St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1891-01-12
GOAT HAIR COMES HIGH.
Some Hitherto Undiscovered
Beauties of McKinleyism.


Beauties of McKinleyiSm.
New York Times.
It is not only by imposing duty of
800 per cent on common goat hair, which
has heretofore been admitted free, that
the treasury department has sought to
increase the cost of carpets. A decision
as to the manner i'll which the dutiable
value of carpet wool imported from
Russia shall be has had the eff
feet of increasing still further the
cost of the carpet manufacturers
raw material. 1t should be borne in
mind that these burdens fall upon man-
ufacturerS and consumers without
warning. They have known that the
duties on carpet woodland consequently
the cost of such wool-were raised in
the Mckinley tariff. but not until these
decisions were made could they know
that the duty on goat hair had been
raised from nothing to 300 per cent, and
that the Russian paper ruble must have,
at the custom house, the value OF the
Russian .ruble of coin.
In the new tariff law the duty Oh car
pet wool Is increased from about "A per
cent to 80 per cent for wool of one OF the
two classes, and from about so per cent
At the same time the dividing line Of
value between the two classes was
moved upward from IL cents pound to
13 cents. The value of the quantity of
carpet wool imported from Russia an
nually is from 81 $685. 900 to 100000.
Four years ago the department gave no.
tice that our consular officers IN Russia
had been instructed to authenticate all
invoices of merchandise which were ex-
pressed in paper rubles, the currency
in which all purchases and sales are
made in that country, and upon which
all commercial transactions are based,
and also to attach to such invoices GER
tificates showing the value of the paper
ruble at the time of shipment, eSti-
mated in United States gold dollars, as
indicated by the latest quotations at st.
Petersburg of sight drafts in sterling OF
London Since that time the dutiable
value of wool imported from Russia has
been calculated upon the basis of the
value of the paper ruble, deprecated
currency of t1uctuating value, with
which the purchases are made.
But the department ruled on Dec. l.
1890, that 1.-The value of the Tuble, as
estimated by the director of the mint.
should be taken for the purpose of as
sessing duty" And on Dec, 8 the de-
partment gave notice that this value
was IS cents. At that time the paper
ruble was worth only So cents. There
upon the carpet manufacturers made
protest. To assume that the rubleS with
which they had bought wool
were worth 6S cents, when IN
fact, they were worth only IS, would
increase the duty to be paid, even if
thereby the wool should not be trans
ferred from the lower class to the higher.
1t appears that the calculation of value
on the new basis does, in fact, with re-
spect to considerable quantities of the
wool, transfer the imported staple from
the class on which the duty is 81 per
cent to the class on which 50 per cent
must be paid. The department was
asked to revoke its decision and return
to the customs which have benin usage
for nearly 100 years" The department
replies that it cannot withdraw its IN
StructionS."
The effect of this ruling will probably
be another advance of prices by the
makers of carpets. So far as they are
concerned we do not see why they
should complain. They contributed
large sums OF money to be used in elect
ing the persons who make the decisions,
and the whole proceeding is in accord
with the doctrine of the Mckinley
party that ''cheapness'' is to be con-
demned and attacked by all patriots.
Those old political shepherds-Delano,
Harpster, and Law1ence-are getting
some quiet enjoyment in these days.