The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1909-03-18
Revision Bill in Many lnstanc-
es Is Dictated by New Eng
land and Opposed to West
ern Views.
MEASURE Is A BLOW
TO WORKING PEOPLE
Rates on Lumber and Steel
Cut, But Prices Of Dry
Goods and Groceries Are
Practically the Same.

Washington, D. c., March 1S.--Look-
ing at the new tariff bill. which was
reported from Chairman Payne's COM
mittee yesterday, it is difficult to es-
cape the opinion that while there GER
tainly is large measure of reduction
In duty. the plan of operation is ex-
ceedingly unequal.
Certain things about which there has
been good deal of talk are given re-
duced rates. notably lumber and steel,
which enter into the construction of
buildings. but there are abundant signs
that the tariff bill in some important
particulars, at least, has been dictated
by New England and New York and
pennsylvania interests, as opposed to
the point OF view of the western farm
er and manufacturer, and especially OF
that elusive individual who is called
by Representative Boutell of Chicago
s'the ultimate consumer"
1t will be bitter disappointment to
the workingmen and to the women of
the country to learn that the tariff on
cotton and wOolen goods is practically
untouched. The price on pretty much
Of everything to be found inIdry goods
stores. at tailors, and even lat grocers
will remain much the same.
Small Reduction in Sugar.
There is a reduction in the tariff on
shoes, but to offset that hides are
placed on the free list. Lumber is
cut SO that the duty on ordinary boards
is reduced Just one-ha,f. aad steel rails
and minor manufactuy steel and
iron are all cut dowg a way
that there ought to gba prices
for the consumers.
The sugar trust As made the victim
of reduction in the tariff on refined
sugar SO fractionally small that the
housewife never}will discover the fact.
Some Finds Of glass are reduced, while
others are increased. Gloves all will
cost more than they ever did before.
while barley. cabbage, bacon and
hams. fresh meat. lard. tallow. and
starch are treated to a reduced tariff.
On the whole, the tariff bill is a fair
redemption of the pledges made at the
republican convention. but the failure
to do what the people demanded in re-
gard to cotton goods, woolen goods
and refined sugar will make the meas
ure subject to attacks NOT only by dem-
ocrats, but by many republicans who
had hoped confidently to secure a re-
duction in the retail price of the actual
necessities of life.
Silence on Cotton Schedule
1t will be observed that the synopsis
given out by the ways and means CON-
mittee Is ominously silent in regard to
the entire cotton schedule. The man
ufacturers in New England and the
South have taken the ground all the
time that the schedule as arranged in
the Dingley bill was so scientific and
20 complicated that it could not be in
terfered with without destroying their
industries. The ways and means
committee has adopted this view and
has left the cotton schedule alone ex-
cept in one extraordinary case. where
the rates have actually been increased.
The farmer who builds house prob
ably will get the benefit of the reduc-
tion in tariff on lumber from 81 to 81
a thousand feet. but his wife will pay
more for her stockings than she has
done before.
The cotton schedule is supposed to
be sacred and scientific whenever
proposition is made to reduce 1t. but
that argument does not seem to pre-
vent an advance in rates. because the
ways and means committee BILL while
leaving the rest of the schedule prac-
tically intact. actually advances the
tariff rate on stockings, hose. half
hose. shaped wholly or in part by knit
ting machines. composed of cotton or
other vegetable fibre. whether finished
Dr. unfinished.
Stockings Are Going Up.
Cotton socks and stockings valued at
not more than 81 per dozen pairs at
wholesale rates were taxed under the
old Dingley bill, passed in 1897, at 20
cents per dozen pairs, or a maximum
OF 50 per cent ad valorem. Under the
new bill. prepared by the ways and
means committee, this duty has been
advanced to 20 cents a dozen pairs. or
30 Per cent ad valorem.
This increase in rate. which begins
with the poorest grade Of stockings
worn by the poorest people. Is contin-
ped all through the list. and In addi-
tion to this specific duty there is In the
new bill. as we'll as in the old law. an
Ndditional duty OF Is per cent ad va
aorem.
Throughout the rest Of the cotton
schedule. the old Dingiey rates, which
were excessively high In the first place.