Morning journal and courier., 1893-12-22

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If the coal be made free there will be
fierce competition with the coal of Nova
Scotia, and not only will the mines of West
suffer, but the great railroads will suffer
severely also. To be sure, these are cor
porations without souls, but the stocks
and bonds are owned by people with souls,
unless modern political in6delity should
determine otherwise.
Whether Nova Scotia coal would afford
any real relief to New England manufac-
turers if 1t were separate measure Is a
matter much in dispute, but that 1t would
give them any relief adequate to the dam
age this bill will do them is not in dispute
at all.
Without being guilty of that attempt to
the bane of economic discussion, it may be
briefly said that every product which goes
to market must meet every other like
product on equal terms. If, in the United
States, there are higher wages and higher
cost of capital there must be such barriers
against goods from abroad as will eguslizs
these higher costs, or the products of the
United States cannot bs sold except at q
loss. Sales at loss cannot long continue.
The result of refusal to protect our
labor at its present rates must result in
lower wages. This seems capable of
rough demonstration. Oar goods are now
met by foreign goods on our own shores at
price made up of raw materials plus laoor
and plus the present rate of tariff on very
nearly equal terms. If the tariff element
be lowered then something must be lower
ed on our side, and in the lsst analysis it
will bs labor and capital, and in the long
run the loss of capital Ia also a loss of
labor, for capital employs labor and lost
capital sets no machinery in motion. We
must, then, meet the reduction of price of
foreign goods, which are our com petitors,
by reduction of the price of labor.
But while this bill in Its principle. If 1t
has any, is not unprotective, 1t will be alb
soiutely so in prAct!es, not only in it's d.
rect reductions, but also in its indirect re
ductious sure to come from the change from
specific duties to ad vslorem, which is q
marked feature of the bill.
An ad valorem duty, as the name implies,
is one which varies according to the price.
If prices could be exactly determined moth
ing would seem to be fsirer than an ad
vslorem duty. But, price are
very much matters Of opinion on which hon.
est men may differ much and rogues much
more. Inssmuch as the duty depends on
the prics, cheat on the price ia a cheat
on the duty. If a piece of goods Ia worth
Sc yard and the duty Is 25 psr cent, the
correct duty Ia 81 40. If the price be in
voiced at S. yard and the fraud not de-
tected, the duty collected becomes 81 %,
and the ad vslorem, which seems to be %
per cent, becomes about 20 per cent, aud
not only is the government cheated out OF
its quarter of q dollar, but the msnufae
turer is cheated out of one-ffth of the
protection his government has promised
him.
So great have been the objections OF
actual American practice to the ad valore NJ
duties that among the names which can be
cited against it are some of the most Hue
trious in American history-Hsmilton,
Gallatin, Crawford, Webster and Van Blu
rem, with Buchanan, and Daniel Manning
Such, too, has been the experience of al
other nations, and their tariff bills show
an exclusion of sd valorem duties as makes
even the act of 1890 seem Objectionable or
that very account.
This is not theory. 1t is within the ex
perience of every merchant that goods
which cannot be purchased at all in Europe
can be purchased, duty paid, in New YORK
at lower prices than like goods csn be pur
chased by the honest merchant who values
them at their true market value and pays
the duty demanded by the government, and
yet these ad vslorem duties thus objection
able have been increased in number every.
where, being substituted in nearly all the
schedules for specific duties.
How the bill will act as a revenue raiser
and how 1t can act as an injury to the
government and the producer both to-
gether, is we'll exenplified in the changes
made in the pottery schedule.
AS to the future relations between Csnads
and the United States, 1t would not be de-
corous for us to talk fully, but there are
those who believe that what they think IL
the manifest destiny of this continent IL
one nation and one market and one devel
opment.
Those who have that thought in theil
minds as they scan the bill will see how lit
tie this bill, compared with existing law
conduces to that end. Those on the Other
hand who look upon the Dominion simply
as another nation will be surprised to zee
how freely is accorded to her privileges
and opportunities In derogation of those Of
our own citizens; privileges and opportu
mites for which the Dominion would be
glad to give ample and unstinted concss.
sions. By this bill they receive them all
without money and without price. .
What effect also this bill will have upon
the treaties made by the last administrs
ton with Cuba and the Spanish American
countries, the committee have presented
no calculations and no suggestions. If we
should lose anything thus gained 1t would
be so much addition to the general mis-.
fortune of this ti'l.
Another serious general objection to the
bill Is that 1t decreases the revenue &C.
cordtng to the calculations usually made
by the treasury department as compared
with 1893 about $74 600, 900. This large
de6cit, coming as 1t does upon a depleted
treasury, Ia rather appalling in a bill for
revenue only. How this great hole In our
resources, as a nation, ia to be filled, no
one knows. At this date not even the com
mittee knows itself unless the president,
anticipating in his message to congress the
report of the committee On ways and
means she'll sEnrd to the committee itself
its wishsd-for cue.
Against the consideration of such q bill
creating such deficit and leaving it IN
accounted for, the minority vsinly protect
ed when the bill was laid before the com
mittee. Who would dare, If of sound and
statesmanlike mind, to create q deficit of
s74, DOC, 900 and bliudly vote it with no
plan in eight whereby the government
could meet its expendituresa That sans
protest We make to the house and to the
country.
The bill ought not to bs reported with
out the internal revenue bill, which is to
make up the deficiency. Are we to psss
this bill and then bs coereed into the
othera Who knows If they were presented
together that we might not prefer to say
where We srea The progrsss of this at
tempt at what has been called reform has
already created such feeling that the coun
try is stirred all over. When the scheme
of raising taxes by methods used in the
lima Of ryar tod IN Nd 90
those now imposed, there may be such
farther rsvulsion of feeling as will accom-
pliah the work of defeating this bill.
In conclusion the report says: One of
the most amazing propositions of the bill
Is that bituninous coal shall be put upon
the frss list, and the millions of dollars per
snnum, almost, that We receive from its
importation by way of revenus absolutely
thrown away. Coal has little value save az
1t gets from labor. Except for short Pc
Rod 1t has always borne q duty. Under
the revenue tariff of 1848 II bore duty of
30 per cent. sd valorem. No change has
been made In the duty on it since 1872.
The Mills bill provided the same rate as
make 1t fires. 1t is difficult to imagine
why. It is the mos. universally prevalent
of all the products of American ind ustry.
To put coal on the free list Ia without
reason and against reason, and fnds no
semblsncs of defense save in the upjusti-
fable desire to exploit theory at the ex-
pense of the American people. The minor
ity concludes their exhaustive report by
expressing their disspproval of the changes
proposed in the administrative part of the
act. They will have none of 1t altogether.
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