Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 April 1893 — Why Ad Valorem Duties? [ARTICLE]

Why Ad Valorem Duties?

The tariff bill proposed by the Reform Club contains only ad valorem duties. The only actual tariff composed entirely of ad valorem duties was the “Walker Tariff bill* of 1846, a bill which gave greater prosperity to all classes, and especially the farrier, than was ever enjoyed before or since. Here is one of Secretary Walker’s reasons in favor of this feature of his bill: “The tax upon the actual value is the most equal, and can only be accomplished by ad valorem duties. * * * All specific duties should be abolished and ad valorem duties substituted in tbeir place. * * * If an annual tax of S3O was assessed on all houses, without respect to their actual value, making the owner of the humble tenement or cabin pay a tax of S3O and the owner of a costly mansion a tax of but S3O on their respective houses, it would differ only in a degree, but not in principle, from the same unvarying specific duty on cheap as on fine articles. •