The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1897-08-18
That 10 Per Cent Discrimination.

that of England.\ The war itself was
an incalculable injury, one from
which we have never recovered, but
apart from that we were unaccount-
ably slow in accepting the transition
from wood 10 iron, from wind to
steam. The getting back of our
commerce on the high seas has been
extremely tardy. For long time
our people were too busy pushing
interstate commerce by rail to pay
much attention TO international COM
merce by water. But it looks now
as if the policy of restoration had
been squarely adopted and a new
commercial era was about to dawn
or the United States, and all through
an amendment 10 the original Ding.
lev bill, which seems TO have escap-
ed attention until after the bill had
become a law.
One of the last sections of the bill,
found on the l60th page of the Off
cial copy of the bill as it went to the
senate, is numbered 16 in that bill,
but appears in the law itself as Sec
ton %. They agree perfectly, l6
and %, except that five words in IL,
namely, "or any act of congress" are
not found in section %. Their omis-
sion may pave the way for revolu-
ton in ocean traffic. Section 16
reads thus:
Sec. 10. That a discriminating
duty of 10 per centum ad valorem,
in addition to the duties imposed by
law, shall be levied, collected and
paid on all goods, wares or merchan-
disc which shall be imported in YES
sells not of the United States; but
this discriminating duty shall not
apply to goods, wares and merchan-
disc which shall be imported in YES
sells not of the United States, entitled
by treaty Tor any act of congress) to
be entered in the ports of the United
States on payment of the same duties
as shall then be paid on goods, wares
and merchandise imported in vessels
of the United States.
To the senate belongs the credit Of
striking out the FIVE words, the sig
nifcance of which is set forth by Mr..
Alexander b. Smith, editor of the
Seaboard. The character of Mr..
Smiths paper is evident from its
name, and he ought surely to know
what he is talking about. He says
that there is only one treaty between
the United States and England on
the subject of discriminating duties,
and that applies only to British
goods and products. That duty was
first negotiated in 1915, and made
indefinite in time in 1927, since
which time it has undergone no
change. But in 1S49, according to
Mr.. Smith, congress passed the act
referred to in the original Dingley
bill as "any act of congress-" The
secretary of the treasury at that time
was that eminent Philadelphia law
yer, William NJ. Meredith, and on
Oct. 10, 1849, he issued circular to
the several custom-house officers in
structing them that from Jan. /,
1850, British vessels would be allow
ed to enter our ports "with cargoes
of the growth, manufacture or pro-
duction of any part of the world,
on the same terms as the vessels of
the United States. Subsequent tar
ifs have taken cognizance of that
act of 1S49, quite as matter of
course. No doubt Mr.. Dingley fol-
lowed the custom without any
thought, quite as a matter of course,
but Mr.. Aldrich, or some other men,
Der of the senate committee on
finance, just drew his pen through
those five little words, and all the
rest concurred.
1t does not appear that anybody,
at any stage of the proceedings, made
any attempt to restore cor any act
of congress-" At any rate, the law,
as it actually stands, does not con-
tain those words. The numerical
change in the section is of no conse-
quence, but the elimination of these
few words may, as we have already
said, in effect be the beginning of a
new commercial era in the history of
the United States. BY this one lit
tie change, the object aimed at in
the bin on the subject of discriminate
inc duties introduced NV Sana+or