The record-union., 1897-07-18

lead, 21 cents (the Senate rates.. Iron
ore as fixed b ythe Senate.
The House rate of 81 is restored on
white pine lumber, and burlap and
other hemp products placed on the
free list by the Senate are restored to
the dutiable list.
The reciprocity sclause has been
transferred into a modification of both
the House and Senate schedules-that
is, the number of articles which can be
used as basis for reciprocity agree
ments has been increased but the
Presidents discretion as to the rates
and the ratification of treaties by the
Senate, which was the main feature of
the Senate provision, has been rejected.
One of the biggest victories won by
the House was in the restoration to the
dutiable list of burlaps, jute and jute
bagging, cotton bagging. gunnysacks.
floor mating and cotton ties, which the
Senate placed ON the free list While
restored to the dutiable list, however
the rates were lower than they have
ever been ON this class of articles.
Another victory of the House was the
elimination of the Senate stamp tax on
bonds and stocks. 1t was decided that
the machinery of collection was too
cumbersome.
The Republicans believe that the re-
port can be made to the House early
Monday afternoon, and if the present
intentions of the House leaders are car
red out the report will have been acted
on before the House adjourns Monday
Chairman Dingley expresses the opin-
ion that the bill Will be a law, and that
Congress will have adjourned a week
from to-day.
In connection with the tariff bill, all
Washington is to-day talking about the
remarkable petition sent in by Colonel
George A. Forsyth, L. S. A, retired.
This petition was presented by Belk-
nap of Illinois. 1t has created consider
able of a sensation here, where the
sugar fight has been a daily source of
surprises. Colonel Forsyth attacks the
sugar trust in unmeasured terms, de-
nouncing its members and their policy,
and prays the House to eliminate the
entire sugar schedule from the tariff
bill. 1t is the most sensational pro-
/ duction of a long, sensational fight,
and coming from such q source, it
was as effective as it was unexpected.
Colonel Forsyth's petition says, in
part:
The passage of the tariff bill with
the sugar schedule in it at this late
day, during the present. session of
Congress, and its enactment into law,
will prevent the collection by the Gov
ernment of the United States of many
millions of dollars in duties that .hould
l. ra1 70 ant in
the natural course of trade, and the
amount of money that will be SO lost
to the revenues of the Government will
be taken from our people as a result
of said bill becoming a law, going to
enrich the American Sugar Refineries
Company and its friends and other
speculators in raw sugars. In the
opinion Of your petition, while your
constituents are content to accept in
good faith and generally do acquiesce
cheerfully in all laws that your hon
orable body may, from time to time
enact, that may be requisite to raise
an adequate revenue for the necessary
expenses of the General Government,
they certainly ought not in order to sup
ply themselves with one of the neces-
sari9s of life be compelled by law to
contribute vast sums of money to the
stockholders of the American Sugar
Refineries Company and other specula-
tors in raw sugars, when only a COM
parative portion, if any at all, of the
immense amount of money that they
will be compelled to pay during the
next six months, in case the bill be-
comes a law, will ever reach the United
States Treasury, while many millions
of dollars of their hard wages
Will be wrung from them under cover
of said law by the sugar trust and
its chosen friends.
The petition further states that the
object of the sugar trust was to gain
money for it's originators, and details
the method of it's formation at a cost
to the trust of $9,S90000, capitalized at
$50, 100000. 1t says that there has been
an annual dividend for the last three
years of more than IS per cent, per an
mum on the first cost of their refiner-
les" Colonel Forsyth states that be-
tween SS000,000 and 100000 was
lost to the Government by the trust
rushing in raw sugar during the dis
cussion of the tariff in 1894
The petition has had no hearing in
the proceedings of the Conference Com
mittee ,and it's only result will be a
sharp reprimand from the War De-
partment, which has always disap-
proved interference by any officer in
matters pending before Congress.
Representative DalZell of Pennsylva-
MIA. one of the conferrees on the tariff
bill, this afternoon went to the office
of the SergeantatArms and suggested
that all the absentees be telegraphed to
return to Washington at once AS the
official having charge of the pairs was
not at the office, this suggestion had
not been acted upon up to 3 o'clock