The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-05-12
DINGLEY ON THE NEW TARIFF.
Features of the Bill as it Stands and Its
 Probable Effect.

w dSnlnStOn, May Il'-J ne llSl Stdte- ment which Chairman Dingley of the ways and means committee, whose name is borne by the new tariff bill, has consented to make regarding the bill since it was amended by the senate finance committee was made by him to- day to The Associated Press. MT. Dingley was requested to give some statement as to the probable additional revenue that would be yielded the first year by the senate tariff bill, as well as by the house bill, and he spoke as fol- lows:
 Tt must be borne in mind that there is no senate bill as yet. What is im- properly supposed to be the senate bill is the house bill with certain amend ments. What the bill will be when the body shall have made it no one can say. There are many amendments which are important not only on rev enue but on other grounds. I do not propose now to speak of these pro- posed amendments except as they af- feet revenue
 "The effect of these amendments as a whole-outside of the amendment i'm posing duty on tea for two and a half years, and the amendment increasing the internal revenue tax on beer A cents per barrel for the same period and the increase proposed on tobacco and cigarettes-is to produce less rev. emu than would be yielded by the house. For example, the amendments returning to the free list certain acids, oils, paintings and statuary, reducing the duties on liquors, lose more revenue than could be obtained on tea.
 'The amendments reducing the duty on carpet wool would also decrease the revenue. The amendment increasing the duty on opium from $6 ito $S per pound would not increase the revenue in the judgment of the administrators of the law, who informed the ways and means committee that s6 was the point which would yield the largest revenue. The proposed duty on hides and few other amendments would increase the revenue somewhat.
 "Of course the estimate of an in- creased revenue from sugar through the abrogation of the treaty with Hawaii has nothing to do with the tariff legislation, for this could be done as we'll by the house bill. In our judg- ment the revenue from sugar under the house sugar schedule, setting aside the question of abrogating the Hawaiian treaty, would be larger than under the senate amendments. The proposed tenn porary duty on tea would increase the revenue, although not so much the first year as estimated because of the large stock on hand, and the short stocks that would be maintained with the knowledge that tea would soon go back to the free hst and the proposed increase of internal revenue taxes would also increase the revenue to the extent estimated. But the other pro- posed amendments would, as a whole, decrease rather than increase the rev enue.
 Some criticism has been made on the estimates of the ways and means committee as to the revenue that would be produced by the tariff bill as it passed the house. These criticisms overlook the fact that the ways and means committee estimates of the rev enue that might be expected the first year were based on the assumption that the bill would become a law by May 1. The committee in it's report expressly said that while there could be no question that the house bill would in any event yield sufficient rev enue to carry on the government and leave a surplus the second year of it's operation-which nobody even now contradicts-and probably sufficient for the first year if it could be promptly put In force, yet if there should be a delay in it's enactment beyond May 1 anticipatory importations would inevit- ably cause a serious inroad in the pros- pective revenue for the first year.
 Here is what the committee said on this point: What the actual revenue would prove to be in the year follow ing the enactment of the proposed measure into law, is, of course, depen- dent upon contingencies which cannot be forecasted with any approach to cer- tainty and will therfore be subject tc varying estimates. Undoubtedly the contingency which would exert the largest influence in diminishing the es- timated revenue would be delay in the passage of the proposed law in conse- quence of which there would be i'm. ports of such article, wooden goods and sugar on which it is proposed to in- | crease the duties. The anticipatory importations of such articles already arrived and on their way, exceed the fears of the committee when they urged prompt action by the house tc prevent such a loss of revenue for the first year."