192 



CONGRESS. (THE TARIFF MEASURE.) 



payment of duties, while the average citizen un- 

 able to go abroad was compelled to pay a duty 

 upon the articles which he might want* to use. 

 The limit of $500 is believed to be sufficient for 

 all honest purposes. 



" We have also introduced a new provision in 

 the bill which requires that foreign merchandise 

 imported into the United States shall be plainly 

 stamped with the name of the country in which 

 such articles are manufactured. There has been 

 a custom too general in some foreign countries to 

 adopt American brands to the injury of our own 

 manufacturers. Well-known articles of Ameri- 

 can production with high reputation have been 

 copied by the foreigner and then by the addition 

 of the American brand or American marks have 

 fraudulently displaced American manufacture, 

 not in fair competition, but under false pretenses. 

 The counterfeit has taken the place of the genu- 

 ine article, and this we propose to stop. 



' Section 49 of the bill provides that goods, 

 wares, and merchandise and all articles manu- 

 factured in whole or in part in any foreign coun- 

 try by convict labor shall not be entitled to entry 

 at any of the ports of the United States, and 

 the importation thereof is prohibited. Nearly, 

 if not all of the States of the Union have laws 

 to prevent the products of convict labor in the 

 State penitentiaries from coming in competition 

 with the product of the free labor of such States. 

 The committee believed that the free labor of 

 this country should be saved from the convict 

 labor of other countries, as it has been from the 

 convict labor of our own States, and so recom- 

 mend this provision. It will be of small account 

 to protect our workmen against our own convict 

 labor and still admit the convict-made products 

 of the world to free competition with our free 

 labor. 



" By way of encouraging exportation to other 

 countries and extending our markets, the com- 

 mittee have liberalized the drawbacks given up- 

 on articles or products imported from abroad 

 and used in manufactures here for the export 

 trade. Existing law refunds 90 per cent, of the 

 duties collected upon foreign materials made 

 into the finished product at home and exported 

 abroad, while the proposed bill will refund 99 

 per cent, of said duties, giving to our citizens en- 

 gaged in this business 9 per cent, additional en- 

 couragement, the Government retaining only 1 

 per cent, for the expenses of handling. 



"We have also extended the drawback pro- 

 vision to apply to all articles imported which 

 may be finished here for use in the foreign 

 market. Heretofore this privilege was limited. 

 This, it is believed, will effectually dispose of the 

 argument so often made that our tariff on raw 

 materials, so called, confines our own producers 

 to their own market and prevents them from 

 entering the foreign market, and will furnish 

 every opportunity to those of our citizens desir- 

 ing it to engage in the foreign trade. 



" Now, the bill proposes that the American 

 citizen may import any product he desires, manu- 

 facture it into the finished article, using in part, 

 if necessary, in such manufacture domestic ma- 

 terials, and when the completed product is en- 

 tered for export refunds to him within 1 per 

 cent, of all the duty he paid upon his imported 

 materials. 



" In the same direction we have made, by sec- 

 tion 23, manufacturing establishments engaged 

 in smelting or refining metals in the United 

 States bonded warehouses under such regulations 

 as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe, 

 and have provided that metals in any'crude form 

 requiring smelting or refining to make them 

 available in the arts imported into the United 

 States to be smelted or refined and intended for 

 export in a refined state, to be exempt from the 

 payment of duties. This, it is believed, will 

 encourage smelting and refining of foreign ma- 

 terials in the United States, and build up large 

 industries upon the sea-coast and elsewhere, which 

 will make an increased demand for the labor of 

 the country. 



" It completely, if the provision be adopted, 

 disposes of what has sometimes seemed to be an 

 almost unanswerable argument that has been 

 presented by our friends on the other side, that 

 if we only had free raw material we could go out 

 and capture the markets of the world. We give 

 them now within 1 per cent, of free raw material, 

 and invite them to go out and capture the mar- 

 kets of the world. 



" It is asserted in the views of the minority, 

 submitted with the report accompanying this 

 bill, that the operation of the bill will not dimin- 

 ish the revenues of the Government ; that with 

 the increased duties we have imposed upon for- 

 eign articles which may be sent to market here 

 we have increased taxation, and that therefore 

 instead of being a diminution of the revenues of 

 the Government there will be an increase in the 

 sum of fifty or sixty million dollars. 



" Now, that statement is entirely misleading. 

 It can only be accepted upon the assumption that 

 the importation of the present year under this 

 bill, if it becomes a law, will be equal to the 

 importations of like articles under the existing 

 law ; and there is not a member of the Com- 

 mittee on Ways and Means, there is not a mem- 

 ber of the minority of that committee, there is 

 not a member of the House on either side, who 

 does not know that the very instant that you 

 have increased the duties to a fair protective 

 point, putting them above the highest revenue 

 point that very instant you diminish importa- 

 tions and to that extent diminish the revenue. 



" The bill recommends the retention of the 

 present rates of duty on earthen and china v;ire. 

 No other industry in the United States cither 

 requires or deserves the fostering care of Govern- 

 ment more than this one. It is a business re- 

 quiring technical and artistic knowledge and 

 the most careful attention to the many and deli- 

 cate processes through which the raw material 

 must pass to the completed product. For many 

 years, and down to 1863, the pottery industry of 

 the United States had had little or no success, ;ui<l 

 made but slight progress in a practical and com- 

 mercial way. At the close of the low-tariff period 

 of 1860 there was but one pottery in the I "nited 

 States, with two kilns. There were no decorat- 

 ing kilns at that time. 



" In 1873, encouraged by the tariff and the 

 gold premium, which was an added protection, 

 we had increased to 20 potteries, with 68 kilns, 

 but still no decorating kilns. The capital in- 

 vested was $1,020,000. and the value of the prod- 

 uct was $1,180,000. In 1882 there were 55 pot- 



