New-York daily tribune., 1859-01-25

The good sense of Congress and Of the Country
would very coon ensure sub,ttution in our Tariff
of Specific for Ad Valorem Doties, 50 far a. posi-
bic, were it not for the current presumption that
the latter are somehow ideL tilted with the police of
Free Trade, though no such Identity does 10 fact
EXIT Great Britain processes to have adopted and
coGformed to the Free Trade theory; yet, Great
Britain uniformly prefers Specific Duties wherever
practicable, as does the German Zoll Vereln and
the Tariff of almost every civilized nation. The
advantages Of Specific Duties, as demonstrated by
experience, are briefly these:
J. Their amount is always easily and precisely
ascertsiped If the duty on Bar Iron, for instance,
be $40 per tun, you have only to pat al invoice OF
imported iron into the scales, ascertain its gross
weight, ard simple arithmetic gives you the am )unt
Of daty pay able thereon to the minutest fraction of
q cent; whereas, if the duty on iron be levied Ad
Velorem, DO tao men, figuring independently, will
arrive at the same amount, and the same invoice
will be charged differently at any two different
ports.
III. II the duties be levied Ad vslorem, that fact
inevitably provokes a swearing match betTe
rival importers and their agents. Whichever can
get the tfcial valuation Of an invoice down to the
lowest figure, pays the least duty the reon. The
more ea,ily an importer swears, the more he can
make by importing, and the more the business
tends toward bis hands. Hence, numberless tricks
and evssions, such a, sending iuvocs open to be
sworn by, aid another one concealed in the goods,
or by a subsequent mall to pay by. We know
that merchants in this City who ordered goods in
Europe have had such double invoices sent them
unrequested, and, on repelipg the imPuasion,
have been assured that no harm was mea1t-thst
the exporter only conformed to the custom of the
trade. We know that conscientious men have
abardobed the importing business, because they
could not therein be at once upr ght and sue
cessful on account Of these systematic undervalua-
tions by their rivals. Specific Duties remedy all
this.
rally, inevitably, toward the importation OF supe-
rior fabrics. Where the same daty is to be paid
infe1iby on q good article worth q dollar an 8
poor one not worth quarter, the latter will be
rarely and more rarely imported. Under Ad VaIo-
rems, the factories of Manchester aud the work.
shops Of Birmingham wilt be periodically swe2t
clean of their refute and rubbish for the American
market. As this trash has little or no intrinsic
value, it will be sworn in as costing little or
nothing. so as to pay scarcely any duty and then,
being run off by suction If it will sell no other.
wise, whatever it realizes is about so much clear
gain Specific Duties will bring this sort Of trade
up all standing.
A few days more will probably bring US Mr..
Ptelps's Tariff bill; aud, whenever the House shsu
have gone into Committee upon it, We trust prop
ositon will be submitted securing direct vote on
the principle Of Specific as opposed to Ad valorem
Duties. The result will determine pretty clearly
whether We are or are not to expect any good from
the deliberations of this Congress. Let US hope
that the decision will not long be delayed.