Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-09-21

its taking effect would furnish
strong argument for delaying its pass
age until after December l, when tn
tariff board could report. The dat
OF taking effect was thsreupon chang
ed to October Is, 1911. Such care wa
not taken with the free ~ bill O
the cotton bill, both of which wer'
made to take effect January l, 1912.
Schedule K Ought to be Reduced
Schedule K has been in force s,
long and It's percentages were so higl
In many respects that l had not hest
tated In times past to say that Il
ought to be reduced, and to explain
how 1t came not to be reduced in tht
Payne bill as it ought to have been
But it Is one thing to know that 6
schedule of this sort is too high, and
it is a very different thing in such q
complicated schedule to know upor
what items the reductions should be
: made and how great the reductions
ought to be. II the principle to which
| am committed. and to which the
party Is committed in the strong terms
of the resolutions, which I have quoted
above, was to be observed as policy
at all, here was the occasion for fol-
lowing it. If I had allowed the wool bill
to become law, the progress made in
public opinion toward better method
of revising the tariff would have been
entirely lost and the policy cast to
the winds. =
Indeed. could find no argument
which would satisfy my conscience in
signing the bill.
The Free List Bill
The free list bill was called the
farmers free list" for the purpose Of
giving an impression that 1t was
passed to compensate the farmers for
some sort of injury supposed to be
done by the Canadian reciprocity
treaty. This reason was finally repu.
dated by the leader of the democracy
on the floor of the house of representa-.
tives, and is certainly not true. There
was nothing in the Canadian reci-
procity bill that required any CON-
pensation to the farmers. for in very
short period after actual operation it
will appear that they. as we'll as every
body else. have been improved in con-
d'tion by our larger trade with Can
ada. But the bill was framed and
came to me in a form calculated to
mislead as to ite effect.
Bill Designed to MisIead Farmers.
In the first clause all agricultural
implements were declared to be free.
and great many were named. These
same implements were named in the
Payne bill, and were made free in that
bill from any country which permit
ted our agricultural Implements To
enter it without duty. This opened
to England the market of the United
States for agricultural implements.
AS matter of fact the price of agri-
cultural implements in America, is
cheaper, as shown by report of the
bureau of trade relations Of the state
department., to the American farmers
than to any farmers in the world.
England is the one country that ex-
ports agricultural implements to any
great extent, and so successful is the
competition against her in this coun-
try of American agricultural imple-
ments that practically very few have
come in from England. This first
clause, therefore, of the free-list bill
offers no boon to the farmers at all
though apparently drawn for the pur-
pose of inducing them to think so.
1t does contain some very general
words at the close of the specially
mentioned articles which by interpre.
tation might be made to include $50
different articles used on the farm,
but used in other vocations also. And
these articles-the hammers, the
tools, the cutlery, and the machinery
of various kinds-are now dutiable
under the metal schedule. To admit
them under this clause would be to
destroy entirely the symmetry of the
metal schedule and produce such a
confusion as seriously to interfere
with the administration of the tariff
act.
Would Seriously Effect
The Metal Schedule
Another clause provides for the ad-
mission of barbed wire fencing free,
and then all wire and other material
which could be used for fencing, and
includes wire rods and wire rope. To
let in barbed wire fencing alone
would be unimportant to producers,
but the framing of the amending
clause is such that If it were to go
into law it would have a serious ef-
feet upon the metal schedule and
would utterly destroy the principle
which was followed in its framing
and would make free of duty some
of the most highly wrought articles
under the metal schedule not used
by farmers at ALL Then there is a
clause admitting jute and cotton bag
ging free, and materials from which
made, which would allow common cot
ton cloth to come in free for any pur-
pose, although under the cotton sche-
dule, even as proposed to be amended
by this congress, cotton cloth is to
pay certain amount of duty. The