Los Angeles herald., 1909-04-21

have been of this kind. The reciprocity
treaties form an exception to the rule,
and the oountervailing duty, such as Is
fixed in the case of petroleum, referred
to in previous article, is another MOD
ification of the general policy
The French system is the best ex-
ample of the maximum and minimum
tariff. There are two rates OF duty
escribed-practically two tariff laws,
one high and the other low. To the
country which gives France the beneht
of a minimum tariff France extends
her low tariff To the country whlcn
does not extend a minimum taritI
France shows a stiff and exclusive front
by putting up the bars of her high
tariff. The United States was caught
for a while. Having no minimum
tariff to extend to her in exchange for
similar concession, the United states
was forced to pay the higher rate Two
reapers would be found standing side
by side in a French customs house, one
from America and the other from Ger
many The German reaper would be
pa ssed in at several dollars less than
The American machine. That is the
way the maximum and the minimum
works.
But this system, excellent as 1t is as
compared with a single system, when
it goes to extending foreign trade, has
its drawbacks when compared to the
convention system. When two men are
trading on a piece of property. neither
of them finds 1t advantageous TO name
his best figure at the outset. III the
seller puts his price few hundred dol
lars above what is actually his lowest
price he stands a better chance OF get
ting his figure. And likewise, II the
buyer names price below what he.is
willing to pay at the last moment the
chances of the barter are that he VIII
fare better by it, So 1t is with the
maximum and minimum tariff. The
highest and the lowest rate are known
at once. There Is no room for trading.
+ It is this or nothing. The result is less
liberal concessions than might have
been secured by a process OF barter,
without either knowing what the other
had up his sleeve.
There is where the convention sys-
TEN gets it's strongest hold. Under this
system there Is a general tariff, ana
below that such rates of duty as the
representatives of the country having
the system are able to get by trading
with other countries. The result Is
often remarkable and far-reaching in
its advantages to the country in eX-
tending it's foreign trade. Thus, when
Germany finds a fine outlet for her eX-
ports in some awakening country she
sends her representatives to that coup-
IL y
come into Germany at next to free rates,
il in exchange German goods are adj
mitted at lower rates than those en-
ioyed by the merchandise of other ma
tions. The bargain is made, and there
after when English cloth and German
cloth reach the customs house or that
country the German cloth gets In on a
smaller duty than the English cloth.
So Germany gets the business.
Germany leads the whole world in the
mastery of the tariff question. She has
gone into the consideration of the sub
ject from the broad standpoint of ma
tional welfare, ignoring the. petty po..
litical advantage which a changing OF
schedules might give. When the time
came to revise her general tarin
commission of thirty-two members was
appointed. In addition to this, some
2nO0 trade EXPERTS were detailed to as
sist in the preparation of the new tar
if. 1t was five years before their work
was completed, and the economic world
regards their labors as the most thor
ough and satisfactory any nation mas