Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-01-06
DEMOCRATIC vACILLATIoN

bRESIDENT WILSON haVlhs
changed his mind on every public
question considered by him in the
last five years. his change of direction
in regard to tariff commission should
not surprise anyone who has watched
the White House weather vane since
his Inauguration. In 1912, addressing
the Economic Club at New York city,
Mr.. Wilson said:
1t is hard for any man who has
ever studied economics at all to
restrain a cynical smile when ne
is told that an Intelligent body or
his fellow citizens are looking Tor
the cost of production" as basis
for tariff legislation.
1t does not exist as a scientihc.
demonstrable datum fact.
BY 1915 he had changed his atti-
tude on this subject and in his In
dianapolis speech, referring to the
newly organized Federal Trade Com
mission, he said, January s:
That commission is authorized
and empowered to inquire into ana
report to Congress not only upon
all the conditions of trade In this
country, but upon the conditions OF
trade. cost of manufacture.
in the United States.
Since that time the Federal Trade
Commission, as we'll as the Depart
ment of Commerce. has undertaken in
vestigations as to the cost of produc-
ton in certain lines of industry-beet
sugar, hosiery, pottery, muslin under
wear, etc. The reports of the Com
merce Department have been devoted
mainly to accusing American manu-
facturers of not knowing their busi-
ness, while the results of the beet
sugar investigation by the commission
have been pigeonholed because they
refuted Democratic statements in re-
gard to the cost of producing beet
sugar. + #
Jealous of their spheres of influence,
considerable animosity is said to have
been engendered between the commits
sion and the department. Despite the
statement of Mr.. Wilson that trade in
vestigations come within the purview
of the commission, Mr.. Redfield is
clamoring loudly to Congress for addi-
tional appropriations which will en-
able his department to go into further
Investigations of this sort. Mr.. Red
field and the chairman of the commits
sion are also at odds as to how the
problem of "dlrf1Iping" is to be met
following the European war, while
DR.. L. E. Pratt. the statistical prodigy
who presides over Mr.. Redfield's
bureau of foreign and domestic COM
merce, and whose personal publicity
campaign at government expense
threatens to throw Mr.. Redffeld into
total eclipse, takes issue with his
chief and declares that the fear OF
| dumping" in the future is without
foundation.
Chairman Davies, Secretary Redfleld
and DR.. Pratt having disagreed, that
great business specialist, DR.. Wilson, is
called in. although he, once declared
'I am not business man." His letter
to Ex-Governor Cox, of Ohio, discour.
aged the use of tariff commission as
a remedy. but, mercy! that was three
months ago, and his mind is never sc
agile as before a campaign. Why
| therefore. should we wonder if he pre-.
scribes for business a diet of tarif
commission, especially in view of the
| fact that by so doing he might gain the
support of the irreconcilable George
| w. Perkins. the Bull Moose remnant?
| There appears to be an atmospher,
of suspicion and more or less resent
ment in the precincts of the municipa
government. OF course. it is all tn,
| outcome of the usual effort to ha Ia nc.