Evening star., 1897-05-12
The Government Will Have Less
Revenue From the Tariff.
STATEMENT BY MR.. DINGLEY
Comparing Rates of Amended and
Original Bill.
ANTICIPATED IMPORTATIONS


Rouse committee on ways and means, has
made the following statement TO the A.
sociated Press as to the probable additional
revenue that would be yielded the first
year by the Senate committee tariff hiu.
III must he borne in mind" he said. .tha.
there Is no Senate bill as vet What IS inn
properly spoken of as the Senate bill is the
r1ouse Dill reported TO the Senate by the
"hahce committee, with certain amend
ments recommended. What the Senate hin
VIII be when that body shall have made IL
no one can yet say
nile the amendments of the House hill
recommended by the Senate finance com
mittee tabout Too) appear to he multitudin-
Gus. yet about 200 of them are mainly
verbal-such as amending the smelling or
asbestus' by substituting % for .u'-leav-
Ing about 800 which change rates This il
about the number of amendments to tho
Mchfnley bill adopted by the Senate In
lSfo, and of these remaining 500 a large
proportion involve nothing of conseauer,ce
There are, however, many amendments
which are important not only on revenue
but other grounds. 1 do not propose now
to speak of these proposed amendments
except as they affect revenue.
As Producing Revenues.
The effect of these amendments as a
whole-outside OF the amendments impos-
ing duty on tea for two years and a half
and the amendment increasing the internal
revenue tax on beer A cents per barrel
for the same period, and the increase pro-
posed on tobacco and cigarettes-is to pro-
duce less revenue than would be yielded
by the House bill. For example the amend
ments returning to the free list argols
tain acids and oils, paintings and statuary
for private use and reducing the duties
On liquors. tobacco, precious stones, etc,
fhnn DnNRld l.. sal.f .fafF Fa.al
by the duty on tea. The amendments re-
ducing the duty on clothing wool and in
creasing the duty on carpet wool would
also diminish the revenue. The amendment
increasing the duty on opium from So 10 81
per pound would not increase the revenue
In the judgment of the administrators of
the law. who informed the ways and means
committee that Sc was the point which
would yield the largest revenue. The pro-
posed duty on hides and few other
amendments would increase the revenue
somewhat.
Effect of the Sugar Schedule.
"Of course the estimate of an Increased
revenue from sugar, through an abroga-
ton of the treaty with Hawaii. has moth
ing to do with the tariff legislation. for his
could be done as well by accepting the
House sugar schedule the sugar sched-
ule proposed. The ways and means COM
mittee did not even consider the qucston OF
abrogating this treaty, because they took IL
for granted that If * was considered de-
sirable to ahrogate mis- or any other treaty.
f. would be done in the saskatchewan
manner provided by The treaty itself. The
fact that the Senate finance committee
recommended an ad valorem duty on sugar
apparently little higher than the specific
duty of the HOUSE bill, does not insure
larger revenue, pas. experience with ad
valorem duties has shown. In our judg-
ment the revenue from sugar under the
House sugar schedule (setting aside the
of ahrOf-a ting the Hawaiian .rp1fyl
would be larger than under the Senate
amendments.
THE proposed temporary duty on tea
would increase the revenue. although not
so much the first year as estimated. because
of the large stocks on hand and the short
stocks that would be maintained with the
knowledge that tea would soon go back to
the free list, and the proposed increase of
internal revenue taxes would also increase
the revenue to the extent estimated. But
the other amendments would a whole
diminish rather than increase the revenue.
Mr.. Dinglcy Defends His Committee.
Some criticism has been made on the
estimates of the ways and means commit
tee as to the revenue that would be pro-
duced by the bill as IL passed the House.
These criticisms overlooked the fact that
the ways and means committee estimates
OF the revenue that might be expected the
first year were based on the assumption
that the bill would become Law on or be-
fore May 1. The committee in their report
expressly said that while there could be no
question that the House bill would in any
event yield sufficient revenue to carry on
the government and leave the surplus the
second year of its operations-which nobody
even now contradcts-and probably sufl-
cient for the first year if it could be prompt
ly put in force, yet if there should be a de-
lay in its ena ctment beyond May !. antci-
patory importations would inevitably cause
serious inroad in the prospective revenue
for the first year. Here is what the COM
mittee said on this point:
The Committees Statement.
"'what the actual revenue would prove
to be in the year following the enactment
of the proposed measure into law is, OF
course. dependent upon contingencies which
cannot be forecasted with any approach TO
certainty, and will therefore be subject to
varying estimates. Undoubtedly the con-
tingency which would exert the largest in
fiuence in diminishing the estimated rev.
enue would be delay in the passage of the
proposed bill, in consequence of which there
would be large importations of such articles
as wool, wooden goods. sugar. ETC., ON which
1t is proposed to increase the duty.
Effect Of Delay.
IF the ways and means committee had
supposed when they made this statement,
March Is, that the bill would be delayed as
long as now seems probable. II would have
said that sucn deiay would iheNitapiy re-
suit in largely nullifyinG the revenue quail
ties of the bill the first year, through inn
rortations of wool. sugar and other articles
before the new duties should go into force,
urless such a retroactive provision as was
placed in the bill by the House could be
maintained. The anticipatory importations
of such articles already arrived and on
their way exceed the fears of the ways and
means committee when IL urged prompt
action by the House to prevent such a loss
of revenue for the first Year."