Sharp County record., 1890-07-03
iA'KINLETS REBATES.

pretenses. Besides its attempt 10 gun
the farmer there are various other de-
,eptions aimed 1t 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 hrst
form or after being worked up into
some manufactured product, the Gov
ernment refunds 90 per cent. g 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
,he Government is called rebate, or
drawback.
The Government now gives back, as
stated, 90 per cent. of the duty. Mr.
Mckinley proposes that the Govern
ment shall hereafter pay back 80 per
sent, 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-
eisely 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 itap-
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 well
known in manufacturing and trade
circles, is practically dead letter. 1t
is 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 50 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 encouragements 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 i'm.
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 identifable, 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 90
per cent, under the above conditions,
but the trouble and expense attending
any attempt at its collection have been
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 per
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 OK
portors of agricultural machinery, has
written n letter to tho New Yorl;
Tribune in which he calls attention to
tho embarrassments which combine to
make the drawback or rebate provision
practically a dead letter. "The least Of
these" he says, 'is the fact that the
duty Is not refunded but only q
portion Of it--0O per cent, Then the
regulations which are required by the
Treasury Department to guard against
frauds, the necessity ofproving that the
imported goods in each article exceed
half It's value, the limit Of timein which
drawbacks can be claimed, the danger
of having orders countermNnlod by con-
tinual delays, practically involve so
much annoyance and precious timo a.
10 eat up all tho profits thcro wero In
the drawbacks, even whom the material
was as much as 80 per cent cheaper in
England than here"
And thus it is seen that tho tariff.
makers talk about his rebate placing
MI the advantages Of free trade In the
hands Of the manufacturers, Is simply O
pIeco of pretcnsc, II Is like his duty
on eggs, which Mr., Buttcrworth, his
Republican colleague from Ohio, says
means zone omclct year"
But why should Mr., Mckinley propose
to give foreign buyers great advantage
over tho home consumer Nt the doors OF