Tariff
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Tariff. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
tar'if, in political economy , a tax levied on imports or exports. In the United States and Great Britain the tariff refers only to imports. The term seems to have been derived, through the Italian and Spanish, from an old Arabic word meaning a list, as of prices or of fees to be paid. A port cape on the southern coast of Spain, at which the Spaniards and Moors were accustomed to collect duties from ships desiring to enter the Mediterranean, was called Tarifa. The collecting of tariff at this point gave name to the port. A tariff levied for the support of the government only is called a tariff for revenue. A tariff levied with a view to increase the cost of foreign goods and thus to assist native manufacturers, is called a protective tariff. A tariff so high that it practically shuts out foreign goods is called a prohibitive tariff. In a country as large as ours it is difficult to frame a fair tariff bill. Each section of the country is likely to desire protection for products of local interest. The representatives of these local interests combine to enact a tariff bill few items of which could stand alone. The first national tariff act was signed by Washington, July 4, 1789. Some of the more noted bills are the tariff of 1824, laying an average tariff of 37 per cent; "the tariff of abominations," 1828; the compromise tariff of 1833; the Walker tariff bill, 1846; the Democratic reduction of 1856; the Morrill tariff, 1861; the McKinley bill, 1890; the Wilson bill, 1894; the Dingley bill, 1897; and the Payne Aldrich tariff of 1909. The following statement of the Dingley tariff on certain necessaries of life is taken from a leaf of the Democratic campaign book for 1908: Sugar 56% Salt 83% Chinaware 58% Earthenware 58% Looking glasses 67% Glassware 57% Window glass 53% Soap 27% Nails 10% Twine 44% Boots and shoes 25% Harness 45% Scythes 45% Iron shovels 45% Hoes 45% Tools of metal 45% Linseed oil 52% Coal 22% Brass 45% Copper 16% Lead 82% Cotton cloth 38% Fiber cloth 44% Wool cloth 100% Cotton clothing 50% Wool clothing 60% Felt hats 60% Paper hangings 25% Whips 45% Agricultural implements 20% Brooms and brushes 40% Buttons 53% Carpets 67% Clocks 40% Linen goods 35% Lumber 13% Matches 31% Oil 29% Paints 33% Paper 15% Three-fourths of the tariff duties collected by the United States government annually are paid by twelve articles or classes of articles. These are sugar, cotton manufactures, leaf tobacco, manufactures of fibers, manufactures of silk, manufactures of wool, raw wool, spirits, wines, and malt liquors, manufactures of iron and steel, earthen and chinaware, chemicals and drugs, and fruits and nuts. The total amount paid by these twelve classes of articles in 1907 was $250,000,000, three fourths of the $329,000,000 of tariff duties collected in that year. In 1909 President Taft called a special session of Congress to redeem the party pledge for revision, but it cannot be said that the result was satisfactory to anybody. The duties levied by the Payne-Aldrich law do not differ materially from those of the Dingley law quoted above. The following duties on articles in common use were in force in 1910: Cement, 8c per 100 Ibs. Sulphur, $4 ton. Iron ore, 15c ton. Lumber, not planed, 50c M. Lumber, finished, $2.75 M. Shingles, 50c M. Tobacco, unmanufactured, $1.85 to $2.50 lb. Cattle, 27 1/2 p. c. ad val. Horses, mules, $30 head. Barley, 30c bushel. Barley, 45c bushel. Oats, 15c bushel. Rye, 10c bushel. Butter and cheese, 6c lb. Eggs, 5c dozen. Hay, $4 ton. Honey, 20c gallon. Hops, 16c lb. Potatoes, 25c bushel. Seeds, castor, flaxseed, 25c bushel. Fish, mackerel, halibut, salmon, fresh, 1c lb. Fish, smoked, salted, 3/4c lb. Apples, peaches, 25c bushel. Oranges, grapefruit, 1c lb. Lemons, 1 1/2c lb. Pineapples in bulk, $8 per 1,000. Salt, in sacks and barrels, 11c 100 lbs. Cotton thread, according to numbers, uncolored, 2 1/2c lb. to 28c lb. Cotton cloth, square yards, 1c sq. yard to 8c. Cotton handkerchiefs, 4 1/4c sq. yard and 10 p. c. ad val. Cotton clothing, ready made, 50 p. c. ad val. Cotton hosiery, pairs, 70c doz. to $2 doz. and 15 p. c. ad val. Blankets, 22c lb. and 30 p. c. ad val. to 44c lb. and 55 p. c. ad val. Dress goods, women's and children's, 7c sq. yard and 50 p. c. ad val. to 11c sq. yard and 55 p. c. ad val. Clothing, ready made, 44c lb. and 60 p. c. ad val. Carpets, 10c sq. foot and 40 p. c. ad val. Agricultural implements, 15 p. c. ad val. Beads, 35 p. c. ad val. Bristles, 7 1/2c lb. Coal, bituminous, 45c ton. Toys, 35 p. c. ad val. Feathers, 20 p. c. ad val. to 60 p. c. ad val. Furs, dressed, 20 p. c. ad val. Furs, wearing apparel, 50 p. c. ad val. Boots and shoes, 15 p. c. ad val. Gloves, $1.25 doz. to $5.80 doz. Gutta percha , 35 p. c. ad val. Musical instruments, 45 p. c. ad val. Paintings and statuary, 15 p. c. ad val. Umbrellas, 50 p. c. ad val. Although the amount levied on dutiable article is large and the duties high, many imports are admitted free. Most of these are not produced in America, and some