The times., 1897-07-18
TARIFF CONFEREEs AGREE
Continued from First Page.


cf il as the duty has been retained.
In the several hundred amendments 70
minor paragraphs the Senate has been sue
cessrul. In orier to get its rates Oh Woul
and sugar the House yielded hight and left
in these things and there is suspicion
an the minds OF some OF the members that
Mr. AIGrich held out as long as he did
solely ior the purpose of forcing these
concessions. The chemical and sundries
schedules, r0l as they are of petty fiands,
have been retained by the Senate. Mr.
Jones. Of course, kept the exorbitant duty
on borax intact.
Mcssrs Allison and Plat and two mem-
bers OF the House committee locked them
selves up at the Capitol last night To 80
over the bill In detail and prepare the
report for the printer. There Will be an
other meeting OF the committee today, for
the purpose OF inspecting the copy so
that tie printed copy of the report may
be laId before the committee tomorrow
Mr.. Dineley, when asked last evening
what amount of revenue the bill would
yield, was unable to say He said that
no one could tell how much the anuclpa-
tory importatious would interfere with the
revenues during the first year of its opera
ton. After that, however, he believed
the bill would yield annually from S2OU,-
100000 to 100000.
Whas amount of time viii be allowed
for debate in the House has not been de-
cided. bur the House conferees are in-
clined TO the belief that one day VIII DC
sufficient. 1t will he impossible for the
democrats to interfere with the program
through filibustenng tactics. No rule
limiting debate can be invoked in the
Senate. and the time to be consumed
Cepcnis entirely upon the temper OF the
| opposition. There is q very rgly feeling
ahroad over the action of the committee
in voting cotton ties, etc, TO the dutable
list and in increasing the duty on white
nine TO So. Senators Jones and White
both expect considerable discussion, but
would not commit themselves on any
fixed period.
Some OF the Democrats, including White
and Morgan. threaten all sorts of resistance
to the bin If Messrs. Qnay, ThuTston,
Warren, and their followers in this Con
test persist in staving off a vote on the
Harris resolution, which was unanimously
reported from the Committee on Pacific
railroads.
the Capitol yesterday notifying Repuoli-
cans in the House and Senate to be in their
seats Monday, ready for the clash tnat is
TO come when the effort is made to rush
the bin through.
Speaker Reed was III a high state OF
eXullatlon de was frequently congratu-
lated on the House victory and mOdeStly
accepted 1t as a personal triumph.
Quite a history attaches TO paragraph
| SO regarding watches, watch movements.
etc For many years watches have been
dutiable at 20 per cent, and during that
| period enormous watch factories have
| been devel nped, resulting in the American
watch, which is now worldwide in repu-
tation and use. It remained for The
| present party in power to change this
simple ad valorem rate 10 one which
the aPpraistng department Of the treasury
| AZ New York said was worse than Z
13, 4, 8 puzzle.
Under the House provision s very elab-
orate schedule of specific duties basel
upon the number OF jewels in a watch, W as
adopted, with an additional ad valoreiu
duty Of 25 per cent In some cases this
amounted TO an ad yalorem rate OF 100 pei
| cent. During the debate in the House Il
was discovered that watches, complete. had
not been provided for, and, in that form, :!
the bill was unchanged would take only 4C
per cent, thus completely nullifying th'
shrewd Yankee movement of this enormous
duty on movements. Thinking TO correct
| this, Mr.. Hopkins Of Illinois, had the word
watches inserted in the paragraph. ThC
character Of the amendment was unnoticet
at the time by the Watch Trust and was not
discovered until the bill had passed th'
House and had been for some time in tn,
hands of the Senate committee.
Th,' Watch Trust was then thunderstrucl
upon discovering the insertion OF thi
word, which nullified the effect of til
whole paragraph putting excessive dutie
Oh movements, for in order to escape TIL
duty the importer had only TO bring III
movements over in the cases as the CON
| pleted article.
II is stated that through the active an
very jealous efforts of Mr.. Sherman IIoal
formerly member from Massachusetts!
the Senate committee tried to rectify thi
blunder by striking out the word watches
ami providing that movements whether in
| ported in cases or not should pay this enOl
nous compound duty.
Senate and is now in conference. 1t i
now discovered that 10y the present wore
ing Of the bill, in order to determine Tn
duty to lie paid by a watch Dlet'
the appraiser must first scertain the i IN
ber of jewels it contains, and thus a
rive at the specific duty, which is base
upon the number of Jewels; he must he
determine the value of the movement
and assess an ad valorem duty Of 25 pc
cent, and must then determine the valu
of the rest Of the watch and asses SIS 4 dut
OF 40 per cent on that. This is case ,
compound duty worse compounded.
or course, it viii be readily understood
that the trust intended to put compoun,
| duty on the movements, and an dd valorcI
duty OF 25 per cent to cover the duty ol
the whole watch. 1t is understood th
committee has decided to recommend {
the two houses that the whole paragraph
be struck out, and the old provision OF 2
per cent straight be restored, so that tn
customs authorities can reach some definit
: idea Of what duty it is the bill seeks
impose.
1t was reported last night on good a.
thority that the conferees had come
an agreement through Which they woul
perpetrate smother Of those many sms
, frauds that permeate this bill from begin
ming to end. So frequent are these In
dents In corning to light that the susI
, cion appears to be warranted that the b
is rotten to the core. Naphthazarin blac
is to be put back on the free list, and b
hind 1t oil is an interesting story. Tt
black is patented article pure and sir
pie, owned absolutely by a German fir
10 mo 1,e q KI1ttroEa "