The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1894-08-31
ERRORS IN THE BILL.
MANY MISTAKES DISCOVERED
IN THE TARIFF BILL.
No Appropriation to Put the Income Tax
Into Enect-Tressury Asked for 100000
Diamonds Internationally Placed on
the Free List

In addition to the long list OF errcrs
found in the German tariff bill, the
surprising discove y has been made by
the Treasury Department officials that
no appropriation has been made for
putting into effect the income tax pre-
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 blam eless, for
they forwarded to the Appropriations
Committee more than month ago an
estimate for an init appropriation OF
$500. 900 to be used during the current
fiscal year in carrying out the income
tax provisions of the tariff bill il it
should become law. The omission
cannot be rectifed at this Sc sion OF
Congre s.
Scattered over twentv-ore different
pages of the new tariff bill there have
Teen discovered SO far total of thirty
one errors, the greater part OF which
have no eject on the bill. There
are thu ee serious errors, though. not
counting the section that author e5
the payment of rebate on the tax
sciences. None of the error can te
corrected without joint resolution of
the two holses, for the "law" print of
the bill must be 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
eminent.
BY the omiss on OF q comma the
Senate has lifted bodily from the free
list the products o. coal tar, not colors
ordyes. Among the p. o lucts OF coal tar
the more important are dead oil, pitch,
and benZole. These snOu have come
in free, but by the omission OF the
comma they are all ansferred to the
dutiable list. Another error is one
over which there has been some dis
pute, but according 10 tariff experts it
operates To put diamonds in the free
list The use OF the sen icolon in
stead of the colon is used by ex-
perts to indicate that dia nonds
themselves, as a c'ass, not set. in
addition to those TOR use in certa n
trades, as was intended, are admitted
free. 1t is aid that some of the larg
est impoi ters 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 "a of the chemical schedule
makes sulphate OF magnesia, or epson
salts, dutiab,e at 5of a cent Found.
This was an item add d by tne Senate
which omitted to str Ike from the free
lit paragraph SIP, which reads Mag
nesia, sulphate of, or epson salts.
The two paragraphs are in opposition.
Costly Errors OF the Past.
In a communication sent to Congress
some years ago IL was shown that the
insertion OF comma instead of a
hyphen in tariff bill cost the govern
ment almost S5C0,00J. The tariff act
of JuLe 4, 1872, contained in the free
list paragraph reading: Fruit
plant tropical and semi-tropical, for
the purpose of propagation or cu,tiva-
ton. instead OF Tho comma aft n the
word fruit" there shou have been a
hyphen, the article intended to be ad-
united free Icing fruit-plants. The
error was corrected by joint resolu-
tion on May 8, 1871, but up to that time
hundreds of thousands OF dol worth
of tror ical fruits were brought in alb
solutely free Of duty.
A serious error in the Mckinley act
was corrected in like manner, the mis-
take being the misplacement o pa
renthesis. The paragraph as it APP
peared in the law read: Gables, cord
age and Irvine lex ept binding twire
composed in whole or in part of istle,
or Tampico fiber, 81 al grass, or sum
II cents per pound" The only W rds
that should ha been inclose0 in pa
rentheses were except binding Irvine"
which made very material change in
the construction Ct the paragraph.
The correction was made Feb. -, 1891,
the law, however, having been in for, o
since Oct. J, 1890.