The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-09-29
A TARIFF PROGRAM
A System of Maximum and Mini
mum Duties Instead Of Reel ,
procity Treaties.
And a Tariff Commission to Study
Out Adjustment of Dingley
Schedules to This.

Fron, The Jo,ir,,a1 Bureau. Eoon" 80. Pos'
Building, Washington. -
~ Washington, Sept. 80 - A system of
| maXimum}and minimum duties, instead of
| reciprocity treaties, and a tariff commits
sion to study out the adjustments of the
present Dingley schedules to this new
system, will, in the opinion of many per-
| sons here who watch political develop
| ments closely, be the administrations
tariff program. This, it will be noted,
would relieve the friends Of reciprocity
| from making any attempt to get the Kas-
| son treaties through a task considering
| the wo-thirds requirement in the senate,
| by no means easy.
Under. such an arrangement, this coun-
try could give the nations which allowed
| us their best rates., the benefit of our
minimum schedules, While all others we
! should confront with our maximum bar
riers: In the work Of this adjustment
the services might be utilized Of a COM
mission of high grade experts, along the
| lines recently suggested by S. N. D.
| North. .si
| This plan would also offer a readjust-
| ment of the tariff without it's revision
and so would peculiarly fall into most of
| the needs within the republican party at
| the present time.
| This. proposal has much to commend it
avoids the seeming necessity Of driving
| our best customer to "fas4 trade basis.
The united kingdom would get, were the
Kasscn treaties contaminated, less favor
able rates on such articles as she desired
to send in here, although giving free en-
would the high protective ma
lions of the continent; these con-
tinental nations would be conceding
us only little of their high tariffs
against our goods, 2and yet would be ia
vored above Great Britain. Such an ar
rangement would be too radically unjust
| to last long. Nor would Great Britain be
without means Of redress, as has often
| been asserted. The patience Of British
| free trade in the face of determinations
against her on the part Of protective tar
iff neighbors has been monumental but 1T
| cannot be permanently relied on. The
great growth Of tho wheat belt Of Canada,
| and Of the meat resources Of Australasia
make her factory operatives less depend
ent on the free entry of Americas agri-
cultural products than at any tine IN the
recent past. With a system of maximum
and minimum rates the United Kingdom
would get the minimum, provided she
! treated nobody else better than ourselves,
and so one great objection to Kasson rec1-
procity would be avoided.
~ Another advantage of this system
would be it's uniformity. We would be
treating all nations alike. Under the
regime of a number of special treaties,
there would be nothing to prevent our
having as many rates of concession on
| each article, under 20 per cent of the
Dingley duties, as there were countries
with which we negotiated. There would
then be a. tendency for all goods to seek
to get in through the country which had
our most favorable rate, and the task OF
the custom house in ascertainingt what
:. articles were the growth or manufacture
r Of the country from which they came
would open a way to many vexations.
a The maximum and minimum schedules
plan would also satisfy the dictum of
) Observation-Disclosures of all, allies ! sof
, none''-which Andrew Carnegie quotes
in opposition to reciprocity of the kind
proposed in the Dingley tariff. The com
= mercial opera lions Of the modern world
Il are too intricate to tolerate a special
: schedule of discounts for each country
4 with which our merchants deal. MOI
ceuldl anything short Of omniscience de-
i eide, whether, on such basis, par
ticular treaty were a good bargain or not
n with so many articles and so many rates
While there would be no apparent objec-
ton to having these maximum and mini
/ mum. rates for the generality Of man
! kind, and also making a special exception
:. in fayor of Canada and Cuba, the proba-
:. bilities are that the minimum schedules
would be all the. remission Wh1ch ou1
= manufa cturers would permit
Where should the line of maximum ane
e minimum rates be drawn? It is plain tina
e no sreuublican congress would allow the
$ minimum under such conditions the rate
: at which most goods would enter to tal
: much below the present rates in any es
e sential in which the tariff was operative
8 Maximum rates might be as much highe
t than present rates as congress saw II
VI tO put them; they would, for the mos
;. mart. be prohibitive in effect. Most Of thu
S articles of the free list also would be glve1
e a rate of duty for the maximum sched
u!es and remain free only on the mini
num- This would prevent the Soutl
n American countries, most of whose good
= come in here free, from playing any trick
r on us.
Il The Philadelphia Press, in a recent ed
itorial calls Secretary Shaw to accoun
= for saving that President Mckinley 'gav
Y notice. at Buffalo that he proposed t.
= use every honorable means to secure tn
q ra Ca ton of these treaties''-meaninl
# the pending Kasson treaties. The Pres
e is right in saying that the president CAV
Y no such notice, but that he referred rathe
# to reciprocity in general as lin harmon
: with the: spirit of the times But MI
h Shaw was at least partly justified in hi
Il Inference President Mckinley spoke TO
q | reciprocity and there had been negotiated
4 under his direction and his apparent ap
proval, these particular treaties. -: It wa
Il not a great stretch Of the imagination
certainly to suppose that his zeal for rec
iprocity in general would mean the us
= of every honorable means to secure tn
ratifcat ton Of these treaties. It is reason
i able to believe, however, that reciprocit
in general is stronger than these treatie:
and that the friends of the cause woul
make greater Roadway by attempt
secure something like a maximum an
. minimum schedule arrangement. Tn
could be obtained by a majority vot,
which is much simpler of attainment.
Into this plan would readily fall the Pre-
=, posal to set a tariff commission at worl
wherever it proposed as sufficient mir
. imum rate some reduction Of the existin
e schedule that would be the modifcatio
2, which western republicans are looking TO
rs without the much dreaded "overhaulin
ID Of the tariff that has been conjecture
r into such a bogie by the unyielding Pre-
J., tectionists AS compromise this pro
;. posal would have much obvious merit TT
-, tariff commission would differ from
IL congressional committee, in undertaken
~ such study, in the respect that it cou
~ partizan. Its findings when presentt
AZ to the proper congressional committee
would save them the bother of hearing a
the tiresome and contradictory ex par
~ faS will, hi o1o l,o