Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1883-01-23
Senator Beck on the Tariff Commissions
Guileful Report.

There is truth, perhaps, as we'll as
point in Senator Beckis criticism
on the tariff commission that they
themselves wrote their plausibly word
ed report savoring of tariff reduction,
while the schedules which fix the rates
of duty on imported articles were pre-
pared in the main by men interested in
the manufactured those articles. The
men to be benefited by grinding tariff
taxes wrote down the rates they want
ed, according to information received
by Mr.. Beck, and the tariff commission
copied off their lists and called them
their report. "They simply transferred
the arrangement of the tariff to the men
who are personally interested in max.
ing money out of these schedules, lead
ing men connected with each one tax.
ing their particular schedule and fixing
it up to suit themselves, the commission
only throwing them together and hand
ing the result to us as their work. They
have allowed interested parties to frame
the BILL" 1t is thus that Mr.. Beck ac-
counts for the ingenious intricacy of
the bill, and the fact that while ostensi.
bly, reducing tariff duties, it actually
raises them. For example, a new spe-
cific duty of q cents pound, or $50 per
ton, is invented for iron or steel plate
one and half inches thick or overl-
Bessemer steel ingots, blooms and slabs
weighing not less than 500 pounds shall
pay six tenths of cent per pound, Dut
if weighing less than SOD pounds-as a
large proportion of them undoubtedly
would-they are to pay 2 cents per
pound, or $44. so per ton! But an unob-
trusive, small provlsO, widely separated
from the two provisions above mem
toned and likely to escape notice, de-
termines that "all metal produced from
iron or its ores which is cast and malle-
able, of whatever description or form,
without regard to the percentage of car
bon it contains" or the process by
which manufactured, "shall be classed
as steel" Thus by three shrewdly con-
trived provisions material which to-
day costs 500 per ton free on board ship
is to have its price raised 224 per cent,
and on billets worth $50 a ton the tax
will be $3.50 or more. The duty on cot
ton ties, now $14 ton, is to be raised to
$33 go per ton from 35 to 135 per cent.
On barbed wire fence material the duty
is raised from 35 to over so per cent. On
the rods of which chains are made the
duty is doubled. Other tricks of similar
character lie concealed in the hooks and
corners of this remarkable bill, which it
will be the work of the critics of the
Senate to ferret out. The pretense be-
ing made that the tariff rates already
existing are in the interest of labor, from
tables supplied by the commission Mr..
Book deduces arguments to show that
whatever be the merits of high tariff
it does not secure high wages. The tas
bies showing that the total capital en-
ployed in manufactures in the United
States was in 1880, $2,790, ,223, 506; the
average number of hands, 4, $40, 150-of
which number 2,025.27 were men, 531,-
1853 women and 1873, ,11S youths and
childen-the total wages paid, $947. .919,-
GA the value of materials, S., 394 340,-
029, and the products So, ,696, 667, ,060,' Mr..
Beck points to the fact that the wages
paid amounted to but 17.6 per cent of
the value of the products that the val
ue of the products exceeded the cost of
materials and wages paid by 81 027, ,40S,-
600, or SO s per cent. on the capital in
vested alter paying for labor and mate
rials, while the average wages amount
ed to less than 5 20 to each operative an
nually. Throwing out the youths and
children, the average wages were but
1870 year, but little over dollar day.
At the same time the laborer pays tariff
taxes ranging from so to 100 per cent.
on every imported article he uses. The
Senator from Kentucky finds that in
the chemical industry the net profit on
capital was 21.3 per cent, wages 10 per
cent, the average wages per hand $400
per anDum; in metals, profit 25 cent,
wages 20 per cent, average wages under
S400 per annum; earthenware products.
profit 1928 per cent, wages average S345
per annum; glassware, profit 20 l per
cent, average wages, 1882; cotton, profit
23.4 per cent, average wages S245; wool
ems, profit 30 per cent, average wages
$500; silk, profit 49 2 per cent, average
wages 1921 per annum.