The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-04-02
AN ENTERING WEDGE.
Proposed Duty on Coffee an Admission
 of Need of ReYisiOn.

If 1t is true, as reported, that some of the Republican leaders in Con- gress are considering the placing of an import duty on coffee and possibly | on tea, the fact indicates the coming of light into places that have some | times seemed discouragingly dark. Two obvious conclusions are to be drawn from it-that the need of more revenues Is recognized and that the inefficiency of a high protective tariff as a revenue producer is admitted.
 Both these conclusions reflect credit on those who are preparing to accept
 them. The present tariff. essentially protective rather than a revenue
 measlre. is not yielding the govern ment a sufficient income and does not seem likely to do so: and before the members of Congress again go to the people for judgment they must either supply the deficiency or face some
 sharp questioning from their constitu- ents as to why, with all the enormous resources of the country, enough mon ey cannot be found for neded public improvements.
 Theoretically, of course, the proper way of meeting this emergency Is to substitute a carefully devised revenue tariff for the protective tariff We now have; but this great change the Re- publicans naturally are not prepared to adopt: and, indeed, 1t would not be
 safe from any point of view to make | 1t suddenly enough to overcome at | once the deficit that Is now hamper | ing the national development. IT the | Republicans undertake tariff revision in the near future, their changes will be in the line more of readjustments than of general reductions. and the revenue from customs duties will not be materially increased. But the glim- mer of common sense, that Is now coming to them is revealing, apparent | ly that If high protective tariff is to be maintained, its efficiency as rev enue producer will have to be supple mented by some purely revenue duties. This Is surely an advance on the view | that the same schedule of duties can be made to serve the purposes of both protection and revenue.
 If whether as a substitute for the protective tariff or as supplement to
 1t, we are now to turn-as, indeed, 1t | seems that we may be forced to turn l to a revenue tariff as a means of raising the necessary money for the proper running of the government. | coffee and tea are. of course, among the first commodities to be considered
 as suitable objects for import duties From taxing these at their ports most
 of the countries where they are not produced are now deriving large rev. enue, and the United States could de- | rive still larger. In fact. under dif- | ferent conditions this country used to | get q substantial income from that
 source and without anywhere near as
 much complaint from the people as is now caused by some of the protective duties that have taken the place of those old tea and coffee duties. But whether that old source of income could again be acceptably tapped with
 out restoring all the conditions under which 1t formerly flowed freely is a question that does not seem to have occurred to those Republicans wno are now credited with opening their eyes to the need of some revision of the
 revenue principle of customs taxa
 tion.
 When the coffee duties were re- moved the main reason of the relief
 thus given-however much fine talk there may have been about cheapen-
 ing the poor mans breakfast-was
 that room. might be made for the im- position of other duties that might serve, as those could not. some pro- tective purpose. That is, in theory,
 though not as it proved in practice, the cost of coffee to consumers was
 reduced in order that the people might
 be better able to stand increases in the cost of other commodities for the sake of protecting home industries. Will they now be willing to submit to an increase in the cost of coffee with out getting relief from the higher cost of other things through re- duction of the protective duties? The first faint light of a great truth is certainly illumining the thoughts Of those Republicans who are talking of a reimposition of the old coffee duties. But will they not find considerable
 difficulty in inducing the taxpayers to accept two system of customs taxa ton at the same time-one for protec- tion and the other for the revenue
 which the first is innanshis of vteld- ing?