The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-05-13
PAYNE TO DEFENSE
Of TARIFF LAW
Continued From Page one.

common to the United States. but is
consistently paralleled in Europe.
This, briefly, was the defense of the
tariff law made today by Mr.. Payne
during the debate in the house of rep
resentatives.
Misrepresentation began" declared
Mr.. Payne, when the conference re-
port came in. Now and then 1t starteo
from the tradesmen who wanted to in
crease the price of his goods and give
the tariff the reason. In SO cases
out Of 100 the assertion was false, as
the tariff had reduced the duty on the
goods he was selling, Before the bill
was passed retailers of wooden goods
started the story that an increase in
the tariff had increased the price of
their goods. Not single increase was
made in a single rate of duty in the
whole wooden schedule.
1.-THE first requisite of good tariff"
he continued, ''is that 1t must meet
the expenditures of the government.
From the day this bill went into effect
1t has accomplished all that was pre-
dicted for 1t.
"The price of commodities has been
increasing for ten years the world over.
One reason for the advance Is not only
the great increase in the production
Of gold, but the cheaper methods of
producing il. The supply Is greater
than the demand and Is obtained with
less cost AS gold is the measure of all
values the commodities are higher be-
cause of it's decrease in value. This
accounts, in part, for the general in
crease in prices.
1.-The increases in prices are upon
articles upon which the duty has been
lowered by the present law, or else re-
man where they were under the Ding
ley law. All kinds of farm products,
meats, butter, eggs, poultry, all foods,
hides, feathers, shoes and raw cotton
show reductions in duty and increases
in price.
1T is hardly possible to take single
item in the tariff and show a direct
increase from the rates of duty. In
vestigations into food prices show this
conclusively. The increases in price are
fully paralleled by increases in the
same articles abroad. If the tariff has
increased the cost Of living, how Is 1t
that on April 81 newspapers from
Maine TO California published tables
showing that the cost of living is de-
creasing all along the line?"
The press of the country, Mr.. Payne
criticised for its attitude on the pulp
paper situation with Canada. He re-
ferred 70 the duty of 1915 ton i'm
posed by the law on print paper and
declared:
1--WE are criticised because we did
not fix the duty at So ton and close
our paper mills in the vain hope that
Canada might remove her embargoes
on exports of wood pulp. Now she is
extending her embargo and with a
great many OF our mills closed by
strikes there is scarcity of paper. 1t
Is evident that the situation can be
relieved only by some agreement made
between the executive and the Canads
ian authorities to be ratified by con-
gresg.
I'VE have then."s he continued, "a
tariff law that fulfills the pledges OF
the platform, that produces sufflcien.
has discarded in the various schedules
that 1T revised all the duties which
have become unnecessary because OF
changed conditions; we corrected the
errors and lbopholes through which
many articles OF high value escaped
the duty intended and came in under a
nominal duty which carries out che
measure OF protection enunciated In the