The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1921-07-03

enactments, for the first and last OF
! which the Republican Party suffered
4 overwhelming defeats, seem like rath-
er timid ventures in the path of eco.
nomic and political error compared
/ with the measure which Chairman
Fordney and his committeeman have
/ compiled. 1t is held to be al virtue
of this bill that it establishes rates of
duty, according to Chairman Fordney
Iaveraging between Is and 20 per cent
on whole list of imports, while the
Payne4Aldrich average was only 1856,
and the Underwood average rate is
6 per cent. That is to say, the Re-
| publican authors of this bill propose
/ that the present rate of duty on inn
ports be trebled, and this at time
when the people are painfully counting
the decimals by which the cost of liv-
ing is 4ractionally reduced from month
to month or from year to year. Just
as commodity prices are making a dis
tant approach to normal levels, the
Republicans offer a bill to send them
/ skyrocketing again, and at time,
too, when wage rates here and there
have fallen somewhat below the war
/ figures which could no longer be paid
save at the cost of solvency.
| Eut the duties imposed, high as they
are and the rates ere certainly higher
/ than those of the Payne-Aildrich act
which stirred the country to indigna-
ticn, are by no means the greatest
part of the bills offending. They. are
mot the measure Of the customs exac-
tions planned under this bill. A new
form of tariff deviItry, sliding scale
of extOrtion open to every abuse, has
been devised by Mr.. Fordney's COM
mittee in the so-called American vail
uation plan" Under this provision
| of the bill the cost of imported goods
GOULD be determined for customs pur.
poses, not by what the importer paid
lfor them, not by their worth in the
free markets Of the world, but by
what the customs assessors at any
given time might judge to be the pro-
lduction cost or sale price of similar
goods in the United States. Thus du-
ties may be made whatever the assess
| ing officers feel like imposing; the
X, 70 n 90 ,atoc - oxohanoa ond 40
rying costs In this country would make
| it possible to saddle the importer
with an appraisal which would ade-
quately punish him for seeking to
bring goods into the country, while
sufficiently protecting favored inter-
ests here. Students OF Republican pro-
tective tariff policys should be inter-
ested to observe the theory and ma
ture of this valuation plan. First,
duties are ciapped on sufficiently high
to bring the products Of the pauper
| labor of Europe up to the high wage
standards OF America, and then this
fantastic plan Of valuation Is devised
by which the wall OF protection may
be raised three or four times as high.
II American importers and the Ameri-
can people will stand this blank pow
er OF attorney for unlimited extortion,
they will stand for anything.
| Mr.. Fordney and his colleagues are
living In pre-war times: they are quite
unaware that anything has occurred
to ahridge that freedom in political
tariff making which the Republicans
have always enjoyed. It Is known to
others that the Europeans nations owe
Ius ten billions, with accrued interest
eleven billion, and that they can pay
only in goc ls. We Judge that the
authors OF this bill never heard of that
debt. for these rates of duty are delih-
erately intended to shut out foreign
goods and will necessarily have that
effect. The greatest economic fact In
the worlds history, the greatest prob
lem that confronts the nations today,
one fraught with possibilities OF dis
lturbance and confusion, Is completely
ignored by these reckless and furious
Republican protectionists. The Wash
ington estimate that this tariff might
yield as much as s7oO,O0O.000 revenue
Is idle and silly. The high record OF
customs collection was $s33.6Ss,445,
lin 1910. Under present trade condi.
lions no tariff bin could be drawn up
| that could produce half a billion Of
revenue.
But this Is a bill. not law. The
rates Of duty and the highwayman val
uation plan must undergo debate in
Congress and the scrutiny Of the
country. IL will be changed bill be-
fore It is enacted. Even though the
Congressional elections are more than
yea raway. not all Republicans In
Congress have lost their sensa Of pru.
denrA