THE NEW TARIFF IN THE UNITED STATES.

Waikato Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 3492, 10 November 1894, Page 11

THE NEW TARIFF IN THE UNITED STATES.

Some of the United Status papers recently arrived give particulars of the new tariff, and the %ure.s are full of interest, because the telegraphic news hitherto received has been seauty, and has but imperfectly indicated the exteut of the? changes that have been made. The free list, which, as already known, puts our great staple, wool, in a position of advantage, iucludes also antimony, copper, tallow, and timber -all articles which are to be obtained here. Amougst the reduced duties are the followiuir.—Bituminous coal, reduced immTl'lh to 12*12 percent; tinplates, from 78-44 t042-32 per cent; blocks of wood, from 35 to 25 per cent; extract of meat, from 17'95 to 15 per cent; woollen yarns, from 27-SGG to 30 per cent; blankets, from 80*104 per cent to 35 per cent, etc. Some of these duties are specific, but what they represent ad valorem is given hero for thepurpose of facilitating comparison. The loDg-contiiiued struggle over the tariff, and. the reports from time to time of the success of the Protectionists in the Senate in their endeavours to bring the changeswithin the smallest compass, have been the subject of much exultation amongst Protectionists in the colonies, who have contrasted the results - imperfectly known as they were-with the sanguiue expectations formed by Freetraders in. the colonies when the Tariff Bill was introduced. But no one who recognised, the strength of vested interests really believed that Protection would be struck down in the United States at a blow. • What we now see, with the comparativefigures before us, is the extravagant lengths to which Protection had been carried in the United States, its futility, even when pushed to extremes, and the substantial character of the relorm which after all has been accomplished. The drop on woollen yarns from 37 8 per cent, to 30 per cent is significant on all these points. Tinplates are in extensive use in the United States, and, under the M'Kinley tariff, heaven and earth were moved to establishthe manufacture on a sound foundation. It might have been thought that a duty of 78 per cent, ad valorem would have stopped importation and forced the local manufacture into use. The undertaking has failed, and now a duty of 42 per cent is to bo tried as an experiment. It was amiscalculation to expect a sudden reversal of the traditional policy of the country, reeing that it has been buttressed by a host of powerful interests. But it is also a mistake to make too light of the change whinh has really been effected iu the teeth of direct and indirect, honest and corrupt opposition.