The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1922-12-06
IMPORTS ENORMOUS
UNDER TARIFF LAW

WASHINGTON, Dec. early ac- (
acknowledgement of the truth. of Repub- I
lican statements concerning the. new :
tariff is. found in recent news items :
published by free trade periodicals. !
1t was insistently,, assuredly. and :
repeatedly declared by the Republic :
ans in Congress that the duty rates '
carried by the Fordney-Mc Cumber
tariff law, then being debated, not
only did not. spell unreasonable pro- {
tection,. but that when foreign rates I
of exchange were taken into consider |
alton the duties, were not as high as /
those carried in previous Republican
tariff laws; and this declaration was
as mistakenly, a~ssuredly and repeat
edly denied by the Democratic party,
which continued to libel the measure
by asserting that the law added $4,-
000, 100000 to the cost of living of the
American The newspaper
which In the most frenzied fashion
supported Democratic contention was
the New York Journal of Commerce.
Nevertheless on the front page OF
the Journal of recent date appears
this statement: '"The F. w. Wool
worth Company, it was learned yester-
day, is continuing to receive goods
from Germany in large volume. > "
At the same time, in the face of heavy
increases in tariff rates on the arti-
cles such as toys and glassware which
are being imported, the Woolworth
Company will be enabled to make sat-
isfactory profits, due to the favorable
exchange situation. The new tariff
bill, for example, in the case of toys,
raised the duty 100 per cent, advanc-
ing the duty from 35 to 10 per cent,
but the advantage in exchange at the
present time offsets the enormous
tariff increase"
The tariff on toys was increased,
as stated, for the good and sufficient
reason that practically all this COM
petition was from Germany, where the
mark has well-nigh reached absolute
; zero, and from Japan, where the wage
: scale is the economic Ishmael of civ
~ilization. AS for the duty on glass
ware, the sort that is being import
! ed by the Woolworth and similar
. companies, that is, tableware, ETC., the
; rate in the present new law is so to
7 SIS per cent; the rate m the Demo-
; cratic law was As per cent, an dthe
J rate in the Payne-Aldrich law of 1909
was so per cent. So the present rates
are about half way between the two
. laws, and that despite the deprecia-
ton of exchanges in Germany, Aus
S tria, Japan, Czecho-Slovakia and
France.
What is said of toys and glassware
y applies to practically all the imports
e covered in the new tariff law. The
efforts of the importers and their
Democratic representatives in Con-
gress to make it appear that the pres
ent law is ~prohibitiye are completely
n nullified by the official statistics OF
imports. But the proponents of pro
lection must be constantly on their
20 guard to counteract the ~falsehoods OF
It those who would turn the market.
he of this country over TO the foreigners
lie 1t will be recalled that shortly after
4 the Mckinley law of 1890 was passed
is which put a protective duty on tin
8. the importers of that commodity sem
s. tin peddlers through the highway
and byways of the entire country will
It, tinware on which the price was out
n ~rageously boosted. The peddlerS wer,
VS. instructed to tell the householder
that this was because of the new tar
is iff on tin. In McKinley's own Con
gressional district this lie was worke,
IN to the limit and Mckinley was de
feated in the ensuing Congress, onl
to to become president following the dis
astrous consequences of the Wilson
ly German tariff law of 1894. But tir
which was an alien to this country i
ct. 1890, is one of the biggest industrie
DE we have today-sired absolutely b
gh protection.