Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (March 26, 1909)
&'fJ?utWl iBTTj WTTirill iW I II I I III I l inTnTM 6 on lemons, cocoa and substitutes for coffee, coal tar dyes, gloves and coated papers and litho graphic prints. ..,.. , As was expected, the now tariff bill is made on a maximum and minimum basis, with the provision that the maximum rates are not to go into ofTcct until sixty days after the passage of tho bill. Tho reciprocity provisions are con tained in tho paragraphs assessing duties on bituminous coal and coke and agricultural im plements, in which these articles are given entry frco of duty when imported from countries which pormit tho free importation of these art icles from America. A provision in tho bill is designed to meet tho conditions resulting from tho patent laws of Great Britain which requires that patentees must manufacture their articles within Great Britain. This provision applies the samo rules to patents taken out in this country by aliens as applies to Americans in the country of the aliens. Drawback privileges are extended by tho bill and tho method of valuation on articles up on which tho tariff imposes an ad valorem duty is broadened for tho purpose of preventing the practico of under valuation. AN IMPORTANT PROVISION One important provision of tho bill relates to the method of valuation. Mr. Payne, chair man of tho ways and means committee, explains that provision in this way: "Tho bill adds a now paragraph to section 11 of the customs administrative act which pro vides for tho appraisement of goods imported by consignment and not by sale where thero is no market price at the place of origin of tho goods. After re-enacting the present provisions to ascertain tho value tho bill adds this para graph : "Tho actual markot value or wholesale prico aro designed by law of any Imported merchan dise which is consigned for sale in the United States, or which is not actually sold and freely offered for sale in usual wholesale quantities In tho open market of tho country of exporta tion to all purchasers shall not in any case bo appraised at less than tho wholesale price at which such or similar imported merchandise is actually sold and freely offered for sale in usual wholesale quantities in the United States in the open markot to all purchasers, due allowance by deduction being made for estimated duties thoroon, cost of transportation, insurance and othor necessary expenses from tho place of ship ment to tho place of delivery and a reasonable commission not exceeding ten per centum, if any of the same has been paid." "It will bo seen that this provision is only appllod to consigned goods and not to those actually sold for Importation." THERE IS A JOKER IN THE BILL There is a joker in the republican tariff bill. The Washington correspondent for tho Phila delphia North-American, republican, says: The work presonts, however, so many doubtful fea tures, that tariff revision has become of second ary importance) to the revising of the tariff bill. -hnW i8ldJclaJ0il Positively that the committee had no intention of imposing the maximum rates upon products from a country that makes tariff concessions to its own colonies. Members of tho committoo said tho bill did not seek to affect tho commercial relations between a country and its dependencies. It was not until the languace was brought to thoir attention that they would .admit that such a construction could be placed .Sf??wlt' TihiGI thy agreed that Possibly a cle r W necessary to make the bill This is the exact provision of the measure in ToTtm' Sme th suPrfluo languagS "Whenovor, on or after sixty days after tho passage of this act, any country, province, de pendency cr colony discriminates against any article imported from the United States, or aSy .territory belonging thereto, tho growth or nro 1 U,CtnIn tT10 or in PRrt of the Ion or hidus??; of the United States, or any territory be?on "ne thereto by levying duties, imports, excises o? S.8neon.ln X?esS of thso levied pon sim ilar articles Imported from any other count province, dependency or colony, or in any to ??nl!i 2d,!m any articl Imported frSm the United States or any territory belonirlnS thereto, on terms as favorable as those SS2E5 to any article imported from aUy other countA? -province, dependency or colony! there slmS levied tho maximum rates." l bo AS A RANKER SEES IT Senator Crowley of Colorado has given to tho The Commoner. newspapers' a letter written to a Colorado banker by an Oklahoma banker. Tho letter received by Walter A. Saunders, cashier of tho Bank of Commerce of Pueblo, Colorado, was written by Claudo R. Rorer, cashier of tho Bank of Com merce of Shawnee, Oklahoma. In transmitting tho letter to Senator Crowley Mr. Saunders, tho Colorado banker, said that ho was "sure that the bankers who are now fighting tho measure will "in time see its advantages were the bill made a law as was the case in Oklahoma." Mr. Rorer, tho Oklahoma banker, wrote: "We have now been working under tho Oklahoma guaranty law since February 15, 1908. On that date our deposits wore $220,000; they are now $340,000. At the time the law went into effect conditions were very unsatisfactory to do business under. We were forced to keep a strong reserve; in fact, we have had an aver age reserve of forty-five per cent for the last six years up to the time the law went into effect, but tho law has given a stability to our de posits so that wo now feel safe with thirty-three per cent and this on our deposits gives us an additional loanable amount sufficient in itself to pay tho guaranty assessment. "Also at tho time tho law went into effect we were all paying six per cent on time certifi cates of deposit; under the new law we only were allowed to pay four per cent. Last year we paid in interest on deposits over $8,000; this year it will be less than $6,000, so there is an other saving to tho bank of as much as the assessment of one per cent on total deposits. "Figure the increase in deposits and the amount of loanable funds that it will give and you have another saving to the bank that works out on the profit side of the