Daily Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1876-1884, 1878-02-21
(From the Evening Express)
DISCRIMINATION AGAINST CALIFORNIA
WINES.

chants and others interested il
wine production, have for
warded q memorial to the
Pacific Coast delegation in Con
gress, in which they set forth that
in revising the tariff, that body
contemplates the restoration of the
ad vatorena duty on imported wines
and tho reduction of tax on the in.
ferior wines of Europe from forty
to twenty-five cents per gallon, and
praying that the delegation shall
use their efforts to prevent such
changes. The memorial asserts:
First-The ad valorena duty OF
twenty-five cents per gallon on
wines valued at forty cents or less
per gallon at point of shipment,
admits under that tax nine-tenths
of all foreign wines imported into
the United States.
Second--The low-priced foreign
wines admitted at twenty.fiv
cents per gallon are those which
most strongly tend to displace pure
native wines in our makets.
Tbird-The dd ydlOrem system
has, in times past, been productive
of fraud, perjury, and mercantile
and official generalization.
The frauds committed under the
ad Valorem system were fully dis
cussed in these columns three
years ago, when the law was
changed to specific duty on each
gallon. We thought at the time
that the law was changed on the
merits of tho case presented, but it
would appear, from the following
bit of history, which we take from
the San Francisco Call, that the
change was made by the concur
renee of the importers, who wanted
to make speculative corner on
the wine market. The Call says
that after the ruinous vintage of
1875 the prices of wine in France
went down. The New York i'm
porters were heavily stocked, and
to protect themselves from the
compt tition of the low-priced
wines, then so abundant in Eu-
rope, they united with the Califor-
mia dealers in getting the old ad
valorem duty changed to a specific
duty of forty cents per gallon. The
California dealers are just begin
ming to realize the benefit of the
change, as a slight proof of which
1t may be stated that the steamer
Granada, on her last trip, carried
off shipment of 10000 gallons of
wine to New York. The average
shipments heretofore at this season
have not been greater than 1900
gallons. Our wine manufacturers
contend that the restoration of the
old duties on wines is advocated by
the New York importers to enable
them to compete the better with
California. The proposed changes
in the tariff have already been APP
proved by the Ways and Means
Committee Of the House, and it is
thought will pass through Con-
gress, unless strong and general
protest is made from this entire
Coast. Our people need not be told
how important the wine interest
has become TO California, and how
greatly it may be enlarged if pro-
tected against the inferior i'm
ported wines of Europe. The supe.
riority of the California low.priced
wines is acknowledged wherever
they are used, and it becomes the
Press of the State to back up the
movement of the wine producers
and wine MERCHANTS by joining in
a unanimous protest against adj
verse Congressional legislation. No
little modification is felt by these
producers and dealers at the lack of
interest felt on this subject in our
own Legislature. A concurrent
resolution in harmony with the
spirit of the memorial from which
we have quoted, was introduced
into the Senate by Col. Smith, of
Los Angeles, which body, it was
supposed, would pass itimmediate-
ly under a suspension of the rules,
but instead, 1t was referred to the
Committee on Federal Relations,
which is considered tanta-
mount to its delay or death.
1t would be sad COM
mentary on the wisdom of Con-
gress, If it should restore tine ad "a
loren system in the face of the ex.
perience of its past abuses and the
fact that the duty, as now
is beginning TO work
beneficially to the wine industry
of our country. This industry is
young AMI weak, and should re-
ceive fostering care inst cad of be-
ing subjected to the difficulties of
adverse and unfriendly legislation.
The winners of this section are
just beginning to see their way
into healthy activity. An unpre-
cedented demand for the
wines of this State is
producing n reaction favorable
to the wine-growing in
terest of the Coast, but this inv
proving condition of the ind ustry
would be brought to sudden stand
still by the restoration of the adj
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