Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 March 1888 — THE NEW TARIFF BILL. [ARTICLE]

THE NEW TARIFF BILL.

The Leading Changes Proposed by the Ways and Means Committee’s Measure. It Is Said It Will Reduce the Revenue About $53,000,000 Annually. Large Additions Made to the Free List—lnternal Taxes Not Touched. Many Terj Important Changes in the List of Taxed Merchandise. [Washington special.] The Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee has submitted t > the full committee the tariff bill upon which the Democratic members have been at work for several months. The bill proposes to fix duty on pig-iron at $6 per ton; on iroD or steel railway bars weighing more than twenty-five pounds to the yard and slabs or billets of steel, sll per ton; on ironore, steel “T" rails weighing not over twentyfive pounds to the yard, sl4 per ton; and on iron-ore, steel flat rails, punched, sls per ton. The bill provides for admitting free of duty after July 1 “all wools, hair of the alpaca, goat, and other like animals, wools on the skin, woolen rags, shoddy mengo, waste, and flocks," and after Oct. 1, 1888, it provides, among other things, for a4O per cent, duty on woolen and worsted cloth shawls and dll manufactures of wool not specially enumerated; and on flannels, blankets, knit goods, and women's and children 's dress goods composed in part of wool.

The Free I.lst. Tho bill makes the following additions to the list of articles which may be exported free of duty: Timber hewn and sawed and timber used for spars and in building wharves; timber squared or sided. Wood unmanufactured not specially enumerated or provided for; sawed boards, planks, deals, and all other articles of sawed lumber. Hubs for wheels, po*ts, last-blocks, wagonblocks, oar-blocks, gun-blocks, heading-blocks, and all like block* or sticks, rough-hewn or sawed only. Staves of wood. Pickets and palings, laths, shingles. Clapboards, pine or spruce, logs; provided that if any export duty is laid upon the above-mentioned articles or either of them by any country whence impoited all said articles imported from said country shall be subject to duty as now provided by law. Salt in bags, sacks, barrels, or other packages or in bulk, whon imported from any country which does not charge an import duty upon salt exported from the United States. Flax, straw ; flax not hackled ordressed ; flax hackled, known as dressed linen ; tow of flax or hemp; hemp, manlla,>nd other like substitutes for hemp; jute butts, jute; sunn, sisalgross, and other vegetable fibers. Burlaps, not exceeding sixty inches In width, of flax, jute, or hemp, or of which flax, jute, or hemp, or either of them, shall be the component material of chief value. Bagging for cotton or other manufactures not specially enumerated or provided for in this act suitable to the uses for which cotton bagging is applied, composed in whole or part of hemp, jute, jute butts, flax, gunny-bags, gunnycloth, or other materiiil; provided that as to hemp and flax, jute, jute butts, sunn and sisal grass, and manufactures thereof, except burlaps not exceeding sixty inches in width, and bagging for cotton, this act shall take effect July 1,,188it. Iron or steel sheets or plates or taggers’ iron, coated with tin or lead or with a mixture of which theso metals are a component part, by the dipping or any other process, and commercially known as tin plates, tome plates, and taggers' tin. Beeswax, gelatine, and all similar preparations; glycerine, crude, brown or yellow : fishglue or isinglass ; phosphorus, soap stocks, fit only for use as such. Soap, hard or soft, all of which are not otherwise specially enumerated or provided for; extract of hemlock and other bark used for tanning ; indigo, extiacts of and carminod ; iodine, resublimed; liquorice, juice; oil croton, hempseed and rapeseed oil, oil cotton-seed, petroleum, alumina-alum, patent alum, alum substitute, sulphate alumina, and aluminous cake *lum in crystals or ground.

