Back in the 19teens an immigrant Austrian apprenticed gunsmith by the name of Fred Adolph of Genoa and Rochester New York imported Austrian and other high grade guns into America. He advertised that he made the guns to cover the fact that he was in fact importing the guns in pieces in order to skirt the import tariffs. Because of the Fred Adolph stories, and the fact that his close personal friend, Chas Newton (a lawyer and owner of Newton Rifle Corp.), also tried to follow suit as a barrel importer for his own factory, I think barrels (and parts) were exempt from any stiff tariffs...I can elaborate on the Newton barrel importing effort if you would like.
The tariffs started out as a protectist move for the American farmer. They had the opposite effect. McKinley gained national recognition with his 1890 tariff. The tariff wars in Congress raged for almost 30 years. The actual tariff rates and those items on the list changed back and forth. I believe that the barrel tubes incurred 1 rate, while finished barrels a higher rate. One of Wilson's campaign planks was to do away with the tariffs, which to a certain extent he did.
A Puck cartoon attributing the Republican defeat to the McKinley Tariff. With McKinley as Napoleon leading his troops out of Russia.
I am surprised there aren't more stories about "black market" gun parts. Yes, what more do you have about Newton.
Pete