are admitted free because of their educational value. The following are the more important articles on which no duty is levied: Aconite, agates, amber and ambergris, ammonia, arsenic; animals for breeding, exhibition, or racing purposes; quinine, beeswax; birds, land and water fowl; books, maps, music, engravings, bound or unbound, and charts, and publications by scientific and literary associations; books and pamphlets in raised print, used exclusively by the blind; books, maps, music for the use of any society or institution solely for religious, philosophical, educational, scientific, or literary purposes; bristles, crude; bullion, gold and silver; camphor, crude; chalk, crude; coal, anthracite; coal tar , crude; cocoa, coffee, coins, copper ore, cotton and cotton waste. Diamonds and other precious stones, rough or uncut, including glaziers' and engravers' diamonds not set. Drugs, crude; fans, common palm leaf; furs, undressed; glass, enamel, white, for watch and clock dials; guano, manures; hides; ice, India rubber, indigo; iodine, iridium, ivory tusks; leeches; life boats and life saving apparatus, lithographic stones, meerschaum, models of inventions, needles, hand, sewing and darning; newspapers and periodicals; nuts; oakum; oil cake; cottonseed oil; attar of roses; flavoring oils; benzine, gasoline, naphtha, and similar oils produced from petroleum, also petroleum; ores of gold, silver and nickel; paraffin, parchment and vellum; philosophical and scientific apparatus; phosphates, platinum, potash, quinia, sulphate of and salts of cinchona bark; radium, statuary and casts for art and educational purposes only; sausages, bologna. Seeds, anise, canary, caraway, cauliflower, cotton, cummin, fennel, hemp, hoarhound, mangelwurzel, mustard, rape, sugar beet, sorghum or sugar-cane for seed; bulbs and bulbous roots and n.s.p.f. Shrimps and other shellfish; silk, raw; silk cocoons and silkworm eggs; skeletons and other preparations for anatomy; spices, when unground; ginger root, unground and not preserved or candied; stamps, foreign postage; stone and sand, n.s.p.f.; sulphur, lac, or precipitated; sulphuric acid; tapioca, cassava; tar and pitch; tea; teeth, natural. Tin ore, and tin in bars, blocks, pigs, or grain, or granulated; turpentine, spirits of; turtles; vaccine virus. Wood, logs, and round unmanufactured timber, including pulp woods; woods, in the log, rough or hewn only; works of art and science, brought by professional artists or scientists arriving from abroad, temporarily for exhibition or imported in good faith for exhibition and not intended for sale. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1909, the tariff yielded the United States government a total revenue of $300,977,438, as compared with $246,000,000 derived from internal revenue for the same year. 2026 Editor's Note: The tariff was THE American political issue of this entry's era — the Payne–Aldrich fight (1909) split Taft's party and helped elect Wilson. The income tax (1913) finally gave the government another purse. See the tariff wars . (Ed: BR 2026-06-30)
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a list or table of goods with the duties or customs to which they are liable, either on exportation or importation; a list or table of duties or customs to be paid on goods imported or exported, whether such duties are imposed by the government of a country or are agreed on between the governments of two countries having commerce with each other. The scale of duties depends on the supply and demand of goods, the interests and wants of the community, etc., and is therefore constantly changing. The tariff legislation of the United States has been constantly fluctuating, and has grown yearly in importance as uestion of foreign policy. The most noted tariff bill ever passed by Congress a was that taking its name from the then chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, the late President McKinley. This tariff imposed high duties on imports, some specific and others ad valorem. It was repealed in 1894 by the passage of the Wilson bill, which became a law by the refusal of President Cleveland to sign or veto it. On the tariff question the nation has generally been pretty evenly divided , or with but a slight preponderance in favor of a high protective duty. Of former tariff measures that proposed in 1833 by Henry Clay, of Kentucky, and known as the compromise tariff, occupies the most Though Great Britain is now regarded prominent place in American history. as a free-trade country, yet on her tariff are listed 19 articles of import, from 20 per cent. of her total revenue. which she derives an average of about British tariff is based not on an ad valorem tax, but depends entirely on a specific import, t, in some cases modified by a range of price between the highest and lowest figures, which it sets for an article. Thus for spirits worth a certain The amount per gallon, the tax is so much higher grade (according to price per gallon) a higher duty per barrel is collected. barrel, while spirits of the next BOOTH TARKINGTON an American author and playwright;