Mr. FOSTER. I offer another amendment, to come in on the same page at the end of the 26 1st line of 7th section. The clause, as it now reads, is: On pocket knives and pocket cutlery of all kinds, 55%. advalorem. I move to amend the clause by adding to it these words: And, in addition thereto, on knives and pocket cutlery valued at 2 dollars per dozen and lessthan fdiveescdriopltlaiornssper dozen, 50 centsper dozen; on these over, 70 v afilvueed at 5 dollars per dozen and cents per dozen. The duty as it stands is 55%. advalorem. My amendment proposes to add to that on the description of which is invoiced or which costs 2 dollars per dozen and less than 5 dollars per dozen, 50 cents as a specific duty, and upon those descriptions which are valued at 5 dollars perdozen or over, 75 cents per dozen as a specific duty. The bill from the House has this provision in substance, but not precisely in these terms. It is a specific duty of. cents per dozen in addition to the advalorem duty in the House bill, which is 50 or 55%., I have for gotten which. Now, a duty of 55%. advalorem on this description of cutlery is a very small duty. All manufacturers and all merchants are aware that goods imported from abroad, where the duty is an advalorem duty, are invoiced with reference to saving money in duties, and the frauds that are alleged and believed in relation to foreign in voices have grown familiar to us all. I do not know to what extent they may be true; but no doubt they are true to a very great extent. Goods imported from abroad, paying an advalorem duty, are no doubt invoiced greatly below the real value. ywhere from 20 to 30%. would unquestionably be a very low estimate of the amount of difference between the invoice and the actual cost. Therefore, when this amount of 55%., which is advalorem, comes to be applied to goods thus fraudulently invoiced, the real protection is much less than 55%.; probably 1/2 would be a fair estimate; and so 1/3rd the duty is avoided by the fraudulent invoicing of the property. The duties on all the articles which enter into the composition of this pocket cutlery are so greatly increased by this bill that the protection of the former duty of 50%., which I think is the existing rate, is very much diminished, and the duty on this particular manufacture will be less under the new bill than it is under the present law. Now, a specific duty of 50 cents a dozen over and above the advalorem duty of 55%. does not afford as great protection to the manufacturers of these articles as the ordinary rate of protection in this bill. It is less, very much less. The effect of the protective system upon this kind of manufacture has already worked out the result which the friends of the American system claimed for it to a very great extent. As proof of that I would call the attention of the Senate to a few facts in regard to the cost of American knives and cutlery in NewYork in 1864 and in 1866 as compared with foreign knives in those years. American knives in the year 1864 in the city of NewYork, taking 5 different grades of knives, had a market value of $275 a dozen for one grade; $330 a dozen for another; $632} for another; $10 45 for another, and $22 for another. The imported knives of the same grades at the same time were $375, $5, $817, $12 50, and $23 75, making a difference in favor of American knives of $1 a dozen in one case; $1 70 in another; $1 84 in another; $245 in another; and $1 75 in another. That was in the year 1864. In 1866, taking the same classes of goods in the NewYork market, American knives of the same grades were sold at $250 per dozen, $3, $5 75, $950, and $20; while imported knives of the same grades sold at $210, $280, $435, $7, and $13 30, making a difference in favor of imported knives in one case of 40 cents a dozen, in another of 20 cents; another $120; another $2 50, and in another of $6 70; and that is the condition of the market at the present time. Now, sir, I point to the fact as one creditable to American industry and one that vindicates the system, that under this system, not withstanding the rise in everything which goes into the manufacture of these commodities, and notwithstanding the rise in labor, these several classes of knives are manufactured in this country at a cheaper rate than they were 2 years ago by a very considerable sum. It is true that they are now imported at such a rate that under this duty the American manufacturer must stop, notwithstanding he has been manufacturing an article which has been growing cheaper from year to year, because the foreign manufacture is now so much cheaper than his that it must be driven from the market.