are worth preserving, then American industries -Senator J. H. Gallinger, of New Hampshire. AD VALORUM DUTIES, (Continued.) SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY MEREDITH, In 1849 said: "A specific duty is more easily assessed, more favorable to commerce more equal, and less exposed to frauds than any other system." SECRETARY MANNING, The first Democratic Secretary of the Treasury since the war, reported on the relative merits of specific and ad valorem duties. In preparing this report, which was transmitted to Congress in 1885, he took the preliminary step of addressing an inquiry to the men of practical and special experience, consisting of all the collectors and Treasury agents of long service and high standing. The answers were without exception in favor of specific duties, and many of them were especially forcible in their condemnation of the ad valorem system. MR. JAMES D. POWER, A special agent of sixteen years service, made the following strong statement: "Ad valorem rates of duty afford temptations and opportunities for fraud which cannot be guarded against, even by the most rigid rules and vigilant watchfulness. The assessment of values under this system is based upon expert knowledge of values, the most uncertain and arbitrary methods that could be devised, *** Fraud of this nature is diffieult to detect, and more difficult still to establish. In the absence of documentary proof it resolves itself into a mere difference of opinion between experts." CLEVELAND ADMINISTRATION: On the basis of this expert evidence the following strong position was taken in two separate Treasury reports. "That very extensive frauds have, during many years, been perpetrated upon the revenue by false invoice value, I cannot doubt. *** Sellers openly propose to buyers in those cities [the great cities of Europe] to make a fictitious invoice for use at the custom-house in this country."-Secretary Manning, 1885. "It is therefore desirable that in revising and reducing rates of duty they should be made specific instead of ad valorem so far as the nature of the merchandise will admit. Theoretically considered, ad valorem are preferable to specific duties; but in practice *** the former are the too easy source of deception and inequality at the custom-house."-Secretary Fairchild, 1887. PHILADELPHIA RECORD. of December 1, 1893 says: That great Democratic organ, in its issue "One of the most unsatisfactory features of the new tariff bill is its ar without power to use them, which is no more AD VALOREM DUTIES, (Continued.) bitrary substitution of ad valorem for specific duties. This is contrary to the policy of commercial nations that have had quite as much experience as our own with the operation of tariff laws. Every government of Europe has found itself obliged to adopt the specific system of duties in view of the temptations and opportunities to commit fraud on the revenues. What with corruption, inside and outside of the custom-house, these governments have seen that it would take an army of officials, constantly watching each other, to protect the revenues from fraudulent artifices under the ad valorem system. It will scarcely be pretended that the administration of the revenue laws of this country is more honest, or that there is less cunning in evading them, than in most other countries. In fact the only serious frauds upon the customs of this country are in undervaluations under the ad valorem form of duty, and of this honest merchants are constantly complaining. But the bill itself is violently inconsistent with its own theory of ad valorem duties, as many absurd examples will show. Barley, oatmeal, rye, and other farm products are reduced to an ad valorem duty of 20 per cent. and rice is reduced from a specific duty of 2 cents to 14 cents at pound. What was the necessity for this distinction? Was it feared that an ad valorem duty on rice would expose the enormous rate of protective tax?" THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, Another great Democratic newspaper gives its testimony to this effect: "If all imports are to bear an equal proportion of the burden of taxation, the natural way to ascertain this proportion would seem to be by an ad valorem tax; that is to say, a tax of such a percentage on the value of the article imported. But experience has taught that the ascertainment of the value of imports is attended with great difficulty. It has been discovered that all importers are not honest; that some of them avo arranged with the houses from which they purchase foreign goods to make up for them two invoices, the one invoice a true one and the other a false one. The true one governs only the payment for the goods and the computing of the profits on their sale in this country. The false one, is presented at the custom-house as a basis for the payment of duties. Of course the false one represents that the goods were purchased for much less than they really were." FOREIGN COUNTRIES. What has experience taught the older nations of the world? We can judge from this: At the present time England has 38 duty items, all specific: France, 619, all specific; Austria-Hungary, 357, all specific; Russia, 440, all specific; Sweden, above 300, all specific; Denmark 63, all specific; Germany, 4, all but 2 specific; Italy policy of international arrangement regarding AD VALOREM DUTIES, (Continued.) 