The Cordova daily times., 1921-11-14
MONDAY, NONEMBER II, 1921
WHY DO THEY FIGHT AMERICAN
 VALUATION?

An active. organized, we'll financed propa- yumda a@:iu~, the American valuation system i~ in progress Newspapers, retail merchants, bankers and commercial organizations of all kinds are being bombapdrd with it. Members of Congress are flooded with letters and t"Ie- grams opposing the adoption of th" American system of valuation. No arguments are offered against the system; the literature sent out by the propagandists does not even explain t. lt is the propaganda of mere wild assertion, with nothing back of it. but the selfish financial interests of the importers, mail order houses, iobbing houscs big retailers and bankers in tcrostcd in alien rather than domestic prpduc ton. They are carrying on this campaign for the money there is in its for them, without any thought or care for the welfare of Amer ican productive industry.
 What i~ the American valuation system?
 Ii s the plan of vaIuing merchandise i'm ported into this country from abroad on the basis of ifs value as it enters this country rath- cr than on ifs alleged value in the country of production. If is upon the valuation that the amount of tariff paid depends; thus ten per cent of an article valued here at SIOO k %1O hut if foreign valuc of $2O k placed upon trn article then the American trca.urv gets S2, and the domestic producer gets onc-ffth as much protection as under the American sy~ tenn
 What i~ the purpose and necessity of the American valuation ~yotrm'
 Because of the decentralization of rNchan@" and the widely varying labor standards throughout the world, the tariff under th" present system s based upon lS different bases of vauc. The purpose of a protective tI,, in, ,,f production at home and abroad. On any basis but the American valuation basis, the lower the foreign production cost, the less the tariff SO that the theory of protection is exactly re vcrscd. An article produced in Japan at a cost of fifty cents on ten per cent ad val orcm duty would pay tariff of five cents; If produced in Germany at a cost of $1 the tariff paid would be ten cents; if produced in England or France at d cost of S2 the tariff would be twenty cents. The more deadly the foreign competition, the less protection k giv- "n under the foreign valuation system de mandcd by the importers. The m- American system of valuation Is mhmauc in that it puts q premium on th" plan to paupcriZc the pro duccr both at home and abroad; it is unjust because it exposes the American producer to constantly fIuctuatn% basis of competition
 The program of the interests opposing the American valuation system is to take ad- vantage of the lower labor costs and cspcc ialIy the low rate of exchange in foreign coun- tries, and flood the American markets with articles of foreign production, at prices just enough below the American cost of production to destroy the American producer, but yet at prices which will represent enormous profits to them. This will close American factories paraIyze American industry and bring real "hard times" in the United States, but to these considerations the selfish interests which are out of immediate profit at the sacrifice of patriotism are entirely indifferent These interests too, manifest bonc-hcaded indif- ference to the fact that in destroying Ameri- can production they are killing every domes- tic interest involved except the importer
 The interests engaged in flooding the Am