Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1907-11-21
SAME OLD FALLACY
ELLIS H. ROBERTS TALKS "HORi-
ZONTAL REDUCTION"
Would Juggle Tariff to Suit Condition
of Treasury--Constant Disturb
ance of Business Conditions
the Inevitable Result.

One of the latest plans for insuring
disturbance of business conditions is
that advanced by Ellis II. Roberts,
former treasurer of the United States.
The present treasury surplus worries
this gentleman. He foresees the posi-
bility of a continued increase that
shall bring the surplus to 100000, 900,
and to avert this he woud reduce the
tariff
First determine what the proper sur
plus should be, and then cut down col
lections to fit. Horizontal reduction
will do it. That was the Bill Nor
rison plan of some 20 years ago. Nor
rison, however, was not so much wor-
ried about the surplus as about pro
lection. He wanted to secure in time
the removal of all protective duties.
Roberts processes undiminished re-
gard for protection, though he would
not hesitate to lower duties that are
needed for protection in order that the
treasury surplus may be decreased.
His plan seems simple-very simple,
considered broadly, but extremely
complicated when it comes to working
out details.
If the tariff is going to be so rcgu-
lated as to fit the surplus, then, OF
course, the tariff must be changed as
often as the surplus changes. When
the surplus rises beyond an agreed
sum the tariff must be again lowered;
and when the surplus drops below the
ideal" figure then the tariff must be
raised.
To illustrate: Having reduced the
tariff, and our surplus being, say,
$20000,000 congress sees fit to appro-
pirate an additional $3O0,000,000 for
Panama canal construction, for deep
waterways, for rivers and harbors, for
irrigation, etc, etc. Accordingly the
surplus disappears and deficit takes
It's place. Up goes the tariff again,
and so on, down, up, and down again,
as the surplus diminishes, increases
or disappears altogether.
The tariff would be about as stable
as a thermometer constantly changed
from a refrigerator to a boiler room
and back again. Production, labor,
wage paying and wage distribution
through trade channels would never
know what the tariff was going to be
for any considerable length of time.
Under such shifting conditions no one
need be told what would happen to
business.
The Roberts plan of horizontal re-
duction is based upon the erroneous
assumption that the present tariff
schedules are uniformly protective.
Such is not the case. Some schedules
are already too low. Proof of this is
found in the fact that We are now i'm
porting competitive commodities at the
rate of nearly $9O0,00OOOO a year.
Would Mr. Roberts like to see that
amount increased? 1t certainly would
be increased if we should cut down
the tariff in order to cut down the sur
plus.
Suppose this heavy increase of du-
table merchandise should increase
the aggregate of tariff collections and
so increase the surplus.
w lltlI NOuIi wi lNObNl - Wv III LilcI
event? Would he reduce the tariff
still further, and thereby still further
swell the imports, or would he raise
the tariff once more with a view to
shutting out imports? Would he, by
tariff reduction, swell the volume of
competitive imports that, once admit
ted to our market, must displace an
equivalent quantity Of domestic pro
duction domestic employment, domes-
tic wage paying, domestic wage spend.
ing? Would he do this for the sake of
reducing the surplus?
Does Mr.. Ellis II. Roberts, in fact,
know precisely what he would do or
would like to have done with the tar
iff? Has he any conception Of the con
sequences of what he would do after
it had been done? The answer wouM
seem to be that the eX-trcasurer is
1loundering around in a mess of crude
ideas and does not really know enough
about the tariff and its workings to
entitle him or his views to serious con
sideration.