New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-12-15
THE COMING TARIFF.

II seems settled that the work OF preparing
4 new tariff Will begin ~ once. ana VIII po
pushcd with intent TO have complete ana 'hor-
ouylly maturcd bill ready for action a. soon as
the new Congress meets in extra session con-
c.rnlno IFS nature the common statement Is thnt
II will he a moderate or conservative measure
fromeJ with the intent Of so satisfying public
opinion and industrial needs that 1t may stand
for long period without general revision. h"t
# must not be expected that such measure
will be the less vigorously opposed by the free
Traders The thing they most fear Is tarin
which will prove acceptable that they cahno'
successfully assail 1t. Moreover WHAT seems
moderate 10 one man Is sure TO appear nhh'on
crate 10 another Thus there were people VINO
asserted il was moderate and reasonable 'hihg
,o nut wool and lumber OH the free list, and 10
cut off more than half The duties on woollch
goods.
There are some general principles which VIII
certainly govern the framing OF any hepupncan
tariff The first and most important or These
is that defrauding the Government ana evadihS
protective duties shall be- avoided by imposing
specific in place Of al valorem duties "A far aS
possible This ought not 10 be considered cH-
clusiyely Republican doctrine. President 'leve-
lands first Secretary of the Treasury, Danlel
Manning before he had been one month III
office. began on March 10. 1885. the elaborate
Investigation Of frauds in invoices and appraise-
mems Of which a report was made TO Congress
an December I, filling a separate volume OF $40
pages. and the evidence conclusivcly sustained
the Judgment Of the Secretary that SPECIFIC d'-
ties should be employed as far as possible. His
In LOT 10 of l
1856. TO the chairman of the Committee OF Ways
and Means pointed ont that OF articles subject
to high adj valorem duties the greater part were
| las rule undervalued.' There has not been any
possibility Of denial that the al vaorem duties,
| through the system Of consignmcnts TO mere
| agents in ms country. were to great extern
| evaded Yet the present tariff, rs If framed with
| deliberate intent to deprive the Government or
as much revenue and home industries OF as much
defence as possible. substituted al valorcm for
specitic duties in the woolltn and other impor
tont schedules The result as stated by experts
| IL TINT the Government is now robbed by under
valuations of nearly or quite S3O,OOO.oU yearly
which would he paid under the present act on
goods imported il the duties could be honestly
collected as they cannot he owing 10 their al
vaorem character.
1t is probable that experience under this act
and the Mckinley law will lead Congress to go
further in applying specific instead of al
valorem duties than in any previous enactment.
Even in the Mckinley law some classes Of
goods were left subject to al valorein duties
ONLY or 10 mixed duties Of which the al
yalorem part was sufficiently important to
make extensive frauds profitable TO importers
| or forotpu ,aniffa cturers Tho difficulty of
framing specific duties only for some classes OF
goods-such as sllks-has been recognized, and
yet experts have declared that 1t Is not insuper-