New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-02-06
PIP RAy WINKLE, Oh YORSF'

RIP VAN WINhLE, US rOho''
One is at loss to say whether inconcelvaole
laundering or cunning malignity presided d,
the birth of the Morrison tarlft. 20 Dhho anu
complicated sci eme was never devised III
candid and honest desire for reform. Inc
courts are even now crowded with suits 10
settle the meaning of the present tarlh. But
before ANYBODY can tell what the duties now
are. it is proposed to cut them down ~ per
cent, whatever they may prove 10 oe.
By way of further complication
is provided that no duty In CIasS
"In shall exceed 40 per cent, that none Id olass
&C" shall exceed 30 per cent, and that none III
Glass OK" shall exceed go per cent. but, 10
blind people still more, II is further PROVIDED
that in no case shall the reductions go oeio"
the rates of an old and forgotten tariff OF 1901
which ceased 10 be the law twenty-five years
ago. and to which not one man III thousand
has access. The only thing quite certain about
such bill is that it was meant to deceive some
body. Such painstaking cunning would never
have been employed by the Free Trade eHtrelh
lists who framed the bill had they not meant
mischief.
1T any rate mischief would come, II LOT ho
other reason, because of the countless uhcer-
taintles to which the bill subjects all industry
and trade. The country has not yet learheu Ihe
| decisions Of the Treasury upon one III tno"-
sand of the questions arising under the he"
classifcati0ns of the present tariff. lhese are
carried forward by the provision that e1ghtyper
cent of the present duties shall be exacted, and
vet the whole is to be modified blythe classlfica-
tions of 1861, which were different at
almost every point. Perhaps $4,000 suits
are pending, or being prepared, TO deter
mine TO what classes different articles now
belong. But to these the bill would add AZ
many more, to determine TO which classes the
articles did belong in 1861. Thousands OF art-
cles now imported were not IN existence or not
| known to trade in 1861. But the courts must
decide what the duties would have been in
| 1861, if these articles had been in existence OF
been known. The effect of all this uncertainty
and litigation upon the different branches OF in
dustry and of domestic and foreign trade can
only be dimly imagined.
sill. what is uncertain in the bill is less dan
gerous than what is positively and certainly
wrong To speak of the reduction as "unscien-
ti6cr in method is a ridiculous delicacy of ex-
pression the bill was intended to do mischief
or else it is lacking in common sense. The iron
industry, for instance, has been suffering greatly
hessuse the price Of raw iron has enrelatively
too high for the prices at which fn-
ished products could be solt But
the bill cuts down duties on
finished products 90 per cent or more-steel
rails to S13 CO. or So 40 per ton-but its 1861
clause prevents reduction on pig iron below
SIS. OF exceeding ~ cents per ton. The duty
on tin plates is now cent per pound; the 1861
clause would raise it 100 per cent, for the duty
under the Morrill, tariff was cents, unless it
should be decided by the courts that the clause
has no effect when the duty Is already
lower than that Of 1861. Wool growers
voted for this Democratic Congress because
| Democrats promised restoration of tho old du-
ties. but the Morrison bill cuts the duties down
from 10 to cents, from II to $40 cents, from
| 2lo to cents, and from to 4 cents on the diff
ferent grades. Quite recently wealthy Swiss
manufacturer of analine dyes decided to re-
move to this country and set UP great
establishment near Cleveland; the bill pro-
noses to send him back by reducing the
duties from 35 to % per cent Particular
MAINS seem to be taken to kill off the promising
cotton manufacture at the South, for it Is es-
peciallv provided that on no class of cotton
goods shall the duties be as high as the average
of all duties on imports under the present tariff.
In short, there is scarcely an industry that has
| been peculiarly depressed during recent bust
ness embarrassments at which the Morrison
hill does not aim specially deadly blow, and
scarcely a feature of the existing tariff which
has proved peculiarly beneficial, even in the
estimation of It's foes, that the Morrison bill
does not take especial pains to cut out
| The free list means destruction to important
interests near the seacoast and the Canadian
border. During the last fiscal year 6O7,176
tons of iron ore were imported, paying 90 cents
per ton; during the five months ending NOvem-
Der 3Oth no less than 265,184 tons were
imported, paying 70 cents per ton; and the
iron miners in New York, New-Jersey, COnnec-
| ticut Eastern Pennsylvania and Maryland well
| know what the effect of these imports have
been upon their wages. But the Morrison bill
would admit iron ore free. and so close the mines
from which thousands of men draw support
for themselves and their families Michigan
would suffer dOubly, both copper and iron ore
being made free, and the farmers all along the
Canadian border can realize how the reduction
of duty on their products would affect them.
The proposal to make lumber free might find
reason in the need of protecting our forests, but
il is not necessary for any such end to tear the
whole tariff to pieces. Nor is 1t probable that
the salt producers will rejoice in the proposed
reduction of the duty on salt or the coal miners
in the proposed admission of Nova Scotia coal
free of duty.
A Republican who cared only for the success
of his party might well pray for the passage OF
this bill 1t would not take the Democrats long
to learn that they had lost their Last fighting
chance in every Northern State In time OF
great industrial depression, to assail our most
important and our most embarrassed industries
| hy such a measnre as this and TO throw oil