The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1880-10-28
TAKING TEA AND COFFEE,
GARFIELD BELIEVES IN THE BRITISH TARIFF
RYsTRM As TEE BEST.

SYSTEM AS TIE BEST.
On the 9TH of July, 1866, General Gar.
field delivered a speech in the House OF
Representatives at Washington, in Com
mittee of the Whole, in which he en-
dorsed the Tariff system Of Great Britain
as follows:
"Mr. Garfield: desire to call the at
tention of the committee to two or three
points which have a bearing on this sub-
ject, and to give the reason why l hope
we will not reduce the duty either on
tea or coffee. In the first place it is the
genius of our whole System, and the ex
perienCe of the Government has approx
ed it, that the best way of raising revenue
is to impose duties on fewest possible ar
ticles. Twenty-Five years ago in England
there were more than l 200 different ar
ticles on which duty was imposed and
now they have been 30 reduced that up
on five articles more than half the reve
nue. Of the country is collected. In En-
Gland in 1865 1854 900 900 of revenue wat
raised, and of that SUN SlS9 900 600 were
derived from five articles, namely. fer
mented, malt and spirituous liquors, and
tea, cof e and tobacco and sugar in theil
various forms.
II say that these five articles afforded
the government of Great Britain $lS9.
OOO,0 Of its revenue, the total of which
was 1854, 100000. Thus almost two.thirdE
of the revenues were raised from five ar
ticles, and two of the five were coffee
and tea. Twenty two million five hun
dred thousand dollars were raised in
Great Britain in the year 1865 on tea
alone and the consumption of that ar
ticle is steadily increasing in that coun
try. Il is now two and seven.tenthS
pounds per capita Of the population
whereas in this country the consumption
though increasing, has only reached one
pouad per CAPITA l say then that We
have no article which the experieGe o.
all financial nations shows can better
bear the duty without reducing the con-
sumption than tea.
Furthermore, this one Of the few ar
ticles on which we can levy duty with
out duplication of taxation and without
directly involving other interests. 1t is
a simple and plain question of revenue
Tlere is no other article into which it
enters as an element" Congressional
Globe, Part " lSt Session, 39h Congress-
PIP. 9.657.3,658.
The idea of those VINO favor a proteC.
tective tariff is to levy duties on such
products of foreign countries as are also
produced in this country rather than on
produce like tea and coffee, whic. have
no place in American production, The
British system is exactly the opposite
and for that system G neral Garfield
contended in the speech from which the
foregoing quotation.i is made.
Ou February 10, 1872, the proposition
to place tea and coffee on the iree list
was again made in Congress, The pro.
tectionists favored the proposition be.
cause they desired to raise revenues from
articles in the production of which our
people compete with those of foreign
countries. Therefore all the members
of Congress from Pennsylvania, includ
ing H IN. W. D. Kelly, voted for the re-
peal of the duties on tea and coffee. Gen.
Garfield voted agai nst the repeal.-See
Congressional Globe, I'd Session. 42d Con
qreS8, part II p. J. lis.