Sunbury American and Shamokin journal. [volume] (Sunbury, Northumberland Co., Pa.) 1840-1848, 1846-08-22

Irauus on the reveiiue. Our Citizens might IN
time, to some extent, overcome the nadcquacy
OF its protection !; but there is no method by
which they csn guard against the frauds that
will be practised under it. My friend the chair.
man felicitates himself upon the security a.
gainst fraud by the absence of motive. lie
produces an array Of figures to show that the
gain upon on invoice of goods undcrvnlued l5
per cent. would produce profit of only 81 per
cent, il successful. He thinks this very
small matter and to the large southern planter,
accustomed to estimate wealth by his immense
cotton and rice fields. it may be; but the result
Of his own figures will show it to be no incon.
siderable sum. Let us take single case,
which is by no means uncommon. A foreign
manufacturer sends an agent, who opens
countinghouse in New York ostensibly for the
purpose Of importing goods. He receives on
consignment se00OOO worth annually, upon
which the q per cent. gain, by the udervaua.
ton. is $4,000. am assured by the most ex.
perienced and intellgen: merchants that it
would be utterly impossible TO detect on under.
valuation Of Is per cent. on cloths | venture
to affirm that you could not find man o. chsr.
acter who would DO willing to put his judgment
in the scale for the difference Of 5per cent in
valuation, when the som in dispute was 81 900
This being the case, how unlikely is it that ap
praisers, appointed as they are for their polit-
| cal services, with but little reference 10 their
| business qualifications, would ever detect this
difference in the valuation. The profits Of
large mercantile transactions are generally We.
ry small on the items Commission houses, do.
lars will guaranty their sales for % per cent.
When the consignment is very large, the guar
anty is frequently given for IL or 2 per cent.
| Now ifa house on the other side can save On
amount greater than they would have 10 pay
for the guaranty Of the whole amount Of their
consignment. ask, is there not motive Of gain
sufficient 10 induce the undervalustion! particu-
arly where the morals on the subject of reve.
nue. laws are as loose as in Englund and France.
where they avow il is not wrong to cheat the
government. am assured by respectable
merchant, that Of the large number Of foreign a.
gents doing business in New York under the
compromise act. scarcely any OF them are now
to be found there. Upon the passage Of the
act Of 1912. they closed their stores and went
home, because they cnuld no longer ceiraud
The government by false invoices.
I Another serious objection to the bill isits uni
form discrimination in favor Of the foreign me-
chanic lsborer against our own. This princi.
ple--if principle it may be called--abounds
throughout the whole BILL Every class Of me-
chanics is to be affected, and the business of ma
ny Of them to be destroyed by it. The tailor,
the halter, the shoemaker, the saddler, the tin.
man, the blacksmith, and oil others, will see
their towns and villages filed with the work Of
foreign pauper labor undersellmg them a,
their own doorr, TO pay for which the country
is to be drained Of it's specie. To exemplify
this. will refer to few only OF the many gia.
ring instances Of this character in the bill
There are. by estimate, in the United States, a.
bout 100000 men employed in making clothes
and we may to this add that number OF women
engaged in the same pursuit. Readymade
clothes, by this bill, as in schedule c. are char.
ged 30 per cent, and the material of which
most of them are made is in the same schedule
All know that the labor upon clothes in Europe
particularly France, is done by poor won,cn and
hals starved men, who eat meat perhaps once Z
month--who give no education to their children
and who never expect to see them elevated a
| .k.lr nf he,
persons. who literally work for shilling a day
will food the country with ready-made clothes
and drive out of employment this intelligent
dnd worthy class Of our people.
In further proof, will cite few cases o
smaller manufactures. Take the case Of gin
ger, for instance: the raw materia! in schedul,
B paying 40 per cent ad valorem while thu
} manufactured article is. In schedule e, paying
, 80 per cent, thus giving per cent ofa pre-
MUM to foreign labor over our own.
Il The like case occurs in iron to be converte,
. into steel. The raw material is, in schedule
, C, paying 30 per cent, and the steel itself s, il
schedule F, paying only IS per cent. Again
). We have the case Of Peruvian bark TO be conver
ten irto quinine. The raw material is char
j. ged Is per cent., while the manufactured on
n 10 charged but 20 making only 8 per cent. i
!. order to encourage its manufacture ip this couu
J. try. The amount Of capital invested in this
u tenn, appar emily so unimpstant, is very large
u A angle house in Philadelphia has in i,s MANI
o facture more than 100000. This branch (
N rtures like ali othere sdda In vuelv IN Nh