Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1913-01-07
SURPRISE IN LAWS
NAGEL DISCOVERS A TARIFF
BOARD HAS EXISTED SINCE
THE YEAR 1888.
WAS FIRST BUREAU OF LABOR
It's Duties and Powers of Investigating
Production and Prices Here and
Abroad Now Belong to Bureau of
Commerce.
BY GEORGE CLINTON.

Washington.-An extraordinary dis
closure has come through a careful
reading of the laws of the land by
Charles Nagel, secretary of com
merce and labor. 1t has Just been
brought publicly to notice that since
the year 1888 the government has
had the power through one of its de-
partments to do all the investigating
necessary to get proper business un-
derstanding of tariff matters for the
uses Of congress.
In other words, with all the trouble
that the administration had to get a
tariff board and with all the excite
ment OF debate attending the attempt,
and with the final killing" of the
tariff board by congress, there has
been actually in existence tariff.
board with full powers which never
has been at work and whose very ex-
istence presumably was unknown to
the law makers.
Washington is inclined to laugh over
the situation, but it hardly is laugh
ing matter. For % years the execu-
tive has had at its command what
amounts to a tariff commission. 1t
has it yet and the fact is now recog-
nized, but whether or not congress
will take advantage of the newly dis
covered power of government is
question of doubt. for it is believed
that it is the intention of the law
makers when the next congress meets
to go ahead after their own manner
to make up a new tariff bill
Bureau of Labor's Duty.
In the spring of 1888 Grover Cleve-
land, who was then president of the
United States, gave his approval to a
law establishing what was known as
the bureau of labor. In the act estab-
fishing this bureau was a provision
which read like this:
ITO ascertain at as early date as.
possible and whenever Industrial
changes shall make it essential, the
cost Of producing articles at the time
dutiable in the United States, in lead
ing countries where such articles are
produced, by fully specified units of
production and under a classification
showing the different elements of cost,
or approximate cost, of such articles
of production, including the wages
paid in such industries a day, week,
month, or year, or by the piece, and
hours employed day; and the profits
of manufacturers and producers of
such articles; and the comparative
cost of living, and kind of living;
what articles are controlled by trusts
or other combinations of capital, bust
ness operations or labor, and what
effect said trusts. or other combina-
tons of capital. business operations.
or labor have on production and
prices"
Wbe2 the department Of commerce
and labor was established the bureau
of labor was merged into it, but the
provision giving The tariff investigat-
ing power, for that was what it
amounted to, remained as a part of
the organic law of the land Its en-
forcement, or rather it's operation,
became part of the duty of the de-
partment of commerce and labor. /
Now Up to Commerce Bureau.
AZ the session of congress last sum-
mer the bureau of manufactures and
the bureau of statistics of the depart
ment of commerce and labor were
consolidated into bureau to be known
as the bureau of foreign and domestic
commerce. The section of the bill
following the provision for the con-
solidation prescribes that those du-
ties of the department of commerce
and labor or bureau of labor confirm
ed in section of the act approved
June 10, 1888, that established the
same, are hereby transferred to and
shall hereafter be discharged by the
bureau of foreign and domestic COM
merce."
Congress last summer did away
with the tariff board When it con-
solidated the two bureaus named
above an intimation was made that
the resulting bureau would be of serv-
ice in collecting tariff data. but there
was no intimation at all that the pow
err to collect it had been in the de-
partment of commerce and labor all
along.
An appropriation will be necessary
to give the department Of commerce
and labor, through its proper bureau,
the means to do the work of tariff ma
terial collecting, which it has the au-
thority of law to do. The question is
now whether the appropriation will
be forthcoming.
More Discord in Sight.
Before this time it has been told
how the Democratic majority does
not intend to recognize any third
party as such in the next house
of representatives. Now it seems
that another element of posi-
BILE discord and resentment is to be
thrown into the house in connection
with this party division matter when
the extra session meets. 1t is said
that number of -Repub-
licans. who must not be confused with
Progressives elected as such, and who
represent a new party, are soon to
confer with a view to decide as to
whether or not they will enter the
caucus called by the Republican lead
ers. These Progresive-Repu blicans
all were elected as Republicans, but
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