Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1890-11-27
know Of few places in this broad land OF
ours moro delightful as home, or more
captivating as a business location.

Mr. Daniel and the Tobacco Rebate
In the following letter Senator DANIEL
shows that the omission from the Nc
kinney bill OF the tobacco-rebate clause
was an error OF tho enrolling clerk and
not in accordance with the design OF the
conference committee as Mr.. SHERMAN
supposes.
All this the Senator makes perfectly
clear and he announces his purpose to
introduce n bill which, il passed, will
repair the damage caused by the clerks
blunder and do Justice TO the dealers who
may happen to have on hand when the
six cent rate goes into effect unbroken
factory packages stamped at eight cents
WASHINGTON, d. C., Nov. "a, 1890.
To the Editor of the Dispatch:
Inquiries almost daily reach me "Wil
Congress allow a drawback or rebate to
the extent of the reduction of the inter
nal-revenue tax OH smoking and manu-
featured tobacco and snuff" In reply
/ beg leave to say: 49,,
/. That have prepared bill, which
I will offer as soon as Congress meets.
providinp for a drawback or rebate OF
two cents per pound on all original and
unbroken factory packages OF smoking
and manufactured tobacco and snuff held
by manufacturers or dealers ut the time
the reduction of the tax from eight to
six cents per pound goes into eiiect-that
is, on January ], 1891.
9. II is highly probable that Congress
will allow this drawback or rebate. IL
has been customary to allow such draw
back on former occasions when the In
ternal-revenue tax was reduced IL is
eminently Just that it should be al
lowed-indeed, unjust not to do 1t, and
it is quite certain that 1t WAS the design
of Congress 10 allow it when 1t passed
the Mckinley bill at the last session.
3. The history and status Of the matter
arc in brief as follows: The Mckinley
tariff bill as il passed the House of Repre-
sentatiyes contained in section % the
provisions reducing the tax to four cents
per pound, and in section 30 an allow
ance of drawback or rebate OF four cents
per pound on packages held by manu-
iacturers and dealers at the time the act
should go into effect
The Senate Finance Committee, in re-
porting the bill to the Senate, recon-
mended amendments striking out these
provisions for reduction and rebate and
the Senate adopted these amendment
refusing to reduce the tobacco tax. The
bill then went into conference COM
mittee, and as reported by that com
mittee TO the Senate and House OF
Representatives, it was provided that
the tobacco tax be reduced to six cents per
pound, and that section 30 OF the House
bin allowing the drawback be restored.
Thus the bill passed and became a
Law, but the enrolling clerk of the House
of Representatives failed in preparing
the act for the Presidents signature to
Incorporate the conference committees
amendment restoring the section allow
ing the drawback. Thus by a clerical
error the law WAS INITIATED, and there
is every reason of justice and fair deal
ing to believe that Congress will rectIiy
this error as soon as 1t assemblies.
There can be no doubt that this IS the
true history of the matter. | have seen
statements in the press that Senator
Sherman says that the drawback was
intentionally omitted from the Mckinley
bill. But, if correctly reported, the
Senator is mistaken, for have before
me now, at this writing, copies of the
conference report and of the tariff bill
in its various phases, and they demon
strate by their text that the omission
was clerical error.
Very respectfully,
JOHN w. DANIEL.