Daily Kennebec journal., 1882-12-25
Lumber in the New Tariff.

The committee of ways and means, in deal
ing with the schedule of wood and wooden
ware, has reduced by one-fourth, in several
instances, the duties relating to lumber, as
reported by the commission. The only
change made by the latter, trifling one, was
TO reduce slaves of wood to uniform 10 per
cent duty. At present, while slaves for pipes,
hogsheads and other casks pay 10 per cent,
other slaves pay 20 per cent. As the total
import of slaves, however, was only Sll, $50
in value in 1881, and is usually half this, the
alteration is immaterial. The duties now col
lected under this entire schedule averaged 20
per cent on importations of 81 ,496,Sl5 in
1881 and for six years past the average duty
has been 20 per cent and upwards; although
the total imports have rarely reached the fig
ures Of 1881. having been two-thrds this
for eight past. One-half the present duty. or
1851 ,626 out of 81 ,536, ,024. and more than
two-thirds in value of these imports are under
boards other than "basswood, hemlock
whitewood and sycamore" paying 50 per
thousand feet. Sawed boards are in many
senses of the word, raw material, and it is
noticeable that out of the entire revenue col
lected from wood and wooden manufactures
only SOS, 300 was collected on cabinet wares
and house furniture, or wood in its most ad-
vanced stage of manufacture.
HS w uuu NutuuS COtuuitttc HAS re-
duced the first article under this schedule,
timber hewn and sawed, for building spars
and wharves, from 20 per cent, the present
duty and the recommendation of the COM
mission to 10 per cent. The importations
under this head are small, and there is no
probability that the change will increase them
Reductions on the same scale change the
present duty and the commission tariff on
timber squared or sided from one cent per
cubic foot to three-fourths, and on sawed
boards of the timbers already specified above
from 81 to seventy-fve cents per thousand
feet The next and most impor-
tans item in this schedule, applying =
duty. of 81 per thousand to all other,
has been left untouched, and this, it must be
remembered, is the one under which much
the larger share of our imports and duties
falls. The duty now imposed and continued
by the committee makes difference between
the current price of this lumber in this cOun-
try and Canada Of about the duty, and in the
past six years, since 1876, the price of this
lumber in our markets has been steadily ad.
vancing. The remaining changes are unim-
portant. Under the present 20 per cent. duty
on laths, reduced to Is per cent. by the COM
mittee, Sl39,7l6 in value were imported in
1881, and S47,l93 in value of pickets and
palings at fifteen cents per thousand, cut to
ten. Both changes will stimulate i'm
ports. The same thing is true, although in
lesser proportion, of sugar-box shocks cut
down from 80 to 55 per cent. A sufficient
reason for continuing the present tariff on
furniture is to be found in the steady growth
of the industry, whose annual product in
1880 was Sos, s,077,s02, of which one-third,
SO, ,404, 756, was wages, while our imports
for six years have been but little over $780,
600 annually.
The commission found sufficient reason
for continuing the present duty in the fact
that, including the annual product of lum-
Der, wood manufactures in ihe United States
now aggregate an output of S509, ,4S5. GIL,
nearly 10 per cent of our total manufactures,
pay Sl05, S6l 1897 in wages and employ 334,
764 hands, nearly IL per cent of those en-
rloyed in manufactures.