the McKinley tariff. Importers
and dealers naturally reduced their imports in view of the expectation
that duties would be reduced. By th