Lexington weekly intelligencer. (Lexington, Mo.) 1871-1887, 1882-07-15
ONE VIEW OF THE TARIFF QUEs.
TION.

/ Judge Underwood OF Georgia, enc
OF the tariff commission. gave his
views 90 TO what the cosumission
should do: u.
81 have no idea what the. tariff, CON-
mission will do, nor where il will. sit,
nor when 1t will meet. Nv views on
the tariff question stated briefly are
these exactly: am n'(avor, OF rais-
lug the revenue to defray the expeli.
ses Of the government economically I
administered and 10 pay the public .
debt within . reasonable time by
duties ON the Imports. The necessity
involves the overthrow OF the futer.
nal revenue system. In levy lag dasies
! am in favor OF levying them upon
such xrticles as We make aud produce.
lu levying the duties upon those sr-Ja
ticles Discrimination should be made
in favor of u lower duty upDn articles
that are Ia common use b. the great
m-jOrity OF the people, and higher
duties upon such articles 10 are usaai.
ly denOuiinaied luxuries. In adjust.
ing the tariff tree list aMd Q COM
paraiive free list should be made up
IL articles that We neither produce
nor manNtacture. L. doing all this
particular aliUniioa must be paid to /,
the effect Of any tariff upon the Ax-
rfcultuIe. cOinInsrcs aud mechanic
srts. Before any proper rev ision Of
the present trriH can he made, the
tariffs that have heretofore existed
must be fully examined, the amount
OF revenue raised snd7 upon what
raised. aud the effect upon the pros
periiy Of tho couUtry. The revision
OF the tariff does not 30 much iii-
volvs any particular principle Of um:
iversal application, but t. y great OK.
tent must be controlled by the 4xper..
ience Of country aud the effect Of
previous tariffs. Underlying the
whole question of the revision OF the
iarid 10 proper ndjustment OF labor
to capital. The interests aud peace
Of the country require it. General.
ly, my views upon the tariff NAV be
found ia the whig platform of 1874.
as defined by Mr.. Clay himself. aud
in MIR. POlk's letter to X tne. snid TO
have Teen written 10 July or August,
1874, snd in Folks inaugural address
on the 4th OF March, 1845"
Continuing, Judge Un,ierwo oDd said:
"rhe present tariff MAS adopted st =
time hen the ,t,onsl debt vas very
largo to meet the exigencies Of tho
cOuntry, aud needs revision, reform,
and re'iuciion: AS to how il will be
done we will he obliged TO wait until
We can get the fxcis. We viii have to
go back to the tariff OF 1916 aud TO
The amount M imports brought into
the country. the smOumt of revenue
raised by that tariff upon those in,-
ports aud ali the tariffs since that date
aud the present tariff before We eau
act unders,andingly upon this quss-
ton. But you can see that Am clear
ly in favor Of revision OF the tariff.
1t does not always follOw.' said Judge
Underwood, "that a reduction ut the a
tariff on al article works the reduce
ton of the price. There is the article
Of coffee, upoA which formerly q
don't remember under what tariti)
there was duty OF 80 per cent. Cof-
fee wss put upon the free list. aud
Immediately the government of Bra-
zil imposed su extra duty aud the
price remained the same, the govern.
ment of Brazil getting the revenue
and we losing. although We paid The
Same price for our coffee. There
might be many other illustrations
gwen to show what u dsiicst. tuiux
the tariff is."