Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-12-26
WASHINGTON NEWS.

Senate Committee Still Investigating sher
man-Reprssentative Bedford, Of Colo
RADIO, Gives His Views ut Length on thu
| Tariff Question: Thinks the Duty Should
| be Taken Off Sugar and Placed ON Tel
| and Cofrse-Postoffice Department FL
nances.
| CONTINGENT FUND INVESTIGATION.
WASHINGTON, Dec. 24.-The senate con
tingent fund investigation committee had be
fore them to-day Moulton and Balemon, gen
tlemen who managed Secretary Sherman't
campaign affairs prior to the Chicago conyen
ton. The members of the committee are very
| reticent, and nothing can be learned concern
| ing the testimony.
THE TARIFF.
The opinion prevails among members OF con
press that the bill for the creation of a tariff
commission, now pending in the senate, viii
not be favorab'y received in the house. II
reference to the general subject. Judge Bel
| ford, of Colorado, who has given the revenue
question some consideration, said: Last yeal
| General Hancock, doubtless others confer
| ing with leading Democrats, said thai
| if we intended to remain honest and pay
our debt we must raise revenue il
some way or other. He said further that
some parties were agreed that the best way
| to raise revenue is largely by the tariff.
| think that the first bill introduced into the
| first congress of the United States was by Ma
olson, and provided that certain duties should
be imposed on sugar, tea, coffee, molasses and
rum, to the end that the country might have
a revenue with which to pay the national
debt. In the discussion which this bill oc.
casioLed was the formation of Onr tariff doc
trine of Madison, and placed coffee and tea on
the free list, on the ground that;
not being produced in this country, they could
not come in competition with our products
Sugars and liquors of all kinds are still subject
10 import duties. A few years ago the cry OF
a free breakfast table removed the duty from
tea and coffee. Experience has shown that
the removal of these duties did not produce
the results that were anticipated, which were
the cheapening of these necessaries to the con
sumers. When we removed the import duties
the countries producing tea and coffee levied
an export duty equivalent to the reduction OF
duties made by the United States.
81 know that it is unpopular to advocate
duties on tea and coffee, and that when W
consider that abont 60 per cent. ad valOrem is
collected on imported sugars, it W. ud seem
that it would be policy to reduce the duties on
sugar, even if we had to reimpose duties on
rea and coffee. We import annually, accord
ing to the last official returns, $50, O0O, 900
pounds of coffee, the value of which is $780,
0OO, 900, AMI about 75,000,000 pounds of tea,
valued at $t9,000,00O. here we have an ag
gregate value OF $4,000, 900, on which there
are no import duties. Our annual
importations of sugar are ABOUT
at $50, OOO, 900, which, it will be noticei, Is
equal to the aggregate value of annual lmpor
tations of tea and coffee. Now every intelli-
gent houseKeeper knows that she uses at least
three pounds of sugar for one of tea and coffee,
and if we are to have free breakfast table,
why should not the duties be removed entirely
from sugar, or distributed so that some of the
burden borne by the sugar should be placed on
tea and coffee? We now collect about
s45,OoO,0O0 of revenue on $SO,ooO,Oov
worth of sugar imported, and il
seems to me that sugar aud molasses stand in
dependent on the tarifflist, having no relation
with any other articles, and that the duties OF
these should be revised and reduced, partcu
larly as this can be done without affecting any
other interest.
81 am protectionist; and believe that th'
prosperity of the country is largely due to tn
lariff, but can't overlook the fact that ou'
receipts from taxes and duties are increasing
while our national debt is decreasing. Til
question is, shall congress primarily do this
Or shall we have a commission? We have
men IN congress who are competent to do this
work, men of large experience, who are MOI
given over to any special hobby. A commits
sion would doubtless be composed OF college
professors and scientific experts, and mel
identified with several branches Of industry
Believing as do, that the present tariff
should be revised and corrected, l fear thu
proposition for commission is simply de
ign to prevent any revision whatever. Il
congress can not, with all the light that VT
have on this subject, and with the exhaustive
reports that have been recently obtained
through the tenth census, enact tariff Law
that will be wise and just, it is hardly to he
expected that any advantage will follow from
A commission