The farmers' union. (Memphis, Mo.) 1891-1895, 1894-08-30
ERRORS IN THE BILL.
MANY MISTAKES DISCOVERED
IN THE TARIFF BILL.
No Appropriate to Put the Income Tax
Into Enect-Treasury Asked for 100000
Diamonds Internationally PlaceI
the Free List.
Big Tariff Blum derS.

In addition to the long list of errors
found in the German tariff bill the
surprising discoye y ha, been made by
the Treasury Department officials that
no appropriation has been made for
putting into effect the income tax pro-
visions. The col ectors of internal
revenue can do nothing under these
circumstance, in the direction of pre-
pairing to collect the tax. The treas
ury officials claim to be blau eless, for
they forwarded to the Appropriations
Committee more than a month ago an
estimate for an init / appropriation of
100000 to be used during the current
fiscal year in carrying out the income
tax provisions OF the tariff bill if it
should become a law. The omission
cannot be rectifed at this Sc sion of
CODgle 5.
Scattered over twenty-one different
pages Of the new tariff bill there have
teen discovered SO far a total OF thirty
one errors, the greater part of which
have no ect on the bill. There
are tn ee serious errors. though. not
counting the section that authorizes
the payment of IL rebate on the tax
paid on alcohol used in the arts and
sciences. None Of the error can be
corrected without a joint resolution of
the two no !scs, for the law" print of
the bill must b. an exact copy, word
ing and spelling, pu ctuatiOn, and
everything else contained in the en-
rolled bill, which is the copy that be-
comes part of the archives of the gov
ernnent.
Bv the Omiss on Of comma the
Senate has lifted bodily from the free
list the products o coal tar. not colors
ordyes. Among the D. o luct OF coal tar
the more important are dead oil. pitch.
and benzole. These shou have come
in free. but by the omission OF the
comma they are all t ansferred to the
dutiable list. Another error is one
over which there has been some dis
pute, but according to tariff experts it
operates t. put diamonds in the free
list. The use of the semicolon in
stead of the colon is used by ex-
perts to indicate that dia nOnds
addition to those tor u-e in certain
trades, as was intended, are admitted
free. is aid that some of the larg-
est importers of precious stones in
New York, aware of this error. have
ordered large invoices of diamonds be-
fore the error can e corrected Para
graph ~ of the chemical schedule
makes sulphate of magne ,ia, or epson
salts, dutiab'e at > OF a cent q Found.
This was an item add d by tae Senate
which omitted to str Ike from the free
Ii t paragraph 542, which reads. Mag
nesia, sulphate Of, or epson salts. :"
The two paragraph, are in opposition.
Costly Errors of the Past.
In a communication sent to Congress
some years ago it was shown that the
insertion of comma instead of a
hyphen in tariff bill cost the govern
ment almost S5CO,OOo. The tariff act
of .uLe u. 1872. contained in the free
list paragraph reading: Fruit,
plant tropical and semi-tropical, for
the purpose of propagation or cuitiva-
ton" instead Of the comma aft r the
word fruit there shOu d have been q
hyphen, the article intended to be ad-
United free icing fruit-plants. The
error wa- corrected by joint resolu-
ton on May 8, 1874, but up to that time
hundreds OF thousands of dol ars' worth
of tro' ic ii fruits were brought in alb
solutely free of duty.
\ serious error in the Mckinley act
wa corrected in like manner, the mis-
take being the mispiacene pa
renthesis. The paragraph as it ap-
peared in the law read: cables, cord
age. and Irvine ex ept binding Irvine
composed in whole or in part of istle,
or Tampico fiber, 81 al gras ), or sum
II cents per pound" The only " rds
that should ha been inclose6 in pa
rentheses were except binding Irvine"
which made a very material change in
the construction of the paragraph.
The correction was made Feb. -, 1891.
the law, however. having been in force
since Oct. J, 1890.
WHEElMEN MEET.