Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1897-12-09

The new Congress will lind that tariff
law which 1t placed upon the statute
books in the extra session called last
spring has done about all that could have
been expected Of IL during the four months
OF its operation. 1t was not thought by
it's trainers that its first four months
would be much Of an indication Of its ca
pacity as a revenue raiser, - conditions
were 10 broken up by the heavy importa-
tons just previous to its enactment. OF
course, importations almost ceased imme-
diately after its passage, but 1t Is get
ting on its feet" as it were, sooner than
was expected by most people. ~tws'
During the five months which preceded
the enactment OF the new law, the impor-
tations were about 800, 000, 900 in excess
OF the normal importations for that PEE
riod, and the revenue for the first time
in the history of the Wilson law was suf-
ficient to meet the running expenses OF
the Government, averaging during these
five months $36,000,0O0 per month,
against an average of $25, 100000 per
month during the other thirty months Of
the history of that act. 1t was not sur
prising, then, that the men who framed
the Dingley law left Washington, after
placing it upon the statute books, in the
expectation that its earnings in the first
few months OF its existence would be ex-
treniely light.
In the four months in which the law
will then have been in operation. it's earn
ings will surpass by several millions the
earnings of the Wilson law in the CORE
spending four months of its history, and
have at the same time shown n recupera-
-. al rlx lint
when the normal conditions return 1t will
be ample as revenue producer. Start
ing it's work with a month in which its
importations were barely half what they
had averaged during the closing months of
the Wilson law, it's earnings for that
month, August, were $10.023,614, increas-
ing nearly three million dollars in the
month which followed and again in the
third month, making nearly as large an In
crease, while the earnings of the present
month will reach round $2o,OOO,OOO.
And this has occurred with no revenue of
consequence from sugar, wool or many
other revenue producing articles with
which the warehouses of the country had
been filled to OVERLOOKING just prior to the
enactment of the law. Treasury officials
express the belief that the revenue from
sugar alone, after the stock now in the
country is exhausted, will reach $5,OOO,-
900 per month, while that from other
sources must increase sufficiently to add
from $3,000,000 to $5,000000 per month.
1t is apparent from the work which the
new law has performed under the adverse
conditions which have surrounded il that
members of Congress, when they come to-
gether week hence, may feel well salts
fled with the work which they performed
in the special session in placing this act
upon the statute books, and may conf
IDENTITY expect that it WILL within n very
short time, prove ample in its revenue pro-
ducing power. 1t is expected that the inn
portations of sugar will be resumed early
in the coming year, probably in January,
and that there will be a marked increase
in other lines of impOrtations, so that
there is good reason to expect that the
receipts will average Il million dollars
day early in the coming year and that the
receipts in the calendar year, 1893, will
be equal to the running expenses Of the
Government.
The receipts under the new law have
been published from month to month
since it went into operation, but a com
parison of the receipts with those of the
corresponding months in the history of the
Wilson law is interesting at this time.
The Wilson law. it will be remembered,
came into operation with the warehouses
and shelves of the country empty, wait
ing large imports under the reduced tariff
rates which it offered, while the Dingley
law came into operation with conditions
exactly reversed. In view OF these cir
cumstances in which the importation dur
ing the first few months of the Wilson
law were in excess of the normal, while
those of the first few months of the Ding
ley law were far below the normal, n COM
parison of the earnings of these two laws
in their first four months will be especially
interesting to those who desire to Judge
of the comparative merits of the two acts.
Treasury receipts during the first four
months Of the Dingley law, compared with
the. receipts during the first four months
lou