The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1911-03-04
TARIEE COMMISSION.

The abandonment of the tariff commission
measure In the House at the eleventh hour.
after 1t had been passed in the Senate. does
not mean that it is dead issue. II win take
its place alongside the Canadian reciprocity
agreement as of the big things of the extra
session. The worth of the measure has been
attested by its having withstood the buffeting
To which it was subjected after its introduction
and it's clinging on to the very last. 1t will be
PASSED during the extra session.
The mixed vote in the Senate for and against
the bin creating the commission showed that it
LIS free from partisanship and passed be-
cause the President insisted on its being enacted
into law and the public ciamored for it,
with this commission faithfully and properly
performing the functions and duties for which
1t is proposed. the next tariff measure of this
country whether il contain higher lower
schedules will at least be fairer and squarer
than any of its predecessors. The commission
will mean much to the people of this country
hut chief of all viii! be- the fact that the public
the tariff.
When Congress begins to tinker with the tar
i'll the manufacturers and producers, 1anked by
large corps of able lawyers, flock to the capitol
and huri great bales of facts, theories and sur
misses at the revisers to show that reduction
OF the schedules would mean ruin to the indus
tries ard the wealthy men. The cause Of the
public is left to few congressman or senator's
who may may not have its interest at heart
The ultimate consumer If too busy to go before
the reyisers with his side of the story with
facts and figures to show the unfairness OF
prices in this country The result has been that
Congress. hearing but enc side of the mat.
framed tariff measures in the interest OF
big business" and worked hardships upon the
public. When it comes TO making tariff sche-
dulles the public is entitled to have Its say as
well as the interests Every man in this coun.
try seems to have left the fighting OF the mo-
nopolies 10 other man, with the result that
no one has waged the battle except few con-
gressmen representing small constituencies
whose interests jeopardized Too often. If
not always, the tariff measure of this country
has been builded upon a foundation woven OF
the warp Of theory and surmise and the wool of
avarieiousness and selfishness
Because congressman or senator knows how
TO eleetrify and galyanze crowds of voters and
secure his election 10 the law.making body of
the nation, 1t does not follow that he knows any
thing about the framing of a tariff measure He
knows probably all too well what ID. best for his
constituency and the manufacturers in his dis
trict, but how the schedules framed in the inter
est OF those who sent him TO Congress would af
feet the nation as whole he not only does not
know, but. In perhaps a majority OF instances he
does not care II the schedules are satisfactory
70 the folk back home" and mean his return to
Congress-. what more could he dezire?
n The tarin commission means the application
Spf little more observation-disclosures to tariff.tink
erfng. Its Investigations and studies Of condi-
-. markets. prices. costs Of raw material
~ production are 10 BE- worldwide. 1t
2ss