The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-12-20
TARIFF DUTIES ON WOOL
 PROHIBITORY SAYS TAFT
 IN A SPECIAL MESSAGE
Report of Tariff Board is Appalling Indic1- ment of Schsdule K, of AIdrich Bill,
 and Effect is to Raise Prices
Cost l0 Gents Pound Raise Wool in the United States That Can be Raised Abroad For Cents Finding of Board President Recommends Congress to Proceed to the Reduc ton of Wool Rates
Especial from United Press. :,

Especial from United Press.)
 Washington, Dec. 20-In his message transmitting the report of the tariff board, President Taft said. in part: 1T now. herewith. submit a report of the tariff board on schedule K. The board is unanimous tn its find ings. On the basis of these findings. I now recommend that the Congress proceed to q consideration of this and a general reduction of its rates.
 ssThe report shows that the present method of assessing the duty on raw wool--this Is. by specific rate on the grease pound. i. e., unscoured-ope- rates to include wools of high shrink age in securing but fine quality from the American market and thereby les sans the range of wools available to the domestic manufacturers, that the duty on secured wool of s cents per Apound is prohibitory and operates to exclude the importation of clean, low priced. foreign wools of interior grades, which are nevertheless valuable ma terial for manufacturing and which cannot be imported fn the grease be- cause of their heavy shrinkage. Such wools. if imported. must be used to displacs the cheap substitute now m use.
 ITO make the preceding paragraph a little plainer, take the instance of a hundred pounds of first class wool imported under the present duty which ss II cents a pound. That would make the duty on the hundred pounds $i1. The merchantable part of the wool thus imported is the weight of che wool of this hundred pounds after 4rourtriE. If the wool shrinks 30 per cSSit-. as some wools do, then the duty ou 20 pounds of secured wook This, of course. would be prohibitory. If Hze wool shrinks only bo per cent, 1t, Wpnld De ,$11 on 50 pounds of wool. and {lkts is fneRf. to the average Of the &rSAt bulk Sfswcolsa xhRt are impcrt- cfpal source of our imported wool.
 ssThese discrinlinations could be overcome by assessing a duty in ad vaiorem terms, but this method is open to the objection, first. that 1t increases admir- Gstratiye difficulties under valuation and, second, that. as prices advance the ad valorein rate increases the duty per pound at the time when the consumer most needs relief and the producer can best stand cpmpetition, while if prices decline tne duty is decreased at the time when t1a consumer is least burdened by the pfice and the producer most needsspro-
 s.Another method of meeting the dif1culty of taking the grease pound Is to assess a specific duty on grease wool in terms of its secured content. This obviates the chief, evil of the present system, mainly the dfscrimina- ton due to different shrinkages, and thereby tends greatly to equalize the duties The board reports that this method h feasible in practice and could be administered without great expense. The secured content of the wool is the basis on which users of the wool make their calculations and duty of this kind would fit the usages of the trade.
 "The report shows, in detail, the difficulties involved in attempting to state in categorical terms the cost of wool production and the great differ. ences in cost as between different re- EiOns and different types of wool. It fs found, however, that, taking all Varieties in account, the average cost of production for the whole American clip is higher than the cost in the chief competing countries on any amount.
 s..The. report shows that the duties on noils. wool waste and shoddy. which are adjusted to the rate of s cents on secured wool, are prohibitory in the same measure that the duty on unsecured wool is prohibitory. In general, they are assessed at rates as high as or higher than the duties
 
 actually Imported. They should be reduced. and so adjusted to the rate on wool as to bear their proper pro- portion to the real rate levied on the actual wool imports.
 #rrhe duties on many classes of wool manufacture are prohibitory and greatly in excess of the difference in cost of production here and abroad.
 zA"This is true of tops. of yarns (with the exception of worsted yarns of a very high grade), and of low and me dium grade cloth of heavy weight. s4+On tops up to g cents a pound in value and on yarns of 65 cents in value the rate is 100 per cent. with cOrrespOndingly higher rates for low CT values. On cheap and medium grade cloth, the existing rates run to 150 and some to 200 per cent. This which Is levied. ostensibly, to compen- sate the manufacturer for the cost of his raw material due to the duty on wool. As a matter of fact, this com pensatory duty, for numerous classes of goods, is much in excess of the ton.
 "On the other hand, the findings show that the duties, which run to such high ad .valorem equivalents, are prohibitory, since the goods are not imported but that the prices of do-
 
 full amount of duty. On a set of one yard samples, of sixteen English fab xics, which are completed by the pres Hht tariff rates, it was found that the 4total foreign value was SALSA, the du- ties which would have been assessed lad these fabric been imported s76.60. the foreign value plus the amount of the duty $115.74, or a nominal duty of 1S3 per cent: In fact, however, prac- ficalIy identical fabrics of domestic make sold at the same time at $69.75, showing an enhanced price over the foreign market value of but 67 per cent.
 Although these duties do not in clude the price of domestic goods by anything like their full amount, it is none the less true that such protrbi- tive duties eliminate the possi- biiity of foreign competition, even in lime of scarcity, that they form a temptation to monopoly and conspir- ~&aAAA An Anutrol domestic DriceS that