Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1890-10-30
THE TARIFF LAW.

| Tobacco-The Opinion is Not Unanimous
| that the Defeat will Cary Down the En-
! tire Measure.
NEW YORK, Oct Ex-senator McPher-
son very recently wrote as follows to a
member of a prominent importing house
in this city: Il beg to call your atten-
| ton to the conference report and tariff
bill sent you about ten days or two
weeks ago-a quarto pamphlet of PA
| pages. On page IT'S you will find amend
ment 449 and section 3, the reading mat
ter relating to drawbacks on tobacco
stricken out. Turning over to page
176, sixth line from the top,
you will find the following:
! Conference restores section so.
Now in the Tariff bill before you you
will find section 80. That on and after
the first day of January, ending with
six cents per pound, leaving all the rest
of original section 80 out altogether.
This omission is fatal to the bill, in
the opinion Of eminent lawyers here,
| Senator Carlisle among them"
Senator Carlisle, who was one of the
| conferreeS was asked what, in his op;n-
ion. would be the effect of the omission
of section 80 from the Tariff bill as
signed by the President II have not"
he said examined the authorities on
the subject, but it seems quite clear to
me that the omission of one section is
just as fatal to the bill as if all but
one had been omitted. If the
President can sign part of a
bill passed by both Houses and
make that a law, of course it
makes no difference how small a
part it is. Should the constitutionality
of this law be tested in the courts the
question would have to be determined
by the journals of the two houses be-
cause they constitute the only legal
evidence of what was done. The two
houses passed the Tariff bill, but in diff
ferent forms. When it came back from
| the conference committee there was
nothing to act upon except its report,
which, l suppose, was entered upon tt 9
journal of both houses as is usual in
| such cases."
Topic of Discussion in Official Circles
| in Washington.
WASHINGTON Oct. 24.-The alleged
fatal defects in the new Tariff bill
| formed an interesting topic OF discus
sion in official circles yesterday, and,
while the defects were not thought to
| invalidate the bill as whole, the sem
timent was almost unanimous that Sec
ton 80, of the tobacco paragraph,
| which was omitted in its entirety.
could not be enforced, and where it by
| construction referred to other para
graphs it might impair their strength.
AS to the law signed by the President
not being the law passed by Congress,
Private Secretary Halford said the bill
signed by President Harrison was the
same bill signed by the Speaker Of the
| House and the President of the Senate
| These officers by their signatures certi
fled that the bill had passed their re-
spective branches of Congress and their
| atteStation of the fact was the usual
mode OF procedure and the only Of
fetal mott feat ton the President ever re-
ceived that bill had passed. Whether
the law was constitutional or not was a
matter for the courts to decide"
Secretary Window, when questioned
on the subject, said it did not become
him to question the constitutionality Of
Legislation passed by Congress. He was
simply an executive officer to carry out
the will of Congress, and when laws were
placed upon the statute books. all he
| had to do was to execute them. II
doubts existed as to given law being
constitutional those doubling it could
have their doubts removed or confirmed
by taking the matter to the proper
| judicial tribunal.
At interesting point bearing the
subject was pointed out at the Treasury
Department. Under the Tariff law of
July II, 1862, duties were increased ION
all brown or bleached linens, duck,
canvas paddings, cot bottoms, burlap
| drills coatings, brown hollands, dam
/ asks, Diapers" etc, five per cent. ad
! valorenl. making the duty on the arti
ticles named thirty-tive per cent, the
former law having imposed a duty Of
! thirty per cent ad valorenl. In 1864,
June 20, another tariff law was passed
imposing an additional duty of five per
/ cent. on all articles named above, but
/ by a clerical error whole line was
omitted, and drills, coatings, brow
/ hollands, clay linens, damasks," were
| left out of the paragraph alto
| Tether. At first the Treasury
| Department imposed forty per cent
| duty on the omitted articles. the same
as those enumerated, holding that such
| was the evident intention of Congress,
/ but subsequently tho Department re-
/ versed itself and refunded the five per
/ cent. increase in the bill of 1864 over
| the bill of 1862, and afterwards charged
| duty on drills, coatings, etc. at thirty
| five per cent. ad valOrem 1t was not ar
/ gued that the omissions OF drills. coat
/ ings, etc, from the paragraph invali-
! dated the paragraph or applied to any
| other articles than the ones omitted or
| that the error in regard to the para
| graph not being complete tended to
make void the bill as a whole, or that
! the articles in being omitted belonged
| to the free list because they were not
! enumerat ted in the dutiable list.
| All former tariff acts contained more
| or less omissions and errors, and even so
| late as February 81, 1877, an act was
| passed TO supply omissions in the re-
| vised statutes. 1t is thought at the
| Treasury Department that the same
! course will be pursued in regard to any
! defects of the present Tariff law if they
| are of character serious enough to
| call for it.
a Suspicious Case.
| BROOKLYN, Oct. 24.-Hcalth Commits
/ Eioner Griffin is engaged in Investigate
ing Il suspicious case which may turn
out to be yellow fever. The victim was
a man who arrived here from Santiago
on the steamer Santiago October Il.
He died at % Gold street. The
vessel had clean bill Of
baaltI, from o.aranfino which was