This сase was submitted by the parties on an agreed statement of facts, from which it appeared that the plaintiffs, a corporation located at Bоston, in the district of Massachusetts, imported into that port by different steamers, in 10 different lots, certain merchandise described in the invoices and entries as “iron show-cards.” These cards were prepared in different colors on plates of sheet-iron. They were lithographed, or printed from lithographic stones, on hand-presses, in the same way that lithographing is done on paper or on card-board. On this merchandise,—that is, on these “iron show-cards,”—as described in the invoicеs, the defendant, as collector of the port of Boston, exacted a duty of 45 per centum ad valorem, (§2,432.62,) under the act of March 3,1883, Schedule C, last clause or pаragraph, (22 St. 501,) which is thus:
“Manufactures, articles, or wares, not specially enumerated or provided for in this act, composed wholly or in part of iron, steel, сopper, lead, nickel, pewter, tin, zinc, gold, silver, platinum, or any other metal, and whether partly or wholly manufactured, forty-five per centum ad valorem.”
The importers, the plaintiffs, claimed that the goods or merchandise was subject to a duty of 25 per centum ad valorem only, (§1,351.20,) under the same act of March 3, 1883, Schedule M, first paragraph, (22 St. 510,) as fоllows:
“Books, pamphlets, bound or unbound, and all printed matter, not especially enumerated or provided for in this act, engravings, bound or unbound, etchings, illustrated books, maps, and charts, twenty-five per centum' ad valorem.”
Against this assessment of duties the plaintiffs protested, claiming —First, that the articles were not liable to any duty, being of no commеrcial value; and, secondly, that, if. dutiable at all, a duty of 25 per centum ad valorem only should have been assessed upon them, as “printed matter,” and not 45 per centum, as manufactures of iron.
The agreed state of faсts finds that these articles were of a certain commercial value, so that the first claim of the protest, that they
Two questions then remain: (1) Were these cards “printed matter,” within Schedule M of the act of March 3, 1883? And (2) if they were not, were they properly assessed 45 per centum ad valorem as manufactures of iron ?
That the cards were lithographed, or printed as lithographing is done on paper or card-board, is agreеd in the statement of facts. But here the printing was done on iron sheets or plates, and the question is whether such lithographing requires such sheets or plates to be classified as “printed matter,” in the proper construction of the act of March 3,1883. It was urged in the argument that the substance or surface on which the printing was done could make no difference in the fact that it was “printed matter;” and, in a certain limited sense, this is true. Printing may be impressed on iron, on .wood, on leather, cloth, аnd other material, — and that may be called “printed matter.” But that is not decisive of the question here. The question is not the narrow one,—whether there was printing on these cards; but the broader one,—whether they were such “printed matter” as fairly to fall within the scope of Schedule M of the act of March 3, 1883.
In Maillard v. Lawrence,
“ The popular or received import of words furnishes the general rule for the interpretation of public laws as well аs of private and social transactions; and, wherever the legislature adopts such language, in order to define or promulgo their action or their will, the just сonclusion from such a course must be that they not only themselves comprehended the meaning of the language they have selected, but have chosen it with reference to the known apprehension of those for whom it is designed to constitute a rule of conduct,— namely, the community at large.”
The same rule was recognized in Greenleaf v. Goodrich,
Applying this rule to the expression “printed matter,” it must be held that congress used it in its popular sense,—in its common acceptation, as it was understood in the community at large; and, if so, there can be included in it only1 such matter as is generally known as “printed matter.” The word “print” has a wide range of signification; but its ordinary meaning is to impress letters, figures, and сharacters, by types and ink of various forms and colors, upon paper of various kinds, or some such yielding surface. Arthur v. Moller,
The next question is, if these cards were not dutiable as “printed matter,” was a duty of 45 per cent, acl valorem properly assessed upon them as a manufacture or article, in whole or part of iron, not specially enumerated or provided for in thе act of March 3,1883. It is very clear these articles or cards were a manufacture. They had been brought by hand-labor or machinery from pig-iron, and other raw material, to their present form and condition. It is equally clear they were in part of iron. They do not appear to have been specially enumerаted or provided for in the act of March 3, 1883. As a manufacture of iron, simply, they are small sheets of iron; but, with the additional work upon them, they can hardly be classed as such in the common or commercial designation as sheet-iron.
It was contended at the hearing of this case that the principle involved in it was fully settled in the case of Arthur v. Jacoby,
I do not find in this case that the goods were confessedly “printed matter; ” or that they were so known commercially; or in the common acceptation of the language of the act; or that they were dutiable as such. But I do find that they were a manufacture of iron,