Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1878-04-13

of industry which have unfortu-
nately been now trained for twenty
years to rely upon prohibitOry duties
for protection-knowing, we say,
that unless the new bill was so con-
structed, it would be All obstacle
rather than a furtherance in our
progress towards free trade, we have
examined it with some misgiVing.
We knew that the circumstances
under which the Committee of
Ways and Means was appointed
were not favorable to the liberation
of our commerce, that the Speaker,
himself Pennsylvania restriction
ist, had selected for its Chairman
Mr.. Fernando Wood, politician of
the strictest order, and we have
looked rather for amendment in
details relating to facility of collec-
ton than to any radical modifica-
ton of our fiscal system.
In examining the bill we have
borne in mind the difficulty of mas
tering the multiplicity of details of
which such a measure must consist,
and, to avoid distraction amid this
multiplicity, have determined to
select one class of commodities dealt
with, and the class we have selected
is that of medicinal substances,
crude and manufactured-partly be-
cause we have some little more ac-
quaintance with these than with
others, and partly because some re-
markable perturbations have recent-
ly occurred in. the drug market
worthy of attention.
In this examination we have been
aided a good deal by a communica-
ton of Messrs. Powers & Weight
man to the committee, urging upon
it their consideration of their inter-
ests as the leading manufacturers of
chemical preparations in America !;
not that we by any means approach
the subject from the same point of
view with that firm, they regarding
the measure as affecting their own
interests, we as affecting the inter
ests of the people at large.
Let not our readers be alarmed
with the idea that we are going TO
overwheIm them with as disquisi-
ton on the whole Bldterid nledicd !;
on the contrary we propose to limit
our enquiries to the three great sta
piles of medical supplies, mercury,
opium and the CinchOna banks and
the preparations derived from them,
thus sinking a shaft into the extern
sive mine of fiscal enactments before
us and endeavOring to estimate the
general quality of the measure from
the samples thus obtained. We
very much regret to find that one of
the leading provisions of this meas
ure as it affects drugs is one which
it is impossible for us to approve.
1t runs through all the various items
and therefore must have been
adopted on principle. 1t is this,
that the crude articles which are
used in the manufacture of chemi-
Gals are heavily taxed, though before
free or subject to low duties, and the
chemicals manufactured from them
either left free or the duties on them
much reduced. This we cannot help
regarding as an error in both direc-
tiOn5. If any commodities were left
free we think it should have been
the crude material, and whatever
duty might be necessary for revenue
should, we think, have been imposed
upon the manufactured article. We
are not protectionists. The proper
object of duties is revenue, and du-
ties which are so high as to exclude
foreign commodities of course pro-
duce no revenue. As general rule
the rate of duty which produces the
largest revenue to the Government
| is that which is healthieSt for COM
merce, for consumers and for the
nation, for such a duty must be low
enough to admit of abundant i'm
ports, and at the same time high
enough to add to the revenues of
the Government, under which cir
| o,,n,Sfonoo, ~ aot- ~, homo Y,rOIno4c
in the way of healthy, stimulating
competition. Buta tariff constructed
on the principles of that report does
none of these things; it breaks down
our home manufactures, it produces
no revenue, and the imported COM
modities meeting with no competi-
ton from home producers can be
raised to speculative prices. This
will be seen more clearly when illus
trated by particular articles. Let
us therefore at once examine the
proposed tariff as it affects mercury
and mercurial preparations. At
present quicksilver, or mercury, is
free of duty and the chemical prep
arations made from it pay duty at
from twenty to thirty per cent.
Under thepropOsed taritfquicksilver
is dutiable at fifteen per cent. and
mercurial preparations are to be
free. This arrangement is liable to
nearly all the objections we have
urged. First, it will produce no
revenue whatever. Quicksilver is
with this country rather an article
of export than of import; Spain and
Austria are the principal competing
countries and the California quick
silver mines produce more than
both those nations together; so that
even now that there is no duty on
it the imports are inconsiderable,
and with a duty of fifteen per cent.
none whatever could be anticipated.
! So that mercurial DrpDaratiOnS being