Weekly journal-miner., 1911-03-29
ABLEDISCUSSION OF
 IMPORTANT ISSUES
Instructive Address on Tariff Board And Reciprocity Delivered by F.O.
 Smith at Business Men'sDnner

reciprocity agreement was delivered by F. o. Smith of the law firm of Norris & Smith, at the recent Busi- ness Mems Dinner, in the Yavapai Club:
 MT Smiths Address.
 At the last session of Congress two tariff measures were recommended and urged by President Taft. One, the permanent tariff board; and the other the Canadian reciprocity agree ment. Both measures passed the lower house and died in the senate. Died because they were not brought to a vote for a large majority in both houses, without regard to party lines, favored them.
 Briefly, the tariff board bill creates a permanent tariff commission of five members, appointed by the President for six years, not more than three to be members of the same party. The first members to serve for two, three, four, five and six years, respectively, so that after the second year one new member will be appointed annu- ally. The chairman is to receive $500 per annum and the other mem bers $7,000. The commission is given power to conduct investigations any where is this or foreign countries and it is its duty to investigate the cost of production of all articles now or hereafter the subject of tariff legis- lation, with special reference to prices paid for domestic and foreign labor, prices paid for raw materials and for transportation from centers of pro- duction to areas of consumption and the conditions of foreign and domestic markets affecting American products, including detailed information with respect thereto, and all other facts necessary or convenient in fixing i'm port duties.
 In a word, it is a plan to establish a permanent board to study the tariff and its effect on business from A to 2. It is not a new theory. Hamil- ton proposed a permanent board to study industrial conditions in 1792. In 1867, David A. Wells, as Revenue Commissioner, did very valuable work in reporting on the tariff. Since that time we have had several temporary boards but they have been partisan in character and have accomplished nothing
 The value of this board is recog- nized by statesmen of both parties. Any general tariff bill is so complex that no senator or congressman has ever pretended to a knowledge of the entire bill. All frankly admit that it is practically impossible for one man to digest such a measure. The Dingley Act of '97, which is typical, placed duty on 3,15O separ- ate articles There were fourteen separate schedules, which were again subdivided
 Few congressman can do more than study the duties in which their dis triets are particularly interested. The Ways and Means committee hear testimony of the manufacturers and producers and give them what they desire. The consumer is not ade- quately represented. The bill goes through the house and passes the senate with amendments. Then it goes to a conference committee made up of the party leaders and these few men make the real tariff act. They change it to suit themselves. For example, in 1883 the house made the duty on bar iron $20 a ton. The senate $2O.16. The conference com mittee s22.4O The house put the duty on iron ore at 30 cents, the senate the same and the conference committee fixed it at 75 cents.
 When the bill comes from the con ference committee, the party whip cracks and the act goes through without consideration. It is such political triekery which gives weight to the Irishmen's definition of our government when he said it was a ''half a dozen gintlemen who git to- gether and decide what's best for thimselves and then decide that's best for the rist of us;' or of the other son of Erin who said that our government meant the "greatest good for the greatest number" and when asked what he meant by the greatest number, replied, "Number One.'
 A permanent tariff board would soon end such evils. Public opinion