The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1878-01-31
The New Tariff Bill.

| Means, of which MIR. Fernando Wood is
chairman. for recognizing the tariff system
| of the government. subcommittee has
been at work on this bill pretty steadily
and laborious Y for II long time, and the
task which has been completed with so
much care is entitled to be judged with
candor. During the long period while this
| subject has been under consideration
there has been much curiosity as
10 the rates of duty which would
be recommended, there being hardly
any branch of business in the country
which is not more or less affected by
changes in the tariff But the committee
has successfully kept its secret, since the
first knowledge of the proposed rate on any
article in the whole list by any merchant or
manufacturer will be obtained from the
newspapers tins morning. The secrecy
which has been so well guarded was neces-
sary for preventing undue advantage being
taken by few prying spectators to the
detriment Of the business community at
large bill which makes so many
changes and affects so many interests will
be critically examined, and Mr.. Wood and
his committee will be fortunate if flaws
should not be detected in the details OF
their work But we are convinced that
whatever mistakes are found will be mere
mistakes of detail which may be easily
amended, and not in the general plan.
Respecting its general aims the committee
has at no time practised any concealment,
and, so far as we have observed or learned,
no serious objections have been raised to
the principles on which Mr.. Wood pro-
posed to remodel the tariff. He has quite
ignored the long contention between pro-
lection and free trade, not marching under
nor even saluting eitEer Of those rival flags.
He has aimed to frame q tariff in the
simple light of common sense and business
experience, and now, when his work and
that of his associates is completed, it is for
Congress and the country to decide whether
they will accept it. Recognizing the
a heavy amount of taxes Mr.. Wood
has sought to distribute the burden in such
way that the business of the country could
move under it with least inconvenience.
This bill has been framed to raise one hun
dred and ffty-five million dollars from GUS
toms, and to raise it in such manner that
its pressure may be as little felt as the
necessity of heavy taxation will permit If a
battalion of our soldiers out in the Indian
country were ordered to break up their
camp and transfer their baggage and NUM-
tions across the mountains to distant post
it might be a problem of some difficulty to
load the pack horses, particularly if the
baggage was large and the horses few.
But if, with view to make the animals
carry as much possible, the soldiers
should load each horse all over, hanging
articles on his head and neck, tying others
to his tail and binding others about his legs,
the first common-sense officer that came
along would order all these burdens taken
off to be reloaded in different manner. A
horse will not carry more, but less if you
tie on the freight SO rs to impede the motion
of his limbs To utilize his carrying power
to the utmost the whole burden must be
skilfully adjusted on his back and his loco
motive apparatus be left unencumbered. A
similar method should be adopted in load
ing community with heavy taxes.
The preposterous idea which has been
pursued in our tariff legislation since
the beginning of the war is like
loading horse by distributing the burden
all over his body and all over his limbs, as
if he could carry more by having something
hung to every set OF muscles. 1t has been
foolishly supposed that we could collect
larger revenue on imports by taxing count.
less multitude of articles but it stands to
common sense that large revenue can be
raised with less Inconvenience by duties ON
few articles than by duties on many. Mr.
Woods committee has reconstructed the
tariff on this principle, but it has not gone
so far in this direction as to make the new
tariff revolutionary. 1t proposes to take off
great number Of taxes which impede and
cripple business without much addition to
| the revenue.
| On some points the merits of this pro-
| posed tariff are incontestable. 1t puts, for
example, only single duty on any article.
Under the present tariff multitudes of ar
ticles pay duty of SO much per cent ad va
loren and another duty of so many cents or
dollars on the yard, pound, gallon or ton.
All this cumbrous completely is done away
with in the new bill Another simplifying
feature is the sweeping away of all the
bother of petty charges for freight, packing
and incidentals which are added to the orig
inal cost of the goods in computing the
duties. These incidental charges are
| sources of infinite frauds on q small scale
accompanied with great deal of embarrass-
ment to revenue officers in their
attempts to learn the truth. The new
bill substitutes uniform addition of
| five per cent to the market value
of the goods in lieu of all such charges-an