The Republican journal., 1882-08-03

| THE WHIG AND COURIER,
| Editorial Rooms,
| Bangor, July 10, 1882.
| Hon. EUGENE HALE and Hon. WIN. P. FRYE,
| I. 5. Senate, Washington, d. C.
| My Dear Senators: | have recently learned
with considerable surprise that the duty upon
hay imported into the United States has been
| rtduced one-half Ey a circular issued by the
| secretary of the Treasury ''to Collector, of
| Customs and Others" under date of March 90.
| 1852
In the circular referred to Secretary Folger
says that by the decision of the Treasury De-
| partment of April 8, 1865 it was ''held that
| hay imported into the United States was to be
CLASSIFIED as noL-enumerated manufactured
article, dutlabe at the rate of trenty per cent dd
| tatoJem," but that 1.-THE United States Circuit
! Court for the Northern District of New York.
in the case Of Frazee ct al VS.. Moffit has decd-
| ed that hay is dutiable only at ten per cent ad
| tdlolem, as a non-enumerated unmanufactured
| article, under Section 2.516 of the Revised
| statutes, and the Attorney General has advised
| an acqulescence in such ruling. yield to this
| opinion, and officers of the customs will govern
| their action accordingly"
| The Secretary then proceeds to authorize
applications for return of duties eXacted in
excess OF ten per cent. where the requisite steps
| have been taken.
| It is unnecessary for me to state to you the
| serious Importance of this sweeping change
| i'll the tariff upon great staple product effected
| in manner that failed to attract the notice of the
| country, and which apparently escaped the at
| tention of Congress as perceive that Hon j.
| L. I'pdegraff of Ohio. in his speech on
| the Tariff in the House of REPRESENTATIVES
| April 18TH 1882, cited the duty on hay treptg
| pa. cel,t :, when it had in reality been reduced
! One-half by the Treasury Circular sent out
some weeks before.
The matter is an imnortant one for tbe whole
! country. but it especially affects great agri-
cultural interest of our own State, and [ write
| YOU in the hope that. upon consultation with
| our Representatives in the House, measures
may he taken to secure Il restoration of the
| former rate of duty. before the adjournment of
| Congress. which has already been fixed for an
! early day.
! that for the decade ending with 1880 the aggre-
| gate hay product of the United States was 292-
SOS ,029 tons, of average of 30 ,266. SOB tons
| per annum. In the year 1880 the hay product
of the country was 81 ,925.233 tons. which, at
! the average market price of to-day, say S14,
would be worth S446 ,953 ,262, or more than the
value of the entire cotton crop of 1880, which
! is reported at 3.199, sd $50 pounds worth at
| the present average price say 13 cents. giving
| total value of S4l5,916.94S.
| The same statistics show that the annual hay
! crop of the nited States, during the decade,
~ 'eem eluai ~ olietlilra ol me Vaue ol me
has been more than four times as yaiuahI" as
the potato crop. and nearly eioht times as
valuable as the tobacco CROP
I regret that at the moment of WRITING M,
unable 10 place my hand upon the statistics of
tho hay cron of Maine bv The last cen.us hnt
| in $50 the product in this state was rrnorteJ
At l053415 tons. and it is entirely safe TO as
>lIme an increase of TWENTY-FIVE ncr cent which
would put The nresent crnn .t l 200 oOOor 1n0 :
600 tons with y valup of IL O0o 900 ia soo nn0
900
The location OF 0ur State with its extended
frontier bordering upon the British Provinces
renders the nr0tcction afforded hv the tariff of
prime importancp to the owners and tillers of
farm lands living adjacent to those of a foreion
people against whose ro,nnotition in onr own
market, the hay farmers of Maine have hitherto
been Droterted hy the al ,,,I,.q,1 lntv Of trs ~
ol.ceit.
/ The Rpnlbiran p3rtv iustIv ho.stS ,b,t If
fayors The protection Of 4 Ameriron Iohor and thn
cncourareucnt of home industries ana in III
inc for fhe restoration of tho dutv IN hoy u Il
stool fourteen years n,ior m Ia-+ Nh ~
only rroucst thai thr farms of Noino sbaIi barc
the protection that we chperfuljy concedn ia The
manufacturers Of Nassarhuoptts and tha ;ro,,
| furnace, of Pennsylvania,
Hoping that if NAV no1 be too late to >p.,lrn
the rt-4>tahIi sbment of tho for,er rotn of 1,,tr
at This session I am VI ''''''
Yom,. very Sincerely e Ro1-rrr1,,
| ,,,.,.,, ,.., 80
- LEN h'Ni 9f->A ofe + M t AND HALE.
UNITED STATES SENATE,
WASHINGTON, ID. G.. July ~, 1882
! {. \. Boutelle. ESQ. Bangor.
Dear >lr: Your letter ot the 18th inst is
received. In reply. allow us to say. that the
| duty clearly intended by the tariff law on hay
WAS 20 per cent. ad YalOrem: that it has been
| collected at that rate up to the present time:
| that the recent decision of the United States
| Circuit Court in New york. determining hay to