The Lancaster gazette. (Lancaster, Ohio) 1846-1852, 1849-10-12
The TarilT-.Ad vaIorurn Duties

The TnriIf--Ad V:lIOruIn Duties
The Boston Courier contains an arti.
Gle on the subject of ad-valorum duties,
which presents some striking facts, and
facts which cannot fail to startle candid
men of all parties, when they come to
the consideration of the tariff in the next
Congress. However the House may be
constituted, there is no doubt, We sup.
pose. that important notifications Of the
tariff will be successfully attempted.
The voice of starving labor will be heard
drowning the walls and howls of dis
placed pensioners and ex.stipendiaries
To give few instances of the opera
ton of the ad valorem system: Broad
cloths pay duty on an invoice cost ofsix.
ty-eight to seventy-fve cents per yard,
and that, too. not even the square yard,
but on the running yard, five and six
quarters wide. Brandies, that pay one
hundred per cent, duty, are imported so
as to cost, landed, duty paid, not above
seventy.hve cents per gallon, The pre-
tended invoice price ofsuch brandy, on
which dutyis paid, could not have been
above thirty cents, as there are, besides
the duties, freight, insurance, &c, to pay.
ERtire cargoes are imported at this rate
Champaign wine is imported at the cost
OF $l,75 TO SO per dozen, by Ave hundred
to one thousand baskets at time. The
average rate of duty on coal from Nova
Scotia does not exceed three-fourths to
one cent per bushel, and is brought in
very large quantities.
Now, every body knows that to invoice
broad cloths a; sixty.eight to seventy, fve
cents, and champaign at two dollars a
dozen, is a fraud, and yet is fraud with
out remedy, under Mr. Walkers sys,
TEN. So, under this system, the same
article, imported from the same place, is
made to pay one rate of dUty at Boston,
another at New York, another at New
Orleans, &c. The importer shows his
invoice, and the collector has his own
way of determining on what evidence il
is to be taken or not, for the genuine cost
ofthe article. The frauds already prac-
ticed in the revenue amount to millions OF
dollars.
From the article TO which we have re-
ferred in the Courier. to which we are
indebted for the above facts, we make
the following extracts:
In 1914 under the operation ofspecifc
duties, the proportion of importations in
10 New York, for foreign account, was
only forty-four per cent, and now, by a
recent return under the operation of the
present ad-valorem tariff, the proportion
ofthe importation there, by foreigners. is
seventy-eight per cent. In Boston. i'm.
mediately previous TO the tariff of 1872
foreigners imported nineteen per cent;
under the tariff of 1S42 nine per cent;
and now under the present tariff, thirty.
one per cent. Our merchant refuses Ia
cheat the revenue. They leave the cheat
ing to be done by the foreign importer
Ii is now the universal rule for the A.
merican importers To buy the goods from
the foreign manufacturers the same as
formerly, but deliverable in the u. States
by which they find they can save from
ten to fifteen per cent, Instead of taking
possession of them in Eurore, aud pay.
ing the full duty on the actual cost. One
Of the delegates at the Newport corvcn
tlon stated case where an invoice ol
cloths had been purchased in Belgium
which the seller agreed to deliver in New
York at fifteen per cent. less than the
American purchaser could do, if the full
duties were paid.
The operation of the present tariff up.
on the American manufacturers is indi.
Gated but too plainly in the following
facts:
Railroad iron in 1916 was in England
9l2 ($60) per ton, and pig iron 85 1925!
the duty on the former at 80 per cent
was SIS per ton, and on the latter 81 so
At present railroad iron is te7 ($35) pei
ton. The foreign article has therefore
the advantage ofnot only reduction OF
925 per ton in the price, but also $40, sc
in the duty. This system of ad.valorem
duties gives, therefore. to the foreigner
the double advantage of a fall in the price
and fall in duty, aud when she home
producer wants the largest projections a
gainst low prices abroad, the tariff gives
! him the smallest; when under high pri-
ces abroad he requires no protection
then the tarif'gives him heavy one. BY
the operation of this absurd and ruinous
system the manufacturers of railroad iron
in the United States is utterly Frustrated
and one million of dollars, invested ia
the mills in Pennsylvania alone, is a tota
loss. The furnaces manufacturing pig
iron are in an equally prostrate condition
and thousands oftons of Scotch pig met
al are imported for the purpose Of being
manufactured into bar iron, whilst oul
own furnaces are daily going out of blast
All these losses we encounter under the
fatherly protection Of the Walker tariff
for the benefit Of English manufacturer
and importers. The importation Of rail
road iron from England have amounted
to 10000 tons within the lasttwo years
The money which we lose in this man
neris taken out Of the pockets of the far
mers as we'll as manufacturers, for it j
easy to see that the importation of $50,
600 tons Of railroad iron is the same q
as the importation Of an euual q