The Washington herald., 1913-06-20
The Schedule that Is L.

Mr.. Horace B. Cheney, of South
Manchester, Conn, maker of tht
Cheney silks, has taken issue with The
Herald in its statements about the sill
schedule (Schedule i, which wers
published recently. Mr.. Cheney is q
familiar person to legislators having Ii
charge the silk tariff, and is at al
times the devoted advocate OF high, and
if they can be gotten, prohibitive du-
ties. In his letter to The Herald he
assumes that since we disagree with
his position, we are misinformed or
influenced by some interests adverse
TO the manufacturer. We are frank to
admit that the editorial was not writ
ten entirely from the producers point
of view. There are other factors in the
problem of the tariff which deserve
as much consideration as the manu-
factuners' position.
The present silk schedule is virtually
a prohibitive tariff; by this statement
we do not mean that there are no i'm
portations under it; but that ordinary
goods are imported only at exceptional
times when great demand overcomes
the tariff restrictions, and that goods
of exceptional quality or style, not
made in American mills, are imported
because some Americans will have them
at any price. No manufacturer, we
hold, is entitled to such a tariff; ex-
elusive control of the home market is
not right which producers can claim.
The consuming public. in the first
place, is entitled to buy foreign goods,
and even from the point of view of
protection the manufacturer is only
entitled to be put on an equality with
his foreign rival We are inclined to
say that the consumers right is para
mount to the producers right, and in
solving any tariff question the doubt
should be resolved in his favor. I'm
der no condition, however, can a pro-
hibitive tariff be justified.
In the second place. the government
IS entitled to more revenue than it is
now getting from the silk tariff. Silks
are usually classed as luxuries and are,
therefore, a fit object of taxation. A
rate Of duty that practically prohibits
importations does not benefit the gov
eminent; it defeats one of the OBJ
Jects of tax on imports.
The Herald is not unn1indful of the
producers right to be considered in
tariff making and in many cases he has
not received all the consideration that
he deserves in the framing of the I'm
derwood bill. But the most interest
ing thing to US about the arguments of
the heaven-high protectionists is that
they aren't so.
Our correspondent is chiefly con-
cerned about the attitude which The
Herald has taken against specific du-
ties in the silk schedule. If he has fol-
lowed the editorials of this paper he
knows that on products which are
standardized, such as yarns, we favor
specific duties. But on fabrics of
varying values and structures we do
not think specific duties practicable. 1t
will be recalled that this is the position
of the recent tariff board on wooden
fabrics, and it would seem to be even
more true of silk fabrics. The pres
ent schedule is satisfactory 10 the man
ufacturer. not merely because the rates
are specific, but because those rates are
high enough to exclude from the coun-
Try goods competing with the domestic
industry. We suspect that the manu.
facturers have a paternal feeling to-
ward the present law, and, as most
parents are, they are blind to the faults
of their child.
The silk schedule is as near a |
Chinese puzzle as is to be found in the |
tariff act. A story may illustrate this
fact. A silk manufacturer who was
quite sure that he understood the
schedule, after spending several hours |
trying to explain it to one of our pub
lie men, remarked consolingly: well, |
not more than three men in the United
States really understand that sched-
ule." And" replied the one unlearned
in the lore of the silk tariff, 81 sup
pose you have some doubts as to the
other two"