THE AMERICAN TARIFF.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 581, 9 August 1909, Page 4

THE AMERICAN TARIFF.

After months • of confusion . and turmoil, the new American tariff has at last beon finally settled. \ye have not heard much about the tariff debates, mainly because there has been soimuch uncertainty throughout that even the American newspapers periodically threw up their hands in despair'.of over knowing exactly what was taking place. At the election "tariff revision" was the great issue; the 1 Democrats were all for instant revision wards and the Republicans were pledged to "early" revision, the general understanding being that the wall, under the shadow of whjch the consumer was groaning and the Trusts growing ever stronger, would bo substantially lowered. The .Payne Bill, on its introduction, was of such a character that the New York Post, the grcatpst champion of the consumer, and the most powerful of the low-tariff journals, applauded its terms very heartily. But tho' reductions wore mado chiefly on articles of small import significance,, and there was a general agreement with the. estimate of one prominent Senator.that fclie ; average rates were raised by li per cent.. The Paynu Bill was considerably altered by tinFinance Committee, under. Senator Aldrich, and altered, it si)on became clear,.to the rage of the Democrats and to a wing of tho RbpubUcans, in tbo dircc-

] tion of outdoing the Dingley schedule. Tho position early in June was conveniently summed up by the New York l'nsl's Washington correspondent in these words: "Congress has been called in extraordinary session for the einglo and specific purpose of reducing the tariff duties levied upon imports. The House of Representatives has increased instead of diminished the general average of the existing rates. There is pending in tho Senate a Bill to increase the average of the rates approved by the House, and the proponent of tho Bill has at his command a sufficient number of votes to pass it." The statement of tho Daily Mail's New York correspondent that the tariff ensures victory for the Democrats' at the next election agrees fairly enough with the; weight of American newspaper opinion so far as the public view of the lle- . publican "revision" is concerned. The net result of Congress's labours has been the stiffening of the already stiff rates under the Dingley law. The 1 new Bill consists of two parts. The first part contains the schedule; tho second part provides that on and after March 31 next the_ tariff- will be the duties of part one-, plus 25 per cont. ad valorem, plus a ui-.w duty of five cents a pound on coffee and ten cents a pound on tea. Provision is inado for the substitution of the minimum for the maximum tariff for tho benefit of any particular country that gives fair trade relations to America. This arrangement is to supersede all existing reciprocity treaties. The chief use of America to New Zealand is as a customer for our wool, and the woollen duties havo all been increased. \