Raimey,
Having fun with the newly scanned books! Good for you.
This confirms other things I have read. The Belgians, being slick business men, managed to get a reduced tariff on their tubes. This is one of the factors that helped them sell so cheaply here.
Riga's logic is circular and does not directly address the reason for the tariff's at all. ( In fact, if you read McKinley's original speech in Congress, he was arguing to place a tariff on imported food items in order to help the American farmer. Which no tariff ever accomplished. ) But, it got him in front of Congress. I am sure that much more went on outside of the hearings. In retrospect, it all came to nought. Within 2 years of this hearing Wilson came into office and destroyed the tariff's within his first few months. Belgium was invaded and all commerical production of sporting firearms ceased until 1918.
Pete
