The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1911-10-05
INVESTIGATES
TARIFF BOARD
WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT
OF REGISTER TELLS OF
TARIFF FACTORY
ntW SCHEDULES ARE EASILY MADE
Tariff Board 10 Busy Preparing Report
on Different Industries for the
Next Session Of Congress

Our Washington correspondent
writes as follows under date of Oc-
tober .:
| wish it were possible to take the
readers of the Register on a personal
ly conducted tour of the headquarters
of the Tariff Board, in order that they
might learn as did your correspondent
that the universal belief that the tar
if is a dry and uninteresting question,
and what is more important-it's solu-
tion a hopeless problem. is entirely
a mistake, owing to the method Of
work being carried on by the Tariff
Board.
If this simple statement has served
to carry the reader beyond the GUS
tomary point where having discovered
that the subject pertains to the tar
if, and he is still willing to follow
your correspondent, | will endeavor
to give him something new" that may
modify his previous notions concern
ing this over-ripe subject.
The Tariff Board applying simple
rules long recognized in private bust
ness, in the classification of indus
tries. A striking proof shown by their
work is that while it may be that
the members of the Board are not
tariff experts, as has been claimed,
that their Congress-, working with
primitive methods, could never posi-
ply made an intelligent tafiff schedule
of any kind. Wool and worsted sta
tistics are now being prepared, and
a corps of representatives are in the
field covering every detail entering
into the question of cost regarding
the growth and manufacture of wool
which a farmer who keeps a first
class set of books can tell at a glance
any portion Of his crops; or by the
methods employed by corporations
and manufacturing institutions, en-
abling them to compute the price
which they may command to secure
a profit on their products, has our
industrial and commercial develop
ment been able to advance along safe
lines. Tagging far behind the
government of our country, now pro-
posing to substitute in place of CUES
sing that washed fieeces and un-
washed combings may be produced
at a given figure, a method whereby
the actual prices governing the growth
Of wool, its manufacture, etc, may be
ascertained. An army OF trained men
has been dispatched to every e.
ton of the country, and working upon
carefully prepared schedules they
have analyzed the differences in con
ditions existing in Wyoming, New
Mexico, Montana, Idaho, Nevada, Colo
RADIO Arizona, Washington, and other
western states, where the growth Of
wool is carried on as a great and
separate industry, Independent Of
other branches of farming. An en-
tirely different condition exists in
states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, ILL
nois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa, Ne
I,nnln CAttL tln1nFn nnI nfhnrs
states, where wool growing is recog-
nized as only a part of the general
scheme of farm life-1ot constituting
a separate industry. The results of
the tariff, as it affects the wool grower
in every state, may be anticipated
when taken in connection with the
absolutely correct figures governing
every phase of the industry.
The agents of the Tariff Board, be-
sides their work in the United States,
have covered every country in the
world. where the wool and worsted
industry is of consequence.
The magnitude of the job seems
tremendous, but it has been demon
strated that with a sufficient force
Of people, working along an intelli-
gent, systematic course, that the re-
suits may be as accurately calculated
as the annual statement of a fifty
thousand dollar corporation.
The simplicity Of the plan is adj
mirable, and the ease with which 1t
may be comprehended by the average
mind, is a striking merit of the great
work. The results are subject to
the application OF the methods OF the
crank Of a protective tariff, the tar
III for revenues only man. the free