837, all but 1 specific; Norway, about 500, all but 6 specific; Spain, 369, all but 1 specific. Is the Ways and Means Committee wiser than all the nations of the world? Almost the only American authority of any consequence that the committee can quote in support of ad valorem duties is ROBERT J. WALKER. Secretary of the Treasury in Polk's Administration, and author of the tariff bill of 1846. SECRETARY DANIEL MANNING Said this concerning that act: "Undervaluations seem to have abounded under the tariff law of 1846." It is pretended by some that the Democratic party favors "incidental " protection. JAMES BUCHANAN, Said on this subject: "Ad valorem duties deprive American manufacturers of nearly all the benefits of incidental protection." AGRICULTURE. AGRICULTURE. (See also Farmers,) AGRICULTURE IN 1846, When Democrats and Revenue Tariff were Blessing the Country. From an Ohio Newspaper. The Sheriff of Muskingum County, as, stated by the Guernsey Times in the summer of 1842, sold at auction one four-horse wagon at $5.50; ten hogs at 64 cents each; two horses (said to be worth $50 to $75 each) at $2 each; two cows at $1 each; a barrel of sugar at $1.50, and a store of goods at that rate. In Pike County, Mo., as stated by the Hanibal Journal, the Sheriff sold three horses at $1.50 each; one large ox at 12 cents; five cows, two steers and one calf, the lot at $3.25; 20 sheep at 131 cents each; 24 hogs, the lot at 25 cents each; one eight-day clock at $2.50; lot of tobacco, seven or eight hogsheads, at $5; three stacks of hay, each at 25 cents, and one stack of fodder at 25 cents. AGRICULTURE, STATISTICS OF (See Farms.) AGRICULTURE, BENEFITS &c. Who are the poor farmers, and where are they found? They are found in the sections of the Union its broadest sense, as the price and value of service, -Hon. Thomas B. Reed, Maine. AGRICULTURE, (Continued.) where the States are given up almost wholly to agriculture; they are found in localities where the market for the products of their farms is hundreds if not thousands of miles away from the places where they are produced. Another illustration is given by Prof. Dodge which still further demonstrates the benefits of protective tariff legislation to the farmers of America. In the grouping of the States, he further shows the value of products per capita to the individual cultivator. His statistics show that in the first group of States, where the population engaged in farming is less than 30 per cent, that the value of the products of the farm per capita to individual cultivator averages $457, in the second class it averages $394, in the third class $261, and in the fourth class $160; in other words, a man engaged in agriculture in any of the first group of States, for the same labor in the cultivation of the same number of acres, will make 185 per cent. more than the individual cultivator in the States where over 70 per cent. of the population is engaged in farming. These facts ought to satisfy even a British free trader that agriculture is more profitable where it has a market at the door of the farmer for all that he raises on his farm. AGRICULTURE, DEPARTMENT OF. Its new chief being meas ured by the farmers of the country. If Grover Cleveland in the selection of a Secretary of Agriculture had searched this broad land over with the single purpose of finding and placing in power the worst American enemy of the American agriculturist, he could not have made surer work than in the choice of Secretary Morton, whose unrelenting hostility to the farmers of our country has already been abundantly proved. This extremely prejudiced and amazingly self-opinionated officer has deliberately undertaken and is now earnestly prosecuting the work of breaking down the principles which have been established for half a century for the equalization of our agricultural interests with those of other great industries, and which reached their full maturity under the able administration of Mr. Morton's great predecessor. The scientific investigations made for the Department and covering the available information obtainable throughout the world were a special feature of Secretary Rusk's work is so enlarging the scope of the Department that there might come to the plain everyday agriculturalist the scientific and practical information that would enable him to so conduct his work as to secure the best results. Mr. Morton used his first opportunity to contract and cripple this arm of the work and rendered the great expenditure which had been wisely made, under the authority and direction of Congress, in its behalf almost useless. Another glaring instance of Mr. Morton's maladministration is seen in his curtailment of the meat inspection service. The pretense made by foreign governments that American meats were diseased and unwhole policy of international arrangement regarding AD VALOREM DUTIES, (Continued.) 837, all but 1 specific; Norway, about 500, all but 6 specific; Spain, 369, all but 1 specific. Is the Ways and Means Committee wiser than all the nations of the world? Almost the only American authority of any consequence that the committee can quote in support of ad valorem duties is ROBERT J. WALKER, Secretary of the Treasury in Polk's Administration, and author of the tariff bill of 1846. SECRETARY DANIEL MANNING Said this concerning that act: "Undervaluations seem to have abounded under the tariff law of 1846." It is pretended by some that the Democratic party favors "incidental " protection. JAMES BUCHANAN, Said on this subject: "Ad valorem duties deprive American manufacturers of nearly all the benefits of incidental protection." AGRICULTURE. AGRICULTURE. (See also Farmers,) AGRICULTURE IN 1846, When Democrats and Revenue Tariff were Blessing the Country. From an Ohio Newspaper. The Sheriff of Muskingum County, as. stated by the Guernsey Times in the summer of 1842, sold at auction one four-horse wagon at $5.50; ten hogs at 64 cents each; two horses (said to be worth $50 to $75 each) at $2 each; two cows at $1 each; a barrel of sugar at $1.50, and a store of goods at that rate. In Pike County, Mo., as stated by the Hanibal Journal, the Sheriff sold three horses at $1.50 each; one large ox at 12 cents; five cows, two steers and one calf, the lot at $3.25; 20 sheep at 131 cents each; 24 hogs, the lot at 25 cents each; one eight-day clock at $2.50; lot of tobacco, seven or eight hogsheads, at $5; three stacks of hay, each at 25 cents, and one stack of fodder at 25 cents. AGRICULTURE, STATISTICS OF (See Farms.) AGRICULTURE, BENEFITS &c. Who are the poor farmers, and where are they found? They are found in the sections of the Union |