Ceredo advance. [volume] (Ceredo, W. Va.) 1885-1939, 1907-08-28
NOWHERE IN FAVOR
IMPORTERS PROTEST AGAINST
THE GERMAN AGREEMENT.
They Point Out the Mischief That
Will Result from Permitting For
eisners to Name Low Export Val
ues and Thereby Escape tho Pay
ment Of Full Tariff Duties.

Against that portion Of the German
| agreement which compels consuls GER
| tifying to the correctness of export in
voices and American customs officers
who are to pass upon the question OF
values to accept Is competent evil
dence" the values placed upon such
invoices by local German chambers
of commerce the strong protest Of the
Textile Importers association is Who'll
ly directed. II any doubt as to the
grievous error and wrong inflicted by
this agreement alike upon the direct
importing interests and the wage pay
ers and wage earners Of this country
remained In the minds OF the presi-
dent Of the United States, or the Sec
rotary OF state who engineered the
| pernicious dicker. or the secretary OF
the treasury who acquiesced in its
unwholesome provisions, or the news
papers which have accepted the agree
ment as all right and proper. or any
man who would like to see American
industry and American business have
fair play and square deal-that
doubt upon n reading of the memorial
of protest should instantly disappear,
and in it's place should come a feeling
Of certainty that on the part of the
American negotiators a grossly i'm
prudent and improper thing has been
done in permitting foreign manufac-
turers to fix export value" and there
by evade in part the payment of tariff
duties specified by law.
This is made perfectly evident by
the clear and forcible language of the
memorial of the Textile Importers
association. The facts and arguments
are those of the leading merchants Of
the United Statesmen conspicuous
the world over for their great bust
ness ability, their scrupulous business
integrity, and their wide business in
fiuence. They are facts and argu-
ments wholly outside of the domain
of politics, and they cannot be sue
cessfully controverted.
IL these men had been consulted
and their testimony taken-the iden-
teal testimony that Is embodied in
the grave and dignified protest which
Is now in the hands of President
Roosevelt-fortified by the testimony
of our great domestic producing inter
ests, the German agreement could not
have been cosummated. Secretary
Root, obsessed as he was with the
delusion that foreign trade is the one
great thing to think of, and Secretary
Cortelyou. inexperienced and plastic
as he was, with less than so days of
service at the head of the treasury
department would not have dared to
disregard such testimony
President Roosevelt, had he known
what he now knows after reading the
importers memorial, would have used
his big stick to smash the dicker
OF this we feel sure.
Why, then. was not the testimony
OF the direct importers and the do
nestle producers heard on this i'm
portant matter in advance of the
signing of the German agreement
Why was the report of the commits
sion sent to Germany withheld until
after March 4, so that congress could
not get hold Of it?
Why did the state department, in
reply to a resolution of inquiry be-
fore the house committee on ways
and means, decline to make known
any OF the provisions OF the Ger
man agreements?
Why should every American inter
est have. been kept in the dark when
the German manufacturing interests
were fully advised of what they were
going to get?
We cannot answer any OF these
questions. We do not know for what
reason 1t was thought proper to Sc
cretly sacrifice the business of the
direct importers, TO secretly lower
the tariff duties that American labor
and industry depended upon for pro-
lection, to rob the treasury revenues
and TO demoralizs the customs admin
istration service by official sanction
Of dishonesty and fraud
The great central blunder and in
Justice of the Eek port value" provision
of the German agreement is made as
clear as day in the memorial OF the
Textile Importers association. I'm
der its operation the heaviest tariff
payers (the direct importing houses)
are put out Of business. the American
manufacturer is subjected TO a dis
honest competition alike repugnant
TO the provisions of the tariff law
and TO good morals the American
wage Garner finds his labor undersold
through crooked practices. and the
American treasury is robbed OF no
one can tell how many millions of
dollars annually. This is what may
be gathered from the memorial OF
protest. And It 10 absolutely true.