The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-06-05
A BILL TO ROB THE POOR.
THAT'S HOW IMPORTERS CLASS
MKINLEY'S MEASURE.

81 Ones.
81 WASHINGTON, June "A delegation of
II about one hundred importers appeared be-
N fore the Senate committee on finance to-day
70 protest against the passage of the Nc
Kinley tariff bill. The committee ad-
iourned, owing to the throng, to the Senate
reception room, which was crowded. All
the members of the committee save Chair
man Morrill, were present at II, and Senator
Sherman presided.
]. M. Constable of Arnold, Constable &
Co. was the chief spokesman for the dele
CATION. He presented the formal protest of
the importers of New York.
THE WHOLE COUNTRY REPRESENTED.
Mr.. Constable said it was not true, as had
been stated in the press, that they were all
from New York. They came from all the
important centers of this country-New
York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and
Cincinnati. The importers protested against
the bill because they believed 1t would leg
islate in favor of one class against another
class and for the benefit Of the manufact-
urers against the importers; also because it
will work against the poor men of this
country. If the Mckinley bill went into
operation a great many importers would
have to retire from business.
THE GOOD OF THE MAJORITY.
A speaker at the Home Market Club had
said he was in favor of giving the greatest
benefit to the greatest number of people.
He hoped the Committee believed in tbat.
and if so this bill would never become a
law. He then introduced Henry w. Curtis,
representing the silk and velvet interests,
who announced himself as a protectionist
republican. The silk commission houses, he
said, were more largely interested ip
domestic silks than in the foreign article.
q Their money was in domestic mills and, in
GLIDING importing and manufacturing, the
importers of New York represented $780,
1000 Of capital.
ABsURDITY OF THE BILL.
The Mckinley bill bore hardest upon the
people who could afford it least, those using
cheaper silk. ''As you go up in value" /"
n said the witness "you go down in duty.
q The duty on ordinary gresgrain sill, costing
80 to 60 cents yard, was 80 per cent and
on the same article costing 81 25 tue duty
is Sc per cent. Moreover, the Mckinley
bill would increase the duty on silks all
along the line about per cent. because Of
the duty placed on the packages and car
TONS" He took up the matter of ribbons,
and showed that the duty on these also
diminished as they rose in value.
sTUNNER.
Senator Voorhees-What reasons of trade
are there requiring that cheaper grades of
silk shall pay higher duty than more
costly gradess
Mr.. Curtis-That is a sumner to us.
lLaughterl
The American Silk Association and treas
ury department, he asserted, we're in favor
of leaving the duty where it was,
at 80 per cent. The domestic mills
had thriven at that rate Of duty.
He should say most decidedly that there
truS trrh at Az n,
protectionist, he would not have the duty
any less, but ''let u.s. he said, ''stand at so
per cent. That is as much as the Am erican
Silk Association wants"
IMPORTERS NOT FREE TRADERS.
lSadore Strauss, representing, he said,
nine-tenths of the importers of the pottery
and glassware of New York, declared it to
be untrue that the importers were generally
free traders. They decidedly preferred the
present. tariff to free trade. 1t was more to
their interest, as part of their profit was on
the duty. The Mckinley bill increased the
duty on the poor mans glassware much more
than on that Of the rich man. He exhibited
Bohemian tumbler, costing 45 cents a
dozen laid down in New York duty paid
and then he showed the domestic article,
costing 25 cents per dozen. The present
tariff was therefore practically prohibitive
and yet it was proposed by the Mckinley
bill to largely increase it. The effect of
this would be that the price of the domestic
tumbler would be increased
A PRoTECTIoN1sT FALLAcY.
Senator Vance-We hear that the higher
the tax the cheaper the article.
MIR. Strauss-We have not been able to
find it that way.
MIR. Strauss then showed a sample of q
cheap vase costing eighty-fve cents dozen
at wholesale. Under the Mckinley bill it
pT1N ~<ck01 y u
net weight, and 81 so on the gross weight,
TIE language of the bill being so indefinite
as to leave it in doubt whether the duty
would be collected according to the net or
The gross weight. Chimneys sold by the
manufacturers at seventeen cents a dozen,
made all over the country, were next ex-
hlolted. No chimneys of this sort had
peen imported for years. They had been
run out of the market long ago. The spe-
enc duty on these chimneys under the
Mckinley bill was 80 cents, not counting
tne duty on packages, etc. Common lamp
shades cost 60 cents dozen at present.
Under the Mckinley bill they would have
to be sold for 81 25. Very few of them
were made in this country, most of them
coming from Silesia.
CHEAP DINNER PLATES.
~ Some common dinner plates made in
trenton and selling for so cents per dozen
imported to-day for less than Is cents He
was, beside being an importer, manufact-
urer OF fine glassware. Very little OF it
was manufactured when the last tariff bill
was passed. The duty was 45 per cent, and
mere 1nere was practically no importation now.
Inc proposed duty was 80 per cent. He
would undertake TO manufacture and keep
out oil importations without any duty
Whatever, even without free raw material.
EXISTENCE OF TRUSTS.
senator Sherman having asked about the
existence OF trusts in the pottery trade, Mr..
oVrauss declared that trust was in full
operation in yellow ware and cheap stuff,
hlco Mhlco was not imported at all, and rather
ulstinctly intimated that there was a trust
either actually in existence or else in con.
temptation in the higher grades of pottery
and glassware.
senator Sherman asked il the reduction
lh the price of glassware during the last ten
years was not the result of domestic compe-
tition
MT. Strauss thought that the cause was
competition all over the world and the
great strides in the knowledge of the art
oomoined with the use of natural gas.
THE RAW WOOL INDUSTRY.
Louis Windmuller, speaking for the raw
wooi industry, said that the Mckinley bill
proposed to raise the duty or wool worth Il