The Washington herald., 1913-09-26
DUMPING CLAUSE
OUT OF TARIFF
Provision Relative to Market
Price Differences Stricken
from Bill.
INCOME TAX PERFECTED
COnferees Also Agreed on Burlaps
and Jute Bags-Cotton Sched-
ule in Dispute.

II was a hard struggle. Chairman Un-
derwood. of the House conferees, made
his most persistent struggle to restore
this feature of the House bill which the
Senate had struck out. Probably the
greatest pressure brought to bear on the
Senate from outside sources and later on
the conference was directed to bringing
about, If possible, a restoration of the
anti-dumping clause. and its enlargement
to include articles on the free list.
As the dumping clause passed the
House it applied only TO articles on the
dutiable list. 1t was copied from the
Canadian tariff laws literally, except so
much of the Canadian statute as covered
the free list. Representative A. Mitchell
Palmer of Pennsylvania was the earnest
champion Of an anti-dumping law on the
House side, and he carried his fight before
the conference committee and made his
last earnest plea for its retention at the
meeting Of the committee Wednesday
night.
ConfcrecS Yield ate.
The conference committee struggled
with il all day. and when they met yes
terday morning il was under an agree
ment to vote on the matter at once But
IL was discussed during the morning ses,
sion, and Chairman Underwood and his
fellow-conferees from the House did not
SlelQ until lale yesterday AFTERNOON.
The measure struck out of the tariff bill
by the Senate proposed that when goods
Of foreign manufacture were imported
into the United States to be sold in the
domestic market at prices below prevail
ing market price of such products in the
country from which imported that an
additional OF dumping duty should be inn
posed equal to the difference in the mar
ket price in the country from which i'm
ported and the price at which such goods
were TO be sold i'm the United States.
There was considerable sentiment
among Democratic Senator's in favor Of
the legislation. but those who opposed II
believed that it would be used a pre-
text for excluding imports and would
really operate as a protective tariff mea-
sure
With the elimination of the anti-dUmp-
ing clause and the retslitOry clause in
the administration sections of the bill the
business interests lost two important
points for which they have been con-
tending. The anti-dumping clause was
the House feature and the retaliatOry
clause was a Senate amendment. Both
went out under pressure from the low
tariff Democrats. who proposed to leave
no feature of the bill that might be used
a protective tariff weapon. The re-
taliatOry clause had been put in by the
Senate as a substitute for the maximum
law. but was much more restrictive in its
application.
At the morning session yesterday the
Conferees finally agreed on the limit OF
exemption under the income tax law.
They made the fiat exemption $500, as
the Senate had fixed il. instead of 81, 600, as
provided by the House. and gave an addi-
tional exemption of loo on account Of the
domestic relation. the additional eXemp-l
ton being allowed for a dependent hus-
band dependent wife. where the hus-
band wife lived together. This addi
tionCl exemption makes possible a total
exemption of $1,000 for married persons
and 5000 for single ones. The additional
E -emption of S.GOO which had been put
into the bill by the Senate on account of
dependent children was struck out of the
bill.
Income Tax Perfected.
The income tax law practically hasl
be perfected by the action taken yes
terday morning. Only i few details re-
main to he worked out Late Wednes-
day night the conferees returned to the
life insurance company paragraph and. |
after waiving a question as to their ju-
risdiction over the subject matter, de- |
cided to allow an exemption from taxa
tion so much of the net income of lifel
insurance companies as is represented by
premiums returned
was put into the tariff bill by the Senate
Finance Committee after the bill came
over from the House as the result of
great pressure brought to bear by the
, utual life insurance companies. Later,
because of opposition. the exemption was
struck out. and as the bill finally passed
the Senate it did not exempt any part
of the income of the life insurance COM
panies. Inasmuch as the exemption was
not carried in the bill either in the House |
or the Senate, there was serious Ques-
N before the conference committee as
10 whether it had any jurisdiction to re-
open the question. hut the conferees
ally decided that. because the Senate
+ Id put into the bill an amendment con-
cerning marine insurance companies, i
there was subject matter before the con-
ference which permitted the resumption
of the life insurance matter.
The Senate yesterday receded from its
amendment imposing an additional tax
on the operation of railroads in Alaska.
One of the important controverted ques-
tions before the conference was disposed
OF yesterday, when an agreement was
reached. by which burlaps go upon the
free list and jute bags are to be taxed
10 per cent, instead of % per cent, as
the House bill provided. Plain jute fab
RIGS. advanced in process OF manufactured
by being dyed, stained, or colored. were
mace CuIldDfe at III per cent Dy way OF
compromise.
Cotton Schedule Perfected.
The conferees yesterday struggled over
the cotton schedule, trying to find a solu-
tion of the problems relating to the
duties on cotton cloths and cotton yarns
The Senate had made slight increases in
the duties over those fixed by the House
and had changed classifcations When
the conference adjourned last night until
10 O'Clock today, the paragraphs relatingi
to the cotton schedule and the disagree
ment over the rates on lead and Zincl
and the difference OF opinion between the ,
two Houses as to the date when the wool
duties shall go into effect were still open.
When the conference met ii was with
the expectation of being able to concluded J
its work Chairman Simmons had ex-
pected to be able to call in the Repub- ;
lican members Of the conference today
and report the bill Saturday.
The conferees struck out of the bill |
"a 3-4 the last paragraph in ]
the schedule which includes spirits, ]
wines, and other beverages. The matter !
struck out was a Senate. amendment
which provided that after the beginning :
1f the new year revenue stamps required :
by law to be affixed to packages of j
distilled spirits filed on the premises of ]
or wholesale liquor dealers ]