Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1911-12-28
REPORT OF TARIFF
BOARD SUBMITTED
PRESIDENT IN MESSAGE RECON-
MENDs REVIsIoA AND REDUc-
TON OF SCHEDULE K.
EXPLAINS VETO MESSAGE
Believes in REIMBURSEMENT Importance
Of Graduated Scale Of Ad Valorem
Duties on Cloths Be Carefully
Considered and Applied.

Considered and Applied.
Washington, D. C.-The message of
President Taft transmitting the report
of the tariff board on schedule K was
delivered to the house and senate
Wednesday. The message follows:
To the Senate and House Of Representa-
tiVes:
In my annual message to Congress,
December, 1903, / stated that under sec
ton of the act of August S, 1909. / had
appointed a tariff board of three MEM
bers to cooperate with the State De-
partment in the administration of the
maximum and minimum clause of that
act, to make a glossary or encyclopedia
OF the existing tariff so as to render its
terms Ineligible to the ordinary reader,
and then to investigate industrial condi-
tons and costs of production at home
and abroad witt a view to determining
to what extent existing tariff rates actu-
ally exemplify the protective principle,
viz: duties should be made ade-
ouate, and only adequate. to equalize the
difference in cost of production at home
and abroad.
further stated that I believed these
Investigations would be of great value as
a basis for accurate legislation, and that
] should from time to time recommend to
Congress the revision of certain sched-
ules in accordance with the finding of the
board.
In the last session of the Sixty-frst
Congress a bill creating a permanent tar
if board of five members, of whom not
more than three should be of the same
political. party. passed each house, but
failed of enactment because of slight diff
ferences on which agreement was not
reached before adjournment. An appro-
priation act provided that the permanent
tariff board. if created by statute, should
report to Congress on schedule K in De
cember, 1911.
Therefore, to carry out so far as lay
within my power the purposes Of this
bill for a permanent tariff board, 1 ap-
pointed in March, 1911, a board of FIVE.
adding two members of such party affil-
iation as would nave fulfilled the statu-
tory requirements, and directed them to
make a report to me on schedule K OF
the tariff act in December of this year.
In my message of August II, 1911, ac-
~companying the veto of the wool bill, I
said that, in my judgment. schedule X
should be revised and the rates reduced.
My veto was based on the ground that.
since the tariff board would make, in
December, a detailed report on wool and
wool manufactures. with special refer
ence to the relation Of the existing rates
of duties to relative costs here and
abroad, public policy and a fair regard
to the interests of the producers and the
manufacturers on the one hand, and of
the consumers on the other, demanded
that legislation should not be hastily en-
acted in the absence of such information;
that | was not myself possessed at that
time of adequate knowledge of the facts
to determine whether or not the proposed
act was in accord with my pledge to sup
port a fair and reasonable protective pol
Icy, and that such legislation might
prove only temporary and inflict upon a
great industry the evils of continued I'M
certainty.
7 ,,o-, Ia,e-s+I. a,t--. ~
tariff board on schedule K. The board is
unanimous in its findings. On the basis
of these findings, l now recommend that
the onSre proceed to a consideration
of this schedule with a view to its re-
vision n a general reduction OF its
rates. s
The report shows that the present
method of assessing the duty on raw
grease pound, I. e., unsecured. operates
so to exclude woods on high shrihkag e in
securing but fine quality from the Amer
lean market, n thereby lessons the
range of woods available to the domestic
manufacturer; that the duty on secured
wool of 80 cents per pound is prohib-
1tory and operates to exclude the impor-
tatton of clean, low priced foreign wools
of inferior grades, which are nevertheless
valuable material for manufacturing, and
which can not be imported in the grease
because of their heavy shrinkage. Such
woods. if imported, might be used to dis
PldOC lllt Clltdp substitutes HOW III use.
To make the preceding paragraph a lit
tie palmer, take the instance of a hun
dred pounds of frst-class wool imported
under the present duty, which is II
duty on the hundred pounds $11.00. The
m~erchantable part of the wool thus i'm
ported is the weight Of the wool of this
hundred pounds after securing. If the
wool shrlnks so per cent, as some woods
do, then the DUTY in such a case would
amount to $11.00 on 20 pounds of secured
wool. This, of course, would be pronib-
TORY. If the wool shriDks only so per
cent it would be $11.00 on so pounds of
wool. and this is near to the average of
the great bulk of woods that are imported
from Australia, which is the principal
source of our imported woods.
These determinations could be over
come by assessing a duty in ad valorem
terms, but this method is open to the
objection, first, that it increases admin
iAtrative difficulties and tends to de-
crease reVenue through upderyaluation;
and, second, that as prices advance, the
ad valorem rate increases the duty per
pound at the time when the consumer
most needs relief and the producer can
best stand competition; while if prices
decline the duty is decreased at the time
when the consumer Is least burdened by
the price and the producer most needs
protection.
Another method is to assess a specific
duty on grease wool in terms of its
49, - HAiA Wv JIG IliCA
evil of the present system, namely, the
discrimination due to different shrink
ages, and thereby tends greatly to equal
ize the duty. The board reports that this
method is feasible in practice and could
be administered without great expense.
The secured content of the wool Is the
basis on which users of wool make their
calculations, and a duty OF this kind
would fit the usages of the trade. One
effect of this method of assessment would
be that, regardless of the rate Of duty,
there would be an increase in the supply
and variety of wool by making available
to the American market woods of both
low and fine quality now excluded.
The report shows in detail the difficult
ties involved in attempting to state in
categorical terms the cost of wool pro-
duction and the great difference in cost
as between different region and different
types of wool. 1t is found. however. thai
taking all varieties in account, the aver
age cost Of production for the whole
American clip is higher than the cost in
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