The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-07-21
Charges Foreign Manufacture
ers' Agents at Capitol.
GIVEN MORE THAN THEY ASK
Orient More to Be Feared Than
European Competition.
Sees Dire Disaster in Leveling
of Tariff Walls.

| a foreign lobby" has Influenced the
Democrats in the framing of the I'm
| derwood-Simmons tariff bill Senator
Smoot, Republican member Of the
| finance committee, today delivered
vigorous attack ON the measure. He
painted a picture of mills shut down.
workmen unemployed, investors ruined
and an era Of general financial and in
dustrial depression as the result Of the
| leveling of the tariff walls. European
nations, he declared, were not so much
| to be feared as competitors as were
| the nations Of the Orient.
There has been a lobby here in be-
| half of foreign manufacturers, he
| charged, such as was never before
witnessed in the history of the nation.
| And they have been given more than
they asked for. The italian chamber
of commerce of New York asked for
certain reduction and the Democrats
in nearly every case have given them
more than they asked"
| Fears Chinese Steel.
| The senator assailed the increase in
the free list, especially with reference
| to sugar, WOOL pig iron and textiles
| Te charged that the sugar industry of
|
with consequent benefits to the socalled
| sugar trust and that China, with it's
| great steel plants, would capture the
| steel business of the western hemls-
| phere.
Referring to the Walker tariff of 1850
on which he contended the present bill
| was largely modelled, Mr.. Smoot Salu
| the Walker law provided for the admis-
| sion free of only about per cent OF
| imports, while the Underwood-SimmonS
measure allows 30 per cent of the great
| ly increased volume of incoming trade
| to enter untaxed. Under the Walker
! law he added, the average rate OF duty
| on all imports was 23.16, while under
| the proposed new law, the rate would
| be merely trifie over Is per cent
"AIl the world knows how this coun-
try suffered as a result of the Wilson
| tariff law in 1885, he continued, but
| the average rate of duty now is over
| two per cent lower than was the case
under the last Democratic tariff whcn
the business of the nation was par
alyzed and 100000 persons thrown OUT
. of employment
! Charges Inconsistency.
Senator Smoot charged the Demo-
Gratis with inconsistency in the framing
| of the measure. Calling attention to
the fact that wheat, flour. corn and
| corn meal. potatoes and virtually every
| form of meats go on the free list, GER
! tain food products peculiar to the
south under a tariff tax. Rice, pea
nuts and bananas grown in the south
! he charged are on the dutiable list.
| They are used by poor people generally.
| In Porto Rica rice is consumed to the
extent of 100 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 than
launched into a detailed comparison CT
the cost of production and the wages
paid in the Unitetd States and abroad,
, and asserted the removal of duties was
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-increasine mills would prove dis
astrous competitors in the home mar
ket, especially in the steel industry. He
concluded by declaring that "the ques-
ton of the future will be that of COM
petition with the starvation wages of
Asia instead of with the low rates OF
Europe
Senator Burton Attacks Bill.
Denunciation of free trade as a
timely policy for the United States, a
prediction of a failure in its purpose
for the Underw tariff bill,
and an attack on an ad valOrem tariff
system were voiced by Senator Burton
of Ohio today when tariff discussion
w
Burton declared he was no worShipper
of protection as a fetish, but that he
approached the subject of the tariff
rather with the conviction that when
ever there shall be an area of comfy
and mutual concession in trade among
nations, and our country shall have
reached a point when its productive
capacity has been fully developed,
free trade might be a rational policy"
Such, he said, was not the case, ''the
disposition to restrict trade among ma
tions and to grant access to markets
only on rendering concessions in re-
turn" being on the increase.
Avering that a free trade policy
only is applicable on the theory that
it universally can be applied, the Ohio
senator declared:
'"The attempt on the part of free
practice without the concert of other
nations reveals the serious disad-
vantage of such a position. Even if
theoretically in the most correct situa-
ton, she is in a far worse position to
enforce her point of view, she can
have recourse to no other means of
protecting her interests except to per-
suade the statesmen of other countries
that they, together with herself would
be better off under a regime of free
dom in commerce while they, on the
other hand, can bargain between
the same time profit by access to her
open markets.
Senator Burton further declared
that the Democrats had framed a bill
which literally tears to pieces the fiscal
policy of the nation, in order to satisfy
the craving for lowering the cost of
living and to Justify the declaration of
their party platform that the chief
cause of the high cost of living was