The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-10-03
The Dingley Act and the Canadian
Pacific.

The most valuable contribution to the
October number of the Forum Is the article
in which DR.. JOSEPH NIMMo, Jr., discusses
the protective features of section % Of the
new Tariff act. We refer especially to that
part of the section that provides that a dis
eliminating duty of 10 per cent. ad valorem,
in addition to the duties imposed by law,
shall be levied on all merchandise (which,
being the production or manufacture of any
foreign country not contiguous to the
United States, shall come into the United
States from a contiguous country" There
is no doubt that the meaning of this pro-
vision will have to be judicially deter
mined, although the Treasury Department
may, for the moment, hold itself bound, in
courtesy, to abide by the opinion of the At
torney.General. DR.. NIMMo, for his part,
contends that the words in quotation marks
mean, and were intended by Congress to
mean. precisely what they say. The only
countries contiguous to the United States
are Mexico and Canada, and it was espe-
cially Canada and its subsidized railroad,
the Canadian Pacific, which were aimed at
by the authors and approvers of the section.
The argument set forth in the Forum Is
ouScu uPoh Tx pliNiicBco pASJooiSioA =
American interests which are enjoyed by
the Canadian Pacific. No sooner was this
transcontinental line opened for traffic in
June, 1885, than its officers applied to our
Secretary of the Treasury for permission
to engage in both the domestic and foreign
transit trade Of the United States. The
privileges requested and conceded en-
braced the right to transport goods from
points In our seaboard States to points in
our interior States, In competition with
American lines, and also the right
to receive foreign goods at Vancouver
consigned to points in the United States
east of the Rocky Mountains. The be-
ginning of what il known as the United
States INT Canada transit trade dates back
to the winter Of 1s4S-49, when certain for.
eiRn goods consigned to Montreal arrived
in the port of New York, and were there
placed In a Government bonded warehouse.
Upon a question propounded by the New
York Collector of Customs, the Secretary
of the Treasury then ruled that, since for.
eign goods could be transported from a
ship to a bonded warehouse, and subse.
quently be transported from the ware.
house through the streets Of New York city
to q ship for reexportation to a foreign
country without payment of duty In the
United States, the same goods might be
delivered on board a canal boat or railroad
car, to be sent through the United States
to Canada undo proper regulations for the
protection of the revenue from customs.
This branch of the transit traffic is known
as the foreign transit trade, and has since
assumed large proportions, mainly through
the ports of Portland In Maine, of Boston,
and of New York. Another branch of the
transit traffic. known as the domestic
transit trade" came into existence in
March, 1888, on the completion of the
Niagara Suspension Bridge. In the absence
OF any law upon the subject a commercial
possibility was again interpreted as i'm.
plying a commercial privilege. Under
adequate regulations for the protection of
the revenue from customs canada allowed
goods to be transported from Suspension
Bridge to Detroit, and vice versa, without
payment of duty, and the United States
Government, in pursuance of Treasury
regulations, allowed such goods to reGnter
the United States without duty.
Now, DIR. NIMMo does not deny that the
foreign transit trade had some justitica.
ton on the eastern side of the Continent,
by reason of the fact that the st. Lawrence
River is closed by ice for six months of the
year, and greatly INSTRUCTED by fogs for
two months more. lie points out, now
ever, that the extension of the privileges of
the foreign transit trade to the western side
of the Continent, where 10 such justifying
conditions exist, has caused much trouble,
and has led TO an assault by the politico,
commercial Government of the Dominion
of Canada upon American shipping inter,
ests, upon American seaports on the Pacific
coast, and upon American internal trans
portation lines. The foreign transit trade
on the eastern side of the Continent brings
! Canadian to american transpor