The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1911-07-21

II
the price was there, and was told
1t was their regular s. shoe
when a tariff bill was pending
some years ago, representative OF a
crucible-steel works in Pittsburgh
came into my Office and said, L have
a petition L would like to have YOU
sign T said, What is it% He re-
piled. 1t liz a petition to have the
duty upon our product advanced I
asked him why. This man went on
/ to say in answer to my question:
We have got to keep the standard
Of American living; we have got to
hold up the American rate Of wages
and see that our American working
people live on a basis rar better than
the pauper labor Of Europe I said,
That Is very interesting. How much
pose to add TO your pay roll?" He
said they had not vet given that seri-
GUS consideration.
81 asked him il he would add any
portion of this increased duty to the
pay roll, and he replied that they had
not got to that yet. / said to him, Il
have already signed a petition to have
our duty reduced, but if you will en-
ter into a contract with me here and
now that within year after the duty
is increased you VIII add any per-
centage to your pay roll, then L will
recall my petition and sign yours
and publish the facts He said. You
could not expect me to do that T
said to him, Now, Mr.. So-and-so'-I
knew him very well-Isaid, Now, Mi.
So-and-so, you are paying ten per
I then asked him if his desire was
not simply to pay little better than
10 per cent. He said, Well, Mr.. Red
field, you know how these things CO.
There Is no fixed difference in cost
between foreign and domestic pro-
ducers. There is not, and there new
er can be, such q thing as fixity of
cost. To attain f1xity of cost in a
factory is Industrial tuberculosis, and
means death.
THE difference between three do
nestle concerns in labor cost may
be as great, or ever greater, than the
difference between foreign and do
nestle concerns in the same line. The
attempt to adjust tariff rate to Gov
er such a difference Is therefore alb
surd. II It provides for the differ
ence In the cost OF foreign goods and
OF American goods made in an Amer
lean factory where those goods are
extensively made, it would provide
an enormous bonus for an American
manufacturer who made his goods
economically. III it provides for the
difference between foreign cost and
American cost for goods made in the
most efficient American mill, 1t will
not protect at all the American
maker whose cost is high. You may
have an injustice done one American
manufacturer or an enormous profit
paid to another, and you cannot avoid
It. It is in the nature of things. No
law can get at it. And if your pro
posed duty provides for the average
foreign cost-an impossible thing to
learnt does not provide, therefore,
for the skillful ana economical ex-
ceptions among foreign manufacture
erS.
Foreign Cost Hard to Learn.
How shall anybody ever learn the
foreign cost of articles? Has any
Ways and Means Committee in this
House ever had brought before it
actual cost sheets of an American
AoSLOLy 1nCy are Tie cure anu hCT-
mel of the manufacturers business
He would not dare to produce them
here, lest his competitor find them
out, but were they here produced this
little theory and contention about the
difference in cost between goods at
home and abroad would oftentimes
States manufacturer.
-.
and ] may say it has been my duty |
to strive for years to find out-there
is no way known to me to get at the i
real cost of producing a thing in Ger
many, France or any foreign country |
When, II ever, was there man who
could suggest method whereby you
could inquire into the business of a
foreign concern, or whereby the facts
concerning the inner details OF its op-
Grafton could be brought to light in
this country? 1t is a perfectly abb
surd thing on its face, and T say it
cannot be done.
But why do not the American
manufacturers SELL as cheaply as
Sometimes, they private
ly say, because the law permits high \
prices, and they, Of course, sell in the
highest available market. Did you
ever think of what the hidden reserve
in a factory is or may be? You new
er see it in the books or never know
it by the statements. A statement \
may be made to your Ways and
Means Committee that may be per
fectly clear and yet not show the
facts. / know of a concern that
was profiting largely. Tt was not
desirable that, for purposes of taxa
ton, the profits should appear. SO
they discovered that their real es-
tate was not as valuable as it had
been before, and they marked $780,
300 Off the valuation Of it. At the end
of another year or two, during which
they had done we'll, they found that
heir real estate had deprecated fur
Their, and they marked another $780,
700 off the value Of ii. There was a
hidden reserve of 100000 which no
statement showed. And yet that
statement would be filed as an accu-
rate statement of fact. There are
many cases OF that kind; I do not say
u that exact detail
did you ever consider what com
duties amount to when you
Juy something from a retailer? Some
,ne comes to me for an estimate OF ,
cost. ], the original maker,take what )
he actual cost Of the material in that !
hing Is to me. That includes the
amount by which the price is enhanc- !
I'd by the duty. I then forget the :