194: 



CONGRESS. (THE TARIFF MEASURE.) 



products has risen from $40,000,000 in 1850, to 

 $256.000,000 in 1889. 



" We imported in the last ten years more than 

 $60,000,000 worth of horses, cattle, and sheep. 

 We imported tobacco from the Netherlands for 

 the six months ending Dec. 81, 1889, to the value 

 of $5,000,000. 



" The present rate of duty on first-class wool 

 is 10 cents per pound, and upon second-class 12 

 cents per pound. We have recommended in 

 this bill that the duty on first-class wool shall be 

 increased from 10 cents to 11 cents a pound, and 

 that the duty now fixed on second-class wools 

 shall remain 'as at present. On third-class wool 

 the present rate of duty is 2 cents per pound 

 upon all wool costing 'under 12 cents, and 5 

 cents a pound on wools costing above 12 cents. 



" The Committee on Ways and Means will of- 

 fer an amendment when this schedule is reached, 

 providing that on carpet wools the dividing line 

 shall be changed from 12 to 13 cents, and that 

 the duty on wool under 13 cents, commonly 

 known as carpet wool, shall be 32 per cent, ad 

 valorem, and above 13 cents per pound shall be 

 50 per cent, ad valorem. It will be noted that 

 we make on first-class wool an increase of 1 cent 

 a pound, and that the existing rate on second- 

 class wool shall be maintained, and the proposed 

 ad valorem rate will raise the duty on carpet 

 wools of certain grades according to their value. 



' If there is any one industry which appeals 

 with more force than another for defensive du- 

 ties it is this, and to no class of our citizens 

 should this House more cheerfully lend legisla- 

 tive assistance, where it can properly be done, 

 than to the million farmers who own sheep in 

 the United States. We can not afford as a na- 

 tion to permit this industry to be longer crip- 

 pled. 



" It is also to be noted, Mr. Chairman, that 

 having increased the duties on wools we have 

 also increased the duties on the product. the 

 manufactures of wool to compensate for the 

 increased duty on the raw product. 



" In the metal schedule, which is probably the 

 schedule in which the country is as deeply inter- 

 ested as any other in the metal schedule, start- 

 ing out at the very foundation, iron ore, we have 

 left the duty on that precisely as it exists under 

 the present law, namely, 75 'cents per ton, and 

 we left it at the same duty which was proposed 

 by my distinguished friend from Texas (Mr 

 Mills) in the bill which he presented to the last 

 Congress. The same is also true of coal. 



" Pyrites or sulphuret of iron containing in 

 excess of 25 per cent, of sulphur has been put 

 upon the free list. Pig iron, scrap iron, and 

 steel we have left at $6.72 a ton, the present 

 duty, while' the Mills bill made it $6 per ton. 

 On bar iron the difference between the proposed 

 bill and the Mills bill is one tenth of 1 cent 

 per pound. On round iron not less than three 

 fourths of an inch in diameter the present duty 

 is 1 cent per pound; the Mills bill retained it at 

 that rate, and the present bill reduces the duty to 

 nine tenths of 1 cent per pound. On cast iron pipe 

 the existing law is 1 cent per pound ; we have 

 reduced it to nine tenths of 1 cent per pound, 

 and the Mills bill reduced it to six tenths of 1 

 cent per pound. The existing tariff presents the 

 anomaly of placing a higher duty upon the sheet 



iron and steel, which constitute the chief ele- 

 ment in the production of tin plate, than upon 

 the tin-plate itself, which is a manifest wrong 

 demanding correction, independent of the ques- 

 tion of encouraging the manufacture of tin plate 

 in the United States. 



" The duty recommended in the bill is not 

 alone to correct this inequality, but to make the 

 duty on foreign tin plate high enough to insure 

 its manufacture in this country to the extent of 

 our home consumption. The only reason we 

 are not doing it now and have not been able to 

 do it in the past is inadequate duties. We have 

 demonstrated our ability to make it here as suc- 

 cessfully as in Wales. We have already made 

 it here. Two factories were engaged in produc- 

 ing tin plate in the years 1873, 1874, and 1875, 

 but no sooner had they got fairly under way 

 than the foreign manufacturer reduced his price 

 to a point which made it impossible for our man- 

 ufacturers to continue. 



" When our people embarked in the business 

 foreign tin plate was selling for $12 per box, 

 and to crush them out before they were firmly 

 established the price was brought down to $4.50 

 per box; but it did not remain there. When 

 the fires were put out in the American mills, 

 and the manufacturing thought by the foreign- 

 ers to be abandoned, the price advanced, until in 

 1879 it was selling for $9 and $10 a box. 



" Our people again tried it, and again the 

 prices were depressed, and again our people 

 abandoned temporarily the enterprise, and as a 

 gentleman stated before the committee, twice 

 they have lost their whole investment through 

 the combination of the foreign manufacturers in 

 striking down the prices, not for the benefit of 

 the consumer, but to drive our manufacturers 

 from the business ; and this would be followed 

 by an advance within six months after our mills 

 were shut down. 



" We proposed this advanced duty to protect 

 our manufacturers and consumers against the 

 British monopoly, in the belief that it will de- 

 fend our capital and labor in the production of 

 tin plate until they shall establish an industry 

 which the English will recognize has come to 

 stay, and then competition will insure regular 

 and reasonable prices to consumers. It may add 

 a little temporarily to the cost of tin plate to 

 the consumer, but 'will eventuate in steadier and 

 more satisfactory prices. At the present prices 

 for foreign tin plate, the proposed duty would 

 not add anything to the cost of the heavier 

 grade of tins to the consumer. If the entire duty 

 was added to the cost of the can it would not 

 advance it more than one third or one half of 1 

 cent ; on a dozen fruit cans the addition would 

 only be about 3 cents. 



"Now, Mr. Chairman, the important part of 

 the metal schedule, and that which will probably 

 be most harshly assailed, is that proposed in con- 

 nection with the duty on tin plate. 



" The bill proposes to advance the duty from 

 1 cent per pound, the present rate, to T85 and 



2'15 cents per pound, varying according to 



" We have increased the duty, as I have al- 

 ready said, upon carpet wools, and that has 

 necessitated an increase of the duty upon car- 

 pets themselves. The committee believed that 

 this increased duty would be doing even justice 



