The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-02-16
Rip Van Wrinkle, or Worsep

1
lignity presided at the birth of the
Morrison tariff. So blind and COM
plicated scheme was never devised
in candid and honest desire for re-
form. The courts are even now crowd
ed with suits to settle the hemeanlng OF
the present tariff. But before any
body can tell what the duties now
are, it is proposed to cut them down
20 per cent, whatever they may prove
to be. BY way Of further c0inplica-
tion, it is provided that no duty in
| Glass II" shall exceed 40 per cent,
that none in Glass &c" shall exceed
80 per cent. and that none in Glass
TX" shall exceed 60 per cent. But,
to blind people still more. it is further
provided that in no case shall the res
ductions go below the rates of an old
and forgotten tariff of 1861, which
ceased to be the law twenty-five years
ago, and to which not one man in a
thousand has access. The only thing
quite certain about such bill is that
it was meant to deceive somebody.
Such painstaking cunning would
never have been employed by the
Free Trade extremists who framed the
bill had they not meant mischief.
At any rate mischief would come,
if for no other reason, because of the
countless uncertainties to which the
bill subjects all industry and trade.
The country has not yet learned the
decisions of the Treasury upon one in
thousand of the questions arising
under the new classificatiOns of the
present tariff. These are carried for
ward by the provision that eighty
per cent of the present duties shall be
eXacted, and yet the whole is to be
modified by the classificatiOns of 1861 =,
which were different at almost every
point. Perhaps $4,000 suits are pend
ing, or being prepai ed, to determine
to what classes different articles now
belong. But to these the bill would
add as many more, to determine to
which classes the articles did belong
in 1861. Thousands of articles 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 or been
known. The effect of all this uncer-
tasnty and litigation upon the differ
ent branches of industry and of do
mestic and foreign trade can only be
dimly imagined.
Still, what is uncertain in the bill
is less dangerous than what is posi-,
lively and certainly wrong. To speak
of the reduction as "unScientific' in
method is a ridiculous delicacy of ex-
preston the bill was intended to do
mischief or else it is lacking in COM
com sense. The iron industry, for
instance, has been suffering greatly
because the price Of raw iron has been
relatively too high for the prices at
which finished products could be sold.
But the bill cuts down duties on fin
ished products 20 per cent or more
steel rails to $3.50. or $40 per ton
but its 1861 clause prevents reduc.
tion on pig iron below Sc, or exceed
ing ~ cents per ton. The duty on
tin plates is now l cent per pound ;
the 1861 clause would raise it 100 per
cent. for the duty under the Morrill,
tariff was 2 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 grow
ers voted for this Democratic Con-
gress because Democrats promised
restoration f the old duties, but the
Morrison bill cuts the duties down
from 10 to s cents, from IL to 9.6 cents,
from q to 2 cents, and from 5 to 4
cents on the different grades. Quite
recently a wealthy Swiss manufac
turer of analine dyes decided to re-
move to this country and set up q
great establishment near Cleveland
the bill proposed to send him hack
by reducing the duties from 80 to q
per cent. Particular pains seems to
be taken to kill off the promising cot
ton manufacture at the South. for il
is especially provided that on no class
of cotton goods shall the duties be a;
high as the average of all duties or
imports under the present tariff. Ii
short, there Is scarcely an industry
that has been peculiarly depressed
during recent business embarrass
ments at which the Morrison bill doe
not aim a specially deadly blow, and
scarcely a feature of the existing tarif
which has proved peculiarly bench
Lial, even in the estimation Of its foes
that the Morrison bill does mol taxi
especial pains to cut out.
The free list means destruction t
important interests near the seacoas
and the Canadian border. During