Mr. SHERMAN. When the honorable Senfrom Kentucky 1st made this motion I was not disposed to think it was a serious matter; but now I wish, speaking only as a single Senator, that this should be a test vote. The Senfrom Missouri is correct, that if we are to debate this bill and load it down with private interests the sooner we defeat it the etter. Unless the friends of an increased tariff, in order to promote our industry and to secure increased revenue, are determined to stand by it, the bill may as well be killed now as at any other time. To refer this bill at this stage of the session is a defeat of the bill. I have been a little surprised at the course of the honorable Senfrom Iowa. At the last session we had 2 bills before the Senate, one in relation to internalrevenue, and the other in relation to the duties on customs. The 2 bills were here together; they were considered together; this very bill was being considered in the House while the internal system of taxation was considered in the Senate. Then, however, he desired to separate them. He himself moved that this identical bill should be postponed until the Present session, at the time when we had the 2 bills before us. Now it seems he thinks we ought to have the 2 under consideration at the same time in order to equalize the one with the other. The reference of this bill at this stage of the session, ahd especially with instructions or intimations that we must not consider this bill until the House matures an internalrevenue bill, is a defeat of the bill, and might as well so be considered. My honorable friendfrom Kentucky is a great stickler for the Constitution; but he proposes to instruct us substantially to report an internalrevenue bill. The Constitution declares that all bills for raising taxes shall originate in the HoRep. The Senate have no power to introduce a bill to provide for taxes. We have to await the action of the House. We might, perhaps, by amendments to this bill, add an internalrevenue bill; but it would be a violation of the spirit of the Constitution. We have to await the action of the House. If after having this bill before us for months and months; after having a most patient examination by an officer of the Government; after having it fully considered in committee; after the committee spending days and weeks during the holidays, when everybody else was enjoying himself, in a patient and laborious examination of the bill, the Senate now see proper to recommit it, as a matter of course that is the end of it for this session. I, for one, as an individual member of the committee have no interest to subserve in this bill; and f may state that so far as the State of Ohio is concerned perhaps our interests are opposed to this bill. There is not a single interest embraced in this bill that affects my constituents except the increased duty on wool of 4 cents. All the other duties weigh upon us as consumers. So far as my individual interests or the interests of my State are concerned we have none in the passage of this bill. Other Senators seek to load it down with various matters for the protection of their local interests. I, for one, have not offered, and do not. " to offer, any amendments. As I said: before, there is not a single interest in this bill that affects favorably my constituents except it is the slight additional protection on wool. As Ohio is one of the great wool growing States, producing about one 6th of the whole crop, we shall be benefited to the extent of a protection of 4 cents per pound additional duty on wool. All the other duties weigh upon us as they do upon the rest of the people of the U.S. My object in voting for this bill, and the only reason why I shall vote for it, is because I believe it will yield us more revenue by the amount of about ten or 12 million dollars than the present tariff under Present circumstances. My i.friendfrom Missouri says that the Present tariff last year produced $179,000,000, and during the 1st quarter of the Present year it produced at about the same rate. Now, I know he is too shrewd and too intelligent not to know the reason why during the last 2 quarters the Present tariff has produced so much. Importations were forced into the country by the pendency of this bill., Now, there is a sudden contraction, and either under the old tariff or under this tariff bill the revenue will fall off largely. If Senators are willing to take the responsibility of leaving a probable deficiency in the gold revenue of the country to meet the interest on the public debt let them do it. I must bear the responsibility with the rest. I can only state as one member of the committee, and perhaps not the most industrious because I have not probably been as faithful as some others the chairman has had the chief part of the labor that this bill has been considered day by day, after all the benefit of the labors of the House, after an examination and report by an officer of the Government who was especially designated to examine into this particular subject, with all the information that could possibly be obtained on the subject, with interested parties on both sides. pulling from diverse views rePresenting their interests before us, their statements patiently heard and patiently examined, and if the result of that deliberation has not produced a bill that in the main is satisfactory to the Senate it is utterly idle to refer the subject to that committee again. To require us to wait until the House frame a bill in regard to the internalrevenue, and then consider the 2 together, is simply. to consign the bill to defeat. That an internalrevenue bill will come to us eventually and that it will largely decrease the excise taxes, I have no doubt whatever. I agree with the honorable Senfrom Missouri that from the internal taxes we may throw off a very large sum; the larger the better. The passage of this bill would enable us to throw off more than if we leave the tariff stand under the old law. The reason why the ComWays&Means, if I understand it, are holding back the bill in regard to internal taxes is to enable them tolso how much internal tax they may throw off. If, under these circumstances, it is deemed advisable to recommit this bill, I am sure I am not going to waste any more labor upon it. The chairman, as a matter of course, will have the chief responsibily upon him; but certainly it is unreasonable to ask that committee to consider this bill over again when the appropriation bills, the internal tax bill, and all the bills in regard to currency, finance, and banks have yet to be considered in the next 5 or 6 weeks of the session.