The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-12-01
HARDING URGED ID TAKE STAND
 ON TARIFF BILL
Suggested That He ReCom- mend Elimination of Amer ican Valuation Plan To
 Hasten Its Passage
Nv Assoclated Pr.ss

President Harding has been urged
 to take n strong hand in his
 address, to the new Congress next
 week in behalf of pending tariff
 legislation. Confidence was evt-
 denced among. many congress
 SiOnaI leaders today that the
 power of the executive would be
 put behind the bill which now
 repOses with the Senate finance
 committee.
 The suggestion was said to have been made to MT. Harding that he recommend, in the interest of speedy disposition of the measure, the elimi- nation of the American valuation plan from the House bill and the writing of tariff law on the basis of the old method of prices. He was understood to have been urged to ask Congress then to include in the bill provision empowering the execu- tive to apply the American valuation basis of assessing duties where, after surveys, 1t is shown that added~pro- lection is needed.
 Another suggestion reported to have been given MT. Harding was that the House bill provisions regard ing anti dumping be stricken out and a law, described as having teeth" be enacted supplementary to the tariff. division of opinion among the re- publican senators was said to exist as to the merits and practicability of the American valuation plan, and 1t was understood this situation had been outlined to the executive.
 Some republican members of the finance committee declared today that even with a call by the President for more speed there could hardly be tariff law before March. One assert ed 1t would be the middle of May be- fore the bill finally became law.
 The late date for final action on the measure was based on the set of circumstances surrounding the build ing of rates on the American valua- tion basis. It was stated that the gathering of information on produe- .tton costs and wholesale selling prices by the treasury, upon which the rates are to be computed by the committee could not be completed under three weeks or month. After that data is in the committees hands, 1t was declared, some time will elapse before the actual drafting of rates can. be accomplished because of the intracacies of the home value basis
 yae suggestion, that separate leg islation be enacted giving the exeeu- tive authority to impose the Amer ican valuation basis in cases where additional protection was found nec- essary, was said to embody a plan for making custom duties variable to meet fluctuation of the depreciated currency of exporting countries.
 Those who advanced tn eplan hold that the fixing of tariff duties at any definite figure in the present disor- ganized state of international cur rencies would make it impossible to adequately protect American indus- tries and labor from competition since the low price of foreign money allows goods to be purchased abroad in American dollars at far below costs in American markets.
 It was proposed, therefore, that the President, presumably through the tariff commission, be given power to determine to what degree the cur rency of a given country has depre- ciated to what extent the fact has made American producers unable to. compete with it's imported products, and to fix the import duty at a per centage which will to some degree equalize these disadvantages. At the same time, similar goods from coun- try with stable currency. and undis- torted production costs, would be all lowed to come in at lower rates.
 Carefully worked out estimates of the effect to be anticipated under operation of the plan have been sub mitted to President Harding. The American valuation system also ad- vanced to meet the fMctuating cur rency prices at present encountered, would fix the level of duty not on cost price to the importers, but upon the value of similar products pro- duced in the United States. on Amer ican markets at the moment of im- portatiOn.