The oasis., 1894-08-30


 being made to dissolve the trust-in the United States court for the east ern district of Massachusetts-but the same testimony will doubtless be pre- sented, with a similar result.
 "5. Can you make an intelligentes es- innate of the comparative cost to the country of the taxation imposed by the Mckinley and German bills:"
 The average duty on merchandise imported under the Mckinley law dur ing the last fiscal year was equal to 49.5s per cent of it's value. The aver age rate imposed by the German bill, as passed, is equal to 3S.6S per cent, which shows an average apparent re- duction of l0.90 per cent of customs taxation by the enactment of the new law, or net reduction of about "A per cent in the rates of duties proposed. But it is impossible to estimate how much money will really be saved to the people by this decrease in taxa tion. Political economists argue that a reduction in duties is invariably fol- lowed by an increase in importations, which is equal to saying that the same amount of money will be spent for foreign goods regardless of their cost, or the duty imposed upon them. The people will have to pay 2cents a pound more for sugar, but they should be able to obtain many imported goods and certain luxuries at considerably lower price, It is claimed, too, that the public will be relieved to a consi- derable extent from the taxes now levied on clothing. This may be true as to clothing made from imported fabrics, but when man can purchase a good suit of woolen clothing, cut in fashionable style and well made, for sl0 it is difficult to see how the remov- al of the duty on raw wool and the re duction of the tariff on imported wool en fabrics will materially affect the price of homemade clothes. The city people who wear tailor-made clothing of foreign material may get a reduc' tion, but the percentage will not be great. It will probably be less than s2 on a suit of ordinary clothing.
 An English manufacturer of mems clothing, speaking of the reduction oi the duty, stated few days ago to g Washington tailor that the effect Of the new rates would be to have lit tie better quality of cloth made by the English manufacturers, to the extent of one-half of the reduction of duty but the other half they proposed tC keep themselves as profit, inasmucf as they have not made any profit or their American business for the last three years. For instance, the aver age value of woolen and worsteC clothes costing 10 cents pound, sucl as are used for mems wear, imported during the last fiscal year, was S9 cent pound. The present duty is A cent pound and 50 per cent ad yalorem The duty under the senate bill is 5 per cent ad yalorem. Taking fou pounds as the average weight of sui of winter dlothes, the saving would bt Sl. 76 on suit. It is scarcely probabl, f that fashionable tailor would thinl
 it worth while to reduce his price un der these conditions, The importan factor in the cost of tailor-made clothe is the wages paid to first-class journey men tailors here as compared wit European cities, and so long as wage | are kept up to the present high figure ! clothing made to order will continu B to be expensive, no matter what ma 5 be the rate of duty on the cloth.