US Presidency
1930

In my message of April 16, 1929, to the special session of the Congress I accordingly recommended an increase in agricultural protection; a limited revision of other schedules to take care of the economic changes necessitating increases or decreases since the enactment of the 1922 law, and I further recommended a reorganization both of the Tariff Commission and of the method of executing the flexible provisions. A statistical estimate of the bill by the Tariff Commission shows that the average duties collected under the 1922 law were about 13.8 percent of the value of all imports, both free and dutiable, while if the new law had been applied it would have increased this percentage to about 16.0 percent. This compares with the average level of the tariff under: The McKinley law of 23.0 % The Wilson law of 20.9 % The Dingley law of 25.8 % The Payne-Aldrich law of 19.3 % The Fordney-McCumber law of 13.83 % Under the Underwood law of 1913 the amounts were disturbed by war conditions varying 6 percent to 14.8 percent.