The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1888-10-11

declares it viii be Surnc1ent tO p3y IN
fun outstanding Al per cent bonds due
ton, il insists. could and should be
pro6t8bly avoided and the probability
Of business disaster ayerted and the
prompt return OF money collected from
the people of the channels Of trade and
the purchase of United States bonds
that could at all times be obtained at
prices which to the government would
have been equal to the Investment of
otherwise improbable funds of rate Of
interest Of not less than per cent.
The majority expresses its cOnv1c-
ton OF the lnadequacy of the house
bill as remedial measure for rea-
sons
First-It would probably increase in
stead OF decreasing revenue.
SecOnd-It provides no remedy for
but on the contrary
invites and gives immunity to fraud,
by substituting advalOrem for specific
duties.
Third-It does not remedy any ine-
qualities or anomalies, or cure any de-
fects in existing laws. If foreign
manufacturers should, the majority |
says, through changes made in cotton
and wooden schedules secure quarter
of the market now held by American
manufacturers and this, it thinks,
additional duty would reach |
at least ESQ, 600 600; expan-
sion of imports, it declares would follow
reduction of rates on china, porcelain /
colored window glass manufactures OF |
iron and steel. fax, jute, hemp and |
many minor manufactures with great |
ly augmented revenues. 1t declares
that the house bill perpetrates existing
infirmativeS created by its Obscurities |
and faulty construction of doubts and
antiquities which must multiply the
indefinite present confusion. The re-
suits, however, the majority says,
which would flow from the figures of
the bill as a corrective measure would
be much less disastrous TO the material
interests of the country than those
which must surely follow the adoption
of its vicious affirmative propositions
and the feature which most clearly indi-
Gates its purpose is proposed as sub
stitutiOn of advalorem for specific du-
ties. This could have no other result
than change the rates now protective
for others which would not protect.
The promoters of this bill must
have been familiar with the
testimony submitted to congress by
Secretary Manning disclosing the
enormous frauds upon revenue and
honest merchants through the advalO-
rem rates. The use of advalOrem rates
have been condemned by experience in
every commercial nation in the world.
but the Judgment OF those Who lave
been entrusted with the responsibility
of customs and administration and by
importers and merchants as we'll as by
intelligent political ecoDo MICS and !egis-
| IatOrS of every share of ecOnmic be-
lief. When business is depressed aud
foreign prices are normally low, when
foreign competition is most to be feared
and when q defensive barrier Is most
needed by domestic producers, then adj
Valorem4ates are lowest and protection
reduced and depression intensified;
when foreign values, are highest
rates are highest and restriction is en-
larged into prohibition. Ii desirable
sliding scale of duties should be
adopted, sales should incIe ease as for
eIgn prices diminish, and the proposal
to apply this principal to all manufac-
turerS of wool would l e unsatisfactory
and destructive. and the rate proposed
in the wool schedule would prevent the
importation of low grades of f1annels,
blankets and hats of wool and all low
and medium grades of caSsimereS and
other cloths, which enter into the
clothing of our great mass of people,
but would be insufficient upon all finer
classes of dress goods and cloth for
mems wear. The majority says that
with the exceptions of silks, wines,
liquors, tobacco and sugar, every tariff
, schedule is invaded by alterations
made with hostile spirit, which per.
vades the house bill and that nearly all
our Industries would feel the bllghtlng
effects of the changes which are either
incOnsiderate or purposely destruc-
tive.
The majority further says: 1.-The
free trade tendency partly concealed in
these propositions to cripple or destroy
the numerous Industries are clearly
brought into view by the examination
; of the list of articles which it proposes
to place on the free list; of 104 items
from which the duties are removed
, nearly one-half, forty-eight in number
: are manufactured articles, sixteen agri
cultural products, eleven aticles now
free of duty or without commercial i'm
pOrtance and twenty-One articles which
now pay small revenue duty, but
which are of such character that re
moval of duties are unObjectionable.'
The report here embodied list OF
about fifty manufactured articles from
, which duty is proposed to be removed by
the Mills bill; referring to which 1isi
the majority says: This is free trade
! in the concrete and the list furnishes
conclusive evidence of the intent of the
) house bill which cannot bt
neutralized by the eleventh hour dis
chalmers of its supporters; upon lnveS
: tigation it will be found that with ex-
ception templates supply of above AT
tic1es for home consumption now fur
iShed to great extent by domestic
! producers whose business would in
most Instances be at once destroyed by
the adoption of this bill and the ma
: jOrity report estimates at least $500,
: coo, 600 capital and 300, 900 workmennoV
SO employed. 1t declares that in many
. cases where manufactured articles ar
T placed on the free list and duty retain
3 ed on materials from which 1t IS man
ufactured, that this discrimination
would act as a prohibition upon thu
I production of the country. The pro
I vision admitting German looking glass
plates free, the majority believes, tina
the first attempt which has been mad:
r in the American tariff to DISCRIMINATE
5 between the productions of the vari
; GUS foreign states, and it thinks
+ it can be safely assumed that the pro
ducerS of France. Belgium and Eng
3 land would not consent to this dtScrim
r nation in favor of German manufac
& turerS and in several cases articles ar
o free under one description and dutiablt
r under another. In q great number o
] instances materials used by manufac
|, turere as dutiable at one rate. while
r finished products are dutiable at lowe
r rate.
? The report says: After months spen
!. in violent attacks upon the protectiv,
t system, and unfortunately the people
+ of the country have become thorough!
!. aroused to the impending danger, tn
t friends of the house bill suddenly dis
d cover that it is not free Trade measure
; and would not seriously effect the vita
5 interest Of any of the great numbers o
persons employed in the great indus
tries. In proof of this, it says the bill
}, proposes an average reduction of Onl
n 1882 on every Sl00 of dutiable meT
e chandise imported. It is assumed tina
). the reduction Of an average advalOreu
of S4.32 per cent on dutiable merchan
disc is conducive to welfare an
that the bill has no fre9 trade tenden
{. cies. The report enumerates u numbe
of instances where the average adva