Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-12-19

portant articles and manufactures which
we have shown our capacity to produce
cheaper than any other country, such as
pig copper and the more important agri-
cultural implements. Any article or man
ufacture which can sustain the competition
OF like foreign articles in other markets,
can defy such competition in the home
market and is not protected by the duty,
but by its own intrinsic superior cheapness
and quality. The only effect of duty on
such articles Is to enable those who make
them to charge higher prices to the citizens
OIL their own country than they charge to
foreigners, and this has been VIGOROUSLY
the case with both copper and many agri-
cultural implements. In adjusting duties
upon what may be called the finished pro-
ducts we have tried to impose such rates as
will not destroy or distress any Of our home
industries on the one hand nor on the other
secure to them an oppressive monopoly Of
the home market. For this rule we have
the recognized authority both of well known
and leading tariff reformers and Of those
who, In days past, were considered mod
crate prOtectiOniStS.
The report here quotes from speeches of
the late Senator Beck, Mr.. Carlisle, the
late President Garfield and Senator Sher-
man, and continues:
1T is neither necessary nor practicable in
this report to specify the particular reduc-
lions We have made upon the long list Of
articles that still remain in the dutiable
list. The tables which have been prepared
for use of members of the House give full
and minute Information as to these changes.
A rev only OF the most important neeQ De
here enumerated. In the earthenware
schedule we have made substantial reduc-
tions, still leaving rates as high as were
deemed necessary in the war tariff. In
nations have kept up the prices to con-
sumers under scale of duties averaging
more than 100 per cent we have made a
reduction of about one-half.
Upon the larger sizes of plate glass. where
the duties were even higher, we have made
q reduction of about One-third.
Iron and Steel Schedules.
In the iron and steel schedules, beginning
with free ore and duty of q IL per cent
on pig iron, we have reported scale of
duties considerably below those Of the ex-
listing law. graduated according to the de-
gree OF manufacture, which should bring
benefit to the consumer without calling for
any halt In the imperial progress Of that
great industry in our country The duty
upon steel rails has been put at Is per
centum. which. according to the reports of
our department Of labor, quite compensates
for all difference in the cost OF production
In this country and abroad. There seems
to be an authentic report that the pool OF
American railmakers, which. under the
shelter of the present duty of $1344 per ton,
has kept up prices to the American con-
sumner far beyond the cost OF production
and legitimate profits, has been reorganized
to continue the regulation of their prices
shippers. and especially American farmers.
are vitality interested in cheapening the cost
OF transportation, rates of duty upon steel
rails should be adjusted so as to protect
them from monopoly prices and monopoly
combinations. Upon tin plate the duty has
been gagged with reference to the revenue
II will bring into the treasury, and the diff
ference between this duty and that upon
the black plate has been lessened with a
view to discourage what may not unjustly
be called the bogus industry Of making
American tin plate by the mere dipping In
this country of the imported black plate.
The Sugar Schedule.
In the sugar schedule We should have pre-
ferred to wipe out at a single Legislative
stroke the existing bounty system. We
believe 1t to be contrary to the spirit of
our Institutions. and can conceive of no cir
| cumstances under which we should have
advocated or approved its Introduction
into our laws. We have found it existing
there, we find 1t virtually existing in
every other schedule of the tariff, and deal
ing with it in this more open and offensive
form We have dealt with other sched-
ules where large property interests are at
stake. We have reported a provision for its
repeal by such stages as shall gradually
obliterate 1t from our laws while permitting
those who have invested large means I'M
der the expectation of its continuance
| reasonable time in which they may pre-
pare to take their stand with the other in
duStrleS OF the country. Duties upon inn
ported tobacco leaf suitable for cigar wrap
pers, which were enormously advanced by
the act of 1880, have been placed at such
figures as, after careful investigation. were
deemed likely to produce most revenues to
the treasury, but this object has alone de-
cided the rates; their amount Is so high
| that no domestic producer need claim that
there Is not abundant protection and to
| spare for his product in them.
A~~tomltu, p-nxp-ns.
| OF the staple agricultural products in
GLIDING meats and provisions. we are such
large exporters and must continue to be
such large exporters. that any duties upon
| them are useless for protection and fruit
less for revenue. and generally can only be
imposed for the purpose of deluding the
farmers into the belief that they are re-
ceiving some consideration and benefit un-
der the tariff. although the prices of their
products are fixed in the worlds market in
| competition with like products produced by
the cheapest labor of the world. For the
producers of our great export staples.
which, having fully supplied the home mar
ket must overflow and seek larger purchas-
| ers elsew here, the only effect of protective
tariff Is to take away from them from one
! fourth to one-half of the products for which
they could exchange their surplus in the
open market, should they venture to buy in
| the market where they are obliged to sell.
| or to compel them to give a like portion of
the avails of their labor, when turned into
money, by increasing the cost of what they
buy in the home market. Recognizing that
the American farmer has been through
many years the patient victim of the pro-
tective system; that he has been induced
to support 1t under the delusive promise
that by immense present sacrifices he was
buying for himself q home market, and that
this promised home market is farther from
him today than ever before, we have aimed
to secure for him such relaxation of bur
dens as will permit him to enjoy more of
the fruits of his own hard and faithful
labor.
To the farmers OF the country we have
given untaxed agricultural implements and
binding Irvine and untaxed cotton ties, for
the additional reason in the latter case that
cotton Is the largest export crop OF the
country sold abroad in competition with the
cheap labor of India and of Egypt, believing
that 1t was sufficient for the private tax
gatherer to follow the farmer in the mar
kets of his own country and not to
pursue him into all the markets of
the world. AS cotton baggfng can be
used but once, We have thought II but
Just to extend the drawback system to such
bagging made of jute butts when used upon
our exported cotton-a privilege which the
exporter of wheat can already now enjoy.
same bags may be used for successive ex-
portations of grain. In the schedule of
spirits, wine and other beverages the
changes made are slight and with the view
to production of increased revenue from
these very proper sources of revenue taxa
ton. The duty upon spirituouS liquors is
put at double the internal revenue tax upon