New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-07-31
WAYS To REDUCE REVENUE.


If Republican Senators are going to frame
Tariff bill at this session they will not fall TO
remember that they cannot safely do so without
taking great care to meet the actual needs Oh
home industries. They can cut OIL revenue IN
two ways by making duties more effective Tor
protection, thus stimulating home industry
wherever il now suffers from foreign COMPETE
ton, or by removing or reducing duties that
are unnecessary or too high. The duties that
tax the people and yet fail to protect-that Is
to secure cheaper products for the people
through the development OF home industry
are of all others those that burden the country
most and need the earliest attention.
The Senate can begin with the tin plate duty
of one cent per pound, which yields S5,7 10000
yearly, does not actually help home manufact-
IRE in the slightest degree, and leaves Ameri-
can consumers entirely at the mercy OF for
eign trust by which prices are fixed at pleasure
There are two modes of meeting this difficulty.
The Democratic mode is to abolish this duty
to give the foreign trust permanent monopoly
as to the consumers of this great country, and
thus to subject those consumers to be perma-
nently robbed as much as certain foreigners
see fit. The Republican mode Of dealing with
the difficulty is to raise the duty, so that
100000 tons Of iron can be produced and
manufactured here into tin plates, instead OF
importing that quantity. Sheet iron or steel
galvanized or coated, except tin plates, pays
a duty of 1856 cent per pound or more, and
that duty is effective for protection. The
same duty on tin plates would undoubtedly
transfer the manufacture Of 100000
l. NJ
cost to American consumers for all time to
come, destroying their dependence upon
foreign trust, and creating home demand for
28O 900 tons more of pig iron. This would
employ great army Of worbingmen in tho
production of ore and fuel, iron and plate, who
are not now employed, and would tend to pre-
vent a reduction or to promote an advance in
the wages of those already employed.
Ingots, blooms and billets of iron and steel
pay duty of 4 5 per cent, which is not now
effective and 81 100000 pounds were i'm
ported in the fiscal year 1887. The duty paid,
S4,789,OOO, is not needed for revenue, and
nearly the whole of it could be removed by
raising the rate of duty sufficiently to en-
courage the manufacture at home on n larger
scale 1t is obvious that in fairness the duty
as that which is now paid on the raw pig iron
from which the ingots or blooms are made,
namely, So per cent. Probably such duty
would add a new demand for nearly or quite
300, 900 tons Of American iron, to the perma-
nent benefit Of Southern and Northern fur
naces; It would develop more vigorous man
ufacture at home, with increased demand for
labor in many forms and in the end it would
cheaper products and thus permanently benefit
American consumers.
The duties on worsteds have been practically
defeated by Treasury rulings Intentionally hos
tile to the purpose of the tariff, and by criminal
mdervaluatons Of goods which the tariff was
not framed with sufficient care to prevent. a
change in the law correcting wrongful rulings,
and placing worsted and woolen goods on the
same footing, with notifications to prevent
fraudulent undervauations of wOrsted and
woollen goods not otherwise specified, would
probably make a difference of at least
9 0, 900, 900 pounds in the quantity of foreign
woollen goods imported. This would create
new demand for at least 10000, coo pounds
Of American wool. At the same time it would
cheaper goods permanently for American con-
sumers by the healthy development of the man
ufadure here in the branches in which it is
now embarrassed, and would cut off a revenue
of 81 s. 900, 900 or more that is not now need
ed. Similar corrections and reforms in the
duties on raw wool would arrest the decrease
in wool-growing, which has been going on ever
since the tariff of 1888 was enacted, would
benefit producers and consumers both. and
would lessen the revenue.
These are samples Of a class of changes which
the Democratic party has refused to make, but
which Senators who believe in the protection
of home industry cannot afford to ignore.
Changes of the opposite character. reductions
of duties which are now unnecessarily high or
serve no useful purpose, are sure to be pressed
upon the attention of Senators sufficiently by
the agents of foreign importers, who swarm at
Washington, and have shaped the Mills bill
20 4bair