Mr. PATTERSON. I move to strike out from line 6 to line ten inclusive, namely, “on books and engravings, being editions printed not less than 30 years prior to the date of importation, and on books wholly in foreign languages, printed not less than 15 years prior to the date of importation, 20%. advaloremf’ inc udin'g also what as just been ado)ted on motion of the in mber from Pennsylvania and to insert in lieu thereof “ on books wholly in foreign languages, and on agricultural and scientific reports and periodica s, not being American reprints, 10%. advalorem.” Mr. Chairman, the books referred to here in the 1st part of this para mph are old books, the classics, English and others, which are used mainly by the scholars of the country. They are not very generally used, but are used simply by those who devote themselves exclusively to the study of such works; and there seems to be no good reason why these rare old books should have a high tax laid upon them, for the individuals‘who desire them and do use them are generally too poor to pay the high price which i will be required if this paragraph should go into operation as a law. The 2nd clause referring to books printed wholly in foreign languages relates mainly to German, Italian, and French books. 9/10ths of all these books are used in our Academies and colleges by poor boys who are struggling against poverty to get an education. There no reason why this class of our population should be oppressed by this heavy tax. More overhif the object of the bill is to secure revenue, you will secure a much larger amount of revenue by putting the tax at 10%. than by putting it. at 20%. If your object is to protect American publishers, those publishers will not publish a large class of the ooks retbrred to in this paragraph if you protect them, because they are used only by a few scholars, and there would not be a sufficient number sold in the country to make it profitable to republish them, even with the protection of 20%. Sir, this class of publishers do not need this protection. They have never, at any past period in our country’s history, made as much as they have made during the year ending January I, 1866. They do not, therefore, need protection, and as amatter of revenue, as I said be fore, it would be far better to levy a tax of10%. than of 20%. What reason is there for shutting out this class of books rare books, that contain the I do not object to the li 7 their classical text books and find a sale for skill, the learning, and the ripest results of the thoughts of the scholars of Europe, who have been laboring for a lifetime to put those thoughts and facts into circulation throughout. the world? What we want in this country is to avail ourselves of the learnin and skill of y Europe, and make them practice. by applying theinto the business alfairs of life. During the last 2 or 3 years, or during the war, the prices of road old books have been so high that the stiliolnrs of the country have not been able to avail themselves of the advantage they formerly derived by procuring these European books. lfthis taritf as it now stands goes into operation it will deprive them of that privilege of which they were deprived during the war. I can see no reason why the rate should not be reduced to 10%.