The herald., 1897-04-26
DIFFICULTIES IN TARIFF
LEGISLATION

| WHeIHcr UNDERTAKEN on the line Oh
protective or revenue duties. there are
difficulties little short of the insur-
mountable in the way of framing an
impartial and absolutely just tariff law.
No law of a comprehensive character
has ever been enacted by congress
which was wholly free from Irregular
| tiles, excrescences, or grotesque fea-
| lures.
All duties, whether high or low, on
| foreign commodities which compete in
| our markets with domestic produce are
| protective to a greater or less extent.
| The producers clamor for as high du-
ties as they possibly can get. regardless
| Of the cost to consumers. There is an
irrepressible conflict between these two
classes
The imposition Of duties on such ar
ticles only as are not produced in this
country would not yield the revenue
required to support the government,
however high they may be made, for
If too high the effect would be to restrict
consumption, and consequently d.
minish importations. The number of
articles which it is impracticable for
this country to produce is limited at
most, hence It is inevitable that duties
shall be placed on those which are COM
petitive with our own, which secures
advantages to the home producers.
This causes an unnseemly scramble
on the part Invsc thus peuentea to
obtain as much as possible In ntta- a.
regard of conflicting interests. 1t is
historical that the most active ana
persistent lobbyists secure advantages
over those more modest and less ener-
eetic. and the methods employed have
surrounded tariff legislation with dis
gusting proceedings, and have often
opened the lips of scandal. A distin-
guished member of congress once SAID:
Let every fellow pitch in and get all
he can. and let the devil take the
hindmost; that's all there is to the tar
iff question" That is not altogether
an untruthful description of what has
been and is the general practice.
In addition to the raising of reve-
nues, high duties are advocated on the
ground that production in this country
| is more expensive than in any other
| for the reason that wages here are high
err than elsewhere On the general av-
| erage, no doubt, such is the fact, but
the clamorers for high duties have
never been content with what would
simply make up for this difference.
| The more moderate protectionists pre-
sent three propositions which embody
] the principles, as they think, of wise
| tariff legislation. The first is that all
necessaries of life impracticable for us
to produce should be admitted duty free.
| The second is that a high duty should
be put upon luxuries for the sake of
| revenue, and because they are consumed
| in the main by those able to pay for
them. The third is that upon all other
commodities the duties should be equal
and no more to the difference in cost
Of production in this and competing
countries.
However proper and just these prop
ositions may be, they are not observed
with any degree of fidelity in the franz
ing and passing of tariff law. The
effort on the part of the classes who
produce competing articles is to OBJ
tain duties sufficiently high to destroy
foreign competition and to give them a
monopoly in our markets. The claim
that they are struggling for the sake
of giving better wages to laborers is a
hollow pretense, for they advance wages
only when they are obliged to through
the coercive action of the wage workers
themselves.
The formation of trusts has become
a mania in this country, and unless re-
strained in some way the manufacture
ers in future will do as they have done
in the past; they will combine to put
up prices to consumers without giving
artisans a fair share of the profits
The present house of representatives
declined to adopt the amendment which
was offered to the effect that the pres
ident should be clothed with the power
to supend duties on commodities
which compete with domestic produc
tions whenever our producers form {
combination to limit production, or il
any other way TO unduly enhance price:
10 the consumers. This action showed
that the majority in that body wal
averse to doing what would check mo
nopoly and protect the masses of th
people against abuses.
TO go into details touching all th