Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1897-03-27
Cutlery and the DingIey Tariff.


rd,tor NJ the New York Evening Post:
sir.-The pen and pocket-knife sched-
ule Of the Dingley tariff bill provides as
follows:
/. All pocket-knives costing not more
than 40 cents per dozen, 10 cents per
dozen. and Il per cent. ad valorem.
2. All pocket-knives costing more than
10 cents per dozen, If with one blade %
cents per dozen, and 20 per cent. ad va
loren. II with two blades, 81 per dozen
and 20 per cent ad valorem; and II with
pearl or shell handle, 30 cents per dozen
extra. II with three blades, Sl.0 per
dozen and 20 per cent. ad valorem. III
with four blades. 81 per dozen and ~
per cent. ad valorem; and on three ana
four-blade knives, II with pearl or shell
handle, 70 cents per dozen extra.
The Mckinley bill provided:
Pocket-knives valued at 80 cents per
dozen and under. u cents per dozen ana
30 per cent. ad valorem.
Pocket-knives valued at more than 90
cents per dozen, and not more than SLoo
per dozen. 80 cents per dozen and 90 per
cent. adj valorem.
Pocket-knives valued at $50 per dozen.
and not more than 50. 81 per dozen and
80 per cent. ad valorem.
Pocket-knives valued at 50 per dozen,
90 per cent ad valorem.
The Wilson bill provided:
Knives valued at less than 30 cents per
dozen, % per cent. ad valoren.
Knives valued at more than 80 cents
per dozen. and not more than 90 cents.
10 cents per dozen and % per cent. ad
valorem.
Knives valued at 80 cents per dozen,
and not more than 81. % cents per dozen
and % per cent ad valorem.
Knives valued at more than 81, and not
more than $50. 10 cents per dozen and
% per cent. ad valorem.
Knives valued at more than $50. and
not more than 50. Is cents per dozen and
% per cent ad valorem.
Knives valued at more than 50 per
dozen, so per cent. ad valorem.
The duty prior to the Mckinley bill was
30 per cent ad va.lorem on all pocket
knives.
To the unnitiated the Dingley rates
read innocently enough. Those familiar
with the cutlery business and with the
equivalent ad valorem duties, which this
new combination of specific and ad va
loren rates means, know that it means
virtual prOnlDluon on over lWO-tnlIuS Ol
all the pocket-knives that are now i'm
ported. The official statistics show that
the average rate of duty paid on pen
and pocket-knives under the Mckinley
bill I'm the fiscal year Of 1894 was 1924
per cent. Under the Wilson bill for the
fiscal year of 1895 the average rate was
5745 per cent For 1896. IL was 5l.H per
cent.
The statistics do not divide the inn
portations into the clauses provided by
the Dingley schedule. and no absolutely
accurate estimate can be made of what
the average rate would have been under
the same for any fiscal year. con-
servative estimate based on the actual
importations of one of the largest i'm
porters shows that the average ad va
loren rate under the new schedule on
the importations for 1896 would have
been over 40 per cent.
The gist of the matter and the utter
shamelessness of the proposed schedule
Is shown by it's effect on the knives that
are sold at retail at the popular prices
of Is cents and so cents each. These are
knives that cost abroad from 20 cents
to $50 per dozen, and range from the
ordinary boys two-blade jack-knife and
ladies' pen-knife. TO the three and four
blade pocket-knife. These knives may
not be of a very superior quality. but
they evidently serve the purpose for
which they are purchased. The proposed
schedule would result on this class of
goods as follows:
McKin- Will Ding
ley son ley