Drug* and Dye-Stuff*. 'Whiting and paris white ; sulphate of copper andiron; potash; crude, carbonate of, or fusel and caustic potash; chlorate of potash and nitrate of potash or saltpeter crude; sulphate of potash; sulphate of soda, known as salt cake, crude or re lined, or niter cake, crude and refined, and glaubers salt; sulphur in rolls. Wood tar; coal tar, crude ; aniline oil and its homologues ; coal tar and product of, such as naphtha; benzine, benziole, dead oil, and pitch. All preparations of coal tar—not colors or dyeß and not acids of colors-and dyes : logwood and other dye-woods, extracts and decoctions of; spirits of turpentine : bone black, ivory drop black, and Tjone charcoal; ocher and ochery earths, umber and umber earths, stenna and etenna earths, when dry. All preparations known as essential oils, expressed oils, distilled oils, rendered oils, alkaline, alkaloids, and all combinations of any of the foregoing, and chemical compounds by ■whatever name known, and not specially enumerated or pi o /ided in this act. All barks, beans, berries, balsams, buds, bulbs, bulbous roots and excrescences, such as nut-galls, fruits, flowers, dried fibers, grains gums and gum resins, herbs, leaveß, lichens, nuts, roots and stems of vegetables, seeds aud seeds of morbid growth, weeds, woods used expressly for dyeing, and dried insects. All non-dutiaole crude materials, but which have been advanced in value or condition by refining or grinding or by other process of mannfacture not specially enumerated or provided for. All earths or clays unwrought or unmanufactured; china, clay, or kaoline. Opium, crude, containing 9 per cent, and over of morphia for medicinal purposes. Iron and steel cotton ties or hoops for baling purposes, not thinner than No. 2) wire gauge. Needles, sewing, darning, knitting, and all others not speeially enumerated or provided for in this aot Copper, imported in the form of ores, regulufl of, and black or coarse copper and copper oesnent; old copper, fit only for manufacture. Nickel, in ore, matt, or other crude form not ready for consumption in the arts; antimony, as regulus or metal. Quicksilver, chromate of iron, or chromic orfe ; mineral substances in a crude state aud metals unwrought not specially enumerated or provided for. Brick. Vegetables, in their natural state, or in salt or brino. Chiconr root, ground or unground, burned or g spared, and all other articles used, or tended to be used, as cofiee or substances therefor, not specially eaumerated or provided for;cocoa, prepared or manufactured: dates, plums, and prunes; currants, Zante or other* figs; meats, game, and poultry; beans, peas.’ . and split pea*.

Paper Pulp and Boobs. Pulp for book-makers’:use; bibles, books and pamphlets printed in other languages than English, and books and pamphlets and all publications of foreign governments and publication of foreign societies, historical or scientific printed for gratuitous distribution. Bristles; bulbs and bulbous roots not medical ; feathers of all kinds, crude or not dressed, colored or manufactured; finishing powder • grease; grindstones, finished or unfinished. ’ Curled hair for beds and mattresses; human hair, raw, unoleaned, and not drawn; hatter’s for, noton the skin. Hemp and rape seed and other oil seeds of like character; lime; garden seeds; linseed or flax seed. Marble of all kinds, in block, rough, or •qu&red. i Plaster of parts, when ground or calcined; fags, of whatever material composed; rattans

and reeds, manufactured but not made up into finished articles. Osier or willow, prepared for basket-makers’ uses; broom corn, brushwood,Paintings in oil or water colors and statuary no: otherwise provided for. But the term "statuary* shall be understood to include professional productions of a statuary or of a sculptor only. Btones, unmanufactured or undressed: freestone, granite, sandatone, and all building or monumental stones. All strings of gut or any other like material; tallow. Waste, all not specially enumerated or provided for.

