New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-01-31
THE LATEST TARIFF SCHEME.

Il
Mr.. Morrison modiies his plan again. SO, at
least, his friends report Having seen that
Gborizontal reduction will not serve as an eva
sion, he is said to be compounding mixture OF
various horizontal reductions. In each class or
branch. he says, the reduction proposed Is to be
horizontal; that is for the purpose OF escaping
definite responsibility for any particular change
in each class that may prove idiotic or ruinous'
But the reduction is to be greater on some class
es or branches than on Others aud on some
very great, because there is need of great re-
duction. This is for the purpose Of placatlng
the red-hot free traders, who have been giving
angry utterance to a feeling that Mr.. MoIrlsons
native hue of reforming resolution may be
sicklied DER with the pale cast of Presidential
thought.
1t is necessary to state that this extraordinary
scheme, incredible as it may seem, is not an IN
venton of Mr. MorrisOn's enemies but is either
his own, or is attributed 10 him ty near and
admiring friends. 1t has been noticed that Mr..
Hewitt has strongly objected to "hoTizontal y
reductions, as confessions of incompetence, and
MS continuing determinations which Democrats
have denounced as robbery" Mr. Hewitt
wants raw materials Free albeit neither Mr.
bv raw materials" But the scheme which he
has in mind, one would infer, involves scale
of duties graduated according to the proportion
of labor that enters into the cost OF given pro
duct To flame such bill requires some
knowledge. How could such a measure be
framed by a Democratic House OF passed
through one2 Mr.. Hewitt is an able man, but
he has not yet been able to frame bill on
these lines that will pass house composed
exclusively of himself.
Mr. Morrison evidently recognizes the impos-
sibility of getting rational determinations out
Of Democratic majority. TO escape this labor
OF Sisyphus he is continuing to make Republi-
can determinations the groundwork of his tariff.
Perhaps he imagined that careful gradatl0ns
of duty having been devised to meet public
needs he could cut off half all around and Sc
cure half the benefit. He might as well go
through bis garden in early summer and care
fully cut off half the growth of every plant and
vegetable, and then expect half a crop. But
now he proposes to classify. He viii clip of
the blossoms only of the potatoes, and half the
stalk of the corn only the tip end of the aSpar-
agu. and the upper quarter of the lettuce, and
all there is above ground Of the tomato. Is II
any wonder that factories begin to close when
a Democratic Statesman commences "refoTm-
ing" things7
1t is not yet stated what Mr.. Monison's lines
of classification are to be; whether he is to APP
ply one rule of reduction to all products Of iron
and another to all products of cotton, or
whether he will try to distinguish products of one
industrial process OF treatment from products
of "a second or third process. We can possess
hai &c il-alxr fr.a Il
in either case, about where he did when he was
Chairman Of the Ways and Means Committee
years ago. He will find that his Democratic friends
will defeat his bill if he gives them 10 chance
to amend it, and will tear it 20 pieces if he does.
As he abandoned the WellsMoore tariff in dis
gust years ago, so he viii probably leave his lat
est economic offspring on some cold doorstep
before the session ends.