Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 February 1878 — Revising the Tariff. [ARTICLE]

Revising the Tariff.

The new Tariff bill, as perfected by the sub-committee of the House Ways and Means Committee, has been furnished to the press. Many of its details are unimportant, and all of them are as dry as the multiplication table. A dispatch from Washington to the Associated Press, after giving the nature of the bill in detail, adds, in regard to its leading character, as compared with the existing tariff: The general' principles on which the bill is based are reduction and simplification, and with sections directly looking to the enlargement of our foreign trade. The schedules and classificatipna»o£ the present tariff are followed. A fflf§lrc¥CThrttioih-fa made, avbtaging about 20 per cent, of the present rates in the entire Mat. though in Wines, brandies and cigars, and other articles of like character, there is no redaction. There are no compound duties, rates being either specific or ad valorem. There is no free fist. Every article that is not dutiable is admitted free without specification or enumeration. The present number of articles in the Tariff law is reduced to about 500, all to I'd, in thia All changes have been made from ad valoretn to specific duties wherever practicable. It is claimed that this bill will reduce the cost of collection from $7,250,000 t6‘ less than $3,000,000. The bill proposes to raise $154,946,000, estimated by treasury experts upon the average of imports for the past six years. Only $138,000,000 were collected last year. s The publication of the bill at this time is with a view of eliciting expressions of public opinion before final action.