Show I I RIDES AGAINST LEATHER I The laws of the general government I and of every = state in the Union prohibit I pro-hibit a man who is in any way interested inter-ested in the result of a suit at law I sitting on the jury that hears the case The reason is that no man is fit to be I a judge in his own case not because he may not be honest and have a keen I desire to do right but because his interests in-terests prejudice him The wisdom of doing this has never been questioned and probably never will be for everybody every-body feels that it is proper and just and tends to further the ends of justice jus-tice ticeThe The very opposite of this policy is adopted In selecting men to make the revenue and other laws of the country In framing a tariff men who have the deepest personal interest in its rates I are permitted to fix those rates and they fix then primarily for their own I benefit and if it ever chances that the rates are fixed to suit someone whose interests are antagonistic to their own there is a great protest A case in point Is that of Congressman J H Walker of Massachusetts He is engaged in the leather industry and is therefore opposed to the duty of 20 I per cent imposed on hides by the new tariff bill In an interview so late as last Saturday he declared the duty I on hides to be one of the most inexcusable in-excusable and foolish blows at a large export trade that ever disgraced the I financial legislation of any country He I claimed that a tax on hides could only I be justified or tolerated under exceptional I excep-tional circumstances by allowing the I most liberal form of drawback on the I I cost of the hide in the leather exported ex-ported I The drawback to all this is that Representative I Rep-resentative Walker is sitting as a juror I in his own case So far as known he I has never raised his voice against any I duty on leather or the manufactured products thereof To bleed the people through a high tariff on leather and boots and shoes is all right in Mr Walkers opinion but he is fumingly indignant so soon as it is proposed to put a tax on hides which are his raw I material But if the foreigner pays the tax what is the difference to him what it is on hides The trouble with Representative Walker is that he was not allowed to have his own way in fixing the rates for Schedule 2v to suit the wishes of Walker Oakley Co of Chicago That js where the disgrace to the financial legislation of the country pinches comes in for it is there where the shoe I |