BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-10-06
sara jUAN, OCTOBER 8
The Tariff
Commission Plan.

"
In his speech at Logansport sevesal
weeks agoPresident Roosevelt, gave his
attention again to the subject OF the ta-
riff and recommended that it be referred
to commission Of experts 'of such nigh
character and ability that they could be
trusted to deal with it purely from the
standpoint of our business and indus
trial needs" He then gave an outline
of the principles which in his judgment
should govern such commission. That
Congress would have to settle all dis
puted questions for itself he freely ad-
mitted, but he thought that commits
sion would be of great assistance to Con
gress in collecting and arranging the
data for intelligent action.
The fact of most importance in the
Presidents western tour is that he
begun to treat the tariff question as an
issue in American politics. His sug
qestion ia favor of a Tariff Commission
is interesting, and it is not unlikely that
the Republicans in Congress may adopt
it S means of bridging the Interval
betweea the present Congressional e1ec-
Ho gever that may be, a review Of
tie last Tariff Commission and of its
consequences may shed some light on
the Presidents reoo omandatio1 and
enable us to estimate the value of such
methods of preparing legislation for
Congress In the month of May, 1882,
a Congress which was Republican in
both branches, passed bill authorizing
the President to appoint nine commis-
sioners from civil life to z" thoroughly
investig gate all the various questions re-
la ing to the agricultural, commercial,
and ldustrial Interests OF the Unired
States, SO far as tllay BE- necessary to
the establishment 0! a judicious tariff CT
a revision of the existing tariff, upon a
scale Of justice to all Interests, such
commission to make its report not later
than the fyot Monday Ill December lo'-
lowing.
It was a peculiatity of this case that
neither the Democrats as a party, nor
the Independents as faction, took am
interest in this movement at the outset.
In SO far as they noticed it at all, they
treated it as scheme of the majority to
avoid doing anything n the way OF tar
if reform. They discovered afterwards
that in tbs surnise they We're mistaken,
and when the5 found that the coInnllS-
sioners We're seriously intent upon a
measure of real reform flay did all that
they cold 10 make the movement a
success
President Arthur app ,ined as n em
bers of the commission john l.. Hayes,
the Pres;dent OF the Woollen Manufac-
turers Association; Henry w. Oliver, an
eminent s.eel manufacturer Of Pits
burgh; A. M Gariand President OF the
Wool Growers Association; Robert P
Porter, a weli-kpoUn publicist of the
pro. &c ionist school, and f1ur o,hcrs
who were either protec,ianist or were
rather Indifferent as bet Neen tile con-
hicting tariff doctrines. Mr.. HaEes VAS
the most eminent man ON me Com1nls-
sion, and was its Chairman. Tae tanff
in force at the time when the Conm's-
sion was appointed was that Of 1873. 1t !
was much more moderate than either |
the Nc Kinley tariff of 1890 or the Dia-
gley tariff of the p esenf day.
The Commission completed its labors
on December q, 1882. The, keynote of
its action is found in the foNo wing para
graph of its report
Early in its deliberatio1s the Com
mission became convinced that "a subs
tantial reduction of tariff duties is de-
mauded", not by a mere lndiscri.ninate
popular clanlor, but by the best cpnSer-
vative opinion of the country, incl llding
that whis has in former times been
most strenuous sor the pres >rvation OF |.
our national industrial defences. Such
reduction OF the existing tariff the
Commission regards not only as due
recognition OF public sentiment and
measure Of justice 10 consumers. batl
one conducive to the general industrial
prosperity, and which, though if may
be temporarily inconVeDient, viii besul-
tituately beneficial to the special inte-
rests affected by such reduction.
Accompanying the report was a bill
to carry cut the Commissions views, in
explanatioa OF which they said
~ The average reduction IN rates, in g
Guiding that from the enlargement Of Il
the free list aud the abolition Of the dll- /
ties on charges and commissions, att
which the Commission has aimed, is
no less on the average than 20 per
cent, and it is the opinion Of the Com
mission that il will reach~24 per cent I(
This was certainly an honest tempt 6
to reform the tariff in tie dlTecsion of II
justice to the domestic consumer and in e
the interest of enlarged commercial in Ia
tercourse with the world When thelt'
III and report we're laid before Con- u
ess, there vas first pause in the B