St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-04-12
The Morrison-Hswitt Customs Measure to
See the Light in the House
To-day.
Among the Articles it Places on the Free
List are Wood, Salt, Hemp and
Wool.
Wanting the Wool Duty of IS6T
Restored,
And Asserts the Bill VIII Cripple II
Not Destroy Every Industry
IL Touches.
The morri.on-Hewitt Tariff Bill


port of the majority of that committee to
accompany the tariff bill. which will be re-
ported to the house tomorrow. The re-
port reads as follows:
The rate of duty or tax on imported goods
subject 10 duty is as low as on some and
higher than 200 per cent. on Others. The
average rate for the fiscal year, 1885. little
exceeded ~ per cent. or S45 of tax on 500
worth of imported goods. This is the highest
rate paid since 1865 and above the average
rate Of war period from ls62 10 ls6S.
After quotations from the messages OF
Presidents Arthur and Cleveland, setting
forth the necessity of the tariff revision, the
report continues:
The treasury receipts for the fiscal year
1856 were So, ,S69, ,01s.3s. The increased re-
ceipts from customs and internal taxes, the
principal source OF revenue, for the months
OF the fiscal year of 1855 already pass over
| the receipts OF the same months or last year.
| justify the estimate that the receipts Tor the
present fiscal year will exceed $685., O00,OoO.
| For Nav our annual treasury receipts Will be
| expected again TO fall below that sum with
out reduced taxation. In rs much as these
| receipts result chiefly from the taxes on ar
/ ticles of necessity and comfort TO be con-
| sumed in continually increasing quantity
/ with
| OUR EvER-GRowING POPULATION.
The expenditures for the fiscal year 1885,
| including pensions and other legal require
: ments of the public debtwere S3O5. $50, ,s1O-54.
/ Neither the actual needs of an economical
administration of the government, nor the
/ patriotic expectations of the people justify
| any increase OF this enormous annual expen-
diture, and we may safely estimate the an
/ nual surplus TO exceed $50, 1000. The re-
/ duction to result from the proposed bill are
within this estimated surplus, and little
exceed ss4, 900 on the basis OF last years
| importations.
Reference is made to Secretary Man
nings views as expressed in his first
annual report touching the effects OF the
maintenance of low duties. pointing out In
equalities in the present law. and favOring
the admission, free of duty, of raw mater
| ial. of which the report says:
These views of Secretary Manning as to the
existing state of the custom service and
tariff taxation are not partisan, but are in
! accordance with views pressed upon Congress
| by his predecessors, Secretaries Folger and
| McColloch. 1t is the purpose OF the bill
| reported 10 correct some or the clasSinca-
| tions, rid the custom laws OF complications
| of which the secretary complains. and so
! change these laws for the better, that they
will be capable of being administered with
! impartialltY TO all our merchants. Th
duties intended TO be
REMOVED BY THE BILL
are chiefly those which tax articles used by
our own manufacturers. which are now sub
] -
abroad with the manufacturing nations,
which do not tax such materials, thus secur-
| ing markets for the products OF hands now
idle for want of work 10 do. Some OF the
materials upon which great industries are
| built. such rs wood. salt. hemp and wool, are
placed on the free list. In the past twenty
years we have obtained from the tax on i'm
| ported wood amount estimated at less
| than SEQ. GJ0.000 to encourage telling our
trees and destroying our forests. In much
shorter period we have given more than 3D.
| uOO 600 acres in bountieS 10 encourage plant
| Ing The tax on imported salt is remitted 10
those who catch and trade in fish and to those
who pack meats for the foreign market.
| 1t is believed this tax should be
RENTED to all. After a century Of failure
| TO make hemp either profitable crop or
a successful industry through protective
| taxation. farther efforts should be abandoned.
| For nearly a century, with only one interval.
| hemp has been protected. and yet its produc-
tion has decreased. because its culture under
| protection was Improbable, while the con-
| sumption of articles manufactured from this
and kindred fabrics has
ENORMOUSLY INCREASED,
until now the annual tax on imported hemp.
| MANILA and similar fabric is several times
gr ester than the annual value OF all the
4 hemp raised in the United States. When at
the beginning revenue was found necessary
TO our national existence, WOO with every
thing imported was taxed. From then until
now some qualities OF wool have paid some
rate of duty. For many years past the
rate on imported wool has been more than
| double that imposed on other products of the
! pasture. field and farm. These other lower tax
| protected products have out-run, or kept far
| in advance OF the wondrous growth Of our
population. Wool protected double as much
has fallen further behind. Wool finds its
market at home and its price is increased by
a tax. part OF the burden Of which must be
borne by the grower of other farm products.
whose surplus In foreign markets fixes his
price at home. and to the increase Of which
his wool-growing neighbor contributes moth
ing. The price Of wool has been downward
for many years. II declined when the tax
was highest and protection greatest. From
the statements of the Ohio and other wool
growers associations, il appears that the
market price of wool is not three-fourths OF
the actual cost OF production; that with the
existing protective rate OF 10 cents on the
pound the price is still 10 cents below the
price at which il can be proftably grown in
the great wool-growiug states of Ohio and
Pennsylvania 1t appears, therefore, that
the attempt to make
WOOL GROWING
profitable by the use of the taxing power has
not been successful, while the tax has beer
the great national hindrance TO the wooler
manufacturing industry as well as a mos
grevious burden upon all buyers of woCler
clothing. 1t has been already
> |
the wool duty Imposed by Gen. Garfield, his
associates aud successors and school of econ
omists did not promote the growth Of sheer
husbandry, and IL is proposed 10 remove IL
, For the last year this duty on wool was So
, 4.2959 9S. The specific duty imposed OF
wool good, says Gen. Garfield, treating of tn,
tariff commission scheme, as near as possible
equal TO the duty put upon the wool which
entered into the manufacture, was Sll.5OO.
600. This, with the S3,l64.295.s6 equivalen
duty, is TO be removed and a duty o.
= 35 per cent. ad valerem on wool gooi
; as a protection to the manufacturers agains
l foreign competition remains and viii yielC
. the new revenue. In some of the schedules
? wherein rates are proposed to be reduced, es
pecially woolen and fax, hemp. jute or linen
the industries are left with substantially IN,
, same If not greater advantage, the rates OF
which are 10 be reduced, as cotton yarns
threads and coarser
, , COTTON, CLOTHS AND SUGAR.
are now dutiable at unnecessarily and unrea
sonably high rates. These will find compen
: sations in burdens of taxation sought TO b.
5 removed, for reductions far greater than an
T proposed by the bill. We get from duties OF
; cotton goods SlO,9 100000. The rates on good
for which we collect 8. 600, 900 of this amour
are slightly reduced. while the rates on whicl
we collect the other ss,sOO,O0O are un
: | price, is left at the high bu
: revenue rate equivalent to 66 per cent. witt
the still existing high. If not unwarrantabi
scale of current ordinary expenditure an
: the one-half of the money obligations o
the late civil war yet TO be paid. a high rat
. | of taxation must be long maintained. and ol
, | submitting the proposed bill affecting th
e cost of shelter, Of part Of the food and of a
v of the clothing of the people, it has been tn
: effort of your committee to adopt such rate
D of taxation as will be permanent and as vii
e only need TO be undisturbed by unforsee
r national emergency. and at the same time Z
q exempt necessary articles from taxation an