United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Five Percent Discount Cases, 243 U.S. 97 (1917)

The Five Percent Discount Cases*

Nos. 149 to 162

Argued February 25, 28, 1916

Restored to docket for reargument March 6, 1916

Reargued February 2, 1917

Decided March 6, 1917

243 U.S. 97

Syllabus

Section IV, paragraph J, subsection 7, of the Tariff Act of October 3, 1913, c. 16, 38 Stat. 114, 196, after declaring that a discount of five percentum on all duties imposed by the act hall be allowed on such goods as shall be imported in vessels admitted to registration under

Page 243 U. S. 98

the law of the United States, adds, by way of proviso,

"that nothing in this subsection shall be so construed as to abrogate or in any manner impair or affect the provisions of any treaty concluded between the United States and any foreign nation."

Held,that the grant of the discount is confined to goods in American bottoms, and the effect of the proviso is to respect the treaty privileges with which such a grant would be in conflict not by extending the grant to goods borne in foreign vessels, but by suspending the grant entirely while such privileges exist.

6 Cust.App. 291 reversed.

The case is stated in the opinion.

Page 243 U. S. 105