The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1858-12-16
Department Reports.
The Treasury Department..

vhe treasury department.
The Report Of the Secretary of the Trea-
sury is an unusually able document 1t
opens with the annual tables of actual and
estimated receipts and expenditures argues
conclusively in favor of the present ad pd-
loren system, and against home valuation
and specific duties, and recommends q slight
change in the Tariff of 1857, by raising the
various schedules now out of the decimal
line, to the next higher corresponding deci-
NAL value as follows:
P.sa. Prsse.s rates t.,. psss e free free
This would make an increase in the reve-
nue. on the basis Of last years imports, of
$l,800,000. To meet any deficit in the
revenue under this Tariff. the Secretary
proposes to wait and sec how much money
the legislation of Congress will render ne.
cessary, and then raise it by transferring
some articles from the lower to higher sche-
dules, with such determinations as may be
consistent with the true principles Of q rev.
enue Tariff, while at the same time it will
best promote the various interests OF our
country, without doing injustice to any"
The doctrines Of the reports on the main
subject OF revenue are 80 sound that they
most command universal democratic assent.
We quote leading paragraph in which
they are admirably and comprehensibly
stated
Such duties should be laid as will pro.
duce the required revenue, by imposing on
the people at large the smallest and the
most equal burdens. 1t is obvious that this is
most eilectually done by taxing, in preference
TO Others, such articles as are not produced
in this country; and among articles pro-
duced here, those in which the home pro-
duct bears the least proportion to the guam
tity imported are the most fttest for taxa
tion. The reason is, that in taxing articles
not made in the country the whole sum
taken from the consumer goes into the trea
sury. while in the other class the consumer
pays the encbanced value not only on the
quantity imported. but on the quantity
made at home. The last tax il paid not
10 the treasury, but to the manufacturer,
thereby rendering such duty not only
more burdensome, but grossly unequal the
home producer being benefited at the cx-
pensc of the consumer
The reply OF the Secretary to the camor
OF the manufacturing classes Of the country
Tor protection and bounties from the federal
government il cogent and siIeIcing. The
petitioners say that their business is prostra.
ted and their fortunes ruined and that their
affairs cannot be restored except by imposing
q high tariff on imports to protect them from
the competition of foreigners. The Secretary
replies that it could not have been by foreign
importations they wsre ruined for they were
prosperous in 1857. nnd yet in that year the
importations were S1627G,0C greater than
they have been in 1858. Moreover, il
American manufacturers are ruined, it il not
the foreign manufacturers who have profited
by their misfortune, for they have expert.
enced greater distress. The prices Of bar
iron, for instance, were eighteen per cent
lower in Liverpool in 1858 than in 1851
"neeas ec pficeT oI tIis altfSe "tre oHly
thirteen per cent. lower in New York iD
l85S than they were in 1857 while there
serc S9,625,000 or forty per cent. less Of
iron imported into this country in 1858 than
in 1857. The truth is, as the report proves,
that the manufacturers have suffered 10 more
distress in the late prostration Of business
than the other great industrial classes Of the
country; for, while the prices Of msnussc-
tured articles have hlhn only sone ten or
fifteen per cent. below those OF 1857, those
ofall agricultural products havr fallen fully
a. mach.
To snow this fact, the report vosches
tah,e from which it appears that from the
year ending June 30, 1858. there Vas q de-
cline in tine price Of leading articles % fol-
lows, viz:
Wheat fouY ~ pey cen. Usv 70 ~. ct