ledger. There isn't any question as to the benefit it gives to the depositor, so I am giving you the other side. "They will argue you that the unknown lia bility is a feature that makes it 'terrible.' Well, wo all know from statistics that there are so many fires, so many deaths and so many births each year, so do we know that there are about so many mercantile and bank failures each year. "Certainly fire and life insurance companies do business right along and figure on losses. Just so with banks. It takes a part of your profits, but let me impress upon you now that we are getting money from out of hiding places where it has been since the panic. We have deposits in several of the eastern states, one in Panama, one sailor that makes his remit tances every pay day people that we do not know and never heard tell of until the guaranty law went into effect. We are able to assimilate the business from our national bankers in the very face of the fact that they are offering one per cent and two per cent more on deposits. We are getting new business every day and the other fellow isn't. We get the class that is most desirable. The people want some security. All the talk in the papers about encouraging poor banking is folly. When heretofore loose banking was the order of things, now they indict them and let them fix it afterward. Excess loans are not permitted. . 4.If,an offlcer borrows money from the bank to theTtT7' And they are enforcin the -law "I think tho Oklahoma law can be improved !ivf?lei,r,e!peot8 and wil1 bQ Possibly at the next legislature. I think that they will levy siff iian U?H! the total amount sha11 recZ say a million dollars, and the state will become guarantor and hold the funds to protect the w ? i present tt state is not 'back of the banks, only as sponsor of the fund,' but I think S th Ghua bec0me absolutely responsible lfahn ?v df?nfSUor an,d eliminato the unknown cornedf B aV as the banks aT0 con" "The national bankers of this state secretlv seWes. Vr f "' " they COuld Eet " fo? them- "Wiiere we only had one bank examiner we now have five, and they are working things out to a perfection. Every time a baaker pokes his head up and violates the law aey crack f? A BIT OP ELOQUENCE ne2!!; "? readers of The Commoner are poi using the speeches made on the Lincoln an- VOLUME 9, NUMBER n niversary they may be interested in a bit of word painting taken from a speech made bv General John C. Black at Lincoln City, ind when the monument to Nancy Hanks Lincoln was dedicated. General Black said: "We come, O woman and mother, here to build our memorial to thee. Thine earthly gar ments were damp with the dews of the wilder ness; thy feet were torn by the thorns of thy pathway; but in thine arms thou didst nourish the babe of thy sacrifices, him the master of his time, the beloved of the centuries to be the servant of justice and the liberator of tho oppressed. And so for thy own sake and thy child's sake we are here to do this fitting honor "Here she gave that child, in the simple log cabin, now gone to ruin, his first lesson; here in his father's presence, she sowed tho seed of truth and justice, afterward to mature a mighty harvest. Here she stood and pointed upward, little comprehending, if at all, tho future that awaited. "And this is all her story. But the years passed on the nation was in the throes of a great war; at its head was the child of this woman. Armies moved at his com mand and navies obeyed his orders. "The great war drew to its triumphal close. Its mightiest actor, too, approached his end He sailed that sea where we all embark. And I sometimes fancy that, on the dark barge of the president's dream, there waited for him, standing amid the dense throng of his dead guards and statesmen who sailed before and who had returned to meet him, this woman, this wilderness queen, this tallest and stateliest of them all, this mother whom today we honor." &&&& MADE TO GET IN ON In North Dakota both parties pledged in their platform guaranteed deposits. Although Rep resentative Doyle of Foster county made a hard fight for a' guaranteed bank deposit measure his bill was defeated by a vote of 51 to 39. A Bismarck, N. D., dispatch to the Fargo Daily News, referring to Mr. Doyle's effort, says: "In an extended argument he read the plat forms of both parties which endorsed the plan. He urged them to be true to their platform Pledges. He also read an extended editcrial from the Bismarck Tribune, which commended the plan in the most emphatic terms. He urged it on behalf of the depositors of the state. He declared he was not ashamed of his party plat form and if the republican members were, that they should disown their party organization. He pointed out that both Hanpa and Gronna were for the measure and that the republicans made many of the votes which elected them to the legislature by advocating the plan." Why do republican leaders treat platform pledges so lightly? && && ALDERMAN TO PRESIDENT The records show that Abraham Lincoln was a. member of the village board of Springfield in 1839, serving until 1840, when Springfield adopted a city government. Lincoln was, there fore, an alderman just twenty years before he was elected president. It shows that he did the work that fell to his hand whether in small matters or in great. A NAME IN THE SAND Alone I walked the ocean strand; A pearly shell was in my hand, I stooped and wrote upon the sand My name the year the day. As onward from the spot J passed, One lingering look behind I cast, A wave came rolling high and fast And washed my little lines away. And so, mothought, 'twill shortly be With every mark on earth from me; ,aV0 of darc oblivion's sea Will sweep across the place Where I have trod the sandy' shore Of time and been, to be no more, ' Of me my daythe name I bore, . To leave no track nor trace. AnS ?k Vuh Him wh0 counts tho sands And holds the waters in his hands, ; I know a lasting record stands nu,sicr"ied against my name, Of all this mortal part has wrought, Of all this unthinking soul has thought And from these fleeting moments caught For glory or for shame. Hannah F. Gould. f-f --"P" --