The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-12-19
Increase Would Naturally
Be Expected Under Law
Which Reduced Tariff
NO DECREASE YET
NOTED IN PRICES
Claim Is Made, However, That if
Beef Had Not Been Imported,
Prices Would Have Been
Much Higher
BY HOLLAND

New York, December 1S.--(Special)-Not
until the unabridged report of the first
official statement made by the secretary
of commerce, Mr.. Redffeld has been re-
ceived. Will 1t be possible to learn whether
little confused or puzzled when he wrote
the report be justified.
The summary of his report which has
been received here contains statements
that are unprecedented. Unexplained.
they point to a complete reversal of the
effects hitherto observed by business men
when new tariff law has been put upon
the statute books. The presumption has
always been so strong as TO be regarded
as automatic that the enactment of a low
tariff means q large increase of impor-
tation while it may or may not mean
some reduction in expectation.
But, according to Secretary Redfield's
statements, there has been no increase in
importation since the new tariff took ef-
feet excepting In foodstuffs. Much of that
special increase can be traced to the
Importation of beef carcases from South
America. The inference would have been
strong last summer that large importa-
tions of beef would surely reduce the
cost of beef to American consumers. As
yet, however, there has been no reduc-
tion nor have other food importations
been followed by reductions to price,
such as corn, fish, cream, potatoes and
wheat. There is some mystery behind
these statistics and careful reading Of
the brief summary of Secretary Redfield' 5
statement suggests that he himself is
somewhat in fog, not yet having dis
covered the reason, if there be any rea-
son. At all events, the secretary does not
attempt to explain why 1t is that the
large Importation of food stuffs has not
resulted in any appreciable decrease of
the cost of these necessities of life.
In one part of the report there seems
to be an intimation that possibly the men
who distribute food products from the
first sellers to the ultimate buyers, the
so-called middle man, are taking what
ever profits may arise from lower prices
charged by those in fore ign countries to
send their foods to the United States
The great commission houses which
deal in hay and forage assert emphatical-
ly that the removal of the tariff on hay
has had no effect upon the American
price, since the exporters of hay to this
country have increased their prices by
approximately as much as the tariff rate
under the Payne-Aldrich law.
Wnat is SAID oil Beef
On the other hand, those who are
familiar with the beef and meat in
dustry are confident that had it not been
for the importations of beef from South
America the price paid by the ultimate
consumer for beef at this time would be
considerably higher than it now is. In
other words. South American beef has
just about filled the gap between the
deficiency of the American beef and the
demand of the American beef eaters.
Those who are interested in this subject
will search the history of tariff legisla-
tion and its subsequent effect upon busi-
ness without discovering anything which
even approximately resembles the story
of our exports and imports since the
first of July. and especially since the
new tariff law into effect. We inn
portered In four months commodities of
the total value of s5s1. 100000 round num-
bers and this is about s46.OO00 600 less than
the importations for the like period of
the preceding year. On the other hand
we sold in the foreign markets and ex-
ported the commodities thus sold to the
aggregate money value Ss39, ,0OO, coo, In these
four months. This is approximately S40,-
000OO0. measured by dollars more than
we sold In like period of the preceding
year and about sl50000,0O0. round num-
bers more than we exported In these four
months of the year 1911
The recent statistics from Washington
not included in the secretary's statement
indicate that these averages have been
continued through November and thus far
into December.
1t has been suggested in this city that