The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-03-08
SCRANTON. MARCH $, 1894.
TARIFF AND BUSINESS,

III goes WITHOUT Say luS tuNt lue SEoab
body of American business mon are
heartily tired of this interminahle po-
litical tinkering with the tariff, Ia
stead of being q means to national
ami patriotic end, TO the end of general
prosperity, protection and tranquility
in the common interchanges of busl-
ness and finance the tariff, under the
manipulation of clever politicians bent
primarily upon self-Sggrandizsment,
has become mere football between
eOntending partisans. subject to change
without notice, accordingly as one
party replaces the other in power. To
expect commercial stability under such
au unsettled system is TO expect the
impossible AS we'll sxp3ct water to
how up hill.
or current propositions to place a
check upon those who, Indifferent to
the general results, make "tarif" or
mo tariff" professional livelihood, the
most notable is the bill in which Ssna-
tor Cullom provides for permanent
tariff commission Of nine members, to
be appointed by the president subject
to the approval of the senate, and to
serve for three years, not more than
four mem hers to belong to one politi-
cal party The bill, in detail, arranges
for annual reports on the basis of the
unit Of quantity ami the unit Of time of
wages paid in the United States aud in
foreign countries in the manufacture
of articles which may come into COM
petition with articles made in this
country, The commission is to prepare
schedules Of customs duties A pre-.
yiously ascertaiued formula is TO be
employed FOR each schedule TO insure
rate Of tariff equal to the difference
N foreign and American wages. o.
hose imports in which labor is not an
important element or upon articles Of
luxury or upon such as do not come
into competition with native products,
the commission shall prepare schedules
If duties, to be submitted to congress,
with reasons for the conclusions
reached. The commission Is to recon-
mend annually to congress on the
irst Monday in Decem Der such changes
schedules as it deems necessary for
purposes of revenus and to prevent
depression in wages Of American work
men and injury Co American indus
ries. Each commissioner Is to receive
salary Of $1,000. A president is to be
elected from the number, a secretary
at SO, 600 year and clerks and EN- =
ployes TO be hereafter authorizsI by
law.
The enactment of this measure would
transfer the details of tariff schedule
framing from crude committees where
it is too often gone at with the blum.
dering Indifference of purely partisan
politics animated by a demagogical
concern for votes. TO experts working
upon purely business basis and per
soually uninrerested in the wordy wars
Of the torchlight colonels ofeconomi cs.
But with the turning over Of its rec
concentrations to the house, the pro-
posed tariff commission would come to
the limit of its responsibility and we
should, it is to be feared, still have the
old spectacular battles of badly digest o.
ed statistics and gallery. catching rhes.
oric as annual incidents to a perpetual
fight over tariffs. To make Mr.. Cul-
lomS scheme practical there is needed
first a robust popular sentiment against
political jugglsry with a thing 30 vital
TO our national prosperity. and next an
amendment to the constitution prohib-
iting general changes in the tariff Of
tsner than once in at least ten years.