Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 7.djvu/593

 / ���KICHOLS V. BEABO. 581 �and sUk goods. • • • Silk vestinga, pongeea, shawla, scarfs, mantillas, pelerines, handkerchiefs, Teils,laees, sbiris, drawers, bonnets, * ♦ ♦ -webbing * • • and ready-made clothing of silk, or of which silk is a compo- ponent material of chief value," 60 per cent. If there were Bome silk in the plaintiffs' goods, they would not corne under this enactment if there were any India rubber in them. Again,' in sched. M, p. 482: "Webbing composed of cotton, flax, or other materials, not otherwise provided for." It is admitted that the goods were not assessable under this part of the sec- tion. �The assessment was made by virtue of Schedule L, p. 472, taken from the wool tariff act of 1867, as follows : �" Webbings, beltinga, braids, galloons, fringes, gimps, cords, cords and tassels, dress trimmings, head-nets, buttons, or barred buttons, or buttons of other forms for tassels for omaments, wrought by hand or braided by macliinery, made of wool, worsted, or mohair, or of which wool, worsted, - or mohair is a component material, — 60 cents per pound, and, in addition thereto, fiO per centum ad vcdorem." �It is not easy to construe these clauses so as to make them consistent with each other. One argument is that this web- bing is neither wrought by hand nor braided by machinery, but is wov.en in a loom. It is agreed that webbings, beltings, bindings, and galloons, are, and were, at the date of the act, always so woven. The other articles enumerated in that clause are sometimes wrought by hand or braided by ma- chinery, wholly, or in part. Now, if these qualifying words, "wrought by hand or braided by machinery," qualify the whole clause, these webbings are not within it. Such would, undoubtedly, be the most natural and obvious construction of the sentence, just as it is admitted to be the true construe- tion of the words which follow immediately, "made of wool, worsted, or mohair," etc.; but when we are informed that four of the fourteen articles are not made by either of the described methods, we are disposed to say, ut res valeat, that the qualifying words may be applied to the last antecedent, "buttons of other forms for tassels or ornaments." The col- location is the same in the law of 1867, (14 St. 561,) and the ��� �