Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-06-19

to Foreigners Cheaper Than in the Home
Market - An Unjust Discrimination
Against the American People in the Hum
bug ssAmerican Bill"
The Mckinley bill is bill of false
pretenses. Besides its attempt to gull
the farmer there are various other de-
ceptions aimed at in it. One of the
most notable is in the matter of rebates.
When any material is brought into
this country and is then sold outside Of
the country again, either in its first
form or after being worked up into
some manufactured product, the Gov
eminent refunds 90 per cent. of the duty
which had been paid on this mate
rial when it was brought into the coun-
try. This part of the duty refunded by
the Government is called rebate, or
drawback.
The Government now gives back, as
stated, 80 per cent. of the duty. Mr.
Mckinley proposes that the Govern
ment shall hereafter pay back 90 per
cent, keeping only one per cent to pay
expenses for collection.
This measure was claimed by Mckin-
ley, in his opening speech on the Tariff
bill, to place our manufacturers in pre-
cisely the same position, with regard to
raw material. Mckinley has heard the
| foreign trade, as if they had free
voice of the manufacturers of the East
demanding free raw material. He has
seen the petition of the New England
manufacturers, with the names of hun
dreds of the most prominent firms at
tached to it, asking for free coal and
coke and free pig iron.
Something had to be done to make it APP
pear that this demand had been granted.
Accordingly the rebate on raw material
was raised from 80 per cent to 80 per
cent This, Mr.. Mckinley said, would
| give the manufacturers, so far as i'm
! ported materials were concerned, all the
advantages of free trade in the foreign
market In this way the Lord High
Tariff Maker thinks he has silenced the
demand for free raw material.
But it is just here that the false pre-
| tense comes in. This rebate, as is we'll
known in manufacturing and trade
circles, is practically dead letter. 1t
rs worth so little to manufacturers they
seldom apply for it. The difficulties
and delays in the way of settling the
rebate are so great that it is almost en-
tirely ignored.
Speaking of Mr.. McKinley's claim
that the 80 per cent. rebate gives the
manufacturers all the advantages of
free trade. the New York Commercial
Bulletin has this to say: ''Manufact-
urerS who have had experience of the
| visionary character of rebates will not
| be deceived by this. They know that
rebates, although ostensibly put forward
as announcements to the export trade,
have no effect in that direction,
and simply serve to mislead
public opinion, if they are not
SO intended. The conditions under
which the rebate of duty can be claimed
are SO onerous as to be practically pro-
hibitive. In the first place, exports OF
such manufactures as textiles, to qualify
for it, must be wholly composed of in-
ported materials and in the second,
such articles as plows, moving machines
and shovels must have imported mate
rial incorporated in their manufacture
to an extent exceeding one half of the
total of the materials used. 1t is still
further necessary, in order to make a
claim leg innate. that the imported
materials shall be identifiable, that is,
in every step of the manufacturing pro-
cess they shall practically be under the
surveillance of Government officials
The present tariff allows a rebate of 81
per cent, under the above conditions
, but the trouble and expense attending
any attempt at its collection have beer
SO great that exporters have found it to
their advantage to ignore it altogether
1t is not at all likely, therefore, that the
proposed change from a rebate of 90 pei
cent to one of 90 per cent will prove a
satisfactory solution of the difficulty
and the clause will therefore continue
useless"
Mr.. A. B. Farquhar, of York, Pa, one
of our largest manufacturers and ex-
porters of agricultural machinery, has
written letter to the New York
Tribune in which he calls attention te
the embarrassments which combine te
make the drawback or rebate provision
practically dead letter. THE least OF
these" he says, lis the fact that the
duty is not refunded but only a
portion of it-9O per cent. Then the
regulations which are required by the
Treasury Department to guard against
frauds, the necessity of proving that the
imported goods in each article exceed
, half its value, the limit of time in which
drawbacks can be claimed, the danger
} of having orders counterm anded by CON
tinua1 delays, practically involve so
much annoyance and precious time as
to eat up all the profits there were in
the drawbacks even when the material
was as much as 80 per cent cheaper sir
England than here"
And thus it is seen that the tariff
makers talk about his rebate placing
all the advantages of free trade in the
hands of the manufacturers, is simply q
piece of pretense. 1t is like his duty
on eggs, which Mr.. Butterworth, his
Republican colleague from Ohio. say:
means lone omelet a year"
) But why should Mr.. Mckinley propose
to give foreign buyers great advantage
over the home consumer at the doors OF
the home market factories? He held W
|; his bill as IAN American bill not q
European bill" Why then should
, Americans be Disseminated against in
this precious American bill? Our tariff
maker gives Europeans, who buy the
products of our factories. the advantage
of free raw materials; but he refuses
this same advantage to the American
buyer. And yet he calls it an ''Ameri
, can BILL What has the American citi
zen done. that he must be made to pay
! duties on raw materials which are offered
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