New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-02-26

| WORK FOR Il CONFERENCE COMMITTEE
The official copy of tie Tariff bill as 1t
| finally passed the Senate has at last been
| printed 1t is no longer matter or wonder
| that the most intelligent PrOtectionists and the
ablest Free Traders are opposing this man
eled measure with equal earnestness.
Excellent provisions are still there, which
have led the public to the impression that, In
spite of some defects, the bill was, on the
whole, an admirable one. But it lsjmposslDle
now, and would be impossible until several
hundred lawsuits had been decided by the
courts, to determine how far the useful pro-
visions of the original bill have been left alive
by the process of ignorant or unreasoning
amendment" No one can conceive how
largely the intentions of the Tariff Commission
and of the Senate Committee have been de-
feated who has not closely compared the
present official copy with the original meas
ure Those parts of tho original bill which
escaped with little or no amendment are gen.
| orally good. But grotesque plumbers have
been made in the process OF so-calied
amendment"
For instance, there was originally reported q
provision that all galvanized iron and steel
should pay an additional duty. Then some
anxious defender of Western farmers thought
that the words except fence-wire should be
inserted, and it was done. But he made the
motion and the Senate adopted it so care
lessly that the clause now reads;
On all of the kinds Of iron or steel, articles or
manufactures Of iron steel, hersnbeoro In this
act enumerated. ercept tenoe-ire when galvanized or
coated with any metal alloy, mixture OF metals by
any process Whatsoever not Including psints there shall
be paid excepting on what are known commercially as
tin plates plates and agsers Tin, and herelnoe
fore provided for) OneoUrth cent per pound In add
ton to the rates provided in this act
The words in italics were inserted by amend
ment. Reading the clause without them, we
find the real intention of the Committee
and of the Senate. But the mover should
have put them into the clause in brackets, or
been careful to follow them by a comma, for
the provision ms it stands, without the comma,
merely adds s. 90 per ton to the duty on
about / 600, 900 tons of iron and steel 1t
cannot be said that this error, by which about
S., 900, 600 would be unintentiOnally added to
the duties on iron and steel was q mere
printers blunderI it was blunder of those
who moved and voted for the amendment, and
| of every Senator who sat studying the printed
| bill before him, with that error in it, day
after day from February 0 to its final pass
age, February 20. No Senator read the bill
| carefully enough during all that time, it seems
to discover it's actual import.
This is but an illustration Of the disOr-
| ganizaton wrought by over two hundred
amendments that were thrust into the bill, for
the most part by Democrats, and without any
proper consideration of their effect. Until the
| 18th instant, "scrap steel OF every descrip-
ton, including old steel railway bars, steel
railway bar crop ends" and ends of billets,
| ingots and slabs, with limitations as to length.
were retained in the bill where the Tariff
| Commission properly put them, subject to
the same duty as pig-irOn. When Mr..
Mcpherson was supported by all the Demo-
Gratis and by eight Republicans in altering this
part of the bill, he contrived to get it into such
a shape that the above articles were wholly
omitted, and no duty is anywhere fixed upon
them. They might be included under either
of three general clauses, at 80, 80 40 per
cent. Another laundering amendment puts
taggcrs' iron at 80 per cent, perhaps about g
of a cent per pound, while sheet-irOn of No. 20
wire gauge in thickness is left to pay liz cents
per pound, and galvanized sheet not thinner
than No. % pays l cent per pound additional,
though there really is no extra duty whatever
on galvanized sheet thinner than that. An
other amendment on page 80 dropped out
blooms or blanks for railway tires, and left
them to pay the full duty Of the finished tires,
2l4 cents per pound, or else to como in as
"steel not otherwise provided for" at 80 per
| cent, as a lawsuit may determine. Still an
other amendment Jumped under one duty Of
40 Der cent all kinds of steel, crucible or
Bessemor worth cents per pound or less,
upon which the Tariff Commission had inn
posed specific duties ranging from 6 of l
| cent to . cents per pound.
This brings us to the second defect Of the
bill; the reasonable adjustment of duties,
| with view to secure for different branches Of
industry measurably corresponding defence,
has in some important respects been de-
feated, mainly by selselcss or mischievOus
amendments Again, we use the iron and
steel schedule for illustration because that
part of the bill has aroused more determined
| opposition than any other, and the work of
amendment has perhaps wrought more mis-
chief there than elsewhere
| The Commission sought to make large re-
duction in many important finished products
Of iron and STEEL and in order to do so safely,
endeavored to stop some of the leaks through
which unfinished or cheap forms of iron and
steel had been coming in as a flood, threaten:
ing to drown out our industries. Thus, while
taking off duties which amounted last year to
1881 ,1S4 on steel rails alone, it proposed a
higher duty than before on steel blooms and
other unfinished or cheap forms of steel. For
the Commission saw that steel in forms ready
for rolling could not be admitted at low rates
without prostrating the manufacture Of rails
II the duty on rails was to be cut down to the
minimum of safety. Prior to 1881 the i'm
portation Of blooms had been so Insignificant
that no separate record of 1t was given by