Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-01-26
Analrs al The National Capital.

Affairs at the National Capital.
Special TO the RgcoRD-UNIoN.l
WASHINGTON, January 25Sh. - Rep
resentative Horace Davis is preparing, and
will shortly introduce in Congress, two i'm
portant revenue bills which indirectly have
an interesting hearing on the Chinese ques
ton. The first will provide for an increase
of tariff duty on foreign rice from the exist
ing rate of % cents per pound to cents, and
for changing the present 20 per cent. ad val
orem duty on Chinese nut-oil to a specific
duty of % cents per gallon. Last year the
total importation of rice to San Fran
cisco amounted to 81, 800, coo pounds, of
which about 6,000,0 600 came from the Sand
witch Islands, under the reciprocity treaty,
free of charge, and 55,000,0OO pounds were
from China, yielding customs revenue of
81, 375, 600. The quantity of nut oil imported
from China during the same period was 4OS,-
900 gallons, paying duty of $4,000. Davis
bill. in view of the fact that both of these
articles now pay q very light tax and are con-
sumed entirely by the Chinese, who pay
scarcely any tax proposes such an augmenta-
ton of the tariff upon them as will increase
the revenue collected at San Francisco
S79, coo per annum from nut oil, and
SS25, 900 from Chinese rice. About s, O00, COO
pounds of rice were imported last year at At
lantic ports, mostly from other countries
than China, and it may be found advisable to
confne the proposed increase of tariff duty
to Chinese rice alone Gust as Manila hemp
pays larger rate than Russian hemp), but
it is doubtful if any serious opposition
will be made to a uniform increase on
all foreign rice, in the lire OF
protection to American rice, and to our
breadstuffs generally. Davis other bill will
inf 70
of So or S4 per pound upon the manufacture
in this country of smoking opium from the
crude material. The imported manufactured
article, worth from IS to $40 per pound, now
pays customs duty of So, whereas crude
opium, which is worth So or 81 per pound,
pays duty of only 81 per pound, and
as it takes two pounds of the crude
material to make one pound of smoking
opium, the Government loses 81 revenue
upon every pound manufactured for smoking
purposes in this country. The importations
in 1878 aggregated 10000 pounds of smoking
opium, and 800, 600 pounds of crude opium.
1t is estimated, after making due allowances
for the use of opium in medicines, that a rev.
enue of at least S400, 600 may be secured by
levying the proposed tax upon its manufacture
for smoking, which will come into the United
States Treasury through the Internal Revenue
Bureau, if the manufacture continues in this
country, or through our Custom houses, I'M
der the present rate of import duty, if it be
transferred to China. In either event, the
proposed legislation would not only benefit
the treasury, but wouli be legitimate at
tack upon pernicious vice, and alike clearly
within the dictates of good morals and the
limitations of the treaty provisions. while at
the same time the enactment of it and its
accompanying measure would manlfestiy
make the United States a less desirable place
of residence for all Mongoliaus who consume
the rice and oil and smoke the opium.
The Supreme Court, Immediately upon re-
assembling after next months recess, will
announce its decisions in the great constitu-
tional cases that have been argued this term,
involving questions of extraordinary import
ance, such as the extent to which the four
teenth and fifteenth amendments authorize
the interference by the General Government
with State laws concerning juries and the
jurisdiction of State Courts. 1t is believed
that the Court will be nearly equally divided,
and that three of the Justices will deliver
opinions dissenting from the other five on all
these cases.