New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1896-04-16
THE TARIFF or 1890.

The statement that the Mckinley tariff was
the lowest the Republican party had ever
framed is disputed by The Ncw-York Times
which prints as the average nd valorem rates
Of duty" not the official figures which appear
on page 2iS II the last Statistical Abstract
issued 10y The Treasury Department, but the
rates on duiiablc articles only. According 10
this kind OF reasoning. II Congress should cut
of all duties on imports except single duty OF
10 per cent on silk handkerchiefs. ii would raise
the tariff and impose higher average rates of
duty because although the rate on silk hand
kcrchicfs Is now 80 per cent, the average rate
on all duiabe articles Is about ~ per cent. The
official statement proves that the average rate
of duties TO imports In the three full years I'M
der which the last Republican tariff was In
operation was only 81 81 per cent, and 1t had
never been so low IN any one year since 1868
This use of the rate on dutiable articles only,
II II were the rate on all imports, has been
a favorite trick OF tariff reformers for many
years. Ever since the Republicans began. short
" after the War. TO lower the tariff by placing
more articles on the free list year by year, the
Democrats have taken this mode OF deluding
the ignorant with the notion that the Repub-
leans were actually raising the tariff all the
time In 1869 the value Of free Imports was
only 81 .GJ2,iI2 or 50 per cent Of the total i'm
ports The rcvisions Of 1870 and 1872 raised the
free imports TO SlTS390 706 or 260 per cent OF
the whole. and eight subsequent acts before
1879 raised the free imports to $40 721 0S1, or
29.42 per cent Of the whole imports The act Of
1881 made further reductions so that In the
fiscal year 1890, which ended three months be-
fore the Mckinley tariff went into effect the
free imports were S2G6, l03. 04S, or 430 per cent
OF the whole But that act raised the free i'm
ports to H5S,O74,GO4 in 1892, or 5630 per cent
Of the entire Imports In the face Of such enor-
nous reductions Democrats have for thirty years
been steadily persisting In the falsehoOd that
Republicans were rnlsing the tariff. and have
violently denounced every act as a real advance
of duties, no matter how largely the rate Of duty
on all imports was thereby reduced. In 1872 the
duties collected were $2l2 610, 10J, and they were
not so large as S200,000,0O0 in any fiscal year
wholly under the Mckinley tariff, although In
the twenty years the aggregate Of imports had
about doubled
Neither Is "rhe Times" observant OF the facts
in attempting to dispute the statement that, al
though pedlers went all over the land In 1901
asserting that the tariff made tin cups and din
ner pals dcarer actual purchases at many
establishments proved that the selling price
was exactly the same that it had been before
1.-The duties were raised" Instead Of retail
prices. the actual prices to purchasers for their
own use which are obviously in question, THE
Times" proceeds to quote a statement Of whole
sale prices at certain cities. But the full investi
cation Of the matter made in 1892, Of which all
the details were published by The Tribune
showed that the retail dealers made profits
ranging from 100 to 900 per cent on such art
cles as they had before the duties were raised
and that they neither cared nor tried. nor In the
face Of local competition would have been able
to advance their retail prices correspondingy
with the trihing difference In wholesale cost
Thus the wholesale cost of tin cups, for instance
was only advanced from LA cents in 1883 to
1.91 cents for each cup in 1S02-about one-sIxth
OF a cent-but the selling price to consumers
varied at each Of these dates from cents each
to IS cents each at different stores In New-York
for the very same articles, and had at the differ
ent dates remained without change for years