Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1922-05-18
THE AMERICAN VALUATION
PLAN

Uncle Ted will be here" exclaimed
Ruth as he closed her geography and
settled back in the easy chair where
she had been studying her lessons.
Yes, the train is already in and
Uncle Ted is on his way up from the
station replied Jack.
And even as these remarks passed
between them they heard the steps
of Uncie Ted at the front door and
both bounded out into the hall to
meet him.
sand how. is President Harding ~
asked Jack after the exchange of
greetings.
~All right, l guess responded
Uncle Ted, "but didn't see him when
I was in Washington. You mustn't
think chat everybody who goes TO
Washington sees the president, al
thone everybody has chance to
see hka if he wishes. Any lawabid-
inc eltlzen of the United States who
IS kn3wn to Senator or Congress-
man pr can be properly youched for,
cans9et an introduction to President
HARDIN. That kind Of an introduce
ion Simply means that a man will
have "a chance to shake hands with
the Rresident and exchange a few
words, but does not mean a meeting
to tax about any matters of busin-
ess. "A meeting with the President
to talk over any important subject
Of public affairs requires a special
appointment with an understanding
as to the subject that is to be dis
cussed. That, of course, is necessary
for otherwise all the time of the Pre-
sident would be taken up by all sorts
Of cranks who have the notion that
they have schemes which will cure
all the ills of the country.
1T is nightly nice of President
Harding to give up large part Of
his time to shaking hands with visit
ors 10 the National Capital and on
one of my visits last winter l had the
pleasure Of meeting him. On this
trip, however, didn't go near the
White House. spent two or three
days. around the Capitol, however,
and our United States Senator'S
several times"
"Tell us what they are DOING
urged Ruth.
'.Well just at present they are CIV
ing most of their attention to the
consideration of the tariff bill. The
tariff bill, you know, is the propos-
ed law to place tax on importations
of goods from foreign countries into
the United States. The House of Re-
representatives. passed the bill several
months ago and it has been under
consideration in the Senate Com
mittee suggested a very large num-
Der of amendments to the bill and
reported it to the Senate and now it
is up for discussion and probably will
be debated for many weeks to come.
The indication are that there will be
a hard fight on the bill as the Demo-
Gratis are opposed to the kind of a
tariff bill the Republican favor.
"The principal difference of opin-
ion seems TO be over the question of
what is called American valuation
Heretofore under tariff laws it has
been the custom to levya tax on
goods the value of the commodity in
the country from which it is brought
Owing to the depreciation Of cur
rencies in some countries as a result
of the war and the cheap labor con-
ditions that exist, the values of many
commodities are so low that if the
tax was computed on the value of the
goods in the country where produced
the tax would vary SO much on goods
from different countries and would
be so small, in some instances, as not
to be a large enough tax as to give
the producers of American goods a
reasonable amount of protection. In
order to meet such condition as
that the House of REPRESENTATIVES a.
dopted what they called the 'Ameri-
can valuation plan which provided
that the tax should be levied accord
ing to the value Of the goods when
offered for sale in the United
States.
"The Senate Committee on Finance
didn't think this plan is practical for
the reason that the importer Of
foreign goods would have to add the
import tax to the price he pays in
foreign country and then figure
tax and add that to his original
cost before determining the price at
which he must sell the goods in this
country.
"You see, it. is like this: If an
article costs $1.00 in Europe and the
freight is 10 cents and the importer
must make prfit of 10 cents, that
wo,1Id ha 81 % without fig11rinp any