The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1907-09-12

Door to Increased Competition, the
Bargain Does Not Seem so Very
Fine for Us After All.
AS $6,G64, 900 a year is to S2OS,1G a
year-that is what we are told the
United States has gained in its tariff
dickeT with Germany. More specifical-
ly stated the claim is that the reduc-
ton in Germany's tariff on American
exports will amount to 1864, 600,
while the reduction in our tariff on
German exports will amount to only
$208,1 6S
Ii this be the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth, then Ger
many has been completely over
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 $6,664 900 a gold
brick which assays $20S,168.
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 a small part of the truth, as
events will abundantly prove.
Germany did not put up her maxi
mum tariff bluff for the paltry advan-
tage OF saving s208, lG8 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, yermouth, still and sparkling
wines, paintings and statuary that
Germany doubled and tripled her tar
if on our foodstuffs and manufac-
lures. The whole trade in the articles
named in section three amounts to
considerably less than 100000 a
year. Certainly it was not for this
petty trade that Germany provided
herself with maximum tariff club
with which to brighten the United
States into cowardly surrender.
Where, then, does Germany expect
to get even?" Somewhere, you may
be sure This is where BY the multi
fication of law and procedure in
American customs administration,
whereby German exporters, consign-
ing goods to their own agents in the
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 l care
not who writes your tariff schedules"
And he is right.
BY so much as the German export
ers are allowed to undervalue the
Sl70,000,000 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 $17O0OO,OO0 to $153, 0OO,-
600; 20 per cent. of reduction in val
ues would make the total $136,000,O00,
! and so on, according as the new I'M
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
s34,000,000 of goods. At an average
rate of so per cent. this would amount
to S17000,000 which the Germans will
save in one year.
Not s20S,16S, as the state depart
ment optimlst would have it, but ST.
100000 a 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
represents a much greater sum of
gain to Germany. compared with
which that sos, 16S is made to look
like 80 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.