The morning news., 1894-07-20
The Tariff Disagreement.

The House yesterday refused to make
any concessions 10 the Senate in the mat
ter of the tariff bill, and instructed its
! conferees 10 insist upon the bill that was
/ passed by the House. 1t was evident,
Z however. that the House is willing to
make some concessions, but not such con
! cessions as would virtually change the
/ bill from tariff reform measure to one
! differing from the Mckinley tariff only
/ in that it reduced duties.
The great differences between the two
! houses are in respect to the sugar, coal
and iron ore schedules. There are differ
ences in respect 10 other schedules, but
the foregoing are the chief ones. The
bill as it passed the House put sugar,
coal and iron ore on the free list. The
Senate amended the bill, making all of
these articles dutiable.
1t is evident from what took place in
the House yesterday, and from the Pres
idents letter to Chairman Wilson, of the
ways and means committee, that the
House is ready TO put duty on sugar,
because a revenue from sugar is needed,
and also because it would be con
spicuously unjust to the sugar planters TO
put sugar on the free list, at the same
time depriving them of the bounty they
now enjoy. What the House particularly
objects to in respect to sugar is the grant
ing of any special favor TO the sugar
trust. BY the Senate amendment the
trust Is given one-eighth of a cent pro-
lection on refined sugar. 1t has also
some advantage in the ad valorem duty
on raw sugar.
Is the one-eighth Of a cent too much?
The House doesn't seem to know whether
1t is or not. AS a matter of fact it doesn't
seem to know anything about the subject
at all. Would it not be an easy matter
to find out just what the benefit of the
duty the Senate put on raw and refined
sugar is to the trust What seems to be
wanted is accurate information. Without
that there can be no intelligent legisla-
tion. Let the country know how great,
in dollars and cents, the benefit is which
the Senate amendment gives to the trust.
If it is greater than it should be, cut it
down. If it isn't, let it stand. The asser-
tion that the sugar duty provided in the
Senate amendment is all outrageous con-
cession to the sugar trust amounts to
nothing. Facts are wanted, not declama-
tion.
Some Of those who are apparently the
bitterest opponents of the sugar trust are
saying that it is better to have the bill de-
feated than to make any concession to the
trust, however slight. Talk like that
justihes suspicion that these alleged
bitter opponents are really friendly to
the trust Nothing would please the
trust better than to have the tariff bill
defeated. Under the Mckinley tariff it
enjoys protection to the extent of one-half
a cent pound. The friends OF the trust,
therefore, are among those who want the
tariff bill defeated.
AS to coal and iron ore, they ought to
be put on the free list Unless manu-
facturers are given cheap raw materials
they cannot compete with the manufac-
turers of other countries. With our
abundant supplies of coal and iron ore, we
ought to be able to put these articles upon
the market at price that would make
foreign competition impossible.
Both the House and the Senate must
make concessions, and the sooner the fact
is admitted the better it will be for the
whole country.