Los Angeles herald., 1909-04-20
AMERICAN TARIFF LAWS
XXKV-ReEati0n 10 The Trusts
BY FREDERIC j. HASKLN

~ ~e AA<heOANAAN Il
Perkins stated that it was now requir-
ing annually the timber from an acre.
age of land equal in size to the state
of Rhode Island to supply the Ameri-
can newspaper publishers demands
for print paper He suggested that
under present conditions it would be
better to pay bounty on wood nulp
imported into the United States than
to assess a duty against 1T. This
perhaps the only time that a serious
minded statesman has suggested
bounty on imports.
The one interesting development of
the tariff question In the recent past
Is the gradual growth of the num-
ber of Manufacturers who advocate
extensive revision downward. With
out exception they place themselves
on the platform of Henry Clay-that
he is the best friend of protection who
seeks to have it applied where neces-
sary and cut off where unnecessary.
Not long ago the American Academy
of Political and Social Science publish
ed a symposium of views on the tariff
question ID. M. Parry, the great ve-
hicle manufacturer, was one OF the
contributors to this symposium. He
declared that whenever home prices
fall below foreign prices there is
temptation in the tariff to eliminate
home competition by combination.
H. El Miles, another protectionst
who has stood for revision downward,
comes to terms even more specific. He
says that in the line of manufacturing
in which he is engaged all the duty
necessary Is Is per cent. or 20 per cent
at the outside, yet the Dingley law
gives As per cent. He declares that
under this the Dingley law permits.
If il does not indeed invite, combina-
ton to increase the home price by
20 per cent. and thereby treble or
uuadruple the profits. He holds that
his own concern could have added
nearly half million dollars TO Its
profits had it taken full advantage of
the situation offered.
The late John Sherman, author of
the sherman antitrust law, was one
of those who declared that whenever
industrial combinations controlled the
home market the tariff on the arti-
cles they controlled ought to be taken
off. The "Iowa idea" expressed in a
state convention platform drawn by
the late Senator Allison, took the
same ground, favoring a reduction of
tariff duties where they afforded shell
ter to monopolieS
Representative De Almond OF Mis-
souri, has plan to prevent the trusts
from taking any advantage of the
shelter he thinks they enjoy at the
hands of protection. He would apply
the pure-food-label principle to trust
made articles, requiring each article
so made to be labeled In a way show
ing that fact. and at the same time
to give the rate of protection duty IT
enjoys at the hands of the govern
ment In this way he would the bet
ter educate the people as to the ex-
tent of the sale of trust-made goods,
and the better show them the ad-
vantage afforded the trusts through
protection. 1t is needless to state that
his idea stands small chance of being
added to the laws of the land.
The controversy over the trusts sell
ing goods cheaper abroad than at
home has many phases. Perhaps the
latest and most interesting contrfbu-
tion TO that controversy is the state
ment that not only are American goods
sold cheaper abroad than at home, but
that this is likewise true of other prin-
cipal countries. Senator Gallinger
stated not long ago that he had some
correspondence with a Canadian estab-
lishment which offered him goods OF
it's manufacture 20 per cent cheaper
than its domestic price. Representa-
tive Bannon of Ohio declared In the
house that Great Britain's export price
on steel rails was $25 a ton, while the
price to the domestic consumer was
S31 so. He said that the German eX-
port price on steel rails was $24 and
her domestic price $50. In France he
found the export and domestic price
$S1 and $24, respectively. He said thai
without exception the domestic price
of steel rails in other countries was
greater than in the United States. He
took it that what was true OF steel
rails was also true of other commo-
dities.
John D. Rockefeller, jr., has new
theory about the trusts and the tariff.
bair saving
'The American Beauty rose can be
produced in it's splendor and fragrance
only by sacrificing the early buds
which grow up around it," Mr.. Rookie
feller applied that view to the trust
question and finds in 1t ample excuse
for the survival of the fittest," as ex-
emplifed by the Standard Oil.
1t is interesting to note that with
the sole exception of few men like
Havemeyer, Carnegie and Schwab, the
trust magnates declare that except in
so far as protection is the basis or
prosperity, it has nothing whatever to
do with the formation of trusts They
admit that under prosperous conditions
competition becomes so fierce that pro-
ducers combine to raise prices to
living level, knowing that the tariff
duties will permit them to do so. Many
of the trust officials have now come
to the point where they declare that
they can stand without any protection
whatever, but in the next breath they
declare that the smaller producers can
not unaided compete with the for
'eigner. Some one has answered this
by remarking that If the small pro-
ducer can compete with the trust, and
the trust can compete with the for
eigner, on the principle that things
equal to the same thing are equal to
each other, the small producer could
compete with the foreign producer.
Copyright, 1909, by Frederic j. Haskin.)
TomorrOw--American Tariff Laws.
XXV-Tariffs Of Principal Nations.