Some of the Redactions. In addition to the free list the following are some of the most important changes proposed by the bill: China, ornamented, 45 per cent, ad valorem, now 60 per cent.; china, unornamented, and earthenware, 40 per cent ad valorem, now about 55 per cent; caustic tiles, 30 per cent, ad valorem, now 35 per cent.; green and colored glass bottles, % cent per pound, now 1 cent; there is also a provision for adding the value of bottles, when filled, to the value of the dutiable goods ; flint and lime glass bottles and pressed glassware, 30 per cent, ad valorem, now 40 per cent,; cylinder and crown glass, polished and between 24 by 30 and 24 by 60 inohes square, 16 cents per square foot; above that measurement, 25 cents per square foot, now 20 and 40 cents ; unpolished cylinder crown and common window glass, not exceeding 10 by 15 inches, 1 cent per pound: above that and not exceeding 16 by 24, I*4 cents; above that and not exceeding 24 by 31, I*4 cents; all above, 1% cents, now 1%, 1%, 2%, 2% cents; porcelain and Bohemian glass, 40 per cent, ad valorem, now 45 per cent. Iron in pigs. Kent ledge, $6 per ton, now 3-10 cent per pound; iron railway bars, 811 per ton. now 7-10 cent per pound; steel and part steel railway bars and slabs and billets of steel, sll per ton, now sl7 per ton; iron or steel rails sl4 per ton, flat rails, sls per ton, now 9-10 and 8-10 cents per pound, respectively; round iron, 1 cent per pound, now 1 2-10 cents per pound. On sheet iron there is a uniform reduction of 1-10 cent per pound, excepting taggers’ iron. On hoop, band, or scroll iron less than three inches in width there is a reduction of 1-10 cent per pound on grades thinner than No. 10 wire gauge. Castiron pipe of every description, 6-10 cent per pound, now 1 cent.

Nalls and Manufactured Iron. Cut nails and spikes of iron or steel, 1 cent per pound, now I*4 ; cut tacks, 3> per cent, ad valorem, now about:) cents per pound; railway fish plates, 8-10 cent per pound, now I*4 ; wrought iron and steel spikes, horseshoes, etc , 1% cents per pound, now 2 cents. Anvils and forgings for machinery, I*4 cents per pound, now 2; rivets, iron and steel, 1*? cents per pound, now 2*4 ; hammers, crowbars, and track tools, I*4 cents per pound, now 2Vy ; iron and steel axles, I*4 cents, now 2*4, horseshoes, bob, and wire nails, 2>4 cents, now 4 cents par pound: boiler tubes, 114 ’cents per pound, now 3; chains, iron and steel, not less than [l4inch, I*4 cents per pound ; less than 94-inch, ly, cents per pound ; less than %?2 cents—now 1%, 2, and 2y? cents respectively. Saws, 30 per cent, ad valorem, now 40 per cent.; files, 3 per cent, ad valorem, now rai glng from 35 centfcfo $2.50 per dozen. Steel ingots, blooms, die-blocks, blanks, bars, bands, sheets, crank shafts and pins, stampshapes, gun-molds, steel castings, etc., valued at 1 cent a pound, 4-lu cent per pound; valued at more than 1 cent and not more than 4 cents, 45 per cent ad valorem—now 45 per cent, on all values less than 4 cents per pound, and from 2 10 3*4 cents per j ound on higher grudes; iron or steel beams, posts, columns, building forms, and other structural shapes, 0-10 cent per pound, now 194 cents; steel or partly steel railway wheels and tires, or ingots for the same, I*4 cents per pound, now 2 y, cents. Wood screws, 35 per cent, ad valorem, now from 6 to 12 cents par pound. Iron and steel wire remain unchanged, with prowsion that no duty shall exceed 00 per cent, ad valorem. Old copper and copper clippings for rernanufacturo. 1 cent per pound, noy 3 cents ; ingots and Chili bars, 2 cents per pound, now 4 ; rolled plates, sheets, rolled pipes, etc., 30 per cent, ail valorem, now 35. Lead ore and dross % cent per pound, now I*s; pigs, bars, etc., for remanufacture, I*4, now 2 cents : sheet, pipes, and shot, 2*4, now 3 cents; sheathing and yellow metal, 30 per cent, ad Valorem, now 35. Nickel, ore or matte, 10 cents per poun 1, or nickel contained therein, now 15 cents. Zinc nnd spelter In pigs or for reinanufacture, I*4 cents per pound; in sheets 2 cents per pound, now IJ4 and 2*4 cents respectively. Furniture, Cutlery, Sugar, and Tobacco. Hollow ware, 2*4 cents per pound, now 3. Needles of all kinds, 20 per cent, ad valorem, now 25 and 35. Penknives, razors, etc., 35 per cent ad valorem, now 50 per cent. Penß, 35 per cent, ad valorem, now 12 cents per gross. Type metal, 15 per cent, od valorem, now 20. Manufactures and wares not specially enumerated, composed wholly or in part of copper, 35 per cent, ad valorem, and of other metals, 40 per ceut. ad valorem, now uniform, at 45 ad valorem. Cabinet or bouse furniture, wood, 30 per cent, ad valorem, now 35; manufactures of hard woods, 30 per cent, ad valorem, now 35; wood manufactures unenumerated, 30 per cent, ad valorem, now 35. Sugar, not above No. 16 D. 8., is as follows: Tank bottoms, siiups, etc., not above 75 degrees polariscope, 116-100 oents per pound, and for every additional degree 3-100 cents per pound: above 16 D. S. and not above 20, 2 20100 cents per pound; above 20 D. S. 214 cents per pound. The present duties range from 1 40-100 oents per pound below 14 D. S. to 3*4 cepts per pound for sugars aboye 20 D. S. The lower grade of molasseß Is unchanged, but that testing above 46 degrees is reduoed from 8 to 0 cents per gallon; confectionery, 40 cents ad valorem, now 10 cents per pound. All leaf tobacco manufactured is fixed at 35 cents per pound, and the present distinction between Sumatra and ordinary wrapping tobacco is abolished. Starch, 1 cent per pound, now from 2 to 2*4 cents per pound. Bice, cleaned, 2 cents; uncleaned, I*4; now 2[4 and I*4, respectively. Bioe-meat or flour which will pass through a No. 10 brass-wire sieve, 20 per cent, ad valorem; present duty is the same, but the condition is not imposed. Paddy, 94-cent per pound, now I*4. Baisins, I*4 cents per pound, now 2 cents. Peanuts, 94-eent now 1 cent; shelled, 1 cent per pound, ntfw 114 cents. Mustard, in bottles, ground or preserved, 6 cents per pound, now 10.

