Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-05-17
FROM WASHINGTON.
Important Appointments by
the President.
FREE IMPORTATION OF LEAD
A Hardship Claimed to Be Wrought
to United States Miners
Merited Pensions.

made the following appointments tnls
afternoon:
Solomon Hirsch, Oregon, Minister to
Turkey.
Clark E. Carr, Illinois, Minister to
Denmark.
Henry w. Severance, California. Con-
sui Gen eral at Honolulu.
John Jarrett, Pennsylvania, Consul at ,,
Birmingham.
Thomas H. Sherman, District of
Columbia, Consul at Liverpool.
THE BEHRING SEA sEALERs.
Under the act of March I'd, Behring
Sea is placed under the came restrictions
as regards fishing as the salmon rivers OF
the country. President Harrison desig.
mates the revenue cutters Bear and Rush
to patrol the Behring Sea and arrest all
fishermen who attempt to violate the
new law. A large number of sealers,
fitted out at English ports and San
Francisco. started for the BehriDg Sea
fisheries before the law passed. The
owners want to recall them, but have no
way to communica'e with the vessels.
Therefore the Treasury Department
AUTHORIZES tI10 DSdl anu 1euphi w ShiAJ
letters to the sea(ers from the owners.
THE PROTECTION OF OUR LEAD INTERESTS.
A hearing in regard to the classification
OF lead ore, was continued before Assls-
tant Secretary Tichenor at the Treasury
Department. Argument in support OF
the present ruling, under which lead ore
mixed with silver or greater value is ad-
mitted free, were made by Ex-Governor
McCrary, Judge J. X. McCammon,
Oscar Keen of New York, and A. K.
Meyer of Kansas City.
Arguments in favor of a change in
practice to compel lead ere to pay duty
as lead, no matter how much silver is
contained in the ore, were made by Sem
ator Wolcott of Colorado, Ex-Governor
Grant of Colorado, Mr.. Sheedy of Colo
RADIO, and r. M. White of New Mexico.
The closing argument was made by SEN
ator Wolcott, who said he represented no
client in particulars but spoke against the
free admission OF foreign lead in the in
terests OF the whole people of his State.
A large number Of affidavits were sub
mitted to show that the ore containing
lead is comm ercially known as lead ore,
regardless of the percentage of silver
contained in it, and Professor Gray, of
Yale College, submitted a paper practi-
cally sustaining this view from scien-
| tific standpoint. He argued that COM
pound ores of this kind should be de-
scribed by the names of both constitu-
tents.
White, of New Mexico, stated that it
was not true that Mexican ore was neces-
sary for smelling the domestic product.
Advocates OF the continuance OF the
present practice of classifyin silver ores
containing lead, argued that those ores
are, commercially and technically,
known as silver ores, and that Congress
was we'll aware of that fact when the
present tariff was enacted. They held
that the question already had been ad-
Indicated and settled, and that our
smelling industries were born and had
grown up under the present construction
of the law.
Judge McCammon, in his argument,
said that case was free from any question
of fact, because the highest known Of
fetal expert authority designated ores
containing silver in greater value than
the base metal, technically and CONNER
cially as silver ores. The classification
was known and acted on, he said, when
the act of 'S3 became a law, which did
not change the status of the ores in
respect to paying duties thereon, except
as pointed out by the Judiciary Com
mittee.
]. d. Wilson and E. G. Brewster, rep
resenting tie Board Of Trade of Laredo,
Texas, filed q paper protesting against
auy change in the present classification.
The advocates Of protection for Ameri-
can lead mining interests introduced tes-
timony from nearly all the leading min
ing operators, smeIters and business men
Of the inter-mountain country, showing
that the universal designation and clas-
sifcation of ores was, and had been for
twenty years past, as follows: That
whenever ore contained enough lead to
be reduced and form lead bullion, it was
lead ore; that this distinction existed
at the time of the passage of the Tariff
Act and was contemplated by that Act,
which was passed to protect the mining
of just such ore. They further adduced
long line of technical authorities OF
high repute to support their definition of
lead ore. They asserted that the law
was passed to protect the industry, that
the ruling of the Secretary of the Treas
ury in 1880 was not on an ore of lead,
but was ruling on special lot of iron
ore containing silver, and applied only
to that. This did no harm to any pro-
tected industry, they said, because the
iron was lost in the Stag in reduction
They held that this ruling was no sup
port to subsequent rulings admitting lead
ore containing silver free of duty, and
that the application of "the component
OF chief value" rule to such ores was I'M
called for. The extension of the prin-
ciple of the former ruling was not war
ranted by the wording of it. They also
insisted that the opinion of the Judiciary
Committee was founded on false as
sumption of fact, based on untrue infor-
nation as to the commercial designation
of such ores, and that such misleading
information came from Secretary of
the Treasury unfriendly to the protection
of American industries.
Senator Wolcott said that he appeared
for no client or corporation, but for 80
per cent of the people of Colorado, as
we'll as the mining States and Territories
of the Northwest. The question simply
is whether there is law for the profec-
ton of the lead interests of the United
States, and, if so, whether that law is
being violated by the construction under
which lead ore from Mexico is admitted
free Of duty. He commended that there
is such a law, and that it is being violated
every day. If the law meant anything,
said he, it meant that the lead interests
of the United States should be protected
from foreign competition, and not that
foreign lead should be admitted free,