Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1907-07-11

dEHdiU bOGS lNOI SCChi OF NSiJ
Fine for Us After All.
AS $6,664 900 year is to sos, 16S
year-that is what we are told the
United States has gained in its tariff
dicker with Germany. More specifical-
ly stated the claim is that the reduc-
tion in Germanys tariff on American
exports will amount to S6,664,00O,
while the reduction in our tariff on
German exports will amount to only
S20S, ,16S.
If this be the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth, then Ger
many has been completely ever
reached, swindled, buncoed, conf
denced. bamboozled, thimblerigged
The sharpest traders the world
has ever known have been made
to look like suckers!" Our gift
ed state department has outgen-
eraled Germany very much as
the natives of Timbuctoo might
be outgeneraled. We have hand
ed Germany a lemon. We have
sold to Germany for s6,664 900 a gold
brick which assays $20S,16S.
But is this the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth, as
our gifted state department endeavors
to show in it's optimistic analysis OF
the net results of the new German
agreement? No; it is not the truth,
but only small part of the truth, as
events will abundantly prove.
Germany did not put up her maxi
tage cf saving $20S,16 in tariff duties
under the limited provisions of section
three of the Dingley law. 1t was not
to sell us more of her argols, crude
tartar, vermouth, still and sparkling
wines, paintings and statuary that
Germany doubled and tripled her tar
iff on our foodstuffs and manufac-
lures. The whole trade in the articles
named in section three amounts to
considerably less than $2,000,000 a
year. Certainly it was not for this
petty trade that Germany provided
herself with a maximum tariff club
with which to frighten the United
States into cowardly surrender.
Where, then, does Germany expect
to get even?" Somewhere, you may
be sure. This is where: BY the nulli-
fication of law and procedure in
American customs administration,
whereby German exporters, consign-
United States. are practically permit
ted to undervalue their exports any
where from ten to so per cent. That
is where Germany will get even"
Says the German exporter: Let
me write my own values and | care
not who writes your tariff schedules" :"
And he is right.
BY so much as the German export
ers are allowed to undervalue the
S170,000,000 of mostly competitive
goods which come to this country, by
so much will our tariff be reduced.
Ten per cent. of reduction in values
would reduce the dutiable value of the
imports from $170,000,000 TO S153 3,006,-
600; 20 per cent. of reduction in val
ues would make the total $136, 900 900,
and so on, according as the new un-
LIBERALIZATION privileges shall work out
larger or smaller percentages.
If the reduction through undervalu-
alton amounts to 20 per cent, Ger
many will escape tariff payments on
$34,000,000 of goods. At an average
rate of 80 per cent. this would amount
to SIT 100000 which the Germans will
save in one year
Not $20S,16S, as the state depart
ment Optimist would have it, but S17,-
100000 year, is what Germany will
get out of us.
Seventeen millions year is a tidy
sum to have in tariff payments. 1t is
also a tidy sum for the United States
treasury to lose in revenues. But the
increased volume of German exports
dumped on our market at cut prices
gain to Germany, compared with
which that $20S, 16S is made to look
like so cents
What it represents to American
producers undersold in their own mar
ket and American wage earners
robbed of employment, as the result
of increased competition-this is an
other story which remains to be writ
ten when the results of our govern
ment's humiliating LAY down to Ger
many shall have become visible.
For the present it is sufficient to
say that the sharp traders of Ger
many are not the ones who have been
overreached and swindled as $6,664,-
900 is to $20S 16S. Nothing of the
sort. Wait and see who has been over
reached and swindled. Six months or
less of the new export value" regime
will determine whether or not Ameri-
can labor and industry have been
overreached and swindled.
Pulling Down Pillar.
Hailing with satisfaction the "im-
.provement" in our tariff policy that