Manufactures of Cotton. Cotton-thread, yarn, warps, value not exceeding 40 cents per pound, 35 per cent, ad valorem; valued at over 4u cents per pound, 40 per cent, ad valorem. The present duties range from 10 cents on 25-oent values to 50 per cent, ad valorem on cotton valued at 81 per pound. All cotton cloth, 40 per cent, ad valorem, provided taxltans, mulls, and crinolines shall not pay more than *5 per cent ad valorem. Tho present tariff divides cotton cloths into thirteen Classes, with duties ranging from 2i*i cents per square yard for less than 1. 0 threads to the square inch to 40 per cent ad valorem on colored cottons exceeding 200 threads to the square inch. Spool cotton, 40 per cent ad valorem, now at a minimum duty of 7 per cent per twelve spools. Ducks, linen, canvas, handkerchiefs, lawns, or other manufactures of flax, jute, or hemp not specially provided for, 25 per cent ad valorem, and linen collars, cuffs, and shirts, 35 per cent ad valorem, now uniform at per cent ad valorem. Flax, hemp, and jute yarns, 25 per cent ad valorem, now 35 per cent, ad valorem. Linen thread, twine, etc., 25 per cent, ad valorem, now 35. Oilcloths, 22 per cent, ad valorem, now 40. Gnnhy cloth, 25 per cent, ad valorem, now from 3to 4 cents per pound; bagging, 25 per cent ad valorem, now 4j ; tarred cables and untarred cordage, 25 per cent, ad valorem, uow 3 t03)4 cents per pound; sail duck, Kussia sheeting, and unenumerated manufactures of hemp and jute, 25 per cent., now 30 to 35 per cent ad valorem. Wools Placed on the Free List. All wools, wools on the skins, shoddy, waste, etc., are placed on the free list after July 1. On flannels, blankets, woolen bats, knitted hoods, woolen or worsted yarns, and i manufactures of every description, composed wholly or in part of worsted, 40 per cent, ad valorem—the present section relating to this class of goods except such as are composed in part of wool. Woolen and worsted cloths, shawls, and all manufactures of wool of every description, made wholly or in part of wool or worsted, not specially provided for, 40 per cent, ad valorem —the present duties on flannels, etc., range from 10 cents per pound and 35 per cent, ad valorem to 35 cents per pound and 40 per cent.

