Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-12-01
THE TARIFF BOARD.
Its PLANS FOR THE FUTURE.
By Frederic ]. Haskin.

lII BY Freder1t
It is the intention of the tariff board,
| as soon as it completes the work Of
studying the cotton and wool industries,
to take up next in order the metal and
leather industries. The iron and steel
schedule is one of the most difficult of all
the schedules of the tariff to analyze
| because of the wonderful range of prod
| ucts made from iron ore. When it is
| remembered that this schedule covers
| products valued anywhere from a cent
pound to thirteen times their weight
| in gold. it will be seen how intricate is
| the iron and steel industry, and how
deep Investigations will have to go to re-
veal the true meaning Of it all.
| It is expected that different policy
will be pursued by the tariff board in
opening up its in
Hearings of quiries into t h e
leather industry
| sued in the case of cotton and WOOL In
| the case of the latter commodities the
tariff board went ahead and made its
Investigations at the outset and heard the
people interested afterward. In the case
of leather it is the boards intention to
have representative leather and leather
products manufacturers meet in Wash
ington about the middle of January for
the purpose of framing the character of
the inquiry into this industry These men
will bring in their respective systems of
| cost keeping. and between the tariff
board and the manufacturers it is hoped
to more readily make up the necessary
schedules of inquiries than would be pos
Sible without the assistance of the manu-
facturers. The tariff board feels that it
is able to prepare the necessary schedules
without the aid of the manufacturers, but
that their assistance simplifies the prob
lem to sufficient extent to justify their
being called in.
1t is probable that the continuation of
the tariff board will depend largely upon
the reception with
Boards Future which it's work meets
n.A: at the hands of Con-
gress. If the reports
of the board on the cotton and wool
schedules are satisfactory to that body,
the work of the board may be continued
indefinitely. If they are not satisfactory,
Congress may not continue the necessary
appropriations beyond the current fiscal
year. The tariff board has realized this
fact, and to the end that it's work might
be of value to Congress. it has already
spent the bulk of this appropriation for
the fiscal year. Therefore. it may not be
able to prosecute as thorough an investi-
cation into the metal and leather
schedule as it has made into the wool and
cotton schedules.
One of the interesting phases of the
work of the tariff board has been the
translation of the tariff
A Valuable law into plain English,
n1. Any one who has read a
0'0'AJ modern tariff bill knows
how thoroughly technical and un-under-
standable it is. To overcome this diff
Guilty and to simplify the tariff question
the board is preparing a glossary of the
different schedules. This is nothing less
than a complete dictionary of the tariff,
| and it enables the layman to interpret the
meaning of schedule without difficulty.
That the task Of preparing this glossary
is not an easy one is shown by the fact
that glossary of the metal schedule
would make a book as large as the ordi-
| nary school arithmetic. The work of
preparing glossaries for the cotton and
wool schedules, for the metal schedule,
and for the drugs, paints and oils
schedule is we'll on its way to completion.
~
After the tariff board has completed it's
inquiries into the metal and leather
schedules it probably
The Chemical will next take up the
c.L.l,,1. chemical schedule. If
Congress feels that the
report on cotton and wool justifies the
continuation of the tariff board it will
probably make "a liberal appropriation for
the work of next year. 1t may come
about that the republican Senate will APP
prove the work of the board and that the
democratic House will not. In that
event there probably would be no appro-
priation for the continuance of the activ-
tiles of this organization.
1t is probable that at no time in the
history of the tariff in the United States
has as much hinged on a single report
as hinges on the report of the tariff
board on the cotton and wool schedules.
President Taft has insisted that he could
not see his way clear to do anything
until the report was in his hands. The
democratic leaders. on the other hand,
have declared that the abuses of the
present schedules were sufficiently obvi-
GUS to justify them in revising the tariff
without waiting for any Investigations
by the tariff board. What effect the new
policy of the President in making the
tariff board bipartisan affair will have
on the democrats is not known.
The democratic party in Congress has
never. as a party. advocated tariff
board commission.
Opposition to Last spring the Pres
r.u,;..;o, ident felt that the
commission. proposition to estab-
lish a tariff commission composed of
| representatives of both parties; for the
purpose of making an investigation of
| all matters pertaining to the tariff
would be passed by Congress, and he
decided that in such an event he would
appoint to that commission three re-
publicans and two democrats. When his
measure failed he decided to appoint the
men he had in mind for the commission
as the democratic members to positions
ON the tariff board, making it consist Of
| five members instead OF three, retaining