Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1913-07-22
FOREIGN LOBBY
LOWERS. |: DUTIES
Senator Smoot Says Demo-
Gratis Have Been
Influenced.
ASIA TO PROFIT BY
NEW TARIFF BILL
Era Of Depression Predicted
in Case Underwood Meas
ure is Made Law.

ure is Made Law.
Washington. D. c., July 21.-Assert.
Ing that foreign lobby had in
fiuenced the democrats in the framing
Of the Underwood Simmons tariff bill,
Senator smoot, republican member Of
the finance committee, today delivered
u vigorous attack on the measure.
He painted picture of mills shut
down, workmen unemployed, investors
ruined and an era of general financial
and industrial depression as the re-
suit Of the leveling Of tariff walls.
European nations, he declared, were
not so much to be feared as competi-
tors as were the nations of the orient.
Lobby at Work.
There has been lobby here in
behalf OF foreign manufacturers" he
charged, such as was never before
witnessed in the history of the ma
tion and they have got even more than
they asked for. The Italian chamber
OF commerce OF New York, asked for
certain reductions and the democrats
In nearly every cause have given more
than. was asked
The senator assailed the increase
in the free list especially with refer
ence to sugar, wool, pig iron and tex
tiles. He charged that the sugar in
dustry of Hawaii and Porto Rico
would be- ruined, with consequent
benefits to- the so,called sugar trust"
ana that China. with Its great steel
plants, would capture the steel bust
nesas Of the western hemisphere.
ssS Cites Walker Bili. i
Referring to. the walker tariff bill Of
1850, on which he contepded the pres
ent blu was largely modelled. Mr..
emoot said that the Walker bill pro-
vided for the admission free Of only
about nine per cent Of imports, while
the sUnderwood-S Simmons measure al
lows IS per cent of the greatly in
creased volume OF incoming trade to
enter untaxed. Under the Walker law,
he added, the average rate OF duty
on all imports was 2S.16, while under
the proposed new law, the rate would
be merely trifle over 18 per cent
All the world knows how this
country suffered as a result OF the Will
son tariff law in 1896" he continued.
"But the average rate of duty now is
over two per cent lower than was the
case under the last democratic tariff,
when the business Of the nation was
paralyzed, and 100000 persons
thrown out Of employment
Charges inconsistency.
Senator Smoot charged the demo-
Gratis with inconsistency in, the franz
ing OF the measure. Calling attention
to the fact that wheat, -four, corn and
corn meal, potatoes and virtually
every form of meals go on the free
list, certain food products peculiar to
the south are made under tariff tax.
Rice, peanuts and bananas, grown
in the SOUTH" he charged, ARE on the
dutiable list They are used by poor
people generally. In Porto Rico, rice
is consumed to the extent of one hun
dred pounds per capita 1t. can be
used instead of corn and wheat. But
corn, wheat, potatoes and other such
products go on the free list, while rice
is made dutiable.'
The senator then launched into a
detailed comparison of the cost OF
production and the wages paid in the
United States and abroad, and assert
ed that the removal of duties was an
open Invitation to foreigners to use
the United States as a dumping
ground" for their surplus products.
China and Japan, he said, with their
ever increasing mills, would prove al
Al~a {r
market, and especially in the steel in
dustry.
He concluded by declaring that "the
question OF the future will be that of
the competition Of the starvation
wages OF Asia instead Of with the lowI
rates of Europe"
Denounces Tariff Bill.
Denunciation Of free trade as a
timely policy for the United States, a !
prediction of failure in it's purposesl
Ter the Underwood Simmons tariff bill II
md an attack on an ad valorem tariff !
system, were voiced by Senator Bur-
ton OF Ohio.
Senator Burton declared he was no
Of protection as Fetish
but that he approached the subject Of
the tariff rather with the conviction
that whenever there shall be an era OF
comfy and mutual concession in trade
among nations and our country shall
have reached a point when It's pro-
ductive capacity has been fully devel- |
oped free trade might be rational
policy" Such he said was not the
case, the disposition "to restrict trade
among nations and to grant access to
only on rendering conces-
siona in return" being on the in-l