Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1884-03-23
THE ROBERTSON TARIFF BILL.

THE MORRISON TARIFF BILL.
The Morrison traif bill is now before
the House, and the country will have an
opportunity to see whether it is to be
stiaed in Committee of the Whole or not.
The plea that the scheme of reduction
embodied in the Act now under operation
is still untried, is a fimsy one, and the
other that the proposed reduction will
not lower the anyway is still
fiimsier. The imports were not heavier
because the duties were not reduced, nor
were the Customs receipts larger on that
account. On the contrary, the value OF
the dutiable imports for the last six
months Of last year was nearly nine mil
lion Of dollars less than the last six
months Of 1882, and the amount of du-
ties collected was nearly five million
dollars less, with the average rate OF
duty two per cent less. 1t was estimated
when the law was passed that it would
secure a reduction of the revenues, or in
other words save the people, S45,OOO,OO 600
Der annum, but in fact the reduction will
be less than $40, OOO, 600. The expert
ment therefore to reduce the rate OF
duties 20 per cent can hardly be attended
with much risk in that direction. The
protectionists find it impossible to assert
that the bill is intricate, and 80 they say
it is clumsy. If they had called it mad
equate and insufficient, in cutting off
only q fifth Of the wal taxes, they might
have hit the mark. But that would be
abandoning the protection fort /! The
truth is, a hundred million surplus is not
3 bad thing to have, that is. for the party
in power. The hundred million must be
spent where it will do the most good,
and there will be no end of log.rolling
next Fall. The rivers are to be damned,
and dyked, and leveed, and jettied, and
harbors are to be dredged, and forts
built, canals dug and widened, the
American hog pastured, ETC., etc., many
of them useful schemes in honest hands,
but almost certain under the present cir
cumstances to be gravely ~mismanaged.
The large surplus is in itself a continual
menace to our safety, a standing bid for
extravaganza and corruption.
But, say the protectionists, our infant
industries must be carefully guarded and
cherished. The whole outside world is
waiting to flock in here the moment the
barriers are pulled down. The rest of
this argument may be found in the APP
peals of the Chinese conservatives against
opening treaty ports to the western bar
barians. 1t does not occur to them that
the civilized world is but a Common
wealth, of which our country is a State.
With a portion of the duty taken from
articles of daily use, the purchasing
power of the workmen's wages is by SO
much increased.
In introducing the Morrison Dill, tne
majority of the Ways and Means Com.
mittee say
The nominal reduction made by the
proposed bill is 20 per cent, or one-ifth
of the present rates. With the Morrill,
tariff limitations in the bill and the
liquor and silk schedules omitted as
they are, the actual reduction on the
basis of last years imports will not ex'
coed Is. IA per cent on the whole impor
tation of dutiable goods. Together the
average reduction made in the tariff com
mission bill (Act Of March 3, 1889 and
that to be made by the proposed bill dc
not equal the reduction at which the
commission aimed.
The bill will be stubbornly opposed by
all the protectionist interests combined.
but it has a good chance of a passage il
IL. I~..