House Speaker Charles Crisp (D-GA) maintained that consumers paid the import tax, not foreigners, as Republicans alleged, and that consumers deserved relief from a system that favored the wealthy Eastern elites: “Whilst there may be here and there some monopolists or gentlemen of large wealth who will criticize and condemn us, yet all over the country, in the homes of the farmers, in the homes of the workers, and in the homes of the men employed in every industry in the United States, there will be rejoicing and happiness.”
