The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-08-21
ERRORS IN THE BILL
Both Houses Must Meet to
ReCtify Mistakes in the
Tariff Bill.
PUzzLERs FOR TIE TREASURY
Importers Take Advantage Of an
Error Which Places Diamonds
on the Free List.

WASHINGTON, Aug. Il, 1oSf.--ocsiltei-
ed over twenty-one different pages of
the new Tariff bill there have been dis
| covered SO far, a total of thirty-one
| errors, the greater part of which, how
| ever have no effect on the bill. There
| are three very serious errors, though,
| not counting the section that authorizes
| the payment of rebate on the tax PAID
| on alcohol used in the arts and sciences
/ None of the errors cam be corrected with
| out a joint resolution of the two Houses,
| for the claw print" of the bill must be an
exact copy, wording, spelling, punctua-
| ton and everything else contained in
| the enrolled BILL which is the copy that
| becomes a part of the archives of the
| Government.
| In the order in which they appear in
| the bill the errors discovered are as fol-
| lows
Paragraph "a of the chemical schedule
! makes sulphate of magnesia or Epson
salts, dutiable at 1-5 of cent per pound.
| This was an item added by the Senate
| which omitted to strike from the free
/ list paragraph 542, which reads:-"M Mag
nesia, sulphate of, or EPSON salts" The
| two paragraphs are in opposition, but
4 the Treasury Department will doubtless
| hold under section four. that EPSON
| salts shall be dutiable, the similitude
clause of that section providing that
| the duty shall be assessed according to
| the highest rate.
| In paragraph 26, under the subdivision
| of oils, "alaxarin" is incorrectly spelled
with a final "e.''
| THIS AFFECTS BOTTLEMAKERS.
| Paragraph SS, the first of the glassware
| has what appears to be a very serious
| error. 1t applies to bottles, walls, ETC.,
| the closing part of the paragraph having
been intended to read, "all other plain,
| green and colored, nodded or pressed,
and flint and lime glassware, 40 per cent.
| ad valorem." Instead of this, however,
| the land" between flint and "lime''
| became transposed, and the rate of 40
| per cent. is imposed upon "all other =
and flint, lime and glassware" the ef-
| feet being to impose this rate on all
| other glassware, pure and simple, in
stead of flint and lime glassware, as
was the intention.
| Paragraph 210 which reads as follows:
''Herrings, picked. frozen. or saited, and
| salt water fish frozen or packed in ice,
| one-half of l cent per pound clearly con-
| fiicts with paragraph 4S1 of the free list
which admits free of duty, fish, frozen
Jr packed in ice fresh
A LUCKY MISTAKE THIS.
| A lucky accident prevents an error in
the wool schedule from changing the
rates in the important paragraph relat-
| ing to ready-made clothing This para
| graph fixes a duty on Clothing, ready
made, and articles of wearing apparel of
every description, made up or manufac-
tured wholly or in part not specially
provided for felts, ETC., all of these
composed wholly or in part of wool, etc,
valued at or above $1.50 per pound, 50
per cent. ad valorem; valued at less
than s1.5O per pound, 40 per cent ad val
orem That was what the bill was in
tended to do. but in the new law the
word ''or' in the clause valued at or
above s1.5O per pound" is omitted, so
| that the classification of these goods is
| limited to those either above or below
the dividing line, and the dividing line
| of $3.50 pound has no rate fixed by
| this section. 1t so happens that the pre-
| ceding section, the basket clause of the
woollen schedule, contains a provision
| placing duty of 50 per cent on all man
ufactures of wool not specially provided
for, valued at more than 60 cents per
pound, and under this the treasury will
hold wearing apparel valued at s1.5o per
pound to be dutiable at so per cent.
In paragraph 30S relating to parchment
papers, there are six errors that will
have no effect and seem to be the result
of carlesness. Referring to the thick
| ness of papers the thickness is expressed
thus:-'Not exceeding eight-thousandths.
The Treasury Department may be puz-
zled to ascertain just what "thous-
andth" is. The items should read
''eight-one-t -thousandths, ETC.
PUXZLERS FOR THE TREASURY.
Another specimen of hurried work is
found in paragraph 354 where manu-
| facturers of ivory, vegetable ivory,
mother-of-pearl, gelatine, and she'll"
should read "gelatine shell, etc. The
absence of a comma from one of the
Senate's additions to the free list causes
curious construction of a sentence 1t
appears in paragraph 424 1-2, and what
the Senate intended to have appear was
this "Burlaps, and bags for grain, made
of burlaps.'. 1t SO happened that no
comma appears after the word grain
and the paragraph really admits free of
duty, not bags made of burlaps for
grain, but 'but bags for grain made of
burlaps." This may puzzle the Treas
ury Department good deal, but it still
also puzzles the agriculturalist for this
appears to be a new kind.
By the omission of a comma, the SEN
ate has lifted bodily from the free list
the products of coal tar, not colors, of
dyes. Paragraph 443 in the free list of
the House bill reads:-"Coal tar, crude
and all preparations and products of
coal tar not colors or dyes not specially
provided for in this act" The Senate
inserted after the word preparations"
the clause except medicinal coal-tar
preparations" which it had put on the
dutiable list, but in so doing omitted the
comma and the exceptions now read
Except medicinal coal-tar preparations
and products of coal tar etc. Among
the products of coal tar the more inn
portant are dead oil, pitch and banzole.
These should have come in free. but by
the omission Of the comma they are all
transferred to the dutiable HIST.
DIAMONDS ON THE FREE LIST.
The next error is one over which there
has been some dispute, but, according to
tariff experts it operates to put diamonds
on the free list. 1t has been decided that
when an article Isl named specifically it
lis lifted from the provisions of general
class to which it might otherwise be-
long. Precious stones of all kinds un-.
der the language of paragraph 1888. if cut