Los Angeles herald., 1909-12-08
ENGLISH TARIFF
PLAN OUTLINED
BRITAIN'S TAX REFORM IDEA
PROMULGATED
OBJECT OF UNlONlST PARTY is
TOLD IN DETAIL
Article Given Out from Authentic
Source and Published at Birming-
ham Reveals Purposes In
volved in Fight
tAssociated Pressl

| LONDON, Dec. THE Birmingham
Daily Post tomorrow will publish an
article from inspired sources outlining
the tariff reform proposals that are
! likely to be made by the Unionist gov
| ernment II the UniOnsts are successful
at the elections, prefacing it with the
remark that the country's financial ne
/ cessities are much greater than they
/ were in 1906, when Joseph Chamberlain
| started the movement.
The article continues:
ut is proposed to establish general
tariff placing duties on practically all
| goods that are not deemed raw ma
terial, with the object, first, of raising
revenues; second, of assisting the home
producer against foreign competition;
third, of giving preference to colonies;
| fourth, of securing better terms from
| foreign countries, and fifth, of mitigat-
ing unemployment by encouraging the
| home producer.
"The tariff will be of the simplest
possible form, not protective in the
| sense that is understood in Germany
and the United States There is no
intention of having multifarious rates
which would throw open the door to
parliamentary intrigues.
Raw Material Free
"The plan favored is to allow raw
materials duty free. and to impose a 8
per cent duty on partly manufactured
goods, 10 per cent on articles nearly
completed and 15 per cent on COM
pletely manufactured articles.
There will be no variations in this
scale unless in exceptional cases There
may possibly be, however, a slightly
lower duty i'm favor of the colonies and
slightly higher tariff against coun-
tries seeking unduly to penalize British
goods.
Foreign wheat will be liable to a
duty of two shillings per quarter, with
preference to the colonies, but not the
removal of the whole duty.
Flour will pay a higher rate, to en-
courage home grinding, while bacon
and maize will also be excluded from
the free list. Important raw ma
terials, such as cotton and wool, will
enter free.
"A tariff formed thus. it is estimated.
would produce a revenue of from G16,-
900, 900 to e20,000,000 If the Unionists
are returned. every possible effort will
be made to embody the new duties in
the budget of 1910, or at the latest
1911, but the maximum duties will be
withheld for two years. to give time
to negotiate commercial agreements
with foreign countries"
Confirms intention
The Right Hon. George Wyndham,
member of the house of commons for
Dover, speaking in London tonight, also
intlmated the intention of the Union
lists TO prepare 10 per cent duty on
manufactured articles and two shillings
on wheat.
Charles Wright NIAGARA, head of the
cotton federation of Great Britain, re-
yealed himself as a strong advocate or
free trade.
II have been struck" he said, "by
the feebleness of the arguments of
those who would seriously endanger
the cotton trade by changing our
fiscal policy. In fifty years Lanca-
shire has doubled in population dou-
bled its cotton spinning and manufac-
turing machinery and built up an eX-
port trade three times bigger than its
home trade. This enormous growth
has been maintained by the cheapness
of production. Tax food and mill
requisites and our pre-eminence would
be endangered. Protected America,
where two thirds of the worlds cotton
crop grows, only exports ten per cent
of her manufactured goods, against
England's rs per cent.
Hitherto other nations have dis
counted to some extent the handicap
which protection imposes upon them,
by working longer hours, but next
year the mills of Massachusetts and
Germany will by statute have working
hours reduced to nearly the same level
as England
Let the cotton industry be i'm
periled and every other industry suf-
fers. The teeming population of Lam
cashire are among the biggest con- |
sumers of agricultural produce"