Graham guardian., 1912-02-23
TARIFF BOARD VALUE
COUNTRY SOMEWHAT sKEPTlcAL
ON THE SUBJECT.
Report on Wool Schedule Does Not
Seem to Be Of Much Practical
use--One Thing at Least
the People Know.

The house of representatives de-
cided to order the publication of the
tariff board report on the wool
schedule. Perhaps careful study OF
At may prove that It is as valuable as
the president believes 1t to be, But
there Is good deal of skepticism on
the subject. One thing seems to be
pretty we'll established, and that Is
that the board did not get any inn
portant information as to the differing
costs of production of wool and wool
ems Indeed. 1t Is admitted that 1t
was impossible ito state In exact
terms the cost of producing pound OF
wool by itself. for the simple reason
that wool is but one of two products
of the same operation" So even the
domestic price of producing wool can
not be stated In exact terms" How
ever. the board. In some way, man
aged to discover that In the west the
cost is at least IL cents pound. AS
1t admits that the cost is higher in
Ohio than anywhere else. 1t is hard
to see how. with the high Ohio cost.
and with wool costing IL cents in the
sections where production Is cheap
est. the board managed to strike an
average Of 9h cents for the entire
country. In truth 1t all looks like
guesswork
Obviously II the difficulties were so
great at home they must have been
much more formidable abroad. The
cost Of production in South America
Is. we are informed. between 4 and 5
cents pound, No authority in sup
port of this conclusion has thus far
been given, nor have we any light on
the process used in reaching It.. In
regard to the cost in Australia the
board is most indefinite. 1T appears" :"
we are told. that charge of very
few cents pound lies against the
great clips of that region in the ag-
gregate." Again the board is unable
to name an exact figure" OF course,
all this must be very discouraging to
those who insist that the measure OF
protection should be the difference be-
tween the foreign and domestic costs
of production. Only, so 1t Is said, as
we observe this principle can we hope
to get scientific" tariff. Yet we
now see that this difference can not
be established with anything even APP
preaching scientific exactness. 1t is
all guesswork. and, therefore. 1t is
through guesswork that we are to
work out our scientific tariff. We
have no exact figures in regard to
production In this country, in South
America or In Australasia, and yet 1t
Is expected that congress will from
this report discover what the differing
costs of production are, and then leg
islate scientifically" In the light of
that knowledge
The truth. of course. Is that the
whole theory is impossible and falla-
cious. We have seen how difficult it
was for the board to apply 1t. and how
complete was its failure to get ac-
curately the facts which are supposed
to be necessary to the construction of
proper tariff. It is said that the
ways and means committee will ques-
tion the members of the board as to
the authorities on which 1t relied and
the methods which 1t used. One thing
at least. the people know. and that
is that the wool schedule is about as
bad as 1t could be-is, as the president
once said. "indefensible. ."-Indianapo-
lis News.