The Paducah evening sun. [volume] (Paducah, Ky.) 1906-1929, 1908-12-15
WILL LAND ON
OIL OCTOPUS
New Tariff Bill Hard Blow to
Standard.
General Cut All Along the Line,
Especially ON the Raw
Materials.
GOSSIP ABOUT THE TARIFF

Washington, ID. c., Dec. 1.-THE |
Standard Oil company will receive a
hard jolt when the new tariff bill is
Framed. The ways and means COM
mittee already has decided informal |
ly that there shall be free trade in
Toll. There has been no Official de-
cision to this effect, but Chairman
Serene e. Payne has agreed to the
proposition, ana the other ardent
lstandpatters OF the committee are
Willing. Representative Crumpack-
err member of the committee, con,
siders it foregone conclusion that
the Standard, the greatest of all
trusts, will be deprived of its tariff |
lprop.
There has been a good deal of
misunderstanding as to the tariff |
benefit enjoyed by the Standard Oil
company. In reply to the charge
that "the tariff is the mother OIL
trusts" political orators of the stand |
pat persuasion have been pointing to |
the oil trust. 1t has been a stock ar
\ gument that the oil trust has grown
up to be the biggest of all the trusts
notwithstanding there is no tariff on
oil.
1t is true that the Dingley sched-
ules impose no direct rate on oil, but
in that act there is a provision that
whenever a foreign country levies a
tariff on any product imported from
the United States there shall be
levied automatically tariff on the
same product coming from that
lcountry into the United States equal
in amount to the tariff imposed BY
the foreign country.
4 By virtue OF this provision the
STANDARD Oil company is given a
high wall of protection as against
} Russia. which is its leading compe-
titor in the oil business. Russia
levied a tariff against American oil
and Immediately a tariff against Rus
STA oil became effective, equal in
amount TO the Russian tariff.
' Chairman Payne's Plan.
r The plan of going after Standard
= OF company proposed by Chairman
: Payne. Mr.. Crumpacker and others is
to add a phrase to the automatic
' provision of the Dingley bill. so
5 changing ii that il will not apply to-
oil. The effect of this would be to
! insure actual and not theoretical free
trade in oil.
While the profits of Standard On
I will thus be cut down there is a
Likelihood that there will be a gen.
eral overhauling Of some of the ex-
isting schedules. The tariff on hides
is likely to be abolished. There is
a strong sentiment in favor of wip-
ing on the tariff on lumber. The
tariff on leather will be materially re-
duced and the wooden schedule will
be pared.
There is no longer any doubt that
the tariff on a steel and iron will un-
dergo a severe surgical operation.
conservative members of the ways
and means committee will not be
surprised If the steel and iron sched-
u,es are reduced one-half The evil
dence brought out at the ways and
means hearings overwhelmingly indi-
Gates that the high prices charged
the manufacturers of steel is one
of their most serious drawbacks.
Free Raw Materials.
The outlook in general is for a re-
duction all along the line in the
prices of raw materials that enter
into manufactures. Leading manu-
facturers all over the country are
complaining that while they have
had more business during the last
several years than they ever had
before and have turned out more
manufactured products, they have
made less money because they have
had to pay such high prices for raw
materials that their margin or profit
has gone g.immering.
The demand for free raw materials
is finding champions among members
of congress who are strongly welded
to protection as a general PROPOSE
ton. Senator Isaac Stephenson, of
WISCONSIN, is one of these. He is
one of the wealthiest men of his
state, and has a control of a large
number of industries, including paper
mills, etc.
Free raw materials" said he,
l"will go a long way toward opening
the doors for small manufacturers
once more to enter the markets,
which, of late years, have been closed
to them by reason of trust control
Iof American sources of raw material.
by the removal of the tariff on raw
material neither the investor nor
the worker will be adversely affect
ed and the trust will be deprived of
their most powerful leverage-con-
ltrol of the market for raw
materials"