The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-06-28
Gossip ait
the Capital
Special Correspondence of The Tribune.

special correspondence or Ihe Tribune.
Washington, June q.
Will the protests so called, of for
eign nations against the tariff which the
United States is about to establish be
seriously considered by congress in the
final shaping of the tariff bill, or if not
considered will the enactment of the tar
iff law be followed by any adverse re-
suits in our commercial or other rela-
tiOns with those countries? This is a
question which members of congress are
asking each other seriously just now and
are also asking government officials
whose records are reEed upon to show
the history of former occasions of this
sort and their result. The opponents of
the bill are plUming themselves upon the
fact that sundry countries have either
by diplomatic utterances or discussions
in their legislative bodies and the press,
eXpres sed dissatisfaction with certain
features of the proposed tariff law ann
a disposition to make protest Of some sort
against it. While this Is true as regards
a number of countries, it does not give
the experienced tariff students or legis-
lators the slightest uneasiness. 1t is no
new thing to them. Similar protests have
come to them and to the government
time after time in former considerations
of tariff measures and they have been
politely received, as these are, carefully
"filCd' in a convenient pigeon hole and
never heard from afterward either in
the framing of the bill or in their bearing
upon future commercial relations of these
countries with the United States.
o
This custom of filing protests against
pending tariff measures is altogether a
one-sided one as relates to the United
States and the I atcns which have made
these protests. Tariff laws come and go
with other nations and the United States
protective system grows apace in Europe
and elsewhere and such nations as
France, Germany, Austria-Hungary,
Spain and Others which are now scolding
about our proposed new tariff, increase
year by year or from period TO period
their protective tariff rates, but in all
these cases the world over the United
States has never entered a protest of
general character against anybody's tar
in laws or proposed legislation. There
have been occasions in which the atten-
ton of foreign VCrnments has been
called to certain of their laws or regula-
tions which seemed to bear unjustly upon
a single industry in the United States or
discriminate against productions of this
country as compared with those of other
countries, but there is no case on record
i'm which the government of the United
States has offered any protest to a gem
eral tariff measure proposed by other
countries which would bear with equal
weight upon all nations sending their
produce to the markets of these countries.
That any nation should assume to offer
a protest against a proposed law by an
other nation which law is to bear with
equal weight upon the productions of all
nations, article by article, seems rather
absurd, but that these protests should
come from nations which themselves have
a high and steadily growing protective
tariff, adds very much TO the interest,
not to say to the impertinence, of such
a proposition. 1t seems a little curious,
for instance, to observe that Italy, which
collects about five million dollars a year
tariff on American petroleum and equal
ly high rates on many other articles,
should be offering a protest, either off,
cially or otherwise, against tariff leg
islation by the United States. Some peo-
PIE might suppose 1t a trlfle inappropriate
for Germany, which collects a tariff Of
S2S5.GO per hundred kilcs on certain grades
of clothing and 200 marks per hundred
kilos on other articles of a similar char
acter, TO assume to offer a protest against
tariff measures of any other country.
There might seem a slight improperly
in a protest from France, which places
duty of S2S950 per hundred kilos on
smoking tobacco and 5000 francs per hun
dred kilos on cigars or cigarettes. So
cism upon a protest from Spain, which
in her tariff places trifling duty of 1900
pesetas on every four-seated coach or
calash imported and 97j pesetas on each
omnibus and diligence. But there Is "A
practical business side TO this question
of protests against our tariff and es-
pecialiy as TO the probability of any ac-
tion following these protests. 1t is one
think to make a blum, while a measure
of this character is under consideration,
and quite another to "call' the tarin
and commercial hand Of such a nation
as the United States. especially under
| the circumstances existing with those
countries which are reported as limiting
at retaliation In case their protests are
not regarded.
Among the countries which are reported
as Offering objections, either officially,
unoffcially or in public prints in REFER
| ence 10 our new tariff, are Japan, China,
Austrla-Hungary, Germany, France,
Italy, Turkey Greece. Spain, Neither
lands, Switzerland, Argentine, Mexico.
Canada and possibly Brazil Less than
half this number have filed pro-
| tests at the state department, hut there