The evening tribune. (Pawtucket, R.I.) 189?-190?, 1897-05-12
Views Of Congressman on the Amend
ments to His Tariff Bill.
4 A
House Measure Would Produce
More Revenue.
About Five Hundred Changes Are Suggested BY
Senate Committee.

mittees amendments to the new tariff
bill. He said
1T must be borne in mind that there
k no senate bill as yet. What is i'm
properly spoken of as the senate bill Is
the house bill reported to the senate by
the finance committee, with certain
amendments recommended. What the
senate bill will be when that body shall
have made Ii no one can as yet say.
While the amendments of the house
bill, recommended by the senate finance
committee tabout 700). appear to be
multitudinous, yet about 200 of them are
mainly verbal-such as amending the
spelling Of 'asbestus' by substituting %
for 'u,| leaving about 500 which change
rates. This is about the number OF
smendments to the Mckinley bill adopt
Cd by the senate in 1880. and of these re-
naming 500 a large proportion involve
nothing of consequence, There are.
however, many amendments which are
important, not only on revenue, but other
grounds. / do not propose now to speak
of these proposed amendments except as
they effect revenue.
'@The effect of these amendments as q
whoie-outside of the amendment I'm
posing aduty on tea for 211 years and the
amendment increasing the internal rev.
enae tax on beer ~ cents per barrel for
the same period and the increase pro-
sosed on tobacco and cigarets-is to pro-
duce less revenue than would be yielded
by the house. For example. the amend
suents relegatinE to the free list GER
tain ACIDS, and oils. paintings and statu-
ary for private use, and reducing the
duties on liquors, tobacco. precious
stones, sfc.. lose more revenue than
could b obtained by the duty on tea.
Wool Rates Reduced.
The amendments reducing the duty
sl clothing. wool, and increasing the
duty on carpet, wool. would also d.
aninish the revenue. The amendment in
creasing the duty or opium from 50 to IS
per pound would not increase the rev.
enue In the judgment Of the admins
traforp OF the law, who informed the
ways and means committee that $6 was
the point which would yield the largest
gereSue. The proposed duty on hides
nd & few other amendments would in
crease the revenue somewhat.
''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
THIS could be done an well by accepting
ahe house sugar schedule as the sugs~
schedule proposed. The ways and
means committee did not even consider
the question OF abrogating this treaty,
because they took II for granted that IL
IL was considered desirable to abroga,e
this or any other treaty il would be done
IN the straightforward manner provided
by the treaty itself. The fact that the
senate finance committee recommend an
ad valorem duty on sugar apparently
a little higher than the specific duty Of
the house bill does not insure a larger
revenue, as past experience with ad
yalorem duties has shown. In our
judgment the revenue from sugar under
the house schedule (setting aside the
question Of abrosating the Hawaiian
treaty. would be larger than under the
senate amendments.
'"rhe 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 main
tained with the knowledge that tea
the proposed increase of internal rev.
enue taxes would also increase the rev.
enue TO the extent estimated. But the
other proposed amendments would, as
whole. diminish rather than increase
the revenue.
Reply to Criticisms.
'Some criticism has been made on the
estimates OF the ways and means COM
mittee as TO the revenue that would be
produced by the tariff bill as it passed
tbe house. These criticisms overlook the
feet 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
q law before May /. The committee. in
their report, expressly said that while
there could be no question that the
house bill would in any event yield suf-
ficient revenue to carry on the govern
ment and leave surplus the second
year of it's operation-which nobody even
now contradicts-and probably sufficient
for the first year IL II could be promptly
put In force. yet If there should be a de-
lay i'm it's enactment beyond May /, an
ticipatory importations would inevit-
ably cause a serious inroad i'm the pros
pective revenue for the first year.
Here is what the committee said on
this point:
What the actual revenue would prove
20 be in the year following the enactment
o. the proposed measure into law Is, of
course, dependent upon the contingen-
cies which cannot be forecasted with any
approach to certainty and therefore be
subject to varying estimates. Undoubt-
fdly the contingency which would ex-
rrt the largest influence in diminishing
The estimated revenue would be delay
I'm the passage of the proposed bill, in
consequence of which there would be
large importations of such articles as
wool. woolen goods, sugar. etc. on which
it Ia proposed 10 Increase the duty.
III the ways and means committee had
supposed when they made this state
ment, March lS. that the bill would be
delayed as long az now seems probable
they would have said that such delay
would inevitably result In largely nulli-
Tying the revenue qualities OF the bill
the first year through importations OF
wool, sugar and other articles before the
eew duties should go into force unless
such n retroactive provision as was
placed In the bill by the house could be
maintained. The anticipatory impor-
80 ~ t,Io oil I.,