The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1911-12-27
TAFT ON Wool
Says Present Tariff Da!ies Bars Foreign
NooIen Goods and Yarns
FROM UNITED STATES

President in Message Transmitted
to Congress With the Long Awaited
Tariff Board Report on Woolen
Schedule.
President Taft sent to congress
Wednesday the long awaited report
Of the tariff board on schedule K OF
the Payne tariff act, and with it a
n essage recommending that the rates
on wool and woolens be materially re-
duced. The report shows tia. the
existing duties on many classes OF
wool and wool manufacturers are pro-
l.loitory and greatly IN excess OF the
d: ference in the cost Of production
here and abroad. The duties are SO
arranged as to keep out Of the United
States entirely woods Of finer Quail
! ties, which if imported might be used
to displace the cheap substitutes now
employed.
President Talt calls attention to
these points and urges that revision
of the schedule be proceeded with at
once. He characterizes the report Of
the tariff board as the most complete
and exhaustive statement Of didl-
cult and complicated subject ever pre-
sented to a legislative body. He de-
clares it monument to the thor
oughness, industry, impactiality and
accuracy Of the men engaged in its
making. He also dwells with en-
phasis upon the fact that the report
is a unanimous one and asserts the
belief that it will convince all OF the
wisdom Of making the tariff board
permanent.
The President says "the report
shows that the present method Of as
sessing the duty on raw wool-that
is, by a specific rate, the grease pound
| g. e. .unscoured) operates to exclude
woods of high shrinkage in securing,
but fine quality, from the American
market and thereby lessons the range
of woods available to the domestic
manufacturer; that the duty on
secured wool Of 80 cents per pound
is prohibitory and operates to exclude
the importation of clean, low priced
foreign woods of inferior grades
| -b;ob ,re norortba1ac ,-o1,,o h1a m A.
terial for manufacturing and which
can not be imported in the grease be-
cause of their heavy shrinkage. Such
woods, if imported, might be used to
displace the cheap subs now in use
''To make the preceding paragraph
a little palmer, take the instance Of
a hundred pounds Of first class wool
imported under the present duty
which is II cents a pound. That
would make the duty on the hundred
pounds s11. The merchantable part
Of the wool thus imported is the
weight Of the wool Of this hundred
pounds after securing. If the wool
shrinks so per cent, as some woods
do, then the duty in such case
would amount to s11 on twenty
pounds of secured wool. This, of
course, would be prohibitory. If the
wool shrinks only so per cent it
would be S1l on fifty pounds Of wool
and this is near to the average Of the
great bulk Of woods that are imported
from Australia, which is the princi-
pal source of our imported woods.
These determinations could be
overcome by assessing duty in ad
valorem terms but this method is
open to the objection, first that it
increase administrative difficulties
and tends to decrease revenue
through undervaluations; and sec
ond, that as prices advance the ad
valorem rate increases the duty per
pound at the time when the con-
sumer most needs relief and the pro-
ducer can best stand competition;
while if prices decline the duty is de-
creased at the tine when the con-
suner is least burdened by the price
and the producer most needs protec-
ton.
another Method.
Another method Of meeting the
difficulty of taxing 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, namely, the discrim-
ination due to different shrinkages
and thereby tends greatly to equalize
the duty. The board reports that this
method is feasible in practice and
could be administered without great
exepsne. The secured content Of the
wool is the basis on which users Of
wool make their calculations, and a
duty Of this kind would fit the
usages Of the trade. One effect Of
this method of assessment would be
that, regardless OF the rate Of duty,
there would be an increase in the
supply and variety of wool by making g
available to the American market
woods Of both low and fine quality
now excluded.
"The report shows IN detail the
difficulties involved in attempting to
state in categorical terms the cost
CT wool production and the great diff
ferencies in cost as between different
regions and different types OF wool
1t is found, however, that taking all
i. varieties in account, the average cost
in the chief competing country By an
) amount somewhat less than the pres
ent duty.
1.-The report shows that duties on
oils, WOO, wastes and shoddy, which
: are adjusted to the rate of 33 cents
on secured wool, are prohibitory ir
the same measure that the duty OF