Evening star., 1922-09-10
TARIFF COMMISSION PLAN
GAINING WIDE SUPPORT
Present Wrangling Over Rate Making
Emphasizes Demand for Immediate
Divorcing of Politics.

I cent exactly equalizes competitive con-
ditions the American matchmaker still
has the advantage OF superior prod
| uct. So, we will reduce the rate to
10 per cent so as not to cut of COM
petition and also raise some revenue"
! The big idea is that where now the
| ways and means committee starting its
| hearings gets exparte, prejudiced
| statements, overdrawn to get an ad-
vantage, the report of the tariff COM
| mission would be unprejudiced. Impair
tial-fndings Of facts. II would not
be in any sense a delegation of the
| authority of Congress to this body,
! but calling upon them to apply mathe-
! matical formula fixed by Congress it
self. Such definiteness OF standard
has an appeal inrrespective of the party
| in power.
Objection Raised.
The Senate amendment originally
called for an investigation by the
tariff commission to assist the Presi-
dent in obtaining differences in condi-
tions of competition in trade. This
was objected to as not sufficiently
mathematical in definition, and as
leaving too much to the discretion OF
the executive. SO that differences in
costs of production" was substituted
for difference in conditions of COM
petition" This correction also has
popular appeal from years of use as
party slogan. 1t appeared long years
! ago in the republican platform. and
She Roosevelt progressive platform in
1912 emphasized the differences in
, costs of production at home and
| abroad.
That the logical reform to continue
/ the progressive work of putting all
expenditures through a federal bud
get system requires the putting OF
tariff legislation through a commits
sion of experts to round out the sys
tenn has impressed leaders in Con-
gress. Senator Frelinghuysen has led
the fight in the Senate for such a re-
form. Senators Lenroot and Edge
have insisted upon the Saving
| clause" Senators Capper Of Kansas
and Poindexter of Washington were
among the first to realize the need for
I this legislation.
| Senator Capper's Idea.
! Let Senator Capper of Kansas. chair
man of the farm bloc, state briefly the
situation calling for this reform:
Imagine all kinds and conditions of
men to the number Of 52s-men of
many minds and some with none. men
from all parts of the country, men as
| innocent of expert or worldwide
knowledge of economic conditions as
the babes in the wood. and you have
the great American recipe for the
drafting of tariff bill by Congress.
. Congress meanwhile collects
a mass of contradictory tariff testi-
| mony absolutely impossible for it to
digest or reconcile. Whatever meas
| ure either party finally adopts is like
| ly to be passed under pressure of spe-
cial interests and political expedience.
and the resulting tariff bill becomes
the subject of perennial political dis
putes and much heated and tiresome
debate until another one, either worse
! or better, is framed in the same futile
way"
Senator Frelinghuysen has made
newspaper appeal to the country for ex-
preston of opinion as to the desirability
! of establishing more scientific system
and he reports that he has been de-
over the country.
| Commerce Chamber Proposition.
| The Chamber Of Commerce Of the
United States. with an underlying men,
bership of practically all the chambers
of commerce and boards OF trade and
trade associations in the United States.
took a referendum vote on a different
proposal. The national chamber sug-
gests that the tariff commission remain
as fact-finding body and that its find
ings, with any additional information
that can be gathered be considered by
new organization to be known as the
tariff adjustment board" which would
adjust the rates similarly to the action
of the Interstate Commerce Commission
| in adjusting the railroad rates. This.
it is objected, means the creation of a
NEW federal agency and the duplication
proposal did not seem to receive much
consideration with the Senate. in con-
sidering the Saving clause"
But all this indicates that business is
Iaroused-that it wants different man.
ner of settling the tariff than the poll
tical method which has heretofore OBJ
tanned. The demand of business is:
| Take the tariff out of politics." and IL
demands that tariff legislation be based
on findings Of fact which will be availa-
BILE for the guidance of business, in
stead of having the entire problem dang
ling indefinitely for two years during
one of the most trying periods for busi-
ness in the history of this nation.
The demand is growing for a real
tariff commission.