The Owosso times., 1897-06-04

of Revenue S3O,OOO,OOO.
The country may be congratulated
that the tariff bill has been reported to
the senate and that the further delay
necessary to perfect it will be where
each senator will feel his personal re-
sponsibility. For it is not to be denied
that the people are profoundly anxious
to have q genuine protective tariff with
as little delay as possible The enor-
nous work of inquiry and revision
which has taken the trained experts of
the senate nearly six weeks cannot be
accurately judged in day. Many
changes are certainly Of real merit, and
others may upon examination of data
prove to be which at first appear need
less. But there will be disappointment
throughout the country that the meas
are reported to the senate is open to
criticism in some particulars about
which public opinion will be sensitive.
The extensive substitution of ad
valorem duties and the beer tax are al
ready discussed as out of line with the
Republican principle that specific should
be preferred to ad valorem duties where
1t is possible and that revenue should
be raised rather by duties OH imports,
which encourage industry, than by in
ternal taxes, which bear upon the peo-
pie nearly per capita and enhance the
cost of living nearly as much for the
poor as for the rich. Nor is it pleasant
that the benefit to sugar refiners is
greater than under the present tariff, so
that opponents of the bill have pre-
text for saying that its sugar schedule
was written by the Sugar trust" The
duties ON tea and hides, the tax ON
beer, the abrogation Of the Hawaiian
treaty, the emission of the reciprocity
provision, will all challenge some Re-
publican criticism.
The committee was indeed confronted
with one difficulty, to which The Trib
une repeatedly called attention in COM
menting on the house bill-that it would
probably fail to increase the revenue
enough, because calculations had been
based upon the enormous importations
encouraged by the Wilson tariff. Hence
duties where reduction would secure
larger revenue or to raise other duties
where increasSwould bring about the
same result. This the senate committee
has done in great many instances.
Duties on woolens are reduced so that
they are generally lower than those of
the Mckinley and the Dingley bill. On
nearly all articles of the iron schedule
duties are reduced, in many instances
certainly with wisdom, though the con-
tinuance of the drawback onstin plates
will be strongly opposed. On earthen-
ware specific and higher duties than
those of the house bill are proposed, Civ
ing better protection, and on linen goods
higher duties, promising larger revenue.
1t is fair to presume that some of the
changes made in committee are not ex-
pected to stand in the senate. 1t is
question whether the senate will sustain
the duty ON hides. The omission of the
reciprocity clause is said to be only
temporary, the committee expecting to
report provision hereafter which it
had not time to draw with the care de-
sired. In the abrogation of reciprocity
with Hawaii the sugar interest re-
ceives another benefit and American in
terests in the island serious injury
which some senators will probably
strive to avert. Whether the duties on
wool-8 and cents, instead Of II and
12, ON the first and second class-are so
adjusted that growers Of the finer west
ern woods will accept them seems at
present doubtful, but in view of the
permanently reduced cost of competing
foreign wool these duties are relatively
about as high as those of the Mckinley
bill, and an important benefit is the ad-
dition Of cent to the duty on skirted
wool. On the whole, it would seem for
the interest Of woolgrowers to prefer
that part of the bill as it stands to any
risk of continued free trade in wool.
The sugar duty proposed is, per 100
pounds, 70 cents for SS degree sugar, 81
cents for 80 degrees-about the average
Of importations of raw-$1. 16 for re-
fined, and on all these 80 per cent ad
valorem, which makes the duty on 80
degree sugar, costing about 3 cents,
81. 57 per 100 pounds, and on refined,
costing go cents, $2.07, giving just
half cent benefit to the refiner. The
average cost of dutiable cane imported
i'll eight months ending with February
was 1888 cents and of refined imported
in the same months 2.592 cents. The
Dingley bill gave difference of an
eighth, with some further incidental
benefit. The Wilson bill, which was so
universally denounced as q surrender to
the sugar trust, gave benefit Of three
hundred and sixty-five -thousandths
of a cent at present prices. 1t may be
doubted whether the senate can be in
duced to accept q still greater oonces-
sion to sugar refners, and members of
the house who have to consider their
election next year may resist.
The duty Of 10 cents on tea and the
increase of SO cents on beer-if the re-
bate Of cents under an old law is re-
moved-are purely revenue taxes and
proposed only because anticipatory i'm