Iron County register., 1920-12-02
Obsolete Tariff Theories.
missouri State Journal.l

The Honorable Charles Curtis, Re-
publican Senator from Kansas, cheer
ingly confides to a credulous public
the information that the new Repub-
lican administration is to frame
tariff bill capable of bringing in ST.
600, 100000 annually in revenue. By
what particular process of legerdemain
this is to be accomplished, Mr.. Curtis
does not indicate. He stands upon
the general proposition that Repub-
lican craftsmanship can produce
three dollars where dollar was the
old-time maximum, by the mere
juggling of the tariff schedules. Mr..
Curtis is intere sting but far from
convincing.
There are those who recall that the
highest annual income of the govern
ment ever known from a protective
tariff act was only $30O,O00,00O under
the Payne -Aldrich bill, passed in 1909.
There are others who recall the fate
full warning of Nelson W. Aldrich,
addressed to his Republican fellow
protectionists during the debates on
this measure, in which Mr.. Aldrich
gave notice that the time would come
when a protective tariff would not
serve to give either protection to in
dustry or yield revenue. If the
country has not reached this period,
we are sadly mistaken.
Europe cannot buy our goods, un-'
less we buy theirs; Europe cannot
pay her debts to US, unless We trade
with her. If we cannot ship our
goods into foreign markets, consider
ing our great surplus productions,
prices will tumble in America and
American manufacturers will close
their mills until domestic consump-
ton attains the high figure of current
stock and past production, or until
stocks are absorbed through the
universal slump of prices. While we
are consuming our own surplus,
which we cannot sell in Europe,
manifestly we cannot buy in Europe,
and both European finances and ours
will suffer accordingly. Of course,
we may become Indifferent to Europe,
and even may do as the famous pro-
lection organization, the Home
Market Club of Boston, advises,
namely, cancel our holdings OF
European indebtedness, in order to
relieve ourselves of the necessity of
trading abroad. 1t may be, of course,
that we are to become the hermit
nation of the western hemisphere.
The basis of all protectiv We schedules
is the difference of the cost of pro-
duction here and abroad, 'plus rea-
sonable profit" to quote the far
famed Republican platform of 1908.
Is there any Republican statesman
ship sufficiently intelligent to under
take to determine this basis, when
production costs change daily!
Moreover, it is automatic that GUS
toms duties on manufactures cannot
afford protection to domestic goods
and revenue to the government al
the same time, except in ths rares'
OF instances. A tariff duty higf
enough to cover the cost production
differentisl, and the profit, too, will
not permit the importation of goods
unless the American manufacturer
produces less than the American
market consumes. Without importa'
tions, there can be no revenue.
The only revenue producing sched
ules in a Republican tariff bill are
those levied upon raw materials, ant
upon the necessities of life, such a.
coffee, tea and sugar. OF course
there are luxury taxes in every tarif
bill, which yield revenue, but suci
taxes are not essentially protectiv'
measure
| 1t will be edifying to watch the Re
publicans in the next Congress trying
to turn the mills of the future witt
the water of the past.