money, but to spend it. But it is equally true that Congress is contracting lax habits, and ought to change them. 83. THE UNDERWOOD TARIFF, 1913. The great revenue measure of the national government is the tariff law. This law is not enacted annually, as are the appropriation measures, but once adopted is allowed to stand until industrial or political changes necessitate a reform. Such an occasion arose in 1913 and, like a similar occasion in 1909, was considered of sufficient importance to warrant the assembling of a special session of Congress. In anticipation of this event the Committee of Ways and Means of the House and the Finance Committee of the Senate had been engaged almost constantly for several months in the collection of data from which the new tariff could be formulated. Public hearings were given by these committees which were attended by manufacturers and importers from all parts of the country and which resulted in the collection of an enormous mass of testimony and information regarding the effect of the several rates of duty upon various business interests. Upon the basis of the evidence thus collected, Mr. Underwood, Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, framed a bill which he introduced immediately after the assembling of the special session called by President Wilson on April 7. On May 9 the bill passed the House and went to the Senate, where, after four months' consideration and the addition of 676 amendments, it was passed on September 9. The measure was then sent to a Conference Committee which, having reconciled the differences between the two houses, reported on September 29. The bill then finally passed the House on October 1, the Senate on October 2, and was signed by the President on October 3. The significant features of the law thus enacted are, the reduction of the duties levied from an average of 40.12 per centum in the Payne-Aldrich Tariff, to 26 per centum in the Underwood Tariff, this being a lower average duty than any since the tariff of 1857; a large increase in the free list including wool, sugar (after the expiration of three years), wheat, flour, meat, lumber, boots and shoes; and the inclusion of a tax on all incomes exceeding $3,000. The following extracts will serve to illustrate the manner in which the duties are arranged. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That on and after the day following the passage of this Act, except as otherwise specially provided for in this Act, there shall be levied, collected, and paid upon all articles when imported from any foreign country into the United States or into any of its possessions (except the Philippine Islands and the island of Guam and Tutuila) the rates of duty which are by the schedules and paragraphs of the dutiable list of this section prescribed, namely: DUTIABLE LIST. Schedule A: Chemicals, Oil and Paints. 1. Acids: Boracic acid, 3⁄44 cents per pound; citric acid, 5 cents per pound; formic acid, 12 cents per pound. 12. Bleaching powder, or chloride of lime, 1/10 cent per pound. 66. Soaps: Perfumed toilet soaps, 30 per centum ad valorem; medicinal soaps, 20 per centum ad valorem; castile soap, and unperfumed toilet soap, 10 per centum ad valorem. 67. Soda: Benzoate of, 5 cents per pound. 68. Sponges: Trimmed or untrimmed but not advanced in value by chemical processes, 10 per centum ad valorem. Schedule B: Earths, Earthenware and Glassware. 71. Fire brick, magnesite brick, chrome brick, and brick not specially provided for in this section, not glazed, enameled, painted, vitrified, ornamented, or decorated in any manner, 10 per centum ad valorem. 73. Lime, 5 per centum ad valorem. Schedule C: Metals and Manufactures of. 119. Automobiles, valued at $2,000 or more, and automobile bodies, 45 per centum ad valorem. 120. Bicycles, motor cycles, and finished parts thereof, not including tires, 25 per centum ad valorem. 132. Muskets, air-rifles, muzzle-loading shotguns and rifles, and parts thereof, 15 per centum ad valorem. Schedule D: Wood and Manufactures of. 170. Paving posts, railroad ties, and telephone, trolley, electric-light and telegraph poles of cedar or other woods, 10 per centum ad valorem. 173. Chair cane or reeds wrought or manufactured from rattans or reeds, 10 per centum ad valorem. 