The Coconino weekly sun., 1893-12-14
A DEMOCRATIC TARIFF.
What the Wilson Bill Would Do for Amer
 icnn Industry.

ican Industry.
 The new tariff bill is an~anacronism, which would have appeared less ab- surd if it had been offered at any timo before the late elections: Even to dcm- o,rats who had supposed their leaders could be taught something by phe- romenal defeat it is surprising, Pre- parcd by democrats only and in secret, nnder the constant direction of the nresident, it betrays the absence of the sobering influence of frank comparison of opposing convictions, In parts it is clearly out of harmony with itself, where political considerations since the recent election seem to have prompted departure from its theories, but in the main it justities the claim that the committee has gone straight on, as if the wishes of the people deserved no attention.
 It's most characteristic feature is the general substitution Of nd valorem for specifc duties. This is in contempt of the judgment of competent econo- mists, including some eminent demo- crats, and Secretary Manning, Presi- dent Cleveland's first choice for tho treasury, who strongly urged specific duties on the ground that by them only could fraud be effectually checked. But the extreme free trade theorists have always been anxious for ad yalorem duties only, as If because these are most easily evaded and practically least efiicacious. The committee could hardly have decided to open wide the doors to fraud had it not been anxious to deprive American industries of de- fcnse more completely than the people could discover from mere comparison of rates Besides all Its opeu blows it wished to deliver stab in the dark.
 It should be fatal objection to this bill that unlike any other ever proposed by either party it deliberately and inten- tlonally creates deficit. It's advocates say that the deficit will be about fifty million dollars, which they intend to make good by later enactments, per haps an income tax. But there can be no certainty about the passage of a future measure, especially of such a character. No other party has ven
 
 needs of government without providing in'the same act for corresponding in- crease from other sources. The reduc- ton of revenues will probably be found even greater than the committee repre- sentS The additions to the free list alone, including wool, iron ore, copper, lumber sulphuric acid, salt and coal, Nf h.,s. ttnla tnh ton only has enabled the country to produce will take more than ten mil lien dollars from the customs receipts. Some of these changes nave met opposi- ton so strong that it seemed hardly possible the committee would disre- gard it. Wool growers of the south protested against destruction of their industry as earnestly as the growers of Ohio or Michigan, but without avail Coal and iron miners of southern states protested, not willing to accept the de- struction of their industries as the first choice fruit of thirty years struggle for democracy, and similar protests came from copper and lumber produc- CTS. But with the committee of demo- crats a. grain of theory seems to have outweighed d ton of experience. The change in these articles will not mere ly take millions from the revenue but will deprive several hundred thousand American workers of their power to purchase foreign or domestic products.
 The duties on manufactured prod ucts are reduced, apparently, rather more than 40 per cent in the aggre- gate. But the proposed reductions do not appear to be governed ny any in- telligent rule, and the change from specific to ad valorem duties makes it a task of some days labor to deter mine even approximately how far the reduction in some schedules extends In the woolens schedule more than half the duty would be taken off, evil dently, even if the goods should be honestly invoiced without undervalua- ton, and the change to al valorem dutie5 will make the practical effect still greater. In the iron schedule the reduction on pig from S6. 72 per ton to 22I per cent, which means at present prices Sl.50 to S3. 25 per ton, must shut up many eastern and southern fur naces. Rails are reduced from S13.4i per ton to 9 per cent, which means at .atest quotations about S4.50. and on most finished products the duties are heavily cut On glass the reduction is over one-half, and on linens from 40 per cent upward. It is an added inju- " to industry that the duties on wool ems, being deemed too high as fixed in the bill, are to be further reduced five points in five years on sliding scale, which would compel makers to fghc all that time against falling markets, if they should venture to contend at all.
 In abOlishing the duties on eggs and vegetables the committee not only throws away about s1,50o,000 revenue, but this change with abolition or re- duction of duties on breadstuifs and other farm products is calculated to in- crease the serious depression of agri- culture in eastern and border states. Even the sugar-growers, though the committee did not venture to repeal at once the bounty SO often denounced by democrats as robbery" are to see it cut away by fractions in eight years, process eminently calculated to dis courage any industry. In short, nearly