Arizona republican., 1921-04-03
SIXTY SEVENTH CONGRESS WILL PROBLEMS SAME AS FIRST
TRepubIican A. p. Leased Wire1


 WASHINGTON. April 2.-Many a musty oddity of forgotten tariff stat utes has been turned up by search of the Capitol archives. This has dis closed that the first congress assem- bled under the constitution faced the same problem as will the sixty -sev- enth when it meets week hence that of enacting a tariff law.
 The first tariff act was passed on July 4, 17S9. Its formal title state ment of purpose-"for laying a duty on goods, wares and merchandise inn ported into the United States ried a bluntness which statesmen Tor the next hundred years were to ayold. Tt is necessary for the support or 1 the government" this first congress said flor the discharge of debts Of the United States and for the encour- agement and protection of manufac- turers that duty be laid upon goods, wares and merchandise imported
 It was just 1os years, the compila- ! tion shows, before such a straight forward statement of purpose about encouraging and protecting manu- 1 factllrers" would be made again in an import tax statute. though the | purpose was most evidently behind most Of the scores of following acts. l So simple was the first bill that 1t required only two pages of the com
 mittee print against more than 100 l for the Payne Aldrich act of 1909. Though simple. it probably was,
 for a year later-August 10, 1790-
 congress passed An act making fur ther provision for the payment of debts of the United States"
 More deftly, the purpose of the l next tariff bill as it passed on March ,, 1792. was stated to be flor the raising of further sum of money for the protection of frontiers" evad- ing any remarks about protection oi industries. It's duties were increases
 and one duty imposed was "on coal
 per busheI Az cents."
 | Tripoli Trouble Tariff
 | Two years later the famous Tripol troubles arose and congress on Marcf
 26, 1794, passed An act to protec
 the commerce and seamen of th'
 United States against the Barbarl
 powers" This act slapped on gen
 eral increase of 21a and 10 per cen
 ad valorem duties. The statute stated , itself to be temporary, for one year 1 but the title proved to be too goo' to be wasted. Year by year. after
 clear up to 1913, congress reiterate'
 it's laudable purpose, re-enacted 1t increased schedules, and announce : it was going after the Barbary pi , rates with a continuation of the tariff , for another twelve month.
 Il In 1S13 however, the nation wen to war with Great Britain. and in hasty and brief paragraph of statute
 congress announced 'an additiona
 duty of 100 per cent on all permanen
 duties" to be collected for the dura ton of hostiiities. The tax on i'm
 ported salt, incidentally, got up to z cents a pound.
 ! This was about the end of the earl U :. tariff area, according to the compila | ton. For the next 40 years most ( : the acts were labeled ''to reduce du T ties.' This they plainly did, for th N salt tax was placed at 10 cents , bushel. Congress was fruitful of CT } actments ito release from duty fro
 | prepared for railways" and the lik u Reciprocity With Holy See s' Presidential proclamations reduce : schedules even further. One date Q February 25. 1858, noted that yves s sels and subjects of his holiness tf C Pope were no longer to be charge
 higher customs rates, because rec a procity with the holy see had bee l. arranged.
 But the tariff came back with Il Y beginning of the civil war. Congre!
 on March ?. 1861, passed An act
 l provide for payment or OutStandlT Is treasury notes" It was composed r. 26 pages of tariff schedules. Tn " length foreshadowed the modern CT le With misplaced optimism, on Ju Is 14, 1862, congress asserted it hs $ passed An act increa sing, temporar 2S ly, the duties on imports" The SUI 70 ceeding war enaCtments took il le word temporary completely out of u .' congressional tax-levying vocabular ce With the end of the civil war, ac Q reducing import duties went into Q i feet, but on March 3, 1883, when t l- modern political controversy ov es. tariff was well under way, the til or was almost as politely evasive as t
 version about the Barbary pirates,
 was called An act to reduce inte
 nal taxation"
 One or two measures designed
 reductions intervened, and then co
 gress came back, after a century, sS speak as straightforwardly und 'o President Mckinley, in 1897. as it h
 under President Washington. T S. tariff label officially was An A 90 to encourage the industries of | l- United States" The Payne-Ald he law. enacted some Is years later, lis be almost the same words, while prelil he mary drafts oe majority proposals ". come before the new congress whi e. meets a week hence indicate that { an Mckinley Washington precedent W
 be respected again.