The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1922-03-16
WANT NO oNE-MAN TARIFF.
(Ameriean Economlst.l

AC RAOROoAAAOn ~ NAAROnEl Xix
president to raise or lower tariff rates
by so per cent is the most dangerous
tariff proposition now before congress
We cannot believe that the congress
will be guilty of the extreme folly Of
abdicating its constitutional preroga-
tive, its constitutional duty of fixing
tariff rates. We believe that the SUI
preme court would pronounce such a
law to be unconstitutional. Even if il
were constitutional it would be a most
dangerous power to place in the hands
of any one man.
The combined wisdom of congress is
taxed to the uttermost to formulate a
scientific tariff law, one which shall
afford adequate protection to domestic
productive industries, but which shall
not constitute a Chinese wall which
exclude all imports. Protection woes
not mean embargo. Prohibition and
protection are not synonymous terms.
In common with most protectionists
we would feel safe in entrusting to
! President Harding the power to fix
tariff rates, believing that he would
adjust them in the interests of "Ameri-
ca first" But it would be an utter i'm
possibility for him to give the neces-
sary time to study for himself the
questions involved. He would have to
depend upon others and those others
can properly be only those charged
by the constitution with such duty.
While we might be willing to entrust
such responsibility to President Hard
ing it is hardly necessary to say that
we would not have the same feeling
with regard to former President VIII
son or any other free trader, nor
would any prOtectionist so feel. Yet it
has happened that the president and
the congress have been of different
parties, the one free trade and the
other protectionist, as happened during
the first administration of President
Cleveland With such a law as the !
one proposed President Cleveland |
could have turned our protective tariff |
into a free trade tariff. one for revenue |
only, and the protectionist congress
would have been helpless All the |
members could have done would have
been to look on and curse their folly in
tying their own hands. This is not
one-man government and never will
be. The fathers builded wisely and
the constitution is a masterpiece OF
human wisdom.
If there is one thing above another
that is desirable in the tariff it is
the element of certainty That has
been the burden of the objection of II
the opponents of American valuations 1
to its enactment. They claimed that
they could not know in advance what /
would be the amount of duty which j
they would be called upon to pay !
While we do not think that their point s
IS well taken. for we believe that they 9
would know in advance, yet there is $
10 doubt that many really harbored 7
hat fear 1t simply illustrates the a
point that certainty is absolutely nee 1
,ssary in tariff matters. Many a man [
who has felt that his products needed 7
better protection has, in his despera- S
ion. exclaimed, almost any kind of a Y
aw is better than uncertainty. Let MS C
AVE the tariff settled so that we may
now how to plan" How would they 7
NOW how to plan if the rates on any =
were liable to be changed =
n 80 days notice? The situation >
would be intolerable.
If the present party expects to re- 9
main in power it must get busy and q
ASS a tariff act on adequately pro- y
ective lines one not based on foreign
and one not containing any
rOvisiOns allowing the president to
aise or lower the rates of duty at will.
lready the backing and filling" of
majority of congress on
riff matters has placed the republi- to
an party in a very hazardous posi- tn
on with reference to the coming con- dc
elections. If executive tariff as
aking is to be authorized, then the c;
publican party is riding to a fall hi