Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1907-04-11

Now that congress has adjourned
and new hand is at the helm of the
treasury department, perhaps the
state department will deem it no
longer incompatible with the public
interest to make known the contents
of the report of the commission sent
to Germany to inquire concerning mat
ters bearing upon the tariff situation
between that country and the United
States Some two weeks ago a reso-
luton asking for information on this
subject was under consideration by
the house committee on ways and
means. but the committee found Itself
unable to proceed further with the
question because of the unwillingness
of the secretary of state to supply
any details of the report in question.
This is an old habit of our state de-
partment, this withholding of facts of
vital import to producing interests.
The same policy of secrecy was OBJ
served seven years ago when the Kas-
son treaties were negotiated. For
several months our government re-
fused to furnish any particulars as TO
the tariff reductions provided for in
those drafts. Foreign government,
however, were not so secretive lnfor-
nation as to the provisions of the pro-
posed French treaty was quite free
ly published in Paris and found its
way to the United States by cable, so
that by the time the veil of secrecy had
been removed in Washington the coun-
extent to which Mr., kasson had con-
sented to assassinate certain of our
domestic industries in order to get
upon reciprocity" basis with
France. 1t might be remarked, as a
fact in history, that no French indus
try was threatened with assassina-
ton.
II is to be hoped that, with no con-
gress in session to ask inconvenient
questions or make unpleasant com
ment and with a treasury department
supposed to be favorable to what is
is, larger competition from foreign
mills and factories-our state depart
ment will find it compatible with the
public interest to tell American pro-
ducers what they have TO expect in
the matter of concessions that are cal
culated to give to German exporters a
bigger slice of the American market.
If, for example, it shall be decided to
so relax or modify our customs regu-
lations as to make it easier for the
German exporters to undervalue their
goods and thereby escape the pay
ment of the tariff duties provided by
law, that fact would be of great inter-
est to a large body of industrialists
who have heretofore found it extreme
ly difficult to hold the domestic mar
ket against undervalued consignmentS
from Germany, and who are deeply
concerned in knowing how much the
gate to unCervaluation is going to be
widened al the result of the new
dicker.
1t is not by any means impossible
that a readjustment of the matter of
production costa reduction alike in
the volume and rate of wages paid
would be necessitated. Such would
unquestionably prove to be the case in
many lines of domestic production if
greater latitude for undervaluatlon
should be granted in the shape of
greater laXity on the part of our ap-
praising officials in the determination
of values of imports 1t is not of
course, to be supposed that the new
secretary of the treasury would know
ingly strike such a blow at domestic
production, employment and wage
paying. But there are, presumably,
some things which he does not know
as we'll as they are known by those
more intimately related to the busi-
ness of manufacturing goods and en-
ploying labor, and he might make a
mistake in his judgment as to what
could be done in the way of relaxation
and laxity of customs collections.
He may not know, for example, that
even under the strictest of methods
differentiation Is giant evil most
difficult to deal with effectively, and
that the aim should be not to increase
but to lessen the fraud. In order that
he may learn these and other things
closely related to the general subject
it would seem that the secretary of
the treasury should be among the first
to solicit from the secretary of state
prompt and full publicity of the i'e-
port of the German tariff commission.
Certainly the American people have a
right to that information at the earli-
est possible moment.