Evening star., 1919-04-13

A BALANCE OF S1.s8.
committee how the loss of revenue
can be overcome by per cent in
crease TN another tax.
If a member from Texas desires
tax OF 9S per cent on the gross earn
ings of all corporations whose address
Is Wall street, New York, Mccoy tells
him on short notice how many con-
Germs have their offices there, the ma
last year, the market price of their
stock, what 1t really is worth and
how much the proposed tax would
yield.
If Lodge wants figures to show that
a tax on war profits in this country
should be lower than that enforced In
Great Britain because of the differ
ence of pre-war business conditions.
Mccoy jumps into the breach If
Kitchin desires to establish the merits
OF the excess profits tax, he gets the
figures from Mccoy. If La Toilette
desires to show that both Lodge and
Kitchin are wrong, Mccoy produces
statistics by the yard. Frequently he
is asked to simplify the language of a
bill. Once Cordell Hull had sentence
OF zoos words Mccoy rearranged 1t
into simple sentences without de-
strOying HulTs meaning.
Mccoy is Pennsylvania. He was
born in Reading, the son of a Union
soldier who was crippled at Bull
Run. The parent was given a position
at the War Department here in
Washington and he brought his fam
lily along. Joseph Mccoy was edu-
Gated in the primary schools of the
tute at Hoboken, N. j., to study en-
gineering. 1t was there his remark
able talent for mathematics was de-
veloped. He took a civil service ex-
animation as a patent examiner. He
hoped to learn patent law and then
proctice on his own account. He was
selected by the Treasury Department
as an expert accountant and became
an assistant government aCtuary IN
1890. He was made an actuary about
six years later and Congress has
been borrowing" him to help write
tariff bills since 1898.
His first work was in connection
with the Dingley bill. Since then he
has played a highly important part
in the preparation OF every subse-
Quent tariff bill. He participated in
the negotiations Of dozen important
that with France. on which he went
to the mat" with Senator Aldrich OF
Rhode Island. He was the expert
who steered the Joint high commits
sion safely through it's settlement of
disputes with Canada and incident
ing OF the Alaskan boundaries. He
was sent to China by the Department
of State to fix the American share
in the Boxer indemnity.
X
Mr.. Mccoy traces to his work in
connection with the reciprocity
treaties hts later association with
Congress in the preparation of tariff
laws. He was borrowed by the State
Department for that task when Sec-
retary Hay named John A. Kasson
as special commissioner to conduct
the negotiations. Mr.. Mccoy sat at q
little desk in corner, to all out
ward appearances engaged in clerical
work, while Commissioner Kasson
talked with various diplomatic rep
resentatives OF the nations desiring
confessional tariff agreements with
the United States. What he really
was doing was absorbing every word
that was said. and upon the depart
ure of the diplomats he dictated sur
prisingly accurate reports or the in
terviews. To these he added facts
and figures showing agreement or
disagreement with the statements.
1t was necessary for him to acquire
an acurate knowledge of industrial
and commercial conditions in every
nation and to strip away diplomatic
verbiage to get at the fundamental
issues involved. lie succeeded 80 weil
that eighteen treaties were negotiat-
ed by the State Department, the ma
tions affected including France, Eng
land, Russia and the South Ameri-
can countries. The treaties were
sent to Congress as the Dingley law,
which provided for them, carried the
provision that such treaties Should
be approved by the Senate and rati-
fed by Congress-"
Senator Aldrich objected to the
French treaty because 1t carried the
maximum cut in duties on imitation
jewelry, threatening, according to his
view, that industry in Rhode Island.
Senator Aldrich appeared before the
foreign relations committee and made
such an eloquent attack on the treaty
that members of the committee were
almost unanimous against reporting
1t to the Senate. Mccoy was In the
room. and although he had not taken