THE DUTY ON GLASS AS IT AFFECTS CONSUMERS.--In a letter to the _New York
Times_, Mr. J.S. Moore writes: As I am on the subject of glass, and as
the members of the Pan-American Congress are inspecting our magnificent
metropolis, I wish to call their attention to two subjects. First, our
dirty streets, and second, our splendid windows. Dickens has
immortalized the "Golden Dustman." In this city we have the "Dirty
Ringman," or we may say "Ringmen." There have been millions in New
York's dirty streets. The most honest and persevering Mayors and other
high officials have got stuck in New York street mud and were never
heard of again. Our aristocratic home mud has flourished without any
protection, and the pauper mud of Europe or any other mud could never
beat our home product. Here our amiable and friendly Commissioners of
the Pan-American Congress can see it demonstrated that our mud industry
can flourish without protection. I will now call the attention of our
Pan-American friends to the windows in New York houses. They are
invariably of plate-glass, and there is not a city in the world that can
beat New York in handsome windows. Now, then, it is an actual fact that
the tax or duty on plate-glass is as follows: Plate-glass, 10 by 15
inches, 3 cents per foot, or 13.60 per cent; plate-glass, 16 by 24
inches, 5 cents per foot, or 19.78 per cent; plate-glass, 24 by 30
inches, 8 cents per foot, or 27.46 per cent. Now, we must admit that
this is a moderate tax. The above glass goes into the houses of the
rich. Of course, it will not do to tax influential and rich citizens.
But now let me show how we tax that class of people who build
three-hundred-dollar houses, or the hundreds of thousands of farmers who
live in the far West. Those houses are glazed by what is known as common
green window glass. Let me show to what extent we have taxed that class
of people in 1888:

IMPORTS OF COMMON WINDOW GLASS IN 1888.

Duty
Collected, Per
Value. Ad valorem. Cent.

Sizes not exceeding 10x15 $288,927 $190,815 66
Sizes 16 x 24 265,919 305,357 114.83
Sizes 24 x 30 346,486 440,685 127.15
All above that 477,132 626,740 131.35
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Total $1,563,497

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