ad valorem, and on woolen cloths, etc., from 35 cents per pound and 85 per cent, ad valorem to 35 cents per pound and 40 per cent ad valorem. Bunting 40 percent, ad valorem—new 10 cents a yard and 35 per cent, ad valorem. women and children s dress goods, coat linings, Italians, etc., 40 per cent ad valorem; the present duties range lrom 5 cents per yaid and 35 per cent ad valorem to 9 cents per yard and 40 per cent ad valorem. Clothing readymade and wearing apparel of every description of wool except knit goods, 45 per cent ad valorem, now 40 cents per pound and 35 per cent ad valorem. Cloaks, dolmans, and other outside garments for ladies and childie 1, wholly or in part of wool, 45 per cent aa valorem, now 45 cents per pound and 40 per cent ad valorem. Webbings, cords, dress trimmings, braided buttons, etc., of wool, 5b per cent ad valorem, now 30 cents per pound and 5J per cent, ad valorem. All carpets, 30 per cent, ad valorem, now ranging from 6 cents per yard for hemp or jute to 45 cents ser yard and $0 per cent, ad valorem for Aiminster and other high grades. Endless belts for printing machines. 31 per cent ad valorem, now z 0 cents per pound and 30 per cent ad valorem. Paper, sized or glued, J 5 per cent ad valorem, and printing paper, sized, 12 per cent od valorem, now 15 and 20 per cent Paper and other fancy boxes, 30 per cent, ail valorem, now 35. Envelopes, 30 per cent, ad valorem, now 35. Beads, 40 per cent, ad valorem, now 50. Blacking, 20 per cent ad valorem, now 25. Brooms, brushes, 20 per cent ad valorem, now 25 and 30 respectively. Walking-sticks, 20 per cent, ad valorem, now 35. Card clothing, 15 and 25 cents per square foot, now 25 and 45.

