The San Francisco call., 1909-09-18

was substantial ~doWnWd.u teNloioi,
on articles entering into the general
consumption OF the country Wnlch can
be termed necessities, for the propor-
tion is $5 100000, 600, representing the
creases applied, to less than $3uo, o,o00,Vo0
of articles of necessity to winch the
increases applied.
platform was not to revise everything =
downward, and in the speeches WIllcn
have been taken as interpreting that
platform which / made in the campaign
[ did not promise that everything
should go downward What promised
was that there should be many de-
creases and that in some few things
increases would be found to be neces-
sary; but that. on the whole l conceived
that the change of conditions would
make the revision necessarily down
ward--and that, 4 contend, under the
showing which / have made, has been
the result of the Payne bill.
WHAT HE DID NOT PROMISE
~. ! did not agree, nor did the repub-
lican party agree, that we would re-
duce rates to such a point as TO reduce
prices by the Introduction. of foreign
competition. That is what the free
nue. tariff reformers desire, but that is
not what the republican platform
promised. and 1t is not what the repub-
lIcan party wished to bring about.
To repeat again what | opened this
speech with-the proposition of the re-
publican party was TO reduce rates so
as 70 MAINTAIN a Qlnercnce between the
cost of production abroad and the cost
of the production here, insuring a rea-
sonable profit to the manufacturer on
all articles produced in this country
and the proportion to reduce rates and
to prevent their being excessive was
to avoid the opportunity for monopolies
that excessive rates could be taken ad-
vantage of to force prices up.
NOW 1t Is stated that there was not a
reduction in number of the schedules
c a
that there was no reduction in the cot
ton schedule. There was not.
HEARD MUCH TESTIMONY
The house and senate took evidence
and found from cotton manufacturers
and from other sources that the rates
such as to enable them to make a
decent profit, but only decent profit
| and they Were contented with it; but
the rates on the higher grades of cot
ton cloth, by reason of court decisions.
had been reduced so that they were
| considerably below those of the cheaper
grades of cotton cloth, and that by
unueryaluations and otherwise the
whole cotton schedule had been made
unjust and the various items were
disproportionate in respect to the vary
ing cloths. Hence, in dhe senate a
new system was introduced, attempting
TO make the duties more specific rather
than ad yalorem, in order to prevent
disproportionate and unequal operas
lton of the schedule.
Under this schedule it was contend
ed that there had been a general rise.
There has been a general rise of all
/ the duties on cotton. This was vigor-
ously denied by the treasury depart
ment experts At last the senate in
amounting to about 10 per cent on all
the lower grades of cotton, and this
reduced the lower grades of cotton
substantially to the same rates as be-
fnr fs,fr =, 4.
to what they ought to be under the
Dingley law and what they were in
tended to he.
AS TO COTTON DUTIES
Now am not going into the ques-
tion of evidence as TO whether the
! cotton duties were too high apd
whether the difference between the
cost of production abroad and at home,
allowing for a reasonable profit to the
manufacturer here, is less than the
duties imposed under the Payne bill
1t was a question of evidence which
congress passed upon after they heard
/ the statements of cotton manufacture
| ers and such other evidence as they
/ could avail themselves of. ] agree that
| the method of taking evidence and the
| determination was made in a general
/ way There ought to be other methods
of obtaining the evidence and reaching
a conclusion that the evidence is salts
factory.
QUESTION OF EVIDENCE
Criticism has also been made of the
crockery schedule and the failure TO re-
duce that. The question whether il
/ ought to have been reduced or not was
! a question of evidence which both com
| mitteeS of congress took np,. and botf
concluded that the present rates or
crockery were such as were needed te
maintain the business IN this country
| had been informed that the crock
cry schedule was not high enough. anc
mentioned that in one of many cam
paign speeches as schedule probably
where there oaght to be some increases
It turned out that the difficulty wa:
rather in differentiation than in the
! character of the schedule itself, and st
it was not changed.
1t is entirely possible to collect evi
| dence to attack almost any of the
schedules, but one story is good unit
another is told. and / have heard M
/ reason for sustaining the contention
that the croekery schedule is undul.
high, and so with respect to numerou!
details-it was of no great importanc,
lin which, upon what they regarded
as sufficient evidence, the committee
I advanced the rates in order to saw,
the business which was likely to b.
destroyed.
MUCH CONTRADICTORY EVIDENCE
have never known a subject tha
Will evoke so much contradictory evi
ldence as tariff rates and the question
of cost of production at home an
Take the cost of paper. A committe
was appointed. by congress a year be
fore the tariff sittings began to de
termine what the difference was be
tween the cost of production in Canad
of print paper and the cost of produc
tion here. and they reported that the
thought a good bill would be one i'm
posing 81 a ton on paper rather that
Sc, the Dingley rate, provided tha
Canada could be induced to take OF
the export duties and remove the othe
obstacles to the importation OF spruc
wood out of which wood pulp is made
An examination of the evidence sat
isfied Mr.. Payne--I believe it salts
fled some of the republican dissenters-
that So unless some change was mad
IN the Canadian restrictions, was muc
too low, and that 81 was only fai
, measure of the difference between tn
. cost of production here and in Canads
; In other words, the So found by tn
! special committee was rather an invi
: tation to Canada and the Canada
print paper people to use their infiu
: ence with their government to re
: move the wood restrictions by reduc
ing the duty on print paper agains
Canadian print paper mills. 1t wa