The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-05-04
Especial from United Press,


Tariff Abuses.
Especial from United Press,
Washington, May 4-Some of the
queer wrinkles in the wooden schedule
in the present tariff bill were called to
the attention OIL the Senate to-day by
Senator Dolliver, of Iowa, who has
been making special study of this
particular subject. He cited the fol-
lowing as exa mples. of the morbid
and abnormal effects of this schedule:
A set of fur niture, consisting of a
sofa and a set of chairs in the uphol-
stery of which traces Of wool appears,
is made to pay eleven cents a pound
duty as though it were all wool Of the
first class. If valued at over 20 cents
per pound it p,,ys four times that or
A cents per pound. This sum is null
tiplied by the pounds of wool, tapestry,
padding, nails tacks. etc. to
get the specific duty. To this is adj
ded SO per cent. Of the invoice value
A blanket, With a fringe of wool to
prevent raveling, pays duty as though
it were all wool A. fur coat, if lined
with cotton, or has no lining at all, is
assessed at so per cent. ad valorem.
But with 81 worth of wool lining 1t
is charged A cents per pound and six
with a trace of wool in their lining are
weighed up at GA cents. per pound rate
and in addition, 'she 65 cents ad valor-
EN- provided for wearing apparel COM
posed in whole or in part of wool.
The Senator also showed that on the
cheaper grades .f blankets, flannels,
dress goods and carpets, the average
duty ranged from 101 to 143 per cent
Declaring that these abuses" should
be abolished, Sc hator Dolliver am
nounced that it was his. intention to
present amendma nts to bring about
this result.
In the first plac, he said, the absurd
distinction between woods of the first
and second class ought to be abolished.
The duty on clothes should be below
the duty on yarn of which they are
the raw material. AS to yarns and all
kinds of cloths. the amendments he
would suggest, he said, would effect a
small reduction in the higher ranges
of the wooden rates by making COM
penSatory duty application not to the
weight of the cloth but to the weight
Of the wool contents of the cloth.
Finally, he proposed to simplify this
schedule and make a general provision
that no duty should in any case ex-
coed 100 per cent. Senator Dolliver
charged that the wool schedule, with
all of it's myStifcations and excuses,
was originally written by a. convention
in this city of Harmless shepherds
and thrifty weaverS," and he quoted
the late John Sherman's book, Speech
es and Reports On Finances and Elk
made by that convention of wool goods
was accepted precisely as written and
showed that similar meeting of the
same elements framed the schedule in
the Mckinley law.
eff I voted for that arrangement,
he said, ait was under the impression
that was being guided by the wis
dom of William Mckinley and if I
-
of my confidence in the character of
Dingley.''
Replying to Senator Aldrich's state
ment the other day that his late col
league Senator Allison had approved
this schedule and that he (A1lisonl had
not been swerved in his allegiance by
political conditions at home, Dolliver
said:
eff the Senator from Rhode Island
intended to humiliate me by the init
nation that my course in these mat
ters is dictated by the political con-
ditions at home, he Internationally
pays me a. compliment which 1 sin
cerely appreciate because this nation
responsibility on the part of the Pres
idents and the Congress alike to that
enlightened public opinion which ought
to be the real. government of the
United States
Dolliver scored Aldrich about the in
tricacies OF the cotton schedule in
these words:
1T is even possible to comment ad-
versely upon the cotton schedule as
contained in the Senate bill without
the abilities of the Sena-
tor from Rhode Island because he has
himself stated upon this floor that the
offered the Senate by the
were not from the commit
tee but every one of them made by
persons concerned I have no doubt a
cruel revelation to some of his Ian
guild disciples to learn from the lips of
the Senator himself that in this cot
ton schedule the changes that were
made do not represent the genius of
the men who enjoys in the mythol-
ogy of our public life, the reputation
of being the greatest living expert upon
the technicalities of the cotton manu-
facture but that the Senators from
Rhode Island, mystified by the task
set before him by his constituents of
raising the table of these rates with
out touching them, turned the job
over to the appraisers office at New
York