174. Toothpicks of wood or other vegetable substance, 25 per centum ad valorem. Schedule E: Sugar, Molasses and Manufactures of. 177. Sugars, tank bottoms, sirups of cane juice, melada, concentrated melada, concrete and concentrated molasses, testing by the polariscope not above seventy-five degrees, seventy-one one hundredths of 1 cent per pound. Pro vided, That on and after the first day of May, nineteen hundred and sixteen, the articles hereinbefore enumerated in this paragraph shall be admitted free of duty. Schedule F: Tobacco and Manufactures of. 181. Wrapper tobacco, and filler tobacco when mixed or packed with more than 15 per centum of wrapper tobacco, and all leaf tobacco the product of two or more countries or dependencies when mixed or packed together, if unstemmed, $1.85 per pound; if stemmed, $2.50 per pound. 185. Cigars, cigarettes, cheroots of all kinds, $4.50 per pound and 25 per centum ad valorem. Schedule G: Agricultural Products and Provisions. 186. Horses and mules, 10 per centum ad valorem. 192. Oats, 6 cents per bushel of thirty-two pounds. 195. Butter and butter substitutes, 212 cents per pound. 196. Cheese and substitutes therefor, 20 per centum ad valorem. 215. Vegetables in their natural state, not specially provided for in this section, 15 per centum ad valorem. Schedule H: Spirits, Wines and Other Beverages. 237. Brandy and other spirits manufactured or distilled from grain or other materials, and not specially provided for in this section, $2.60 per proof gallon. 242. Bay rum or bay water, whether distilled or compounded, of first proof, and in proportion for any greater strength than first proof, $1.75 per gallon. Schedule I: Cotton Manufactures. 251. Spool thread of cotton, crochet, darning, and embroidery cottons, on spools, reels, or balls, or in skeins, cones, or tubes, or in any other form, 15 per centum ad valorem. 252. Cotton cloth, not bleached, dyed, colored, printed, woven figured, or mercerized containing yarns the average number of which does not exceed number nine, 712 per centum ad valorem. ... 256. Clothing, ready-made, and articles of wearing apparel of every description, composed of cotton or other vegetable fiber, . . . made up or manufactured, wholly or in part, by the tailor, seamstress, or manufacturer, and not otherwise specially provided for in this section, 30 per centum ad valorem. Schedule J: Flax, Hemp and Jute, and Manufactures of. 272. Floor mattings, plain, fancy, or figured including what are commonly known as China, Japan, and India straw matting, 212 cents per square yard. 277. Shirt collars and cuffs, composed in whole or in part of linen, 30 per centum ad valorem. Schedule K: Wool and Manufactures of. 291. Clothing, ready-made, and articles of wearing apparel of every description, including shawls whether knitted or woven, and knitted articles of every description made up or manufactured wholly or in part, and not specially provided for in this section, composed wholly or in chief value of wool, 35 per centum ad valorem. 298. Treble ingrain, three-ply, and all chain Venetian carpets, 20 per centum ad valorem. Schedule L: Silks and Silk Goods. 317. Clothing, ready-made, and articles of wearing apparel of every description, including knit goods, made up or manufactured in whole or in part all the foregoing com not specially provided for in this sec posed of silk Schedule M: Papers and Books. suitable for the printing of 322. Printing paper books and newspapers, but not for covers or bindings valued above 212 cents per pound, 12 per centum ad valorem. not 329. Books of all kinds, bound or unbound specially provided for in this section, 15 per centum ad valorem. Schedule N: Sundries. 35 per centum ad va 333. Beads and spangles lorem. 336. Brooms, made of broom corn, straw, wooden fibre, or twigs, 15 per centum ad valorem. composed 354. Hats, bonnets, or hoods, for men's, women's, boys', or children's wear, trimmed or untrimmed wholly or in chief value of fur valorem. FREE LIST. 45 per centum ad That on and after the day following the passage of this Act, except as otherwise specially provided for in this Act, the articles mentioned in the following paragraphs shall be exempt from duty. 425. Books, maps, music, engravings which shall have been printed more than twenty years at the date of importation. 426. Books and pamphlets printed wholly or chiefly in languages other than English; also books and music, in raised print, used exclusively by the blind, and all textbooks used in schools and other educational institutions. |