Carriages, Matches, and Marble. Carriages, and parts of, not enumerated, 30 per cent, ad valorem, now 35. Dolls, toys, and fans (except paim-leaf). 30 per cent, ad valorem, now 35, Feathers of ail kinds, 35 per cent, ad valorem, now 50. Matches 25 per cent, ad valorem, now 35. Gloves of all descriptions, 40 per cent., now 50. Gun-wads, 25 per cent, ad valorem, now 35. Guttapercha, manufactured,and hard-rubber articles, 30 per cent, ad valorem, now 35. Hair jewelry and ringlets, 25 per cent, ad valorem, now 35. Hat bodies of cotton, 30 per cent, ad valorem, now 85. Hatters’ plush, 15 per cent, ad valorem, now 25. India-rubber fabrics, boots, and shoes, 15 per cent, ad valorem, now 30. Inks nnd ink powders, 20 per cent, ad valorem, now 30. Japan wares, 30 per cent ad valorem, now 40. Marble, sawed, dressed, slabs and paving tiles, 85 cents per cubic foot, now sllO. Marble, manufactured and not enumerated, 30 per cent ad valorem, now 50. Papier-mache articles, 25 per cent ad valo rem, now 30. Percussion caps, 30 per cent, ad valorem, now 40. Philosophical instruments, 25 per cent ad valorem, now 35. Pipes and smokers’ articles not enumerated, 50 pjr cent, ad valorem, and clay pipes 25 per cent, ad valorem, now 70 and 33 respectively. Umbrellas and parasols, frames and ribs, 30 per cent, ad valorem, and umbrellas of silk or alpaca, 30 per cent ad vali rem, now 40 and 50 per ceut. respectively. Cotton or flax webbing, 30 per cent, ad valorem, now 33. ’ihe remainder of the bill—twenty-five printed pages—is made up entirely of the leading features of the old Hewitt administration bill, such as the similarity clause, the provisions intended to guard against smuggling, the exempting of theatrical scenery and wardrobes when intended for temporary use in the United States', and tourists’ wearing apparel; a clause providing for the taxation of cartons or coverings; a section intended to prevent the false invoices and undervaluations and providing for the punishment of persons guilty of these offenses ;' the extension of the warehouse privilege to three years; the abolition of allowance for damage in warehouses, the abolition of ail fees upon entries of imported goods, anil the requirement that invoices shall be submitted to United States consultr officers before exportation to tho United States ; the section relative to appeals in customs cases and limiting the time within which such suits can be brought; tho bestowal i f sole jurisdiction in the trial of suits against United States Collectors upon United States Circuit Courts, and the penalty clause, directed against the attempted briberv of customs officials.

A Proposed Reduction of 853,000,000.'J The latest estimate made by the Committee on Ways and 1 Means of tue probable reductions in revenue that would be effected by the passage of the bill are as follows: Chemicals, $73. ,000; china and glass, $1,600,000; cottons, S27i,OJU; provisions. $500,000 (approximated); woolen goods, $12,300,000; sundries, $1,000,000; paper, 8 ,suo; sugars, $11,000,000; hemp, flax, an 1 jute, $1,800,000; metals, $1,500,0 JO (approximated); free list, $22,230,000. Thi* would make the total reduction about $53,000,000. Chairman Mills said that Internal revenue changes ha 1 been purposely excluded from the bill. The Democratic members were still considering that subject, and it was not possible to say at this time whether the reductions would result in the presentation, of another bill dealing specifically with the internet revenue or in the inclusion of some provisions bearing upon that system in the present bill at some future stone. REPUBLICANS NOT SATISFIED. They Will Bring; In a Bill of Tlielr Own— Randall Men Dissatisfied. [Washington special to Chicago News.] The Republican members of the Ways and Means Committee have not formally decided upon a course of action in regard to the consideration of the bill, but it is understood that they will insist on having called before the committee manufacturers and others who will bo affected by it, that they may learn from them what the effect of the chanjgte will be. What is known as the Bwadall lollowing fn the House does not seem to be satisfied with the bill. Free wool, lumber, and several other items on the free list create much outspoken criticism, and at least four of the Louisiana members will oppose the bill on account of the redactions on sugar. Mr, Randall will have his bill prepared iu a few days. The Republicans will not depend on Mr. Randall for a bill, but will bring forward a measure of their own. Opinions from Boston. [Boston telegram.] Among Iron and steel men in this city the proposed tariff ohanges were received without surprise, and the general impression prevails that hardly any difference would result from the reduction. The wool dealers are unanimous in assorting that the bill will never be passed. They manifest little concern beyond saying that if it should pass the local trade at least would be seriously demoralized. This adverse view of the measure is shared in very generally by the textile houses.

Pennsylvanians Object. [Pittsburg special to Chicago Tribune.] The new tariff bill fails to meet the approval of Pittsburg iron and glass men. Said an iron, manufacturer this evening : “It must be defeat ed at any cost, or our industries will be ruined.* There will be a meeting held some time next week and a committee anpointed to go to Washington to lobby against the measure. The opposition to the bill is not confined to the Republicans ; some of its most bitter opponents are Democrats.