Mr. LANE. I shall vote against this amendment as I voted against the amendment admit ting free of duty books and charts for public libraries and college associations. I shall vote against this for the same reason, and for a still stronger reason, that it may interfere materially with the publishing houses of our own country. The Senfrom Massachusetts takes the ground that all those who vote against this exemption vote to lay a tax upon knowledge. That is a mere captandum expression, meaning nothing when it is analyzed. Every cent of tax that we assess here upon any article is precisely as much a tax upon knowledge as is the tax upon books. You tax the farming implements that the farmer uses; you. tax every article of necessity that he uses; you thereby render his ability to educate his children less, and in precisely that proportion these are taxes upon knowledge. Every single tax that you assess is a tax upon knowledge, inas much as it lessens the ability of the parent to educate his child. This is a tax upon knowledge, we are told, because books and maps and charts will be more expensive if the tax is levied than if they are admitted free. That is doubtless true; but every duty on any other article, the tax on which lessens the ability of the parent to educate his child, is precisely as much a tax upon knowledge as this. Because the graces of God come The necessity for the tax grows out of the national debt. We have to provide for it in some way. The most just and equitable way is to exempt no class, to tax all; and we shall have to resort to that if the public credit is maintained. I'or this reason I voted against the amendment of the Senfrom Vermont, and I shall feel compelled to vote against this amendment, not because I want to vote a tax upon knowledge or a tax upon anything else if it be not necessary and if we could avoid it; but when taxes are necessary to sustain the Government I shall oppose every single class exemption; and I warn the friends of the bill that if they shall go on excluding from taxa”tion this class and that class and the other, leaving the burden to fall upon the people who have no representatives specially charged to look after their interests, I shall vote against the whole bill. I think the taxation should be apportioned equitably and justly, and the man or the association or the college or library able to buy rare books and rare charts and rare pictures is the very one who should pay taxes, in preference to all others, because any tax that lessens the ability of the people for general education is as much a tax upon {j edge as this. I shall then stand by the bill as reported by the committee; but if this class exemption is carried out, and carried much further, I shall be compelled, as a matter of protection to those whom I represent, the i.humble, hard working people, who are taxed to the very earth already, to vote against the whole bill.